Yeah, it’s got some really good ideas but you need to first generate a midi note to start them all. Sure, I could connect a midi keyboard or one of my Elektron’s but I was just thinking it might be fun if it could generated all within the Midihub. I’ve got some spare time over the weekend so I’ll play about and see what I can come up with.
1 Like
Depends on the devices. Pretty much “try it and see” territory. And yeah, you get what you pay for. If you can find a hub that uses USB C for power and has a separate data connector, that might work, but I’ve never seen that.
Edited to add — if you only need to hook up one controller, you could just get a power splitter cable for it, and then you could hook it and the Bome both up to an external power supply like that one. Could do that in conjunction with a little bus-powered hub if you’ve got a couple other low-power devices in the mix.
Why not some combination of LFOs transformed from CC to notes to generate the initial bits, and include repeaters, arps, delays, clock, random, and the rest to create the patch?
3 Likes
Looks like a new firmware and new editor is out for the Mididhub. Partuicularly interesting is that the editor now includes a MIDI monitor showing all the data being processed in a pipe; a really handy update I think!
3 Likes
Use CHEERSTOMIDIHUB code for 14% off for Midihub during checkout! 
Birthday sale ends in: 02d 19h 29m 23s 
2 Likes
The annoying problem with the Blokas is that you can only configure it via USB with it attached to a computer — it’s pretty useless if you’re not using it with a laptop, at which point you could be doing everything it does in software, unless you only want it executing fixed actions via the Midi DIN channels. I know they’ve talked about performance issues, but it would be a lot more interesting if you could run the editor via SysEx.
Yeah, it’s really interesting. A little quirky at first, took a couple tries to really understand the basics, but it’s super powerful if you’re creative with your patches.
I wouldn’t get it for basic routing, but for midi effects, it’s really awesome. Tons of generative stuff, probability, quantizing and scaling, etc.
I don’t find that to be true at all. Obviously you need to set up patches on a computer first, but once that’s done you have quick access to any 8 patches right from the device without USB, and you can set midi cc controls to control any patch parameters. Again, no computer needed once you set it up.
5 Likes
I love mine. Built like a tank, the editor’s great, the little LEDs are useful for being able to see what’s happening at a glance. I’ve never used it for live, but with the presets I can see it would be really handy if you had a more complex MIDI setup for your live set.
I set mine up with a laptop, and haven’t plugged it back into the laptop in over a year. Unless you’re changing configurations beyond the patches you’ve already configured, you don’t need a laptop connected to use it in a rig.
Edit… I’m asking myself if I should snag another. It’s been insanely useful for me.
5 Likes
I know. I’m not that interested in it as a pure set and forget tool.
Nice update! Love mine and have it working great here. Now we just need to be able to name ports in the editor.
I’m not sure I understand what you are after. If you want to send sysex config updates from the editor you still need to run the editor and connect to the MidiHub somehow. Why is USB an issue?
It pairs quite nicely with a raspberry Pi running the editor. The Pi will power the MidiHub and patch it through to USB midi devices. You can use VNC to connect and access the editor to update patches.
Of course more cables/devices/hacking required for that.
I’m still figuring out if I have a use for mine long term and don’t think it’s for everyone but it has ironed out a couple of little midi issues I had.
Apologies for not explaining well – it was an off-hand comment in another thread, not actually a support request. 
I’ve already got a USB midi router – Bome Box in my case, but it’d be the same with e.g. the iConnectivity hardware. That box has a dozen or so DIN and USB midi devices on it, and I want to be able to change which devices are routed through the MidiHub on the fly (easy, with the Bome and a tablet), using the MidiHub USB inputs and outputs, and possibly also use the MidiHub to add DIN ports to the Bome. I’d like to be able to reconfigure the MidiHub without needing to unplug stuff, and test configurations with USB attached devices while I’ve still got the editor set up. I’m not interested in replacing my functional and already latency optimized midi router with a raspberry pi that I have to manually turn into a midi router. If I wanted to go anything like that route, I’d just rewrite the MidiHub pipelines I care about in Lua and run those on my Electra One (which I may in fact do).
