I want to trigger the play button with my midi foot controller. I'm not sure where to start. Do I need to send some sort of system data from my midi foot controller?
Well, since you want the foot controller to control the 500 then the 500 will have to be the slave. So MIDI-out from the Foot Controller to the 500's MIDI-in. Then program the foot cont. Check the 500 manual to see which data number is receivable to trigger play/stop.
Sorry, I don't MIDI, but maybe someone can enlighten us. But thats a start.