Behringer FCB1010

Roland

Why review a midi pedal? Mainly because I've been using it for six years with no major problems.

The FCB1010 is a cheap and cheerful midi board, with 12 switch pedals, and two rocker pedals. A red LED above each switch shows when it is turns on. I use the rockers for volume and wah. At time of writing the FCB1010 retails for around £114 new, or £80 to £100 second hand. I've got two, both bought second hand. The thought was that, being so cheap, it might have reliability problems. This is not the case. It's a solidly made device. The switches are positive, and don't bounce; and the whole unit has proved reliable.

Upsides: cheap, rugged and reliable.

There are a few things to be aware of:

1. The basic firmware is rather limited. There are several aftermarket replacement EPROMs which make it more flexible. They allow more flexibility over pedal configuration and messaging. For example, which midi messages are sent if you repeat press a switch, and whether IAs (individual assignments) are reset when you change patch. You can also configure which switches send PC (program change) messages, and which send IAs. Both of my units have the UNO chip. There is also a Eureka chip which I believe does roughly the same thing. Replacing the EPROM is simply a question of undoing the screws, lifting the cover off, prising out and replacing the chip, then reassembling.

2. The unit can be configured manually by pressing combinations and sequences of pedals. This is tedious, and prone to error. Much simpler is to use the Ripwerx editor. For this you'll need to connect to a PC using a USB to midi convertor, such as the Midisport. Don't bother with cheap devices because they don't always work. Once programmed you shouldn't need to touch it again. The default setting has preset/patch changes along the lower row of pedals. The top row is IAs, which can be used to turn individual effects off and on. My personal preference is to reverse these rows. The argument is that it's easier to turn an effect off and on during a song using a switch on the bottom row.

3. The rocker pedal mechanism uses an LED and a light sensor, with a graduated plastic strip moving between them. As the pedal moves the strip changes the amount of light, and hence the signal voltage. Graduation is not particularly even, so the pedal does not provide a smooth change. It also varies from unit to unit. As a volume pedal it works fine, but there is a noticeable difference in wah range and sensitivity between my two units.

If you need a picture then look here: http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_fcb_1010.htm

Mine looks the same, except that it's covered with beer stains and talcum powder.

Roland

Reserved for possible pics

normula1

A better editor is the FCB Control Centre (http://www.fcb1010.uno/) It's around €16 and is much better that Ripwerx or the Dixon editor.

What I did with mine was to install the LG-FCB module http://www.lg-fcb.com/ which adds massive amounts of flexibility but is relatively cheap as it reuses the FCB1010 hardware.

Roland

FCB Control Centre is new to me, but then I haven't needed to use an editor since I configured the pedal about six years ago.

I did look at the LG as a possible upgrade, but decided that I didn't need the flexibility.

normula1

Anything is better than the Behringer tap dance

fnpt

I'm looking to buy one of these with the Eureka prom chip to use as a controller for my 11r. It already comes programmed for the 11r so it's literally just plug and play.

crunchman

I've got one with a UNO prom chip for use with my Kemper. It's been solid with switching but the expression pedals feel pretty horrible.

The rockers are ok for occasional use but if you are heavily into things like Wah then it might not be the best.

Roland

The rocker has been reliable enough for Wah. The physical mechanism is solid enough. My grouse is that the output is not particularly linear. It uses a bulb and photocell, and the pedal pulls a piece of plastic with graduated transparency between them. The graduation is not smooth, and it's not consistent between the two pedals.

Last month I bought a Mission pedal which is much smoother, but costs more than the FCB

crunchman

I've not had any problems with reliability but if you compare the travel and the feel of them with a decent quality Wah they do feel horrible.  If I used Wah a lot the quality of those pedals would be a deal breaker - or I'd need to get something like the Mission pedal.

It's built to a price, and for what it is it's very good.

The other thing I would add for anyone considering it is to get straight MIDI cables.  Because the MIDI ports are quite close to the floor, I had problems with right angled cables because there wasn't room for a right angled cable.

firepaulmusic

crunchman said:

I've got one with a UNO prom chip for use with my Kemper. It's been solid with switching but the expression pedals feel pretty horrible.

The rockers are ok for occasional use but if you are heavily into things like Wah then it might not be the best.

I agree the rockers are very flimsy compared to quality stuff. Also mine tended to move on t's own so volume pedal use was a bit iffy...