Blokas Midihub

[GurtTractor]

Interesting. Yeah I’m definitely trying to keep the complexity down with what I’m doing at the moment because I’ve had similar issues with reconfiguring certain routing setups and stuff, but I think as long as I restrict what I want to do to a few basic things it sounds like it should be fairly managable in my case. I’d be using it with a setup dedicated to live music, so once I get it all set up I shouldn’t have to tweak it much.

The ability to utilise velocity/aftertouch for performance on the Octatrack as well as some odd little things like microtuning seems like it would be worth the cost over a basic merger I think.

[resonotter]

@GurtTractor

I’m quite interested in the micotuning feature and it would be nice if I could change the scale by turning a knob or pressing buttons on something

Nearly every property in every pipe on Midihub is mappable.

The way Micro Scale works is:

• MH has slots for 8 microtunings.
  these are loaded from the Editor
• this property is mappable so
• as the mapped CC value/Note velocity changes the scale is changed

it sends out PB for sep notes on channels you define (according to device’s polyphony)

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Postscript: just tested this:
changing tunings in midstream behaves well – it doesn’t send out unexpected Note_offs, for example

[resonotter]

@yokermoon

Love that this concept or device has resonated with you! Getting off the grid, pushing, pulling, acceleration etc is a current favourite in the toolkit and wondered if, even simplified considerably, Midihub could get somewhere approaching.

Thanks for taking the time to delve and test possible routes! I’m not in a position to buy the Midihub at this exact moment to bounce ideas back and forth with you but even getting somewhere in the ballpark would move this to ‘NEED’!

I did some stuff on this and posted it up then forgot to come back here and mention it!
The complete patch is described here, FYI with links to the main patch on patchstorage.

(It amuses me that by far the most popular component is the one that turns an LCXL’s LEDs on&off…)

[yokermoon]

Thanks again for exploring this query so thoroughly! I still don’t own a MIDIhub yet but it is in my future and the in-roads you’ve made here make the prospect even sweeter!

[resonotter]

Cheers. It was a nice effect to create and sent me off in some interesting directions.

I’m currently working on a patch which will auto-increase/decrease “high-res” CCs
(ones that need ones MSB and LSB so two interlinked CCs )
like this:

The two should work nicely together for semi-hands off live control of some interesting morphing capabilities

[resonotter]

Using Midihub to add ‘nuance’ from a touch device

As this might be the place where elektronauts considering a Midihub would come,
I thought I’d throw this in:

I was looking at what folk here had said about Expressive E’s Touché,
when I came across this from @redrabbit (back in the day):

@redrabbit

Hi, I’ve been using the Touché for a year now. With different hardware combinations.

I think it is quite reliable. No bug, delay, flicker or whatever.

For me the most annoying part of using the Touché is that you have to work with absolute CC values. You cannot increment/decrement a CC value. You configure your CCs from/to points and control these specific values with the Touché exclusively.

For example if you have set a the front pressure zone to modify your FILTER, you should let the Touché modify the FILTER exclusively. If you turn the FILTER knob on you synth or map it to the MOD-Wheel (or an other Midi controller), The CC value will jump when using the Touché.

it then occurred to me that sort of thing is not only possible but quite easy with the “Vilnius box”

Here’s a patch shot:

here’s the design

• the main control for the parameter (say Filter) comes in the SETTING pipe.
  (if this were coming from a controller it’d go out to the synth. If it were coming from the synth itself, it’d be likely filtered out)
  This is CC17 in this patch

• the “offset” controller (Touché, BopPad, etc) comes in the ACCENT pipe.

• The SETTING CC17 controls the “floor” of the ACCENT's output.
  So, at this point in time, the touch device would come in as 0→127, but be rescaled to 70→127

• (The CC6 extra mapping is included to show the possibility to set the ‘touch range’ independently of the main control)

• The other (bypassed) Rescale flips the offset to go from ‘main’ value→0 thus reversing the effect of the touch device

sorry, description took longer than patch to write!

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PS. @redrabbit mentions “No flicker”. My Touché is not so well behaved.
Probably the least glamorous role of my Midihubs is to get my many old and now incontinent controllers to stop chattering at other devices

[frekvencia]

Could you upload this patch somewhere? It’s a bit hard to follow what you mean by the different pipes because they do not seem to exist on my Midihub.

[resonotter]

Hi, Are you referring to the ‘Touché accent’ patch mentioned above?

[frekvencia]

Hm… Yes. But I can see the screenshot now. I couldn’t see it before, that is why I commented.

