Behringer FCB1010

I definitely recommend this product. It is insanely flexibility (basically can do everything) and has great value for money.
There are a few things, however, which I think the average user should be aware of:
1. This devices has no graphical user interface.
2. This device has hardly any limitation as to what you can make each key press do.
3. The combined conclusion from the above two bullets is: you need to actually program the thing - using it's hardware to do so. Remember setting the time in your old watch, where you need to press and hold several buttons in a specific order to get things right? so just like that, but with far more options, and with many more buttons.
I had to watch a 45min YouTube video that explains how to program the thing. As the instruction manual is simply not up-to-par, I recommend you do the same :
you learned the principals, it's quite easy to get going with, and the added value of this extreme flexibility is very much present. You can literally program any switch to shoot any MIDI signal(s) of many types and on many channels. I can't imagine something it can't do.

Also, and regardless, my specific unit produces a certain "hum" when it is on. Not a deal breaker, but could be better off without it. Might be a grounding issue.

Bottom line:
- HUGE value for money. You can do SO MUCH with it...
- VERY LONG learning curve. Expect to spend at least a few hours until you get the hang of it. I am a professional programmer with embedded systems experience and it took me about 4 hours to get it right.

Let me start with saying that Thomann's service and handling was flawless and I got my order in a perfect condition.
As for the FCB1010 itself - make sure you know what you're getting into before you get it. It is a very popular product that has huge dedicated forums with thousands of members, talking about it, fixing, optimizing, modding etc.
The build quality is exceptional. Its heavy duty (literally, it has its weight...) and as such feels solid and appropriate for handling a live performance on stage as well as anything you throw at it at home.
The biggest con is in its lack of a usb interface, meaning you have to use a midi-to-usb cable if you need that functionality, which was my main use case. Although it is possible to use 3rd party software to edit, upload and download configurations to the FCB1010, the 'official' configuration method is done within the device itself, and it takes time to figure out, especially if you've never worked with midi codes before. For me the best way to learn was watching an hour long youtube video explaining and demoing every setting, which just emphasizes how feature rich this thing is :)

Shipped on March 9. Thomann's tracking team's investigation started on March 31. Philpost central office (Philippines main post office) called me on the phone around 9:30am on May 6 for me to pick-up the parcel right away because it's wet and they want to hand it over to me that day since it's been delayed so much. I arrived at Philpost around 2:30pm that day. I saw that what they said on the phone that it's wet is accurate. Philpost wrapped the big parcel's box with clear plastic bag when they received it. They opened the plastic in front of me before releasing the parcel to me. The Thomann branded box is too soft from being soaked to take home with me. I decided I will take home only the FCB1010 box.

I finished claiming it. And I proceeded to opened the plastic and the wet too-large-for-me-to-put-my-arms-around-it rectangular box at the security guards' corner beside the entrance to take out the FCB1010 box. I took pictures and video.

Inside is the also wet FCB1010's box which is starting to deteriorate. The brown paper fillers inside are all wet and crumpled together I almost left the 5-pin MDI cable that I bought with the FCB1010. I opened the FCB1010's box itself and saw that the the unit is wrapped with protective clear plastic with the Styrofoam on both ends of the unit locking the plastic in place and sealing any openings. The power cord is attached to the package with clear adhesive tape. I can see the unit wasn't wet inside the clear plastic wrapping. The clear plastic envelope that held the Quick Start Guide had small water droplets and was moist.

I still hoped that the FCB1010 will turn ON at home and be 100% operational. Post office employees seeing me doing all this asked me where it came from and they said that it is the usual case with parcels coming from Germany. However, I felt I am the only one experiencing this as I see people claiming their normal, dry, parcels.

Luckily , despite all that and that the FCB1010 box already developed tears from my own handling on the way back home because it's too soft from being wet, what I hoped for happened. After taking more pictures, I turned it on and has power and I am able to program it just like in the online video tutorials! It is beautiful. Built like a tank. 100% legit and brand new. Serial number is found on both the box. It is a 220V unit. I bought it to control my Boss Katana 50 MKII (FCB1010 in tandem with a special Dual USB host that is made for that purpose. I think it is only by the manufacturer).

