Thanks for this thread. I'm still debating ES-5, Soleman, or simply DMC Micro or Midi Baby 3. My last foray into MIDI did not go well. That was probably 2011 with a Behringer unit. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, but with the arrival of the Aftershock yesterday, I feel I'm gonna have to take the plunge somehow or other.
So, is using the ES-5 to control the SA pedals fairly easy? I was thinking the Soleman since it's an SA product would work better, but I assume you have no issues running 4 of them yourself...
Your welcome. All of your listed options are great options, there's no wrong answers there. The big advantage of the Boss devices is the ability to switch the order of the loops for every patch. There's also the ability to re-assign buttons to different midi functions. This becomes very useful later when one starts to consolidate patches into an easier to use smaller number. So for my ES-5 patches, if I re-hit the patch number button I generally toggle dirt of some sort and if I hit the mute button, I toggle a Secondary effect like modulation or ambience. I some times wish the ES-5 had a double tap or long tap option too.
However, to control just one Midi pedal, this might be overkill. But it does offer a lot of future-grades as your Midi board / Gas develops. I think with pedals like the Eventide H9's, Helix Stomp and the new Boss GT-1000 Core...there are more midi focused pedals than before and the options just keep getting better and more varied each year. I was very tempted to pass on my EQ2 and Lunar and replace my Strymon Mobius with a GT-1000 Core instead.
A lot of SA gear look the same on the face, but are very different under the hood. Early generation pedals (lets call these Gen 1) include the Gemini Chorus, Lunar Phaser, Mercury Flanger, Vertigo Tremolo and True Spring Reverb. All of these use a common Neuro Desktop interface. So things like Midi maps, expression etc generally uses the same settings.
The next gen is the larger pedals units. Ventris, Collider and Nemesis. These have a common interface among themselves. Lets call these Gen 2.
The next generation is the C4 and Intelligent Filter. These share a substantially different Neuro interface to all the other SA pedals but offer a much better array of setting and options. Lets call that Gen 3.
The latest generation of SA pedal is the new EQ2 and that currently stands alone with it's interface, although it shares elements of the the Gen 3 units.
With SA One Series pedals, you'll usually need a Neuro hub. That's the additional component which makes the SA gear Midi Compatible. Larger SA pedals (Ventris, Collider and Nemesis) and the new EQ2 have a midi interface built in. So they connect using the normal Midi Din plugs. But, you can connect all SA gear to the neuro hub. All SA gear has a 3.5mm TRRS Control input jack, this is how you connect up SA gear to a Neuro Hub, which come with 3 or 4 cables. The hub has 6 channels. If you assign a midi channel to each SA pedal, the hub will act as a relay and pass these messages directly to the pedal. This is useful for the newer pedals like the EQ2, C4 & Intelligent Filter. My EQ2 is not connected to my Neuro Hub and acts as a separate entity. It has it's own Midi channel and receives Midi directly from my ES-5.
Gen 1 pedals lack some of the more useful Midi map options of the later Gen 2/3/4 pedals and that means that they can't access the 6 internal patches via Midi. I can only create "Scenes" on my Neuro hub that are a collection or pattern of pedals and patches stored on the hub's memory. To access these, I send a midi message to the Neuro hub (in my case Midi ch 1) and call up one of it's 128 presets / scenes. Currently on my board, my Aftershock and Lunar are controlled by the Hub scenes. It's a great system if you only have a few Gen 1 pedals. But as your board grows...this system can become a little inflexible, requiring lots of similar Scenes with slightly different SA pedal patches. Thankfully the newer gen pedals have larger internal memories that can be called up via midi, bypassing the scenes.
The Soleman is a good option. It looks good, it's a good size and weight. It has a nice and clear interface. However (in my opinion) it's limited by the Scene concept and it only allows 2 external Midi devices to be attached and one of those has to be a Neuro hub. No loop order swapping and you still need a Neuro hub for the older Gen 1 SA pedals. The limitation of Midi devices is a deal breaker for me, although not such a problem if you are going all SA via the neuro hub. I currently need 5 attached midi devices in addition to my Neuro hub.
I can't comment on the other options as I've not tried them. Musicom make some similar units to the Boss and MorningStar make some great midi gear too. I'm not had much experience with DMC but there's a large body of active users here on Talkbass...so they must be good too.
