Is there any way to work with Source Audio and get MorningStar controllers to control Source Audio pedals via the 1/8 and 1/4" ports without adapters and boxes?
Truly, the state of pedalboard MIDI is a mess with adapters and control boxes consuming precious pedalboard space, it’s painful - no?.
Here’s hoping both parties would be willing to play ball.
I have the True Spring and use the MC6 Pro USB Host feature to send midi messages from my controller to the TS USB port. This work great for me. It does require a USB C to USB mini cable but I bought one online for around $10 and am now in business.
Just remember Ben that SA’s pedals Basically fall into 2 camps, The Collider type where they have direct din5 MIDI and store 128 presets, the other type are the older series one that have MIDI over the 1/8. Like Jboles says you can talk to the series one pedals like the True Spring and if you read the misleading SA blurb about these pedals, they have 128 presets. ONLY true if you have the Neuro hub which stores the 128 presets. If you have the Max number of pedals attached (5) then for each pedal that is 128/5. If you use just the SA pedal without the hub then you have 6 presets. You will have to do everything for that pedal from the MC controller a lot of work!
The One Series Pedals can be controlled via USB host. Older models can’t, which is annoying. But iirc SA released a relatively cheap, small formfactor adapter which can connect the trrs input to standart midi.
Edit
I was thinking of this, but it’s apparently only working with One series, too. So if you got a mc6 pro this is redundant, but might be useful for mc6 and mc8 users.
My impression is that SA isn’t interested in working with other companies, because they want to sell their neuro stuff. Otherwise they could have implemented midi properly in the first place
I have the Neuro Hub and their MIDI Adapter but these are workarounds for the broken mess of half-baked MIDI implementations, inadequate MIDI standards (speed?), proprietary communication and endless adapters and converters/boxes.
Can’t manufacturers and guitarists agree that…
1/8 MIDI is the right size for guitar pedals
1/8 MIDI speed should be improved to allow two-way coms from one port
USB-C is the right port for audio app comms
Like a lot of people here, I’ve wasted a huge amount of money on converter boxes and adapters from Meris, SA, DA etc only to discover that even with these boxes, you still can’t have simultaneous editing (from an app) and MIDI sync - pointless for many pedals.
Plus you have to remove actual pedals to find space for them. Surly we can all agree that the nonsense has to stop? That’s how we’ve all ended up here at MorningStar - right?
There’s no technical reason why this couldn’t happen, hence the request to talk.
1000X yes! They would never say it out loud but, companies continue to make proprietary stuff like this though cause it forces you to buy more of their products. They think it’s smart business, even though it puts the consumer last. What they don’t realize is consumers are not that dumb. The moment they don’t have an absolutely superior product we’re gone.
The companies you do business with for life are the one like Morningstar who seem to always put the consumer first. If the product is at least in the same ballpark quality-wise brand loyalty and the years of top level service kick in.
Did you get this to work for more than one CC message? I had it hooked up the same way, via USB using the Host port on the MC6 Pro. I used the Neuro desktop app to map out the MIDI on the True Spring to have CC0 be pedal bypass and engage, and CC1 be tremolo bypass and engage. But the True Spring will only whichever CC is in preset messages 1 and 2, and only if they’re the same cc message just with different values.
Short answer yes, I control multiple parameters on multiple CC numbers without any issue.
This may not be your issue but I will note that, you do have to have the physical pedal on the preset you want to use (short, long or tank, for instance), then save a base preset to one of those (or the 3 user presets slots), then have the MC6 expression preset manipulate the CC values you have assigned.
My understanding is the earlier Source Audio One series will respond to Midi CC messages but not to PC messages. If you have a patch and want to swap to another, you won’t be able to remotely however you can manipulate the patch that is already loaded.
What do you mean by expression preset? I’m not trying to use expression pedals to control the True Spring, I just want to be able to tap a button on the MC6 Pro to turn tremolo and reverb on and/or off simultaneously, and maybe later change some values.
I have had this working just like you want for a long time now.
This is how I did it.
a) Wire up the midi cables with good cables correctly. MC6 to N-Hub then TRRS to True Spring.
b) In the neuro app set the correct MIDI channel. I set mine to 4.
c) Also in the app set up the MIDI parameters. I set Tremelo Bypass/Engage to CC100 and Bypass/Engage to CC105
d) Set up all the presets you will need in the TrueSpring via the neuro app. Lets us say 20 presets.
e) In the MC6 setup You can setup banks or presets within banks to call up the above 20 presets that all depends on how you work. But for example only Bank 01 sends a PC Program Change message as PC 0 on Ch 4 to select the preset 1 on the True Spring.
f) Now set up a switch in the MC6 as “TOGGLE” with POS1 set to CC 100 Value 127 on MIDI ch 4 to turn ON the Tremelo and POS2 set to CC 100 Value 0 on MIDI ch 4 to turn OFF the Tremelo
g) Same as above to turn Reverb on/off but using CC 105
I previously did everything on your list with the exception of “a)”, because I’m attempting to do this solely through the USB Host port on the MC6 Pro and the USB port on the True Spring. This would have been so much easier had Source Audio just done the user-friendly thing and went with MIDI over TRS for the One Series, that way they could interface with other devices far more easily.