If the editor ran over sysex, I could have the Bome set up a network midi connection to a laptop, which would be running at USB speed and be at least as performant as the USB serial link they use, and would also add the possibility of expanding beyond the eight internal presets. Blokas’s stated reason for not enabling the editor via Sysex is performance, and I guess if you were running it over DIN, it would be a bit slow – but still better than nothing. Given that USB midi routers exist, though, it’s a pretty silly stance.
Really, I just wish we could ditch USB and DIN entirely and move everything to ethernet, but that’s a different rant.
Got it. Thanks for explaining. I can see how it wouldn’t play nicely in your environment. I had to swap cables to build and then test for a while and I agree it was frustrating.
That Electra looks amazing. When using the MidiHub editor I sometimes feel like I could be doing things more quickly and efficiently by scripting. I kinda wish there was a node with a more flexible rule structure, or ability to develop my own nodes.
The pipelines can get complex and hard to read just to do things that are programmatically easy but outside the scope of the current pipes. Of course a trade off with visual dev tools. Someone mentioned above, comments would be useful.
Gotta say though, the midi monitor is an excellent addition. Beats routing messages to the Pi just to see what is happening.
1 Like
Yeah, I’ve actually been thinking about getting a separate hardware midi monitor, but I’m mostly hoping that Home adds it soon, because having it in the router is the right place.
And yeah… I’ve been thinking a little about what can be done with the Electra, but I worry that this ends with me writing a massive software project
Sounds like the MRCC, where reconfiguration is a few button presses away if you haven’t stored a preset, and you can store a LOT of presets. Plus it has all those USB MIDI Host ports.
I’m not sure how good it will be with the MIDI processing though. ( That may improve as they develop the firmware.)
For me, so far, the Midihub is king in the ability to easily setup MIDI processing. The ultimate in capability for MIDI processing ( imo ) is doing your own programming in Max or PD.
A hybrid with the MRCC and the Midihub is on the horizon for me.
2 Likes
Yeah — I’d love something like the midihub but with real front panel programmability. The MRCC looks nice, but it’s a little short on especially USB ports for me.
Bought a second hand Blokas Midihub locally for 90€ this week and I’m in love with this thing. The possibilities are basically almost endless. I bought it because I have two competing main sequencers and I wanted a midi thru box that I can just change the configuration by pressing a button. No need to swap cables etc. (Which reminds me, the Blokas midi ports are upside down! That’s my only gripe with this machine. I hate when that happens always and everywhere.)
The Midihub turned out to be a lot more than just a midi thru box. Just a moment ago I was out on a morning stroll with our dog when I got an idea of how to make a new patch for the Midihub. I love this iPad app called Fugue Machine, but I always have weird midi trouble using it with my synths. I realized that with very small effort I can basically build the Fugue Machine app inside my Midihub, there’s no need for flimsy iPad-midi anymore. Beautiful. There’s just so many different use cases for this that it just might be my best purchase in a long while.
I used to love the midi-delay on the Yamaha RM1X and often think about buying one just for that and a couple of other quantizing tricks, no need anymore. Midihub does basically everything that I wanted to have the RM1X for.
The only gripe (besides the upside down midi ports) is that you can’t name your presets in the editor. It would make remembering them a lot easier. A patch librarian with naming would make the Midihub perfect. If you get a chance to buy one second hand for a good price, go for it!
6 Likes
The Midihub works really well when paired with something like the Faderfox EC4 or the DJTT Midi Fighter Twister to adjust its parameters on the fly. It would be nice if MH pipelines were reconfigurable via the unit itself, but then it wouldn’t be so attractively priced, or simple to use.
I think the Midihub is an amazing little device, enough that a few weeks after buying one, I found a second hand unit for a great price and bought it immediately. IMO the only thing it’s sorely lacking is a USB host port; I plan to get around that with this Teensy-based 16 DIN MIDI-USB kit, as the Teensy’s USB host port supports up to 10 (!) downstream devices.
2 Likes