Neil Spencer Bruce

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Tech 21 Midi Moose Review

So what can we say about this piece of gear? Not a lot really and that is a good thing. It really does what it says on the tin, with no complications.I have had the Behringer FCB1010 (with the UNO chip upgrade) to control my JMP-1 with TC G-Major 2 rack since about 2001. The programming of it blew my mind (and I have a Phd!), I just couldn't be bothered, plus it is actually kind of big. I brought the Behringer to replace my ancient Yamaha MFC-05 (which I brought in about 1991 to control the Yamaha FX-500...a great piece of gear!)). Yes you can control everything and most importantly turn effects blocks on and off per preset. That is a great thing and you can control mod levels etc etc, but I never really did so it was a bit over kill. I just wanted something I could kick one switch and get between my pre-existing patches. I still had the wah and EHX Micro Q-tron on the board, with an Overdrive (Boss SD-1) for an extra kick, and it worked a treat. I just had to plan my effects and patches, but actually this was easier (for me) than switching blocks in an out. The Midi Moose made it easy to just select my main patches with one kick, or if I needed to get patch 7, then two presses. In a sense this was easier than switching blocks in and out, because say you have clean and the clean with delay + chorus, you would need to switch two switches to get back to clean on it's own.The Tech 21 midi moose is just pure simplicity, you select a preset and that is it. I use it with my rack system as mentioned above (Marshall JMP-1 and TC Electronic G Major 2), and I have also taken to using it to control my TC Electronic Nova systems, simply because I can access 5 presets in one go, over 3 with the G Switch (and it looks cool!)Pros

  • Well built construction, very rugged.
  • Long long long battery life
  • Good form fact, not too big
  • Just works

Cons

  • Well if I had to say one (and this is just me really) sometime it can get confusing when you patch up and down, but that is because you may have to realise that if you want patch 7 you go to up or down to 5 then click on 2 (okay this makes me sound very dense now!)

PeaceNeil