MORTRIX MIDI foot controller

[Brucegill]

11 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

I haven’t as I’d never heard of it. Feel free to do so and send me a link to the thread. 

Here you go:

https://www.elektronauts.com/t/midium-new-midi-foot-controller/180122
 

if you want anything editing, or not happy about it just let me know

[Al Krow]

On 20/09/2022 at 16:27, Higgie said:

Looks great! Really cool features. What’s the price going to be?

That's what a lot of us are waiting to find out with baited breath!

 

Turning that question around, I'd be interested to know how much folk might be willing to pay for such a quality piece of kit? 

[itu]

It may be so, that it is feasible to buy it at its release. After the first or second batch the sales will be lower and the availability may be limited. Just thinking about the possible scenarios I saw in the electronics markets years ago.

 

(I wish this kind of special product will be living long!)

[Quatschmacher]

5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

That's what a lot of us are waiting to find out with baited breath!

 

Turning that question around, I'd be interested to know how much folk might be willing to pay for such a quality piece of kit? 

OK, since you asked, perhaps you could be so kind as to go first. 🙂

Edited September 24, 2022 by Quatschmacher

[Al Krow]

Sure - around same price as a decent multi fx eg Helix Stomp, which is around £450.

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Sure - around same price as a decent multi fx eg Helix Stomp, which is around £450.

 

You do realise that this is just a controller pedal (albeit a very sophisticated one) but it doesn't actually do any audio manipulation itself?

 

This is the sort of device I would have paid a lot of money for back in the early 2000s. These days I do everything that I would have done with it using a combination of my Mac and Helix. I would have also questioned the form-factor the need for foot switches on it since I would have been using it in conjunction with a standard MIDI foot controller that was a bit more gig-ready and robust, and would have wanted to be able to tuck this device safely away in a rack.

[Acebassmusic]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Sure - around same price as a decent multi fx eg Helix Stomp, which is around £450.

 

Lovely looking and well engineered bit of kit but I'm not sure I'd be interested at that price for (if i understand it correctly) a midi controller that doesn't contain any of its own sounds. I can see it being great for controlling multiple outboard pieces of equipment and changing parameters live. It's very tempting but I only need a pedal to change patches so it's a bit overkill for me. Good luck with it 👍

[Quatschmacher]

9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

would have been using it in conjunction with a standard MIDI foot controller that was a bit more gig-ready and robust

Robust in what way? Are you referring to the screen? The housing and buttons are as robust as they come. 

[Quatschmacher]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Sure - around same price as a decent multi fx eg Helix Stomp, which is around £450.

It’s not for you then. And as I understand it, the hardware inside this is way more powerful than what’s inside a Helix, hence the higher cost. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

10 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

Lovely looking and well engineered bit of kit but I'm not sure I'd be interested at that price for (if i understand it correctly) a midi controller that doesn't contain any of its own sounds.

Which ones of this kind do?

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Robust in what way? Are you referring to the screen? The housing and buttons are as robust as they come. 

 

Partly the screen -as an owner of a Helix Floor, I'd be reluctant to have another foot switch with a big screen on it.

 

For me the layout is all wrong for a pedal that I would want to use at a gig. The top row of foot switches are all but useless since I won't be able to use them mid-song without worrying about inadvertently pressing the ones below. Even the ones at the side aren't particular well-placed for me. I have my Helix set up so the switches I use while I'm actually playing are all on the bottom row, and I only need to press any of the upper row of switches between songs when I can ensure I'm not pressing anything I shouldn't be. It's even got to the point where I am considering ordering my patches in reverse set order so that I've using the patch down pedal (on the bottom row) to select the patches for the next song.

 

The only foot controllers I've had where I have been happy to use the upper row of switches were the Roland ones where the switches themselves are nice and big two rows are staggered. Everything else for me is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

Also an external PSU with no means of locking the cable in place makes me nervous and want to put the device somewhere safe in a rack, where I can run it from rack mounted PSU and  hot glue the power cables (and all the other connections) in place.

[Acebassmusic]

13 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Which ones of this kind do?

 

Maybe what I wrote didn't come across that well....oops! What I was meaning was the Helix Stomp is a box which contains both midi controller (although not as powerful as your Midium) and it's own sounds whereas the Midium is control only (no in-built sounds of its own). I suppose it all depends on how much flexibility / number of effects / racks  etc you need to control. 👍

[EBS_freak]

I do think this is a very cool controller. But it's very niche.

 

Certainly, the ability to program stuff without a computer is a very big plus - but if you are getting into those sort of complexities, you are probably going into the realms of having something else doing all this sort of control for you. That may scare a load of people off though...

