f
Underwhelming
These might be irrelevant to you, but to me they might be dealbreakers. I will only comment on negative aspects. The positives can be found on the 5-star comments.
1) Your expression pedal _might_ not work properly. I have a Thread-Light from Fender and can't get it callibrated. Multiple callibration attempts: sometimes it doesn't work, calibrate again, sometimes it only works on around 25% of the range of the pedal. The expression pedal works fine on other devices/setups.
2) The app is mediocre - but it does its job.
- Slow.
- Ugly. The icons are low-resolution images that look blurry. You can't tell what is a text input field or a button or a dropdown menu. Animations are sluggish and irrelevant.
- Overall, it feels unfinished. CH instead of "Channel", Data1 instead of "Controller", Data2 instead of "Value", etc.
- Complicated and unclear. You can't copy a bank for example, you have to manage templates and groups... stuff...
- I could only download it from their site. It is not opensource. I'm very privacy oriented so I installed it on an old phone.
3) Incomplete message type options. Note On/Off, PC and CC. Nothing else.
4) No other way of configuring the device besides the mobile app. App or nothing: by default it comes completely empty (some sane defaults would've been nice like in the FaderFox EC4)
5) The buttons a little loud (they are fine unless your microphone is very sensitive)
At first I thought there was some latency. Now I discovered that in "single" and "toggle" modes, the footswitches send their CC message when you release your foot - "momentary" mode works as expected. Read the manual.
So, the manual... there are two user manuals. The first and more available consists of 2 pages of irrelevant/incomplete information (blue with brown font) and that is what you get in the box. The real manual is accessible through the app's help section (maybe somewhere else as well but not immediate).
There has been NO firmware updates ever. I don't know what to make of that. Hotone has plenty of work to do.
If I had managed to get the expression pedal working, I might have kept it. The experience has been... underwhelming. In my case, I will spend the buck on a fancier controller.
1) Your expression pedal _might_ not work properly. I have a Thread-Light from Fender and can't get it callibrated. Multiple callibration attempts: sometimes it doesn't work, calibrate again, sometimes it only works on around 25% of the range of the pedal. The expression pedal works fine on other devices/setups.
2) The app is mediocre - but it does its job.
- Slow.
- Ugly. The icons are low-resolution images that look blurry. You can't tell what is a text input field or a button or a dropdown menu. Animations are sluggish and irrelevant.
- Overall, it feels unfinished. CH instead of "Channel", Data1 instead of "Controller", Data2 instead of "Value", etc.
- Complicated and unclear. You can't copy a bank for example, you have to manage templates and groups... stuff...
- I could only download it from their site. It is not opensource. I'm very privacy oriented so I installed it on an old phone.
3) Incomplete message type options. Note On/Off, PC and CC. Nothing else.
4) No other way of configuring the device besides the mobile app. App or nothing: by default it comes completely empty (some sane defaults would've been nice like in the FaderFox EC4)
5) The buttons a little loud (they are fine unless your microphone is very sensitive)
At first I thought there was some latency. Now I discovered that in "single" and "toggle" modes, the footswitches send their CC message when you release your foot - "momentary" mode works as expected. Read the manual.
So, the manual... there are two user manuals. The first and more available consists of 2 pages of irrelevant/incomplete information (blue with brown font) and that is what you get in the box. The real manual is accessible through the app's help section (maybe somewhere else as well but not immediate).
There has been NO firmware updates ever. I don't know what to make of that. Hotone has plenty of work to do.
If I had managed to get the expression pedal working, I might have kept it. The experience has been... underwhelming. In my case, I will spend the buck on a fancier controller.
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A
Great little footswitch
Update after ~4 months. (17.03.26)
The iOS control software is broken after last major iOS update and does not connect anymore. You have to use older device to configure it, fortunatelly i have some bricks laying around for that. Their support is slow and confirmed that it will take "some time" to fix it. Current recommendation: DONT BUY!!
