https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPojSLSqOtQ
Reader Omri Cohen shared this video demo of Midilar, a modular MIDI controller that’s sort of like Eurorack for MIDI controllers.
“You can switch between the MIDI modules and build your own custom MIDI controller,” notes Cohen. “You can use it with everything that can be controlled by MIDI like DAWs, soft-synths (Reaktor, Softube Modular) and also hardware.”
Midilar is inspired by the open source modular software synth VCV Rack, but will work with other MIDI software and devices. It’s currently described as a ‘work in progress’.
Here’s another sneak preview, via Midilar:
Very interested
Good luck
Sounds like a good idea.
Been imagining something like that for a good while now, glad someone gave a go at realising it.
am i missing something ? this is a diy usb controller .. . you have imagined this for years ..?
until each module is actually a standalone swappable unit with some sort of patching and built in intelligence
( eg ..you plug it in and the module pops up in vcv or reaktor ) you might as-well get a 60 knobs or a bcr2000 . this is far from being realized — the closest i think is the korg ms20 legacy controller at lest it has patching
Ace Sounds, and good Idea!
Great idea and nice music. I would love to get this as a customizable DIY kit.
I’m surprised there aren’t more midi processors – I’d be interested in this, or even a rack unit with some built in macros like midi delay, pitch transpose and the ability to map one channel to another and to map midi velocity to commonly used controllers like mod wheel, breath and aftertouch and ccs would be great. I used to achieve this sort of thing when I used an Atari computer but my present DAW doesn’t do this, and it would be great to have in an easy to use hardware unit.
There are a couple of hardware MIDI routers that can do some of this. I use a 1U rack-mount iConnectivity Mio10, which can do things like routing MIDI signals to specific devices, channel filtering and re-assigning, and I think even CC message re-mapping. I don’t believe it can do note transposition or delay though. It is a critical device in my rig though, without question. Particularly useful if you have any “chatty” devices that blast out messages across multiple channels, as it ensures that only the devices I choose will actually receive those messages, even though technically everything is connected to everything.
excellent!
i’ve been thinking of building something like this for reaktor blocks/vcvrack for some time.
if we could add signal jacks & cables into this. . . and have the vcvrack receive OSC messages that correspond to how these ‘midi knob’ modules are wired together, it would be really perfect. i’ve read a few issues on the vcvrack github that cover that kind of functionality, but i think it could be years before that arrives.