Hopefully I can help answer some questions as well. Roger and SA were kind enough to allow me to get a prototype hub to test with and I've been using it for about a month now with my OFD.
For presets- you essentially can end up with a maximum of 130 presets for your pedal, there are the two that are stored on the pedal itself, and then the 128 that can be stored in the external memory of the midi hub (like gadgetjunky just said). Sending a program change to the hub will send a corresponding signal to the attached sb2 pedals of the corresponding knobs and where those should be. As in, it's not changing the presets in the pedal itself, if that makes sense, it's doing an instant "load" of the knobs for that preset. Not sure what the signal actually looks like going to the pedal, but that's as best as I can explain it. No matter what you send through the midi hub, the pedal itself will always have it's own two presets stored and ready to go (helpful if you have two "go to" presets, and then use the hub for the extraneous stuff).
Obviously being able to add up to 128 presets to the sb2 pedals is really the biggest selling point of the midi hub for most users. I agree there are way too many great sounds in these pedals to limit to two presets. Especially with all the EQ controls on the OFD, I found myself creating 6 totally independent presets via the midi hub my very first day of use. Slowly the OFD is starting to kick some of my more established dirt pedals OFF of my pedalboard - whoa, didn't see that coming.
For me though, being able to access all of the parameters in the pedals via midi control changes is the real game changer. Lots of pedals have an expression input where you can adjust one parameter - it's cool, but limiting. With the midi hub you can do literally anything you can think of within the confines of the knobs Source Audio provides (pro tip: that means ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES).
Now, getting to these CC's is a little more difficult, you can use a more advanced midi control pedal that can send multiple PC's and CC's simultaneously (this Peak controller is fantastic and affordable: Invalid Link Removed). What I do is use Ableton. We use it to run our set anyway and we send midi out to all of our equipment in my band. Ableton allows me to not only send as many PC's or CC's as I want, it also allows me to do time based effects via envelopes. Here's a reali life example: I can draw a CC value of 0 to 63 on CC#96 over a period of.. let's say 4 bars. Ableton tells the midi hub to slowly turn the mix knob on the OFD up from totally clean to fully wet over that same 4 bars. Perfect crunchy swell, executed to perfection everytime in sync with the music.
That's just one of the thousands uses for this capability. I'm so hooked on the midi hub that I've now got the Orbital Modulator and Manta pedals on their way to me. I can report back on using the midi hub with multiple sb2 pedals, but I'm sure it's just going to open up even more creative ideas. The ability to use your Hot Hand or 1/4" expression pedal with the hub is just icing on the cake (I'm not a Hot Hand user yet - but I bet a lot of people will really benefit from this).
As has been discussed, the limiting factor is that you absolutely need an external controller to be able to use the midi HUB to access additional presets. If you are already a midi user, this will be easy to setup. If not, the midi mouse is a great first controller that uses very simple logic. I appreciate that Source Audio is taking their time to get this right before unleashing it upon the public. There are a lot of great ideas floating around on future improvements - but for now they are making a very solid product that should suit the needs for lots of users.
Let me know if you have any questions or anything you want me to explore or explain more in depth. Happy to help.
For presets- you essentially can end up with a maximum of 130 presets for your pedal, there are the two that are stored on the pedal itself, and then the 128 that can be stored in the external memory of the midi hub (like gadgetjunky just said). Sending a program change to the hub will send a corresponding signal to the attached sb2 pedals of the corresponding knobs and where those should be. As in, it's not changing the presets in the pedal itself, if that makes sense, it's doing an instant "load" of the knobs for that preset. Not sure what the signal actually looks like going to the pedal, but that's as best as I can explain it. No matter what you send through the midi hub, the pedal itself will always have it's own two presets stored and ready to go (helpful if you have two "go to" presets, and then use the hub for the extraneous stuff).
Obviously being able to add up to 128 presets to the sb2 pedals is really the biggest selling point of the midi hub for most users. I agree there are way too many great sounds in these pedals to limit to two presets. Especially with all the EQ controls on the OFD, I found myself creating 6 totally independent presets via the midi hub my very first day of use. Slowly the OFD is starting to kick some of my more established dirt pedals OFF of my pedalboard - whoa, didn't see that coming.
For me though, being able to access all of the parameters in the pedals via midi control changes is the real game changer. Lots of pedals have an expression input where you can adjust one parameter - it's cool, but limiting. With the midi hub you can do literally anything you can think of within the confines of the knobs Source Audio provides (pro tip: that means ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES).
Now, getting to these CC's is a little more difficult, you can use a more advanced midi control pedal that can send multiple PC's and CC's simultaneously (this Peak controller is fantastic and affordable: Invalid Link Removed). What I do is use Ableton. We use it to run our set anyway and we send midi out to all of our equipment in my band. Ableton allows me to not only send as many PC's or CC's as I want, it also allows me to do time based effects via envelopes. Here's a reali life example: I can draw a CC value of 0 to 63 on CC#96 over a period of.. let's say 4 bars. Ableton tells the midi hub to slowly turn the mix knob on the OFD up from totally clean to fully wet over that same 4 bars. Perfect crunchy swell, executed to perfection everytime in sync with the music.
That's just one of the thousands uses for this capability. I'm so hooked on the midi hub that I've now got the Orbital Modulator and Manta pedals on their way to me. I can report back on using the midi hub with multiple sb2 pedals, but I'm sure it's just going to open up even more creative ideas. The ability to use your Hot Hand or 1/4" expression pedal with the hub is just icing on the cake (I'm not a Hot Hand user yet - but I bet a lot of people will really benefit from this).
As has been discussed, the limiting factor is that you absolutely need an external controller to be able to use the midi HUB to access additional presets. If you are already a midi user, this will be easy to setup. If not, the midi mouse is a great first controller that uses very simple logic. I appreciate that Source Audio is taking their time to get this right before unleashing it upon the public. There are a lot of great ideas floating around on future improvements - but for now they are making a very solid product that should suit the needs for lots of users.
Let me know if you have any questions or anything you want me to explore or explain more in depth. Happy to help.
