http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZWuMsCa6M
Procedure of making the MIDI foot controller for Guitar Rig 3 & 4
Hi.
Here I’m going to describe the procedure which I have used while making the midi foot controller.
Step 1: Take the gamepad circuit. Take off the two vibrations motors if any simply by cutting the two wires gently. Please take care of the cable connecting the axis pots with the main circuit. Very often the cable may give away at the joints. In my case I had put some glue to fix the cables firmly at the joints so that it does not move at all. Do it for the cables at the top of the circuit connecting two small circuits having the keys 5, 6, 7 & 8.
Pic -1 
I hope you can see how I have fixed the white cable connecting the pot circuit and the main circuit, with an adhesive called M-SEAL. It is mainly used to prevent lick from pipes. It becomes very solid when it dries. And so it serves my purpose. Then I have fixed the pot circuit to the main circuit. Just to make it compact and one unit. Don’t rip off the LED you see in the picture. It’s the LED corresponding to the analog switch. You will need it for the pedal.
Pic-2 
As you can see I have also fixed the two small circuits to the main circuit to make it more compact.
Step 2: Remember you only have to solder wires to the number keys from 1 to 12 and connect them to external keys. But it is indeed very difficult to solder it as the connection gets easily bridged. So in my case I have separated the power (P) and the ground (G) for the number keys just by removing the copper plating right through the middle so that the power and the ground gets well separated and I get some room for proper soldering. Have a close look at the red circle in Pic -2, and see how I have separated it. You need to do this step for all the number keys you intend to use and also for the ANALOG key. Don’t do it for the axis buttons. We don’t need them. Please be very careful while separating. Use the multimeter for convenience.
Step 3: Now it time to solder wires across every number keys. Just gently scratch the copper plating a little bit so that the solder will stick to it. First get the wires soldered to the Axis pot for connecting the expression pedal. You may use either the X axis pot or the Y axis pot or both in case you have two pedals. I have used the X axis pot here. You need not take away the pot from the circuit. Let it be in place. Just solder 3 wires to the three points behind the pot as shown in the Pic 3. Please use proper coloured wires so that it does not confuse you while finding which is the power, signal or ground. In my case yellow wire is the power, black the ground, and green the signal. These 3 wires will be connected to the pot of the external volume pedal later on. We will come to that. Just be careful not to bridge the connection while soldering. There’s very little space between two points.
Pic 3. 
After that you may solder the wires to the number keys. Do the same for the analog key too.
Pic 4 
Pic 5 
Have a close look at the soldering. The two points must be separated (separation we talked in step 2. Green dots indicate the separation) or else that key will always be on. Remember none of the keys must be on until you put it on.
Step 4 : Now connect an external LED to the LED corresponding to the Analog key. Strip the wires of the LED at the places marked with red in the Pic 6 and solder wires to connected another LED which will be on your main frame along with external switches.
This ends your job in the circuit. Now it’s time for the pedal.
Step 5 : Now take a stereo cable and two pairs of male female stereo jacks. Connect the male ¼’’ jacks to the stereo cable by soldering of course. But please make a schematic of it before you do the connection. Remember which is the ground and the two signals. It’s because the female jacks will be connected to the pots having the 3 points power, ground signal.
Step 6 : Get a volume pedal and remove all the connections inside. Remove one of the mono ¼ “ female jacks with the ¼’’ stereo female jack. Now again with the help of multimeter determine which is the tip , ground and the other signal. Solder wires to those points in the stereo female jack. Use same coloured wires as in case of the axis pot for ground, power and signal.. Now connect the ground, in my case black, to the center point of the volume pedal pot, yellow to the left and green to the right as shown.
Pic 7 
Pic 8 
Pic 9 
Pic 8 and 9 does not have the colour combination as stated earlier. It was during my experimentation so please be cautious. In Pic 8 & 9 the green is the ground and white is the signal, which should have been black and green respectively corresponding to Pic 7. So this way you connect the external pot of the volume pedal.
Once the volume pedal connections are done, you have to connect the stereo cable to the axis pot.
Two important points to be noted here.
1) If you are using the outer case made of non conducting material such as plastic or wood, then you may fix the other 2nd male jack to your stereo cable and the 2nd female stereo jack to the outer casing or body. Now the 3 points of the stereo female jack has to be connected to the 3 points of the axis pot i.e the 3 wires already soldered to the power, ground and signal of the axis pot are to be connected to the 3 points in the female jack. Use the multimeter again to find which point signifies the power, ground or signal.
2) If in case you are using a metal case as the outer body, then you can’t fix the 2nd female jack to the case because the metal will conduct current and you will get unwanted ground from elsewhere and the axis will continuously be fluctuating. In this case all you have to do is don’t connect the 2nd male stereo jack to the stereo cable. Also there is no need of a 2nd female jack as well. Just connect the 3 wires of the stereo cable, i.e. the 2 wires and the shield to the 3 wires of soldered to the axis pot. In this case you will have to keep the cable fixed to the casing with some adhesive so that it does not strip away while applying some force unknowingly. This is what I did in my case because I’m using a sheet metal casing. See Pic 10
Pic -10 
Please note that our main motive is a direct connection between the axis pot and the volume pedal pot. We are using a stereo cable just for convenience so that we can remove the volume pedal easily from the main casing. The stereo cable just connects the two pots. So the wiring has to perfect. Hope you understood what I intend to say. The power from the axis pot has to go through the stereo cable and then to the volume pedal pot. Similar is the case of the ground and the signal. So make the connection properly or else it won’t work.
