I posted this in the SP 606 forum also, but I think I am now interested in the 555 so I'm going to edit it slightly:

I've gone through a couple of SPs but have had to sell them all. Now that I have some funds and a reliable job, I want to get back in in the game. Now though I want to trigger samples with a footswitch while I play guitar live.

I know that for any of the SPs, to trigger samples requires sending a Note On midi message (rather than CCs which most midi foot controllers send). The Behringer FCB1010 does this, but only at a velocity of 64 or something. I was originally looking at just getting a 303, but coming out at a velocity of 64 seems like it would be a problem. Since the 555 has velocity pads, I figure that I could just enable FIXED VELOCITY and no matter what velocity message was sent to the 555 it would trigger at full volume.

Basically, my question is, if anyone has a midi keyboard or anything, is it possible to fix the pads on the 555 so that they always trigger at 127 no matter what the MIDI velocity settings sent are?

And if it will still only send at 64, is this going to be a problem? Can I just turn up the output high enough through a PA so that it will be loud enough?

i can't see it being that much of a problem

a footswitch that you translate to a midi note message (maybe you could elaborate on how you are doing this) is only going to set a fixed velocity so i don't see that as a problem

keep in mind if you plug the footswitch into the footswitch plug instead of midi, you can change the the messages it sends (from a selection, not completely custom) to the loop capture

so you can either start/stop the loop record/play or a couple other settings including turning on effects

Thanks for the reply. The Behringer FCB1010 I believe allows you to send Note-On triggers so I could just set each Footswitch to one of the pads on the SP 555. This is the product if you aren't familiar with it:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/fcb1010.aspx

I think I'll in addition have a footswitch connected to the jack for the looping capability. Then I would have a dope foot controlled SP 555 station!

I am wondering about foot pedals for the sp-555. There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there on the web about pedals that can control functions on the 555 and what those functions are. Is there a pedal/footswitch that is ideal for controlling the loop capture settings?

10 dollar sustain pedal for electric pianos

For the functions you should check the manual (page 68 and on).

thanks for your help. preesh