Matthews Effects Releases The Futurist MIDI Controller

May 14, 2021 · 6 sources

Matthews Effects announced The Futurist, a compact MIDI controller pedal designed to fit on a pedalboard and drive MIDI-equipped pedals, amps and synth racks. The unit was first teased at NAMM 2020, and the company described it as a better way of working with MIDI. Matthews Effects says it can send any kind of MIDI message, giving control of anything that has a MIDI connection¹².

The pedal carries four footswitches and an LCD screen, and three extra footswitches can be added for a total of seven. Each footswitch activates one of the current bank's four patches, banks can be scrolled by holding down the first switch, and the switches double as navigational buttons inside menus. There are 210 patch slots in total, organized into 30 banks of 7, and each patch can send 16 MIDI messages along with patch-specific expression, utility jack and MIDI clock settings¹².

Connections and controls include:

• 3.5mm TRS MIDI in/out, with adapters for quarter-inch MIDI connections¹
• Traditional five-pin MIDI, configurable as an input or output via an internal dipswitch²
• USB for MIDI communication, preset management, firmware updates and power³
• A utility jack that sends analog tap tempo signals or works as a latching or momentary switch¹⁴
• A control jack for an expression pedal or the three added switches¹⁴
• Virtual analog control outputs for controlling analog equipment⁴
• A 9V power jack with a 50mA draw¹⁴

The accompanying editor software lets players create, edit and organize patches and build presets for MIDI control messages, and its Smart Editor Wizard selects the brand and product being controlled and sets the patch to the required MIDI message automatically². Firmware can be updated through the Matthews Effects Editor¹.

Rick Matthews personally spent months engineering and tailoring the Futurist, according to the announcement, to make it what the company called the most accessible MIDI controller³⁵. The pedal listed at $229.99 and carried a Matthews Effects limited 5-year warranty³⁴. MusicTech noted it as a compact MIDI controller for pedalboards and synth racks⁶.