Step 7 : After the pedal connection is completed, connect the external foot switches to the wires soldered to all the number keys and also the analog keys and fit them on your casing. Also fit the external LED we had connected to the Analog LED in step 4. This external LED is to be fitted to your casing so that you can get indication whether your Analog mode is on or not.
Step 8 : Fix the circuit to your casing as convenient so that it does not move at all. Now you are ready with your hardware and wiring part. Next we will have to take care of the software part.
Step 9 : Install the drivers of your USB gamepad. Connect the circuit I mean the USB cable coming out of your foot controller to the USB port of your computer. Once it has installed the drivers, go the control panel-> game controllers. Double click on game controllers. If your controller is shown in the list, go to properties. See Pic 11
In properties under the function test tab you will see the window with around 12 buttons and two axes. If you press any key of your foot controller the respective key will glow. If the pedal is also connected then on moving the pedal up and down the X or Y axis point will move back and forth or up –down depending on which axis you have used. You will see that the axis point does not follow a continuous path. It only stays in the middle or at extreme position when you operate the pedal. This is because the pots are not in analog mode. Here comes the use of the analog switch and the external analog LED. Push the external analog switch until the LED glows indicating that the analog mode has been activated. Now move your pedal and you will see that the cursor moves slowly at every points, and stops where your pedal stops. Thus for expression pedal you must have the analog switch always on.
Remember in normal position i.e. without pressing any key or pedal movement not a single button should be shown glowing as in the above picture. And the axes cursors should be in the center. If any of them number is glowing then it indicates that your soldering for the particular key has been bridged at the circuit. Check the soldering again and recheck the step 2 again. It should look like this as in Pic--13
None of the buttons are on and even the axes are in the center. This step is very important for mapping the keys to midi software. Also disconnect your pedal from the controller and see it again if the axes are in centere or not.
Step 10: Download the 2 softwares:
1) MIDI Yoke: this software acts as the virtual MIDI cable. Source http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MIDIYoke_NT-XP/ or else Google it.
2) Rejoice (HID TO MIDI) : this is the MIDI mapping software. Source
http://www.mediafire.com/?bgbp90mm9my
http://www.dioramadesign.net/blog/rejoice-midi-software/
http://wakoopa.com/software/rejoice-hid-to-midi-installer
This software helps to convert the HID signals coming from your USB gamepad to MIDI signals.
Step 11: Installing the softwares. For installing MIDI yoke in vista you will have to disable the UAC and then install it.
1) After installing MIDI Yoke install Rejoice. Open the Rejoice software.
Pic 14 
In normal condition or when no key is pressed the joystick values are as shown in green circle in Pic 14 and there is no indication of any button being pressed or axes being moved shown in the red circle. It should remain like this. This step is very important. Better disconnect your pedal now. On the controller should be plugged in. so that there will be no fluctuation of the axes while mapping the keys. You van map only 1 key at a time.
2) Look at the red arrows. Midi out box select Out to midi yoke 1. And in Joystick box select your joystick driver. In my case it is Microsoft PC- joystick driver.
3) Press a button and you can see the button no. in the Button box inside the red circle. Now its time to map the buttons one by one. Press and hold a button i.e. your external switch and click in Note On shown with black arrow. While your switch is being pressed and Note On is being selected press the ADD button (shown in black arrow above the red circle) by clicking. You will see in a small window just above in the software that a button with a number has been added.
Do this step for all the buttons except the analog switch. The analog switch has no roll here. Its only to activate the analog mode of the axis pot.
4) Once all the keys are mapped properly with Note On, connect the pedal to the controller. Now switch on the analog mode so that the LED glows. Now if you operate your pedal you will see that the values of the axes inside the green circle and the red circle are changing. Put off the analog mode and see it again. this time there will be only 3 values.
Put it back again to analog mode and select the Controller Change box. This is the CC message i.e. continuous message. These types of messages are used more mapping any signals from pots.
After putting it into Controller Change option move the pedal a little or keep it pressed and then select the ADD button as in the previous case. Now your pedal signals are mapped.
Operate the pedal and you will see a number of signals in the window below, sent to midi yoke 1.
5) Check whether for all of your keys pressed one by one there is a signal being sent or not. You can check this in the window below of the software. For pedal there should be continuous signals being sent while the pedal is being operated in analog mode.
Step 12: Open the Guitar Rig software.
Go to Audio and Midi settings -> MIDI (tab in the Audio set up window) -> Input from Midi Yoke 1 (inside Input interface) put it ON as shown in picture 15 and press OK.
Pic 15 
Step 13: Now using the LEARN function assign the keys according to your preference by pressing LEARN and then pressing the switch. Same for the pedal Press LEARN and then operate your pedal. It will show a CC#-- no.
NOTE: For using the foot controller both the Guitar rig software and Rejoice should be running at the same time. The switch won’t work if you have not opened the Rejoice software as well.
Hope my procedure has helped you to get the total idea. All the best for your version of foot controller. Please upload your video and let me know so that I can see what improvisation you have done. Please email me in case you have any confusion.
Bye ……greetings….
BIDYUT PATHAK.
(pathakbidyut@gmail.com)
