At Knobcon 2019, we talked with Conductive Labs’ Steve Barile, who gave us a sneak preview of their upcoming MIDI Router Control Center (MRCC), which promises to solve a wide variety of MIDI challenges.
The MRCC features 11 In x 21 Out routable & filtered MIDI ports. It offers DIN MIDI, 3.5mm MIDI, and USB connectivity, and lets you route and manipulate MIDI signals in many ways.
The MRCC is being produced via a Kickstarter project.
This must be quite a slap in the face for the people who just ordered a midiHub.
On the contrary. The MRCC is a MIDI router with somewhat basic filtering and mapping capabilities, and CV clock support. MSRP hasn’t been announced but the highest pledge level is $349, so it seems safe to assume the final price will be somewhere around that.
The midiHub, on the other hand, does have significantly fewer MIDI IN/OUT ports and no CV support, but it wasn’t at all designed to just be a MIDI router / mapping device. Where it differentiates itself from the MRCC is in its incredible processing and effects abilities. And all of that can be configured in an drag-and-drop editor application that makes creation of processing pipelines much easier than it would be with a menu-diving interface. Finally, the retail price is roughly half that of the MRCC, €164 (or €128 if you snag a pre-order now.)
Really the truth is the two devices would complement each other well, if you have the cash. Even Conductive Labs themselves have said as much over in the comments thead of Synthtopia’s other story on the MRCC two days ago:
“MIDIhub is pretty special, we love the filter graph UI and some interesting MIDI contortions. We plan to have some MIDI effects in MRCC but don’t think there will be much overlap with MIDIhub. It might be a good choice to have both!”