Device Details

A combination of my being lazy as well as legitimately perplexed, do you suppose you could do a setup video or lust of instructions? Some switches are turning themselves on and off on my unit, and no one would immediately think to unplug the mood entirely after plugging in expression and before outputting in order to correct for it not loading in true bypass—
How about this question of the tempo “listening”? is it listening to session bpm or tap tempo input from the pedal, and if so, which channels and what do I set up from the midi menu? By default my midi to 1/4 opened in note input mode, but shouldn’t it really be in output remote? And is it really two way control? Or should I send things back to the computer on another track with another instance of the device?
Should i use synth mode with a separate track if I’m sending it sequences from the daw?

With all the technicals issues I faced (stomp switches turning themselves off despite not being automated), it was difficult to isolate things and answer these for myself…

lust==list
Lots of unintentional typo's and '?'s, having entered that from my phone. Hope you get the idea.

Too bad the micro-usb on the mood is just for firmware updates, am I right?

Some of the info texts being filled in might solve some of these questions, particularly the Tempo Sync status. Is it by default taking tempo from the ableton session?

hey, thanks for downloading this device. i don't have plans to make video at the moment, basically you can check the video from chase bliss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cROsRuV_uhg&t=214s

it's basically the same thing on how things work. i use that gen-loss plugin as a reference/template.

i never tried with expression pedal when build this device, because i thought all the midi parameter has everything covered (you can do all the expression stuff with midi automation). so yeah, sorry i can't really tell what's going on there..

all chase bliss pedal have only midi input (no output), so it's a one way communication.

when 'listen tempo' is on, from my understanding, it can listen
from both tap or ableton live's tempo.

the midi channel is depend on what channel you set on your pedal. by default chase bliss shipped their pedal default on midi channel 2, you can change your midi channel later on, make sure you're on the right midi channel.

what i normally do,
in ableton - preferences, in the midi section, make sure in the midi output section, your soundcard (or whatever midi interface you use), have all three item checked (track, sync, remote).

then, add a midi track, add the plugin to that track, set the midi out channel to 2 (if you never change the midi channel), set the midi out device to whatever device/soundcard you're using. then you're good to go.

you can use this same midi track to use synth mode, make sure set the midi input & channel to to your midi controller.

Thank you! That alone saved me from tracking down all the related resources…

I’m using a Roland interface cable, and after a driver update along with flipping a switch from tablet mode to computer, the behavior was more predictable.

Better still when I get home and have the correct midi channel!
As it stood, maybe it was hearing some bleed over, as the lights would go red when there was incoming midi, but the results were haphazard. And furthermore, they happened in a buffered response. The control changes were in real time.

Can I expect to be able to put modulators on the m4l device or group and randomize and get variable results? Or do you think will that overload the stream of data on the pedal?

I figured out the problem. I had a spare Meris Midi i/o, which uses the Ring to pass down the line and accept midi messages. Chase Bliss uses the Tip on their different pedals for other incoming purposes. Other MIDI boxes are much preferred over the Meris, however disaster area makes a cable that can terminate to Ring.

So indeed, the issue I was having was due to a little "chatter" or "bleed" on the ring.

https://www.disasterareadesigns.com/shop/p/mj-cba-pro-midi-cable

It's a thinner design, good to bend around for pedal boards, but just realize once you plug into a Chase Bliss Pedal, it's a dead end. No preset changes or anything to the next pedal. If you're just creating presets to a single Chase Bliss pedal, then that's fine.

Oh and to correct my prior comment, the operative word I left out is that I am [NOT] getting continuous control (ie changes in realtime)

For the price of a couple custom cables, you might as well buy the Chase Bliss MIDI box...ugh. So much added crap and grief to get this to work.

https://www.chasebliss.com/shoputility/p/midibox

Thanks so much for your efforts in getting this up and running.

If I might make a long-term request: a pop-out button to offer a larger version of the display would be very helpful as it's pretty dense, feature-wise, and more real-estate would make a big difference in ease of workflow, IMHO.

Also, I don't know if you've looked at the web-based editor someone made, but it's got some cool features you might consider integrating into your app. I especially enjoy using the randomization functions of the web-editor to get me into territory I'd likely not otherwise arrive at. Lastly, I don't know if it's possible to integrate the patch saving aspects of the web-editor or not, but if so, being able to save patches onto my Mac would be huge for me.

Regardless, great work and thank you for your efforts. They're appreciated.

This is the web-based editor.

https://pedalzombie.com/moodmkii-editor/#

hey mymisterymachinestudio,

thanks for downloading and using the m4l device.
i actually was thinking the same thing, coming from other daw (cubase) i really miss those floating window plugins.

i've been looking into it, and i think i found a way to make it float, will try to implement it on the next version update.

can't promise the timeline, since this is actually my side-personal project, and i'm still in the middle of a big project.
will send a notification thru gumroad once i did the update.

hmm about patch saving onto your mac i'm not sure how to do it, need to dig more info on that..
right now you can save patch using the standard procedure of chase bliss pedal, using the program change. i put the load/save button on the far right of the device.

i did look at pedal zombie web-based editor, it's really cool.
the randomization feature is actually similar like the one on the gen-loss m4l too.
i decided not to put that feature, because you can do it easily on ableton live using macro control. and also midi parameter in mood mk2 is already a lot, and i don't want to make the device too 'crowded'.

cheers

Not to discourage any direction you prefer, but I would be one vote to not put a pop up window. I think its plenty clear. Perhaps it doesn't follow the layout of the pedal, but Chase Bliss themselves have put that design constraint within the chassis of the pedal; it's just as arguably the right time for them to be making larger pedals, but they don't.

And I think your layout has its own justifiable logic.

Then there's the question of how a popup m4l works in relation to one that conforms with device view with such things as modulators, random, ranges and the like.

As far as presets, there's no public sysex information in the mood manuals, and you could always save a folder or a project that contains the different states of the device. So this to me is the more intuitive way to go.

thank you so much for this, works perfectly with the midibox. also really like what you did with the interface!

I can only say great things about this build. Having this plugin has been such an incredible aid in learning this pedal and my recording it’s hard to imagine using the Mood without it. Many many thanks.
If there’s any way I could request a future update, I’m beta testing Live 12 right now and the new mapping features of Max devices now have a mod mode which allows you to further edit parameters even after they’ve been mapped (For instance you could map an lfo to the clock so that it modulates, and then continue moving the relative placement of the clock value while it still oscillates). It looks as though Ableton is pushing for this to be the new default and it would be an absolute game changer to have parameters up to date with this feature. It’s a bit out of my depth as to how a patch would work but I read something in the beta forum explaining its hopefully a simple change? “changing pttr from none to absolute.”

Again thank you, I know you have a life outside upkeeping these devices