SOMA Laboratory has introduced Metaconformer, a modular MIDI processor, designed to expand the capabilities of musical instruments and to simplify the interaction between a musician and their MIDI instruments.
Metaconformer lets you play music in new ways, by routing MIDI messages between your devices in musically useful ways.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“The MIDI protocol is an efficient engineering solution used reliably for decades by musicians. However, in many situations it does not take into account the musical context, which is essential for the artist. Metaconformer changes this. Located between the MIDI controller and your instruments, it coordinates human ideas with the language of hardware.
Metaconformer’s capabilities provide new ways of playing instruments, by combining MIDI instruments and exploring their interaction . You will be able to play multiple instruments at the same time as if they were part of one larger instrument. Metaconformer also opens up the possibility of sound control through pressing the keys on your MIDI keyboard, instead of having to reach for the knobs on your gear. This will allow you to discover and unlock new facets and possibilities of your favorite instruments!
The idea behind the Metaconformer is to give musicians a new way of looking at their instruments and what else they can do with a little creativity in MIDI.”
Pricing and Availability:
Metaconformer is available now for 160 Euros.
Thanks for this, just ordered one
Not clear what it does, please add journalist value by extracting meaning from marketing newspeak, thanks! Also the site author and designer should buy a mobile phone to understand how the publication looks on such modern devices.
Does the combiner allow you to round-robin several monophonic synths so that you can play polyphonically across them?
it looks like they do that in the video which is very cool
SOMA Labs need to make a model that is a mix of usb and din.
I like the concept but most new gear use usb to connect midi.
Love the humor in the video, like: No matrix and text, instead 8 bit display is more convenient “because it takes less mental resources of the user”.
Anyway, seems very creative approach to midi. I am wondering how this compares to the RetroKits midi products, like RK002 en the RK006.
no idea what this does. My apologies but can someone ELI5 this device for me?
The Blokas Midihub is a good, less esoteric, alternative.
The main thing I wanted was to convert note-on velocity to a CC. It seems like this would be very useful in MANY contexts. It turns out SWAM instruments don’t let you use velocity for dynamics (they are trying to protect us from ourselves). So they force me to work around this with an external process. Pretty sure the Blokas can do this easily.
Yes, I don’t see no problems with using it to do exactly that. To make the most of it, sitting next to a computer is recommended, but that’s no issue for you considering your use case (looks like the SOMA variation is a bit more standalone friendly). Anyway, I think It’s a great little, not well known enough, tool to overcome these weird design choices instrument builders force upon you, and let you go your very own direction. 🙂
That’s the most bizarre marketing gibberish I’ve ever read.