 

Like BigRedX, I would have concerns about putting something of great value on the floor, especially with a big screen on the front of it. I'd certainly want a screen protector over it when in gig mode to prevent at least stuff breaking the screen if there is something accidentally dropped. And yeah, I'm not a fan of button placements in anything but a big line. I dont even like upper and lower buttons unless the upper buttons are buttons which wouldn't normally be pressed in the middle of a song.

 

As for the power, it wouldn't bother me as much if it's on a pedal board. If it's the only item on the floor that is then controlling a load of outboard... then yeah, I would have wanted something a bit more secure than a DC barrel - IEC or Powercon preferably.

 

I would wager that the price of this unit, given the ability to generate LFOs and sequences... and get into some really deep editing etc... I'd say at least 2k. Am I right?

 

And as I say, it's niche - so if somebody wants it, they'll want it. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head which does what this does. A RJM GT10 is what, 1700 euros?

 

Doesn't do what this thing can do. LFO and sequence aspect - in a controller, well, that's where it's got everything else that I can think of... licked. Whether that is a feature that is wanted by a load of people... well... who knows?

[Quatschmacher]

22 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

The top row of foot switches are all but useless since I won't be able to use them mid-song without worrying about inadvertently pressing the ones below

The unit has quite a slope so the top buttons sit far higher than the bottom ones which makes inadvertent pressing much less of a risk. 

[Quatschmacher]

7 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

, I would have wanted something a bit more secure than a DC barrel

It’s pretty well tucked away at the back in the recess so no way is it going to get stood on. 

[Quatschmacher]

8 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

I'd say at least 2k. Am I right?

I can’t say, but it’ll much lower than that. 

[Quatschmacher]

21 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

 

Maybe what I wrote didn't come across that well....oops! What I was meaning was the Helix Stomp is a box which contains both midi controller (although not as powerful as your Midium) and it's own sounds whereas the Midium is control only (no in-built sounds of its own). I suppose it all depends on how much flexibility / number of effects / racks  etc you need to control. 👍

Helix is a multi-Fx with some MIDI control. This is a fully-featured controller, plain and simple. Aimed at different use. It will however steer a helix incredibly well. 

[bassfan]

I like the look of that a lot! 😃👍🏻

[Quatschmacher]

30 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I have my Helix set up so the switches I use while I'm actually playing are all on the bottom row, and I only need to press any of the upper row of switches between songs when I can ensure I'm not pressing anything I shouldn't be.

No reason why Midium couldn’t be used in a similar way. Unlimited pages per scene means you could just use the bottom buttons without ever running out of functions. 

[EBS_freak]

3 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

I can’t say, but it’ll much lower than that. 

Somewhere between 1 and 1.5k then?

 

I'm thinking about this - manufacturing in low numbers isn't cheap. The cost saving to the end user is down to code I guess (although there needs to be a ROI for coding time). Any insight as to what this device has been coded in?

 

The onboard interface is a big part of this... I mean, the sequencer element, you could get a Pilot Wave MIDI Sequenzer - but that's 16 steps and requires you to get your PC out to do configure anything with it. That's a gizmo that is already over 200 quid.

 

Anyway, good luck with it all. interesting piece of kit! All that LFO control and sequencing will open up some interesting palettes!

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, Quatschmacher said:

It’s not for you then. And as I understand it, the hardware inside this is way more powerful than what’s inside a Helix, hence the higher cost. 

I don't want to give the game away... but if I said, LVGL board, I suspect I know what's in it.

[BigRedX]

33 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

It’s pretty well tucked away at the back in the recess so no way is it going to get stood on. 

 

For me I'd be more worried about it getting pulled out at the wrong moment. I suspect that this device also takes a while to "boot up"? For me on stage all connectors must have at least the locking equivalent of the standard 1/4" jack plug - ideally that of an XLR. Everything else is either cable-tied or glued permanently into place.

 

It looks like a great piece of kit. Unfortunately for me it's about 20 years too late (and even then I'd have preferred it in 19" rack mounting format). 

[Quatschmacher]

41 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

suspect that this device also takes a while to "boot up"

Boot up is pretty fast - an obvious design goal. 

[itu]

My uneducated guess is something around £500, which is already steep. I think, this is a good example of a super unit:

 

An ultimate expression pedal that is nearly impossible to find nowadays:

https://www.sourceaudio.net/reflex-expression-controller.html

Top unit, top performance, too good, too short-lived.

[prowla]

I suppose its nearest competitor is the Morningstar MC8, which is £320; there's a bit of latitude on the price given that it's got a better display, but the role will be similar.