MIDI foot controllers, help!

[LEOKV2]

Hello guys!

I need urgent help with MIDI foot controllers. I'm getting a pedal to control my Carvin V3 head and my soon to come T.C. Electronic G-Major unit.

Okay, I've checked out most of the MIDI pedals on the market and I've rounded off some of my options, but I still have many to round off and that's why I need your help. My mom is in the States right now and she'll be coming back in about 2 days, so I need to make up my mind FAST and not regret it when she comes back with the wrong pedal for my needs.

Okay, the basic needs for me are the following:

- I don't need any expression pedals (that's where the Behringer FCF1010 got ruled out)

- I need a pedal that uses PHANTOM POWER coming from my Carvin V3 (again, the Behringer is ruled out)

- I need, preferably, LED's on top of each button so I know where I'm at without the need to look at the number display

- I need it to be NOT so big so it fits inside my SKB PS-45 pedalboard (which is kinda large anyway)

- I need it to be VERY EASY to program, be reliable, well built (metal case is much desired) and to have a great build quality

Ok, so having these "rules", I came down to the following:

1) ROLLS MidiBuddy MP128



2) Tech 21 Midi Moose




Okay, so right now, just by looking at the pictures, I see that the ROLLS and the Tech21 seem to be the easiest of the 3. But the ROLLS lacks the LED's.

I guess I'm leaning towards the Tech21, but then again, I need your advice, remember all of "my needs" above, specially... EASY PROGRAMMING and PHANTOM POWER. I'm totally new on this MIDI thing.

Let me know people, I need some MIDI guys to help me out here, thanx!

[Bengal65]

Digital Music Ground Control Pro. It uses a 7 pin MIDI cable and is phantom powerable. Add a GCX Switcher and you can play like Steve Vai or John Petrruci and be able to control all the power grids in New York City

I have a Rocktron Midi Mate right now, but upgrading to a Ground Control.

[LEOKV2]

Yeah, sounds cool Bengal, but like I said, I need something smaller, and all I need is to control the V3 and G-Major, that unit is intended to switch loops on your stomp boxes as well and lots of stuff.

I just need one of the 2 choices posted above.

[MountainDog]

From those two, go with the midi Moose from Tech21. The Rolls is more 'toy-like' and won't be dependable, but the best reason not to get it is the over/under arrangement of the pedals. In a gig, on a darkened stage, you want something you can hit quick and easy at a glance. You DON'T want to be thinking.."huh, I need patch 3, so let me lift my right foot up high and balance all my weight on my left foot and then use only the tip of my foot to hit just the pedal for patch 3" (not to mention that on a dark stage you won't even be able to tell which one is pedal 3 as it doesn't have the LED lights as you mention).

Trust me, I've been there done that. All I need to do is switch presets, no expression pedal nothing fancy. I've tried almost all there is. The best thing (except it is powered by wall plug not phantom) out there is the Rockman Midi Pedal, but it's not made anymore. Check out the picture link below, simple, easy to hit in an instant, buttons far enough apart you don't hit two at the same time, etc:
www.jplt.com/~bear/sell/rockmanMidipedal.jpg

By the way, when the Carvin V3 first came out, I took my Rockman pedal to the carvin store to make sure it a) changed the patches and b) that the amp changed sounds instantly with no dropout between patch selections, pedal and amp worked perfectly.

With the Tech 21, you have 5 patches quickly available, say 1 thru 5, then bank up and get 6 thru 10. How many different patches would you use in one song? I doubt if you'd have more than 5.
The Rolls has 10 patches available, but most midi amps don't have patch '0', they start with patch 1, so you'd have patches 1 thru 9 available, but the top row is 1 thru 4, bottom 5 thru 9, then bank up would give you 10 thru 14 top row and 15 thru 19 bottom row...to me that's just too confusing. Keep it simple: you'll be much happier on stage with the Tech21.

[LEOKV2]

Thans Dog.

Now, I need to know whcih cable to buy. I was looking into Musiciansfriend for 7-pin MIDI cables and the only one I found was a HOSA 7-PIN 25 FT cable. I NEED to know if this is the right cable or not, so I get the right thing. Here's a pic.

[MountainDog]

Yep, that's what you need....
Look at the midi sockets on the back of your V3, you'll see seven cooresponding holes for the plug to fit in.

http://www.carvin.com/gallery/V3/V3-rear-panel.jpg