ADDAC311 Ultra Floor Control (2022)
Five footswitches, five expression inputs, and a cable thick enough to tow a synth.
Overview
When your hands are full twisting knobs and patching cables, your feet are just sitting there, bored. ADDAC System looked at that and said: not anymore. The ADDAC311 Ultra Floor Control, announced April 27, 2022, is a deliberate, almost surgical response to a quiet problem in the Eurorack world—our feet are underemployed. Instead of cramming footswitches and pedal inputs into precious rack space, ADDAC did the smart thing: they moved the whole mess to the floor. What you get is a two-part system: a svelte 6HP Eurorack module and a hefty external pedal unit that lives at your feet, connected by a DB25 cable. It’s not just convenient—it’s a rethink of how we interact with modular gear. This isn’t an afterthought tacked onto a MIDI controller; it’s a full-body interface designed for people who want to *perform* their patches, not just build them.
ADDAC System makes it in Lisbon, Portugal. It sits in the "Expressive Controls" category of the ADDAC300 Series. The company had dabbled in pedal integration before with simpler interfaces, but this is their fullest version yet. All the foot-operated parts live in the external unit, so there's no more dedicating 8 or 10HP to switches and jacks you only use occasionally. You install the small module, run the cable, and stomp.
The cable is chunky. Reviewers called it "chunky," and they weren't wrong. It's a DB25, the kind you'd see on old SCSI or audio interfaces, carrying all 10 signals (5 gates, 5 CVs) between floor and rack. The thickness is meant to survive life on a stage floor. The system includes a 3-meter cable, which should cover most setups, though longer 3m and 7.5m options are available for an extra 30€ or 50€ respectively.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | ADDAC System |
| Module width | 6HP |
| Module depth | 25mm |
| Power consumption | 100 mA +12V / 50 mA -12V / 0 mA 5V |
| External floor pedal dimensions | 32x15x6cm |
| External floor pedal weight | 1kg |
| Number of footswitches | 5 |
| Footswitch output | 0 +5v Gate |
| Number of expression pedal inputs | 5 |
| Expression pedal input output | -5v +5v CV |
| Module I/O | 10 outputs (5 Gate, 5 CV) and a DB25 style connector to the external foot pedal |
| Includes | 3 meters DB25 connector cable |
Key Features
The Split Personality: Module Meets Floor Unit
The work is split between the two units. The 6HP module only outputs. It hosts the 10 jacks - 5 for gate signals from the footswitches, 5 for CV from the expression pedals - and the DB25 connector that links it to the floor unit. The switches, pedal inputs and configuration options all live in the external box. That box weighs 1kg, measures 32x15x6cm, and is built to handle stomps, cable yanks, and the general chaos of live performance. Each of the five footswitches has its own LED to show state, so you can see which one is active even in dim light. Each expression input has two LEDs, one for positive CV and one for negative, which show pedal position and polarity.
Footswitch Flexibility: Gate, Trigger, or Latch
These aren't dumb switches. Each footswitch can be set with slide switches to act as a gate, a trigger, or a latch. Trigger gives you a momentary action. Latch stays on until you hit it again. Gate follows your foot. There's also an Action Inversion toggle, which reverses the gate behavior so the output is high when the switch is off. You can use the switches for toggling sequencers, muting channels, switching between patches, or arming record functions. Each has independent configuration, so you can mix modes across the five, say three latching for toggles and two momentary for triggers.
Expression Inputs: TRS Standard with Escape Hatches
All five expression pedal inputs expect TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) pedals. If you have an RTS (reverse tip-sleeve) pedal, which some older or specialty units are, Channel 4 has a jumper for it. If you have a basic TS (mono) pedal, Channel 5 can be jumpered for that. The CV output range is -5V to +5V, and each channel has an attenuverter to scale and invert the signal. So if you only want to sweep a filter from 0V to +3V, or reverse the direction so heel-down opens the filter instead of closing it, you can. The pedal direction can also be inverted via controls, so "toe to heel" or "heel to toe" is your choice.
Visual Feedback That Matters
Every footswitch has an LED that lights when active. Every expression input has dual LEDs: one for positive CV, one for negative. At +3V the positive LED glows. At -2V the negative one responds. That helps mid-performance, when you can't glance at a scope.
Historical Context
The ADDAC311 Ultra Floor Control arrived on April 27, 2022. Pedals are common in guitar and keyboard rigs, but their role in modular synthesis has been limited, often to single sustain inputs or basic expression control. Pro Music News noted that pedal functionality is "vastly underrepresented" in modular. This wasn't ADDAC's first foot control; the company had previously released modules that used sustain and expression pedals for triggering and modulation. The ADDAC311 Ultra is a full system rather than an add-on. It is part of the ADDAC300 Series under "Expressive Controls."
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