Registration bank change with footswitches

[Amitava]

Hello wonderful people...am from India and have a technical query! Would appreciate if anyone could provide a bit of insight into the same! 

I just purchased a Casio CTX 9000in and can say this much....'I just love this keyboard'! Now to the question! Assuming that the Casio CTX 9000in is near identical to the Casio CTX 5000, it would be easy if you already have a CTX 5000. 

 

Now the Casio CTX 5000 & 9000in both have the same 8 pads x 16 banks where users can save their favourite edited tones (128 user patches)..correct?  Now when using the optional footswitch, one can jump between the patches in each bank...correct? Now what i have observed is that, with the footswitch can only advance patches in a bank one-by-one...! 

 

Now here is the deal. Instead of advancing among patches in a single bank....can I jump from 'one bank to another instead??' I mean, whenever I press the footswitch, the progression should be....bank 1, bank 2, bank 3 and so on??

 

Now this brings me to one more question that has been up my mind for a really long time. Since the CTX9... has ports for using two foot pedals/ foot switches, "can I use the 2nd footswitch to move between banks in a reverse order??!!!

 

Essentially...footswitch 1 should advance forward as in...bank 1, bank 2...bank 3....and so on...! 

 

Similarly the footswitch 2 should advance in reverse such as bank 16, bank 15, bank 14...and so on??😁😁😁 

 

Since we play various kinds of songs in a live gig, a collection of 128 user tones catered to my taste and saved as user tones could be just the thing that I have always craved for!! And that too with the option of having a quick access to, through these footswitches!!!👌👌👌

 

I am not a technical guy and so, have no idea how to figure it out! Do tell me folks. Is it possible to set up my keyboard in this exact manner. Those 128 tones will be all I would ever need!! Thanks in advance😊😊😊

 

 

[Brad Saucier]

To clarify, registrations do not store tone edits in the CT-X series.  They can store splits and layers of your favorite tones, which can include edited tones already stored in user tone locations. 

 

The registration sequence function can be assigned to either pedal input.  Each press of the pedal will advance to the next registration.  There is no function to reverse the sequence or skip around randomly.  

[Mclandy]

@Brad Saucier, I don't have a pedal to test this (yet), but I do understand that a pedal only cycles you through the 8 registrations in the currently selected bank.  But if you press the Bank button to advance to the next bank (without stopping play), I would assume that the pedal would then continue to cycle through the registrations in that next bank? I mean, that does work, right?  Not exactly random access, but still a fairly workable solution, should you need more than 8 registrations in a song?

[Brad Saucier]

Yes, as I said, the pedal will advance to the next registration.  That means it advances from whatever registration you are currently on.  

[Amitava]

Brad Saucier, Mclandy,

 

Thanks much for replying! I hope i was able to explain what I had exactly up my mind. Kindly pardon my goofy english..am an Asian!😁😁

 

Correct, as you pointed out, if I do press the 'Bank' button, it does cycle through the 16 banks. (Bank 1...Bank 16) What I merely was curious to know, if I could do the same thing with my footswitch (instead of pressing the bank button) and do the 'reverese' with the 2nd footswitch. Essentially I could have 128 quick access tones, without taking my finger off the keys. 😊

[Chandler Holloway]

They wouldn't be "quick access" if you really wanted to do it all hands free... you'd still have to cycle through them one at a time, and in semi-sequential order, if bank switching via footswitch was possible. In order to use them effectively, you'd have to know what order you'd want to use them in beforehand, or else memorize the slots of 128 Registrations to be able to carry out the necessary footswitch operations to pinpoint one tone out of the 128 on the fly.

 

I don't know how varied or long your compositions are, but I have rarely needed to use more than 8 tones throughout the course of one song. There was one song where I needed to use 10, and in that case, there was a brief breakdown section where I was able to use my left hand to press the bank button manually. I would recommend identifying all the set-ups you'll need to use for a performance beforehand, and then organizing those registrations within one bank. You can organize registrations according to consistent alternation or a sequential pattern depending on how many unique set-ups I have within a bank.

 

For example, if my song requires 4 unique set-ups, I would set up a bank like this for consistent alternation:

1. Reg A
2. Reg B
3. Reg C
4. Reg D
5. Reg A
6. Reg B
7. Reg C
8. Reg D

Slots 5-8 contain the same registrations as slots 1-4 to keep the registration order consistent for hands free navigation. If I'm on Reg B, it will always take two pedal presses to get to Reg D. If I'm on Reg A, it will always take 4 pedal presses to get back to Reg A. The same concept applies for a song that needs 2 set-ups, you just use more duplicates and the alternation is literally just a toggle between A and B:

1. Reg A
2. Reg B
3. Reg A
4. Reg B
5. Reg A
6. Reg B
7. Reg A
8. Reg B

The idea is to make the behavior of the pedal consistent and predictable even when you're not looking at the screen. If I'm on Reg A, I always know that pressing the pedal will switch to Reg B. If I'm on Reg B, I always know that pressing the pedal will switch to Reg A. Banks of 2 and 4 set-ups like this are good for improvisational jams where you want to quickly switch between just a handful of set-ups on the fly.

 

You can make it work with odd numbers like 3 and 5 set-ups in a bank, but it requires a different order to get the bank switching to "wrap around" in a sequential pattern. Kind of like a snake draft in fantasy football, if that analogy makes sense. For example, with 3 set-ups in a bank:

1. Reg A
2. Reg B
3. Reg C
4. Reg B
5. Reg A
6. Reg B
7. Reg C
8. Reg B

In this Registration order, there are two constants that allow me to predict the behavior of the pedal switching sequence during hands free operation. One, I know that any time I'm not on Registration B, pressing the pedal will cycle to Registration B. Two, I know that any time I'm on Registration A, two pedal presses will cycle to Registration C. If I'm on Reg C, two pedal presses gets me back to Reg A. Not as nice and orderly as a 2 set-up or 4 set-up bank, but still a consistent pattern that can be predicted. For 5 set-ups in a bank, it would be like this:

1. Reg A
2. Reg B
3. Reg C
4. Reg D
5. Reg E
6. Reg D
7. Reg C
8. Reg B

If you know what song you're performing and you know exactly what set-ups you want and the order you need to use them in, then there's no need to worry about patterns or alternation. Just prepare accordingly and know when you need to press the pedal, because the order isn't something you'll need to keep track of during the performance. For example, let's say my song uses Regs A, B, and C for the intro, verse, and chorus, then switches back to Reg B for the second verse, and back to C for the chorus and the rest of the song. I'd set things up like this:

 

1. Reg A (Intro)
2. Reg B (Verse 1)
3. Reg C (Chorus 1)
4. Reg B (Verse 2)
5. Reg C (Chorus, rest of song)
6. Reg C
7. Reg C
8. Reg C

I'd start the song with Reg A selected, and then press the pedal whenever I need the different set-ups throughout the performance. I put multiple copies of Reg C in slots 5-8 just as extra insurance. If I get to the Chorus after verse 2 and I accidentally double tap the pedal, it won't affect anything because of the duplicate Reg C slots after the fifth slot. If I had put Reg A or B (or some other unrelated Registration) in slot 6, that double tap would switch to something I don't want and derail the performance.

 

I know this might seem like an inefficient use of Registration slots, but trust me, if you want to maximize the hands-free convenience of cycling through Registrations with a pedal, this is the best way to set things up. Plus, you can save and load Registration banks to a flash drive or your computer, so if you ever run out of banks to work with, you can always archive ones that you're not actively using to free up slots for more Registrations without losing the old ones. There's plenty of good strategies and practices to follow for managing CT-X data, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this one. Best of luck with your CT-X!