Full disclosure… I’ve had the Aeros for about a year, but call it “old habits” or “familiarity”, I’ve been practicing with it, but other than 3 or 4 gigs, had still been relying on my Boomerang III for most shows.
I’m used to playing a rhythm loop with one of the dual outputs from different guitars, like T5 clean acoustic, then overdub some smacks on the body where they piezo picks up, then adding longer sync’d tracks or alternating tracks, singing, dialing up the magnetic pickup (custom install with dual outputs), and then having full control over stops/fadeouts/clearing tracks to start over. Having a couple less buttons requiring press/hold/tap a different key was tripping me up from having a clean stress-free show. I probably could have made my life easier with the Midi Buddy but I was a bit concerned with a couple of the buttons being “back to main menu” or not being able to tell which button is which while singing with the scribble pads at each button all the same color.
Flash forward to the present, and I happened to be programming a Midi Captain for a different application (was planning on the color coded rings to change colors along with an MPC with samples) and thought I might be able to solve some of my struggles with the Aeros.
Currently Using 2x2 Freeform, no metronome or count in, several copies stored locally and on the SIM so if I dork one up in a show, just select another and move on. I use this method so I can record my first loop at whatever speed/groove/feel I want and then all my longer loops are sync’d. The following combinations of Midi settings were just what I needed (and again, the Midi Buddy would probably have made this a no-brainer, but I’m working with the tools I had at hand):
The Four Aeros buttons are the standard:
Stop/Erase all (confirmation turned off to speed up the process… and I set the switches to “release” to prevent a blip of music playing while erasing)
Next Part
R/P/O Track 2
R/P/O Track 1
Then the Midi controls right next to it start with:
Lock1: CC 47. 1 (This can choose to lock or unlock Loop 1 to ride to part 2 before or during song)
Redo: CC 37. 0 (Undo/redo active recording. I know you can press and hold to do the same, but this responds faster and I like having dedicated “oh shit” buttons.)
Next two pairs are R/P/O duplicates of the Track 2 / Track 1 buttons but it’s nice to have them in the middle of this “edit palette” illuminated for dark stages. Once the groundwork is laid, I move over to these buttons until the song is over… keeping my toes away from the Stop/Erase All button.
RPO2: CC 41.102
RPO1: CC 41. 101
Directly above those two are Mutes for each track. The pedal I’m using can stack multiple change commands on one press, so I can combine the commands for Mute2: CC 38. 2 - CC 38. 4 so it will mute the second track on either part I’m in.
Mute1: CC 38. 1 - CC 38. 3
The last essential buttons are STOP ALL: CC 43. 127
and another stacked command: CC 43. 1 - CC 38.127
The one is obviously a stop immediate, while the other starts the loop again while unmuting any currently muted tracks if there are any. (anyone who live loops on the reg will recognize that you often break down a bridge or prechorus… and then come back in with guns blazing.
Hope this helps any others that may have struggled with any of those settings… Looking forward to my next Live Looping gig… with the Aeros no longer coming off the bench, but becoming a starting lineup All Star!