Passive MIDI Foot Switch

foot

[Matt] was looking into some software that allows him to use his audio card as a means to control analog audio devices. After seeing how it worked, he got an idea to try to do the opposite.  He is sending a signal into his audio input, and piping it to a pice of MIDI software. The input he has chose is a foot switch. To create the signal, he simply needed to supply voltage while the switch was depressed. You can see above that he used a battery and a simple contact switch to send the signal. He then piped it to a virtual MIDI port using Maple Virtual MIDI Cable. Unfortunately, this isn’t suitable for knobs, but that may be next on his list.

12 thoughts on “Passive MIDI Foot Switch

  1. @hogiewan:

    Author here, I described the switch as “passive” because that’s how it started out and the hardware was pretty much trivial. But you’re right, I should have just described it as a “Simple MIDI footswitch” or something. Mea culpa.

  2. Honestly this is a pretty lame hack. 2 x 16bit 44khz for a binary signal activated by his foot. That’s a lot of redundant data and processing. It would be easier to pull apart an old mouse or keyboard and use glovepie.

  3. I’m at a total loss with midi. been trying to set up for glovepie and can’t figure it out. Maybe the OP would be willing to help. Then maybe I could build this also and put it to good use.

  4. I’m quite a noob so I’m missing the point of this.
    what is this supposed to do? control some software application function via an analog switch connected to the midi port? emulate a keystroke?

  5. Orrr… You could just go the sysex route. Really not sure how this hack is totally useful. Although releasing a fake audio program with a fake soundbank and then having a website with a midi file that is linked to that app and let the drive-by malware begin. Anyhoo, keep plugging away.

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