Mojo Swell Pedal Curve

[EricBarker]

I use a Mojo61 with a Yamaha FC7 and one of those little adaptor dongles to change the polarity, also sometimes use a Mission expression pedal. In both cases, the throw is very exponential, the first 20% of the pedal gets me about 75% volume, and it's annoying. Now, for my full setup, I use a laptop and USB controller, and I MIDI echo over the pedals to the Mojo61. When I do that, I get super smooth linear volume curves. But not when it's plugged directly into the Mojo's Swell port. This seems to be the case across all the expression pedals I've used. Anyone know any solutions to this? I could obviously just run it through a "MIDI Solutions Pedal Controller" box, but that's more hassle, bulk, and expense than I'd like.

[Baldwin Funster]

Try an audiofront midi connector

 It's programmable via app and you can draw any curve you want. I believe you can also set min volume. I think I paid about $60.

It turns out that they are out of stock unless you get the 4 port version. Still a good thing.

https://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.php

 

Edit. If the mojo pedal input is just 1/4" then it isn't midi and you might need a mechanical solution. I sometimes stick hard foam or something under the treadle to limit the throw. Sometimes it works.

[mate stubb]

I don't remember using an adapter or rewiring my FC7 with my Mojo 61. Isn't there a software setting to change the expected polarity? My FC7 works well enough, but it's not as smooth as the real thing. 

[vonnor]

Could you try it without the polarity adapter? See how it sounds? In my experience, FC-7 has worked either right out of the box, or with a tip/ring polarity switch. If it's wonky one way, it works good the other way. Granted I have never tried it on a Crumar product.

 

~ vonnor

[EricBarker]

OMG! You guys are right, it does auto-detect and use the FC7 correctly without the polarity reverser. I got that for using my Keylab, which is typically my default. I must have never tried going straight into the Mojo with the FC7. It definitely is smoother with the dongle removed. It still jumps a bit at the beginning of the run, but when I think about it, that's because I often have the drive up about 40%, and the swell is obviously pre amp-stage. When I do my little USB echo setup, I believe the volume is post-amp, which gives me a smooth run regardless of overdrive.

Never-the-less, this is WAY better. I feel stupid, but glad I asked, and checked! Thanks!

[Doerfler]

1 hour ago, EricBarker said:

Never-the-less, this is WAY better. I feel stupid, but glad I asked, and checked! Thanks!

this, my friend, is what makes this forum remarkable. 

[kenheeter]

If it's still jumping, you might want to try spraying the FC7 pot with some De-Ox-Id.

[EricBarker]

22 minutes ago, kenheeter said:

If it's still jumping, you might want to try spraying the FC7 pot with some De-Ox-Id.

 

Nah, this is just a standard "feature" of having the swell pre-overdrive. The real thing would work the same way. Drive is a natural compressor/limiter, so lower gain material is more dynamic, while above the threshold, you're hitting a wall and boosting doesn't make as noticeable difference to the loudness. Being a rock guy, I tend to like a little grit to my sounds, so I always leave the drive on to some degree, but this is always going to negatively impact the swell curve. I'm okay with how it performs now that I've removed the polarity adaptor, I can work with it here, where-as before it was clearly not linear, regardless of overdrive.

Let me just say that prior to this year, I've always avoided the Yamaha FC7 because most of my keys didn't play nice with Yamaha's polarity. I used to spend $120+ on Mission pedals, which were robust and felt good, but honestly had much less throw. I finally tried an FC7 when I learned about the adaptor dongle, and it's FANTASTIC! Hands down the best pedal I've ever played with. I might order a second one and sell my old Mission pedal (which is in the studio). The Mission sounds great on paper: looks/feels like a Crybaby, heavier than hell, but the FC7 just has far better response at about 1/4 the price and 1/3 the weight!