Future Impact v3 and now V4

[Quatschmacher]

52 minutes ago, jh0 said:

Hello everybody! I am a proud owner of an Akai Deep Impact since 1999 and I just got a FI4.

Is it possible to trigger the FI4's synth sounds with a MIDI keyboard while in bass mode?

I plan to use the FI4 in bass mode (replacing the Akai DI in my pedalboard) but I'd like to use a keyboard for a song; it would be very handy to have a MIDI keyboard connected to the FI4 MIDI IN and play without having to go to the pedal's global menu between songs.

Thank you!

Short answer, no.

 

I’m hoping to get a MIDI command added that allows the switch though. 

[jh0]

7 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Short answer, no.

 

I’m hoping to get a MIDI command added that allows the switch though. 

Thank you very much for the answer. That's bad news, I was considering buying a standalone analog synth for this song but seeing that the FI4 had MIDI in I guessed I could upgrade the Akai DI to the FI and use it with an external keyboard.

If it is not possible to trigger the synth at the same time with the audio input and the MIDI in, at least it would be very interesting having the option to switch between both modes easily.

I hope you'll be succesful in achieving that. Thank you very much for your efforts!  

[Quatschmacher]

1 hour ago, jh0 said:

Thank you very much for the answer. That's bad news, I was considering buying a standalone analog synth for this song but seeing that the FI4 had MIDI in I guessed I could upgrade the Akai DI to the FI and use it with an external keyboard.

If it is not possible to trigger the synth at the same time with the audio input and the MIDI in, at least it would be very interesting having the option to switch between both modes easily.

I hope you'll be succesful in achieving that. Thank you very much for your efforts!  

It would be impossible to trigger the synth with MIDI and audio simultaneously. It’s a monophonic synth so that would be confusing.

 

Switching between modes was faster on pre-v4 units as it would simply switch to whichever input type was detected. Now MIDI- and audio-triggered parts are in separate parts of the memory. We do have relatively fast switching of the apps so perhaps this functionality could be re-introduced, or at least via a MIDI command. 

Edited December 17, 2025 by Quatschmacher

[andytoad]

Being a little lazy here i know, but is there a thread on BC that shares downloads of patches we have created? I say 'we' ive not created any yet, waiting for a USB-midi kit to arrive. As a complete novice to the software, im interested to hear others creations

 

[Quatschmacher]

8 hours ago, andytoad said:

Being a little lazy here i know, but is there a thread on BC that shares downloads of patches we have created? I say 'we' ive not created any yet, waiting for a USB-midi kit to arrive. As a complete novice to the software, im interested to hear others creations

 

They are all shared in the cloud and accessible directly via the editor. You need to sign up for a free account here first: https://auraplug.com/fidatabase2/

 

[andytoad]

Ah fab thank you!

[LukeFRC]

out of interest @BigRedX - as well as getting it to work with your setup - how do you find it sounds? 

[BigRedX]

55 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

out of interest @BigRedX - as well as getting it to work with your setup - how do you find it sounds? 

 

My Future Impact is my Christmas present so now I have checked that it is working, it's gone back in it's box and been wrapped so I won't get to use it again until next weekend.

 

I'm not entirely sure if it was down to user error or not being entirely sure how all the parameters interact, but my initial thoughts were that most of the parameter values I was interested in happened in the bottom third of the range and often increasing the value by one unit gave a greater change in sound than I would normally expect from a conventional synth. Also the LPF doesn't appear to fully close at its lowest value even on the 24dB setting which may be a problem if there is no envelope controllable VCA after the filter. There isn't one in the block diagram in the manual but that's 10 years out of date, so might not be relevant. 

 

I found most of the supplied pre-sets rather harsh for my tastes, but I don't expect to be using any of them as they are not really geared up for the way I expect to be using this device.

 

The real test will come when I start using it in combination with the Helix programming my own patches and using MIDI note information to trigger the VCF and VCA envelopes processing my bass sound. 

 

Ask me again at the end of January if I haven't posted anything here before then.

