Microdesignum MIDI Grande 8F1D Plus

The Microdesignum MIDI Grande 8F1D Plus is a MIDI footswitch controller: a floor unit you operate with your feet that sends MIDI commands to other gear, such as MIDI-equipped pedals, rack units or amplifiers. It belongs to Microdesignum's MIDI Grande range and carries eight footswitches plus a numeric LED display, so you can see the active bank and register at a glance on a dark stage¹.

Its core job is to turn one footswitch press into a whole programmed change of state. As the manual puts it, by receiving one MIDI command the controller can send up to 8 MIDI messages that the user programs and stores². In practice that means a single register can switch a pedal to a new preset, change a couple of parameters and fire a Control Change at another device, all at once.

What it does and how it is controlled

The MIDI Grande works in three modes: regular mode, global settings and a layer of register settings². In regular mode the footswitches address the registers, and the two bank buttons, marked Bank ← and Bank →, move you between the 32 banks¹. The numeric display shows where you are.

Each register holds two layers, a red one and a green one¹. Pressing the same register's footswitch again switches you from the first (red) layer to the second (green) layer⁴. That doubles what each switch can do without doubling the switch count: one press gets the red layer, a second press on the same switch gets the green layer.

The controller also works in the other direction. It can act as a MIDI-controlled MIDI controller or as a bank of MIDI messages, so an incoming MIDI command can make it send its own programmed messages². External Program Change control follows a general rule: PC#x activates bank ((x-1) divided by the number of registers of the controller) plus 1, and the register given by the remainder plus 1; receiving the same PC number twice activates the green layer². Command channels are configurable from 1 to 16².

A pair of registers can even stand in for a smaller Microdesignum unit. Configuring two registers into Down/Up mode essentially gives you the function of the miniature MIDI Piccolo 2F1D controller⁴.

Expression pedals

The 8F1D Plus has 2 inputs for expression pedals¹³. Each input, labeled A and B, can be set to send a CC MIDI command⁴. Expression pedals are not part of the controller; it only provides the connections for them⁴, so you supply your own.

How it differs from the MIDI Grande 8F1D

The 8F1D Plus is a variant of the MIDI Grande 8F1D, and the difference is the Eth (EtherCon) connector: the Plus has it, and that connector is what the variant adds¹. EtherCon-style connectors carry MIDI over locking network-style cables, which suits longer runs between a pedalboard and a distant rack.

The maker's Czech product page lists the MIDI Grande 8F1D Plus as temporarily unavailable, and gives its weight as 1,500 kg¹.

Where it sits in the MIDI Grande range

The MIDI Grande family spans models with 5 to 12 footswitches, two of them for bank selection³. The register count scales with the model: the 6F1D, for example, has 4 registers², while the 10F1D has 10 footswitches, two for bank selection and 8 for registers 1 to 6 plus A and B². Registers 8 to 14 exist only on models that have them².

RockBoard's PedalPedia lists the MIDI Grande 6F1D and MIDI Grande 12F1D as Universal MIDI Controllers in the switcher category, made by Microdesignum⁵³⁶.

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