Original review:
Using it to control my Boss RC‑5 looper. It does exactly what it needs to do. My review after using it about a month
Pros:
+ small footprint, which I needed
+ good connectivity and power options
+ metal housing, built like a tank
Cons:
– The app could be better, it gets the job done but there's a learning curve and experimentations (as with every advanced music gear i guess).
– No way to disable the bank switch feature (triggered by pressing two buttons together). As another reviewer already mentioned, this happened to me as well in live. I accidentally pressed 2 buttons, the footswitch jumped to a different preset bank (in my case an empty one), and suddenly nothing worked as expected. Solution is to recreate the same setup for next and previos banks.
The iOS control software is broken after last major iOS update and does not connect anymore. You have to use older device to configure it, fortunatelly i have some bricks laying around for that. Their support is slow and confirmed that it will take "some time" to fix it. Current recommendation: DONT BUY!!
Original review:
Using it to control my Boss RC‑5 looper. It does exactly what it needs to do. My review after using it about a month
Pros:
+ small footprint, which I needed
+ good connectivity and power options
+ metal housing, built like a tank
Cons:
– The app could be better, it gets the job done but there's a learning curve and experimentations (as with every advanced music gear i guess).
– No way to disable the bank switch feature (triggered by pressing two buttons together). As another reviewer already mentioned, this happened to me as well in live. I accidentally pressed 2 buttons, the footswitch jumped to a different preset bank (in my case an empty one), and suddenly nothing worked as expected. Solution is to recreate the same setup for next and previos banks.
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R
Almost great, but a few fatal flaws make it unusable.
My usecase was that I wanted a midi pedal controller to control other pedals. I got it working with the hotone, but when trying it live I ran into several issues that made me realize this device is not fully baked:
1) EXP input only works if you half plug your expression pedal trs cable, making it finicky and unstable
2) The buttons are close to each other so it's very easy to press two buttons at the same time, which causes the bank to change. In a live situation, this is disastrous.
3) The display only shows the last sent midi message - so if you switch bank by mistake (which will happen) it's tough to notice.
For me the main problem was the buttons, the middle ones are hard to press without switching bank, everything else i could've worked around.
1) EXP input only works if you half plug your expression pedal trs cable, making it finicky and unstable
2) The buttons are close to each other so it's very easy to press two buttons at the same time, which causes the bank to change. In a live situation, this is disastrous.
3) The display only shows the last sent midi message - so if you switch bank by mistake (which will happen) it's tough to notice.
For me the main problem was the buttons, the middle ones are hard to press without switching bank, everything else i could've worked around.
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T
Good product but bad support.
Pros
I bought this pedal 3 years ago and been using it. Normally , it does good job. Very flexible : assigning many messages to a switch, change switching mode ; toggle-one shot- momentally etc. Controlling App is well made and comprehensive.
But since last September, it has a problem with iOS 26.xx and cannot connect with control app and no reaction for nearly 6 months.
Cons
1) Connection with App is only by bluetooth, which is not always so stable, and no way to connect by USB or MIDI, neither to update firmware.
2) Cannot do the setting with the pedal itself.
3) Last update of the App in Apple App Store was 2 years ago, and before that, 4 years ago.
I must look for something more stable.
PS. For info, After some trials, I could connect using iOS App on Mac. But App is not yet updated.
I bought this pedal 3 years ago and been using it. Normally , it does good job. Very flexible : assigning many messages to a switch, change switching mode ; toggle-one shot- momentally etc. Controlling App is well made and comprehensive.
But since last September, it has a problem with iOS 26.xx and cannot connect with control app and no reaction for nearly 6 months.
Cons
1) Connection with App is only by bluetooth, which is not always so stable, and no way to connect by USB or MIDI, neither to update firmware.
2) Cannot do the setting with the pedal itself.
3) Last update of the App in Apple App Store was 2 years ago, and before that, 4 years ago.
I must look for something more stable.
PS. For info, After some trials, I could connect using iOS App on Mac. But App is not yet updated.
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