Katana Mk1 - Gumtown's Katana FxFloorBoard Editor

Started by Elantric, April 07, 2017, 02:53:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Elantric

Brief Tutorial on using the Katana Floorboard Editor

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?posts/24660726/
AFAIK, there's no tutorial on line or any manual for the KatanaFxFloorboard. It's not supported by any big company, and is free after all.

However, there is a good sized user group here that might be able to help. I was impressed at how easy and intuitive it was to use... did you have specific questions?

Here's a few basic how to's:

To select a preamp. Double click on the word AMP on what looks like the pedal, this will open a deeper editing area where you can just grab dials with your mouse and tweak.
The same idea works for any of the effects pedals illustrated. There are drop down selection boxes in some places, again easy to select what you want. Everything has an on and off button.
If you want to move effects around, just go back to the main screen, which looks like the full pedalboard. Grab a pedal you want to move by left click and hold, then drag it to wherever you want and let go the left click. If you have the USB connected, the Katana should respond immediately to changes you make in the software.
If you make changes on the amp, turn on the auto sync at the top and it will send the Katana settings to the software as you adjust them.
To save a patch to the Katana, just select a patch button on the Katana, hold down for a few seconds until the patches blink, and you're done.
If you have found a new patch you like, use the file controls to save for future use. I mainly save the files as "tone central patch" .tsl files for future sharing with other Katana users if I want.

If you are really unfamiliar with what things do... maybe the BOSS GT-100 manual would help, since the effects, amps, and parameters here are derived from the GT-100.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Meesha


admin


Meesha

mmm... just wondering if gumtown polish it and fighting small unperfectness from boss... say for example - noise gate doesn't stay first in chain, it goes in chain after saving preset to ktn - just start it again and it not first...  i think it sort of firmware restriction by boss...
or anything else - ktn is quite complex thing.

admin


Meesha


admin


gumtown

If you can post any issues here, that would be great, or if something has been posted in the past that I have not responded to, then do so again.

There have been comments I have seen between others in other Forums on issues,
but no one has referred these to me directly, so I can only assume they are gossip or hear-say.
I have been rather busy lately, day job and all that, so I have no been able to keep up with or remember al the posts.

If you want to try the latest, there is this one, with assigns added, it has not been 'officially announced" yet as I have yet to tidy up the help files.
for windows only so far, it is labelled as patch loader, but it is the editor + more.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fxfloorboard/files/experimental/katana_patch_loader_setup.exe/download

An example of how busy I have been, last week I had to deal with a fault break down (I work on national electricity infrastructure assets), my working day ended up being 26 hours.

Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

Meesha

thanx, gumtown) respect to your job on this, will check it out...

Meesha

hmmm... looks like that noise gate glitch is gone in latest version.. great job gumtown! kudos to you, bro!

admin

#210
If the official Boss Tone Studio for Katana is working for you with one USB cable to the Katana , then you already have all the resources you need and a working Katana USB Audio/MIDI Driver.


In Gumtowns Katana Floorboard Editor, must make the proper Katana MIDI I/O settings to get it working
Enable  "Auto select KATANA USB", then click: " OK ".

alancarl

#211
Quote from: gumtown on August 31, 2017, 02:56:40 PM
If you can post any issues here, that would be great, or if something has been posted in the past that I have not responded to, then do so again.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/fxfloorboard/files/experimental/katana_patch_loader_setup.exe/download

Hi Gumtown,
    first I completely understand your workload is quite consuming...I am sending this now because I have a moment to do so:-)
      I have been using your editor on and off for a few months now and I really appreciate your contribution to the music community!
Thanks!

I have been noticing some weirdness with the effects chain order not being recalled as I have Write/Synced them...with the most current build I am also seeing the effect placements being 'adjusted' in real time by the Katana? The phantom adjustments seem to occur when I have double clicked a stompbox to get to the parameter view window where after a few seconds I hear a change in the sound and when I close the parameter window the effect has been moved to a different place in the chain.

With some changes I am making in the order of effects I am pretty sure the sound is not reflecting the changes as is defintely does with the BTS. For example the position of a delay effect should make a noticeable sonic difference before and after the Amp when it is set for distortion and the delay repeats are at a level around the dry signal(the repeats should also be distorted and I generally find this placement kinda sonically nasty at high gain settings!)

I am using an  I5 Surface Win 10 and a Katana Head.
If this is a bug issue I hope my description here is helpful in solving the problem:-)

Thanks Gumtown and everybody helping work in The Katana ToneQuest!
Peace
Al

fredcax13

Hello there, it seems you are really involved to improve Katana series here...
So I wonder if it is possible to plug an expression pedal AND a simple Channel switch together in the single connector available on KTN50 ?
(Using parallel or Y cable, soldering a custom cable...)
Perhaps the software will not allow to manage this through standard settings : this is where the hack begins...?
Thanks for you help, I found nothing elsewhere about this.

gumtown

Quote from: fredcax13 on September 09, 2017, 12:47:32 AM
Hello there, it seems you are really involved to improve Katana series here...
So I wonder if it is possible to plug an expression pedal AND a simple Channel switch together in the single connector available on KTN50 ?
(Using parallel or Y cable, soldering a custom cable...)
Perhaps the software will not allow to manage this through standard settings : this is where the hack begins...?
Thanks for you help, I found nothing elsewhere about this.

only one pedal type can be used at one time.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

fredcax13

Ok thank you, but... why ? is it a software problem ? If not, is it possible to use an external switch to alternate ?

gumtown

The software editor only reads the data that exists within the Katana firmware, it can not make firmware changes or add new hardware features that don't already exist.
The issue to use an Expression pedal and a Foot switch "Y" cabled together is a hardware issue, they are physically not compatible together.

