M-VAVE Chocolate MIDI Controller
Compact Bluetooth MIDI foot controller
| Maker | M-VAVE |
|---|---|
| Model | Chocolate |
| Type | Compact Bluetooth MIDI foot controller |
Store
| Store | Price | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon.se | 522,89 kr | 2026-06-24 |
Description
A small foot controller I use mostly with Logic, to switch presets and effects hands-free. I tried it with the Positive Grid Spark too, but no luck.
This is my first MIDI controller. I didn't even know what these things did until I bought one. I found out through the same musician friend of mine, you can probably tell by now that he gives me a lot of tips, who told me it was possible to control things with a pedal. I was looking for a faster way to turn pedals on and off in AmpliTube's signal chain without clicking and unclicking, mostly because there are songs that use both clean and distortion.
I bought this one while I was working out Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden, if I'm not mistaken. It starts clean and then goes into distortion right after, and there's no time for me to grab the mouse and click the button. What I was doing before the pedal was leaving the mouse parked right on top of the distortion pedal so I could click quickly, and I still lost a few bars, so it was pretty bad. That's when I decided to find something that could control it and ended up discovering these controllers.
It has four footswitches, a rechargeable battery that runs for about 12 hours, MIDI over both Bluetooth and USB, and a jack at the back for an expression pedal.
Impressions
It's very good. It's very small and it doesn't need a power socket, which for me was ideal. I didn't want anything with more cables, I already have a lot of cables in my setups and I don't like cables at all. So it's extremely tiny, very light and very well built, it's all aluminium and iron, and the switches are very good and very comfortable to press.
As I said in the other note, the software is terrible. You can connect any expression pedal to it, it doesn't have to be that specific one, which is good, but you do need to study how MIDI interfaces work and go through a learning curve to understand how this thing works. It has several modes of use, one where you press and hold, another that they call latch, where you press once and it turns on and press again and it turns off, one where you press once and it stays on for a while and then turns off, and a few others.
I've never had big problems with it. I've used it very few times, but more than I've used the expression pedal, because being so small and Bluetooth I can put it on the desk or leave it in a little basket I keep nearby. I just turn it on, it connects straight away, and I can use it without any trouble.
I tried connecting it to the Spark as well, but the Spark takes its own specific protocol, and if I'm not mistaken there's only one other brand that works with it, the AirStep. That one is extremely expensive, so I ended up not buying it and kept this one.
I mostly use it to turn pedals on and off, but I also found out that a MIDI controller can control a whole series of other things. So sometimes I have this pedal connected to my computer and I can make it receive a MIDI command to change the song on Spotify, or turn the computer volume up and down, or even play and pause things. I can control the computer itself using a foot controller, which I've done a few times, and I found it really futuristic, a very Star Trek kind of thing.
Final thoughts
I recommend it. It's a great controller for anyone who wants to control this sort of thing at a pretty good price. The only problem is that it's small, it only has four switches, and there aren't many features beyond that, on top of the software being terrible.