PAINTAUDIO MIDI Captain NANO 4/MINI 6 Foot Controller Multi-Effects Keyboards Synthesizer USB-MIDI musical software Bias Support all PC/CC/Note commander (MIDI Captain MINI 6)

Fantastic piece of gear, and well made. Accessing the settings directly on a text file may seem awkward at first, but once I got used to it, I prefer it to an interface.

This is an excellent little unit. It is very well made with a metal casing. It can run off batteries, USB or from a normal pedalboard power supply. bought it to control some feature on my Quad Cortex and it works great.Some reviewers comment on it being difficult to program but I didn't find that to be the case. To configure it you have to connect it to a computer via the supplied USB cable and turn it on whilst holding the top left button. The device will the an appear as an external drive on your computer. Each bank (or page) on the midi contoller has an associated text file called PageX.txt e.g. the first bank has a file called PAGE0.TXT, the 2nd bank PAGE1.TXT etc. To assign midi commands to the buttons you just edit the commands in the PAGEX.TXT. There are loads of examples and comments already in the txt files and the manual is very thorough. I had the Midi Captain controlling functions on my QC within 15 minutes. It took me quite a bit longer to finalise what I wanted as I started to appreciate all the possibilities though.

I was excited to receive this bit of kit as my first foray into midi to control my good, old Eventide H9. Having done some research into the best midi foot controller for my needs - basically just to use to recall presets, tuner and looper, at least, for the moment - the Mini 6 seemed ideal and the most flexible and cost-effective way to go. Going from the images on Paint Audio’s website, the controller appeared to be compatible with the H9. The Mini 6 is a very well-made piece of equipment that belies its reasonable cost. However, although there are some dedicated tutorials on YouTube from Paint Audio’s owner, they really only appeal to someone who is already well-versed in setting up midi controllers to execute program changes and CC messages. There is nothing dedicated to the Mini 6 beyond a product overview. After a couple of very frustrating weeks of trying to really understand how to get the Mini 6 and the H9 to work together, I simply had to return the Mini 6. I did appeal to their support, but it’s slow and very hands-off, referring me to their YouTube tutorials, which were of no help in the first place. I was advised to write to the owner for further advice but never received any response. What lets this very smart little product down is the lack of any clear instructional videos or product support. Most of all, there is no editor for Mac/Windows in order to make life that much easier for programming the Mini 6. Morningstar have implemented one very successfully for their products. They have very clear instructional videos and their support appears to be pretty top notch. I am looking to purchase the older Mk2 version of their six switch controller to help me unlock the H9’s potential.

It needs some sort of editor to make life easier. Lack of documentation included took me hours to set up some basic CC commands.Could be very good as the unit itself is sturdy and well-made.

If you can code… great. If you can’t then the presets are disappointing and nobody will help you fix that.I really wanted to get it to work but my emails were not received. All I wanted was 6 momentary buttons. That’s all! Why so complicated???