Blackstar Live Logic Midi Footcontroller

Solid construction. Works with the latest Apple computers with the M1 Chip/Monterey OS. Software easy to program. Great replacement for the discontinued Native Instruments Rig Kontrol. Works perfect with Guitar Rig 5 and 6. Added 2 M-Audio EX-P pedals and it works great. Only minor issue with this item is you need to do a Google search for the download link to the software and firmware update (the download link provided in the documentation found in the product box doesn’t work).

Good pro gear

I have always had a timing issue with looping pedals, after reading a review of how well this works with Ableton for live looping I thought would try it. It was way easier that my Boss Loop Station, and it has intuitive controls that are pre setup for Ableton. It worked pretty much out of the box. I did have to download updates for the pedal, but after that is was simple. I use a MacBook Pro with Ableton Live 11 Suite to create live loops and it works great. It is not cheap but if you are invested in Ableton Live it made sense to me to utilize equipment that has pre-configurations so that I can spend more time making music.

This arrived last week, plug it in and it was pretty much ready to go. Had to update my version of Ableton so it included the control surface. Switches are good-quality and very easy to press was your foot. Expression pedal works well, Great for control of Wah pedal in guitar rig. So normally fussy with controllers, I generally make myself. But for the price and functionality of this its easier than making one.

Blackstar feels like a company with a skeleton crew that just has their stuff made in china. They're unresponsive at their site and even joining their forum took two weeks of waiting to be let in. Very lame. The controller itself is well constructed, kind of heavy-duty for what it is. The functionality is basic and it is good to have the Windows App to configure for use in CC Mode. There is no "long press" option in CC Mode, which is something I did want (Airstep has that). With long press a single button could do two different functions. The Win App is just okay and will crash from time to time. The App is just an EXE that you run from wherever you drop it. Again... lame. 9v battery life is poor, it's good for a few hours or so, but there's a manual power switch on the back panel and if you forget and leave it on overnight the battery is toast.I use this controller with Fractal FM3 for Scene changing and it does the job just fine. For pedal board planning the controller measures 15.55" x 2.75" x 1.375"