Firstly, as many other reviewers have likely highlighted, it's built like a f**king tank. The chassis is nigh on invincible. The only weak spot in the construction is both of the expression pedals. Made of a very brittle feeling plastic that I think might not have great survivability.

The expression pedals are really holding the brunt of my irks with this device. They never quite seem to consistently return to max or min positions and they are very much NOT big fans of being reprogrammed to send a different CC signal than 27/28 in my experience. Now this could be user error as I still haven't gotten fully to reigns with the programming interface.

Overall, good tool with a long and possibly frustrating learning curve.

I bought this controller for live gigging because I quite often use the Alesis Vortex (keytar) to control a Roland Integra-7 module, and giving me the same "freedom on stage" as the guitar players. Sound selecting on the Vortex was a real pain so I needed something better.
Well, the FCB1010 does exactly what I need. The programming is not difficult at all, you only have to concentrate yourself like for half an hour to understand it. And also reach out for that sound parameter list from your sound module to figure out the correct control values like msb, lsb, and pc. Don't start programming as long as you don't have that list or you will get very frustrated!

At this moment, I only use one of the two pedals, in such a way that it controls the volume. I've set the range from 63 to 127, which means that I always start a sound in the lowest volume range and easily can boost up the volume when I have to play a solo. You have to do this for every patch of course, but at this time I'm really not using all of the 100 preset positions. The second pedal could be used for modulations but I have that already on the Vortex.

Patch selection is, when programming was succesful, of course very straightforward. But, since you probably are going to select sounds on a module or synth that is NOT in your line of view, you don't see what you are selecting, only the patch number... of the FCB1010 that is, not the one from your sound source.
I resolved this by organising (and memorising) the patches in this way: 01 to 10 are Piano sounds, 11 to 20 Bass sounds (sometime I replace the bass player when he switches over to solo guitar), 21 to 30 are Pads and so on. Usually, not more than 1 or 2 sounds per sound group are needed so my little brain can cope with this :-)

The FCB looks very sturdy to me, it's surprisingly heavy when you grab it. My conclusion is; so far so good. Owning it less than 3 months, I can't say anything about durability.

Since it's the only (much) cheaper choice for a midi foot controller after the Roland FC-300, any budget oriented user will end up with this. It is fully programmable, fairly easy to do so if you have a basic MIDI knowledge. It is not extremelly versatile on the command choices, but a more advanced user can work around this. It is also light and low profile, plus the integrated power supply is very convenient. The quality of the pedals is not exactly top-notch, you have to stomp firmly to be sure you got it on, and you know it won't take many years of this. The expression pedals are pretty accurate, but at absolutely no point should you put your whole weight on them, as you could do on an all-metal construction.

Overall, you can put it to very good use, especially for this price, but it certainly can't take any abuse.

I did spend some time with this unit and I can say that it's ok for the money you spend for it.

The original Chip is not updated so I had to buy the UNo chip which gives you more liberty.
Programming MIDI with this unit is, even with Uno chip, a little bit challenging at first .
The unit is very solid, doesn't feel at all cheap. The buttons are well done. The pedals don't offer best feeling but there are ok.
Having MIDI out and in offers you the possibility to connect the unit to other devices and I found especially useful for connecting it to a computer in order to program with software. A USB port would have been more easy to use although.
I don't think you could get something better for the money.

I got this to be able to change some plugin presets on the fly and after (a lot) of debugging and learning (I am new to MIDI) I was able to correctly configure the MIDI messages I wanted to send and properly tell the plugins what to do with them. It gets the job done, and the price is accessible.
There is no limitation on what you can do with this, basically you can configure each button (and the expression pedals) to send any MIDI message you want. I could change presets, configure amp settings, Volume, and many other effects just as I wanted. You have a lot of freedom when creating your own setup.
But getting started with it is pretty hard to do, since the only interface you have with it is a 2-digit 7 segment digital display. Luckily, there is a pretty big community online that can help a lot.