[Quatschmacher]

31 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

most of the parameter values I was interested in happened in the bottom third of the range and often increasing the value by one unit gave a greater change in sound than I would normally expect from a conventional synth. Also the LPF doesn't appear to fully close at its lowest value even on the 24dB setting

Some parameters have an exponential response (for example envelope times).

 

Filter cutoff goes down to MIDI note 36 (65.41Hz so not the 20Hz of some other filters). Still plenty useful for lots of stuff. 

[BigRedX]

22 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Some parameters have an exponential response (for example envelope times).

 

Filter cutoff goes down to MIDI note 36 (65.41Hz so not the 20Hz of some other filters). Still plenty useful for lots of stuff. 

 

That will only be a problem if there is also no envelope controlled VCA in the bass guitar audio signal path. There isn't one shown on the block diagram in the manual but as we have already established that's 10 years out of date.

[Quatschmacher]

Panda will be at the NAMM show next week with a preview of the big update we’ve been working on. 

[Al Krow]

42 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Panda will be at the NAMM show next week with a preview of the big update we’ve been working on. 

 

Oooh sounds exciting!

[Al Krow]

@BigRedX how are you liking yourself so far?

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

@BigRedX how are you liking yourself so far?

 

Unfortunately I have been too busy working on mixes for existing songs and finishing off the arrangements on new songs started last year to have spent any serious time with it yet.

 

The only thing I have worked out so far is that the synth part will be of very limited use to me since my Bass VI playing is far too polyphonic. 

Edited January 18 by BigRedX

[Kev]

17 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

since my Bass VI playing is far too polyphonic. 

 

I'm going to steal this phrasing.

[danbo]

Hey folks!

 

Love the pedal and all this chatter.

 

Agree with big redx that ideally we could fully close the filter in the editor. There's a whole host of stuff on the wishlist for me, haha, because I'm greedy. But it's already very very good. In an ideal world, having the possibility for accent to modulate the amount of adsr for the vcf would be great too (i.e. implementing some of mod matrix ). I don't think this is currently possible?

 

Elsewhere, I'm trying to trigger some of my analog synths with the pedal but having some difficulty sending midi data. Maybe it's user error 😅 but I have the channels set up right etc and think the patch is properly set up to send midi. 

 

Has anyone got a video example of some playing bass through the pedal to trigger an hardware synth? (I.e. without computer).

 

I suppose, perhaps it's better to send CV out to the synths (which would require the panda cable), but I thought I might not need to do that. 

 

Thanks all!

 

*Edit maybe only possible to send messages to synths via CV. Which is fine. Just lemme know!

Edited 1 hour ago by danbo

[Quatschmacher]

43 minutes ago, danbo said:

Hey folks!

 

Love the pedal and all this chatter.

 

Agree with big redx that ideally we could fully close the filter in the editor. There's a whole host of stuff on the wishlist for me, haha, because I'm greedy. But it's already very very good. In an ideal world, having the possibility for accent to modulate the amount of adsr for the vcf would be great too (i.e. implementing some of mod matrix ). I don't think this is currently possible?

 

Elsewhere, I'm trying to trigger some of my analog synths with the pedal but having some difficulty sending midi data. Maybe it's user error 😅 but I have the channels set up right etc and think the patch is properly set up to send midi. 

 

Has anyone got a video example of some playing bass through the pedal to trigger an hardware synth? (I.e. without computer).

 

I suppose, perhaps it's better to send CV out to the synths (which would require the panda cable), but I thought I might not need to do that.

 

Thanks all!

Filter is only ever going to go to MIDI note 36.

 

Accent can indeed modify ADSR depth via the flexis. It’s covered in the manual. (I use this in some of my patches.)

 

Up to the current firmware, the FI transmits MIDI only on its own channel so all external synths must be on that channel. (In the next update, you’ll be able to set separate internal and external channels.) You’ll need to enable MIDI output on each patch. It’s only enabled on the first four factory patches by default. This is covered in the manual. 

[danbo]

Wonderful. Will give it a whirl. Thanks much!