You could possibly get away with using a stereo/TRS A/B 'Y' switch, to select either one or the other,
but you would also have to select the Katana pedal function manually within the Katana menu,
the FxFloorBoard editor has no knowledge of what type of hardware is plugged into the jack socket.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

fredcax13

Crystal clear answer, thank you ! It's too bad  :'(

Magicfingers

Hi Gumtown,

Using your editor it seems that with both Rotary 1 and Rotary 2 you can't change the speed. I.e. in Rotary 2 it's always fast and when you click the slow button nothing changes. the opposite is true for Rotary 1.

Thanks

admin

#218
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?posts/24915443/
Gumtown replies to queries on Katana FxFloorBoard Editor operations:

QuoteStormJH1 said: ↑
I had another question about Sneaky Effects: @Elantric helped me a few pages back (p. 523) to locate Tera Echo and other effects that don't normally appear if you just use BOSS Tone Studio. I got them to work, and was able to save one to a preset by long-pressing the amp button, but then the effect is always on.

the effect saves in the state it is left in, if the effect is saved when 'on' then it will be 'on' when that channel is recalled.

QuoteStormJH1 said: ↑
Shouldn't it be possible to save THREE effects of each kind to each preset? For example, for BOOST, there is that drop down menu in FxFloorboard that allows you to set different effects to each color - so, for example I could do Tubescreamer, Metal Zone, Muff Fuzz. I'm pretty sure I've gotten that to work before and save to a preset.
Yes you can

QuoteStormJH1 said: ↑
But the Tera Echo is located in FX (not in delay, where you'd expect). I tried doing a Bright Twin Sneaky Amp patch, with 3 different FX mapped the different colors on the FX knob. I wanted Tera Echo, Slow Gear, and U-Vibe. But when I saved the patch and tried to access with the knob, it only had Auto-Wah for all 3 colors. I was able to load each effect individually in the FxFloorboard, but it wouldn't save to the preset. Is there a trick to this?
The sneaky effects (and amps) types will save, but once you start fiddling with the effect related knob, the effects types default back to the standard generic Katana ones.

QuoteStormJH1 said: ↑
One other question - can you use the Gumtown FxFloorboard to start a Sneaky Amps patch, and then edit the effects of that preset using the Boss Tone Studio? Or would that just wipe out the amp selection. Guessing the latter.
Yes you can, but if you play with the amp type selection (or the amp type knob), the amps will revert back to the 5 generic Katana panel ones.

mgsmart

I am completely new in using a boss katana.
Does the floorboard works with a katana 50 or only with the 100 head which is midi compatible?
Thank you for your answers.

Regards
Markus

gumtown

Quote from: mgsmart on October 16, 2017, 10:59:42 PM
I am completely new in using a boss katana.
Does the floorboard works with a katana 50 or only with the 100 head which is midi compatible?
Thank you for your answers.

Regards
Markus

The current version works with all Katana models (except the mini) via the Katana USB port.
But the current FxFloorBoard version is designed to run with Firmware version 1.
A Firmware 2 version of Katana FxFloorBoard is currently being finalized.

So a Katana 50 will work fine if it runs Firmware 1.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

mgsmart

Quick answer, thank you very much.
So I'll wait for the finalized firmware 2 version.
Seems to be more comfortable than BossToneStudio.

greenhotclover

Hi, found the software last night and think its fantastic, just a couple of things im struggling with, my patches load into the left hand panel when i connect but when i click one it automatically switches the amp to panel, also... I can load the patch on my amp and then the program if click read current patch it will read it and I can edit it from the software but not the other way round, if i adjust the settings on the amp then it doesnt affect anything on the software. any ideas? also i saved the patches i created as tsl files but when i go to load them theyre not in the folder i saved them to. Any help much appreciated, oh and im on v2

Elantric

There are bugs in Katana FW V2.01

New Katana FW 2.02 arrives next week

Yoshi Ikegami (Roland/ Boss)wrote>

I recognized some bug report of KTN Ver 2.01 on TGP, so I discussed with Amp team.
We are fixing bugs now. We're gonna release 2.02 next week, now we are checking beta version.
In this version, I knew it doesn't include Sys Ex problem with the fxfloorboard software, so we will fix Sys Ex problem asap too in next version.

Please share this info with your friends.

Best,
Yoshi

vtgearhead

I'm not entirely sure what he refers to as "..Sys Ex problem with the fxfloorboard software", but good to see such responsiveness from Roland!

Have some of the other recent reports been forwarded to Yoshi?  My pet peeve is muting of the SR send when the loop is bypassed.  That's extremely annoying and counterintuitive.

Another wish-list item:  Add an option to bypass all speaker/cabinet/mic modeling on the Line Out for those who wish to use IRs.  That seems like a trivially simple thing to add.