Hotone Ampero Control - any one got one?

ragingben · August 2023

Thinking about adding one of these to my board. I've basically built a small board with a few of the smaller MIDI enabled Strymon pedals, a Disaster Area MIDI 4 splitter and a NUX amp channel switcher. Everything is set up including MIDI cables etc on the board, and I might be able to find one of these on too, at a push.

I need something that can send PC and CC to 5 MIDI devices, turns out there isn't that much on the market that can do this at a reasonable price. These keep coming up and look pretty good, but there isn't much in terms of review. The Ampero does look good BUT I really don't like that it can only be programmed with an app.

Other option is a Behringer FCB1010 and keep it off of the board, but I remember having one before and finding it whopping and a pain to program. I don't mind having something off board, in some ways it's better as the board can then live by the amp and I can just remote control it with a single cable. The original plan was to get a Meloaudio MIDI commander, battery operated, small, cheapish but then I found that it only sends PC on one channel which is really limiting.

Any advice, alternatives or other suggestions welcome!

Teyeplayer · August 2023

The Amperoo is dead easy to use. I am shit with midi and can manage the amperoo. I don’t find the app to be an issue, if anything it makes it all a little less time consuming to sort.

Dan · August 2023

I’ve got one coming this week hopefully and will be using with my HX Stomp so will report back.

I don’t think I’ve ever used anything midi so it will be interesting to say the least.

paulcaye · August 2023

I have one, use it with a Midi splitter with the HX stomp and a few other Midi pedals, works well. The app is easy to use - as long as you understand Midi and know what your channels are etc.

One of the more useful parts of the app is that you can put descriptions / notes on each blocks etc, so you can put implementation issues, i.e. your boss pedals need this followed by this to actually work.

The only downside if the bluetooth connectivity - it is only to your phone / tablet (wherever your app is installed and running), unless of course I am missing something, which could be entirely possible.

ragingben · September 2023

Thanks for the feedback! I'm pretty sure I'll end up with one of these. There isn't room on the board in its current guise so I may have a rejig, or run off board with a USB battery pack attached to it.

TheBigDipper · September 2023

I've got one and think its dead easy to use and has some nice features. It's MIDI, USB MIDI and BT MIDI capable, so flexible if you ever want to try it with a DAW or something like OnSong. The iPad app to program it is also straightforward. It's not on my board right now as I'm using an ES-5 instead, but I'm keeping it, because it's much better than using the ES-5 for setting up presets in a pedal and testing that commands work before incorporating the new pedal onto a board. Biggest downside is that it's hard to tell what preset you last used on the Control - there's no scribble strip or status lights next to the buttons.

John_P · September 2023

I've had one and thought it was fine.

I'm currently using a Blackstar Live Logic pedal. It's to control my QC live but I've used it with the hxstomp and that's good. I went for thinking the 9V battery option would be handy but ended up running a power cable alongside the midicable.

downbytheriver · September 2023

I’ve got one - very straightforward.

ragingben · September 2023

Interesting points... Does the display show current patch number or anything like that? I think I could live without indicators but it is an annoyance I guess.

@John_P - I looked at the Blackstar, I'd be interested in hearing how that compared. It seems I could get one for around a ton if I waited, but the Hotone can be had for ~£80 direct from China. Also, did the 9v battery last a reasonable length of time while you used it.

Also, does the engage on switch up rather than switch down bother anyone. I had a Nova system that worked like this, but I don't remember it being annoying.

The other option is getting a MeloAudio MIDI Commander, but these seem seriously restrictive in comparison.

TheBigDipper · September 2023

ragingben said:

Interesting points... Does the display show current patch number or anything like that? I think I could live without indicators but it is an annoyance I guess.

@John_P - I looked at the Blackstar, I'd be interested in hearing how that compared. It seems I could get one for around a ton if I waited, but the Hotone can be had for ~£80 direct from China. Also, did the 9v battery last a reasonable length of time while you used it.

Also, does the engage on switch up rather than switch down bother anyone. I had a Nova system that worked like this, but I don't remember it being annoying.

The other option is getting a MeloAudio MIDI Commander, but these seem seriously restrictive in comparison.

The display isn't that helpful. IIRC, it shows the last PC/CC command that was sent. I say IIRC, because it's been months since I even tried to use the display for anything helpful! But it doesn't matter that much in real world use.

The switches on the Control are interesting.

Single - yes, it sends the commands on release. I like that. I've set up my ES-5 to do the same. It means I can find the button I want BEFORE I need it, press/hold and then release when I want it to work. I'm usually singing and desperately looking for the button that changes from the rhythm tone to the solo tone, etc., but can't take my head from the mic to look down at the right time.

Toggle - that's the one I used a lot when it was on my board. Press once for message set A (rhythm) press again for message set B (Lead). Press again for A. and so on...

Momentary - that was good for controlling a Plethora. The A set was the one that loaded the new board. The B set turned the effects on/off that I wanted. (One of the features of the Plethora isn it does not reset the board to its initial state when you reload it. It remembers what effects were tuned on last time you left it - like a real set of pedals... So I'd press/hold for half a second to let the board load before releasing it to issue the commands to get the settings I wanted. For any song, I'd do it all with the one board, so the half second delay for load wasn't happening when I was playing, but beforehand.

The Control does not have the ability (unless they've upgraded the firmware) to send one command, then specify a "wait" period before sending others. This was my workaround for the X5.

Hold - I never used it.

Dan · September 2023

My one turned up and finally got it working!

Honestly, I think its pretty good. App is really easy to use and it already has some templates. Although I couldnt find a template that acted as a bog standard footswitch for the HX stomp.

This where I got stuck a bit but I think I figured it out and its working as it should. Needed to create in toggle mode and the 'A' side needed to be data 2 - 127 and the 'B' side needed to be data 2 - 0.

Only slight thing for me is pressing both 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 moves the bank so just need to be careful when turning multiple off.

ragingben · September 2023

Following the great advice on here I've got one on the way from China... Looking forward to it!

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Hotone Ampero Control - any one got one?

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