[alechko]

hello, I’m looking for a solution to connect my setup in a way so I can use my Faderfox EC4 and Launchkey mini mk3 to control Digitone and Rytm while having the Digitone as master clock/transport and sending midi out from its midi tracks (additional lfos for Rytm, yey!), someone suggested the midihub and it looks like it would do the job but I couldn’t find a definitive answer so thought I’d ask here before heading to the blokas forum.

this is a simple diagram of what I’m looking to achieve:

and what I want additionally is to have the option to split tracks from the EC4 so I would have DN/RYTM control, for example channels 1-5 would go to DN 4 tracks and FX channels, channels 6-16 would go to Rytm FX track and 9 perfs macros or something like that.

is the midihub the right tool for the job?
thanks!

[GurtTractor]

Yeah the Midihub would definitely work for that. I’m not sure but you might be able to achieve what you want by chaining things the right way, but honestly the Midihub just makes it all so much easier and gives you extra flexibility and capabilities that I would strongly recommend it regardless.

I’ve been using mine for a few months now and it’s been solid and super useful, I’m able to quickly solve various problems that would be a headache to deal with without it. I see so many threads where people are having trouble figuring out how to connect several boxes and controllers that could be solved straight away if they had one of these tbh. A great investment for any smallish setup.

[resonotter]

Hi @alechko,

In a word, Yes!

At a glance, your spec would be met with just a few Filter and Channel Filter pipes deciding what will go through virtual ins&outs (to split and combine your messages)

Btw, you can download the Midihub editor and sketch out your patch without having a Midihub attached.

With a Midihub you’ll soon be able to leverage its ‘beyond routing’ capabilities; check out some of the other pipes in the manual (as many LFO’s as you’ve got CCs for?!)

[alechko]

@GurtTractor

I’m not sure but you might be able to achieve what you want by chaining things the right way

tried everything in my powers to make it work but couldn’t get it work, if I send DN Midi Thru > AR Midi In I lose clock/transport, if I send DN Midi Out > AR Midi In I can’t get the EC4 to send information to AR… someone suggested Midi Solutions Midi Merge to merge DN Midi Out + Midi Thru but looking at the cost of QuadraMerge it’s pretty much the same, so I figured I might go for something capable to do more rather a single solution, I just wanted to make sure that I’m not missing something.

@resonotter

With a Midihub you’ll soon be able to leverage its ‘beyond routing’ capabilities; check out some of the other pipes in the manual (as many LFO’s as you’ve got CCs for?!)

yeah that looks cool, I imagine I can have macros/lfos for both machines controlled from the EC4 which can be great, overall it looks like a very capable solution! I can also perhaps use it as a modulation for DN FX, DN does not have FX track so having lfo to control delay filter can be useful!

thanks all for the responses!

[ccr]

Maybe also look into the EC4’s ability to merge incoming midi signals with its own controller data. This can alleviate the need for an additional midi merge device.

[alechko]

I did look into that, and it might work without the Launchkey, as I would have to do something like DN Out > EC4 In || EC4 Out > DN In || DN Thru > AR In
so DN In and EC4 In would be occupied without the option to add the Launchkey.

[resonotter]

@alechko

someone suggested Midi Solutions Midi Merge to merge DN Midi Out + Midi Thru but looking at the cost of QuadraMerge it’s pretty much the same, so I figured I might go for something capable to do more rather a single solution

Yep, Midihub goes way further for the extra euros.

Maybe take a skip through this tutorial – it’s best actually done with a Midihub in hand but it might be useful for you to scan through cos it starts with a simple MIDI Merge-then-Split scenario then builds on it to evolve a more complex patch

Also have a look at Midihub on patchstorage if that’s new to you.

Buy one, you won’t regret it!

[ccr]

@resonotter

Midihub goes way further for the extra euros

To add: I find the online editor really accessible while being very powerful, and I also find it amazing that you can store multiple presets on the device itself (eg. one for a live setup, and another one for the studio).

[Karhide]

New update for Midihub has been released

[Beta] Midihub 1.14.0 - Virtual Mappings & Much Much More - Midihub / Releases - Blokas Community

[GurtTractor]

Great to see an already ludicrously powerful little device get even more features. I was really hoping to see some kind of improvements in the descriptions/comments area of the editor though, being able to put descriptions on specific pipes or even change their colours would make keeping track of what’s going in complex patches so much easier. That’s probably my main complaint currently tbh, with any coding task leaving comments as you go is super important and I think this is no exception.

But yeah I love this thing, it’s been a real ‘sleeper hit’ for me and an absolutely essential part of my setup.

[Karhide]

It’s a great little utility midi box to have around along with the ability to get creative with it.