M-VAVE Chocolate MIDI Controller: Is It Any Good?

A detailed review of the M-VAVE Chocolate bluetooth wireless MIDI footswitch, and walkthrough of its desktop configuration app.
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M-VAVE Chocolate: amzn.to/3RaopDg
Hotone Ampero Control: amzn.to/45dBpOA
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Link to the MidiView website: hautetechnique.com/midi/midiv...
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Affordable MIDI foot controller
0:45 - Overview and specs
2:22 - Desktop app walkthrough
14:51 - Summary: Pros
15:43 - Summary: Cons
17:14 - Bonus tips
17:58 - Conclusion
About:
In this video I give a detailed review of the M-VAVE Chocolate bluetooth wireless MIDI foot controller. This includes talking about the specifications of the device, the physical quality of the device, what the device can be used for and how to connect it in various ways. I also give an in-depth tutorial on how the desktop application used to configure the device works. Lastly I sum up with my pros and cons of the device and state whether I recommend it or not.

[@prpptch]

great content! 😊

[@AmbientWithAdam]

Thank you! :)

[@JT-jw4fv]

The issue I am having with is that it does not have a toggle mode where it can send either on or off signal depending on whether the effect is off or on.

[@AmbientWithAdam]

What device/software are you trying to control? There's no way the controller can detect what the status of the effect is, it can only send the MIDI commands to configure it. This is not the fault of the controller though. But there are three different things I can think of that you could try with "Advanced custom mode" which may or may not work depending on your device/software: 1) Bind the effect on/off toggle to a CC code, and then configure one of your footswitches to send that CC code. The value doesn't matter 2) If you're only able to turn on or off the effect the effect this way, you could try using two footswitches (or long and short press on one footswitch) to send different values for the same CC. So footswitch would send value 0, and the other value 127. Then it might be that one of the switches turns the effect on, and the other off. Which might work for you? 3) Similar to case 1), you could also try a MIDI Note ON command instead of a CC command. This for example works for some DAWs like Ableton Live to toggle things I hope that you are able to work it out. You might also want to check the manual of the device/software you are controlling if you have access to it. In the end it might also be easier to use a MIDI controller from the same manufacturer that is designed for your device/software, if there is one

[@jospower8802]

Hi thanx, do you think I can use it to play stop next and previous songs on vlc, media windows etc? can change the controls??

[@AmbientWithAdam]

Hey! On your request I've tested this a bit now. Using the "Video Model" mode of the controller, I was able to control VLC on Windows: Go backward, go forward and play/pause all worked, but I'm not sure what the last button ("loop playback") does. I didn't work at all with Windows Media Player unfortunately. It appears like there are also other ways of controlling VLC with MIDI too: www.quora.com/How-can-you-control-VLC-playback-with-MIDI (using any controller). Hope this was helpful

[@jospower8802]

@@AmbientWithAdam Thank you so much you're great! so kind and professional, super answer, have a great time..

[@TakisKoroneos]

can it be used as a simple footswitch? for example, switching from a clean channel to an overdrive channel on an analog amp?

[@AmbientWithAdam]

Hey! That might be possible if your amp has some kind of MIDI / USB / bluetooth input. What kind of amp do you have?

[@TakisKoroneos]

@@AmbientWithAdam Just ordered a Blackstar ID:Core V3 Stereo 20. I also ordered the m-vave to use with archetype plini but was wondering if it works with the amp as well. Guess I’ll test it out once everything arrives.

[@AmbientWithAdam]

​@@TakisKoroneos Ok, nice :) It looks like one can control it with a "Blackstar Foot Controller FS-11". That also also seems to have a TRS-like output, so it might be possible with M-VAVE Chocolate if you put it in TRS-to-MIDI mode, and connect via TRS to the amp. But it's still hard to know what kind of MIDI commands you'd need to send. It depends on what the FS-11 sends since we'd want to mimic that. Probably they wouldn't reveal what kind commands they send with the FS-11 to force you to buy it. Likely it would be hard to get this working with the M-VAVE Chocolate I think unfortunately :/ But you never know, good luck!

[@TakisKoroneos]

@@AmbientWithAdam Thanks for your input! You’re probably right, I just feel the fs-11 is a bit much for the value it provides. It literally works only on a couple of amps.

[@AmbientWithAdam]

@@TakisKoroneos No worries! I hope it works out :) Yes, I totally agree about the fs-11. Annoying that they do that instead of just providing a general purpose MIDI input and document what codes need to be sent :/

[@jimmywilliams3972]

No, the best value is a Morningstar MC 6 Pro.