Hello all!
A few weeks ago I got an MP Midi 2A for use with VCV Rack. I finally got around to making a “first impressions” video. This is actually the first time I’ve ever made a review video, so please be gentle!
Super useful, thanks! Going to watch in more detail later but looks appealing. What are some cons you’ve experienced?
Cons (Specific to VCV Rack):
The touch-mapping software doesn’t recognize mouse wheel, so to zoom i had to map the num +/-. This results in large jumps in zoom level, which you can see when i pinch in/out in the video.
Similarly, Audiogridder doesn’t recognize mouse wheel - even when using the mouse - so i cant use Audiogridder.
Some parameters, like the visual faders in the new Omri/Flag ArpSeq can’t be mapped (but that is rare)
Also shown in the vid, VCV adds a long integer string to the encoder labels. Not a huge deal, since you can just double click and edit the label.
Cons (NOT specific to VCV):
I know people are expecting me to say “the price” but it is really well-made by nice people, so i will say it is expensive but worth it (to me).
Probably the main con is that it doesn’t recognize all VST’s. Im not sure what VST specs it needs, but i have asked them and will let you know the response. VCV Rack is actually recognized as both “Inst” and “FX” so that’s nice.
On that note, i wish there was no Inst/FX distinction. It means you cant stack a synth + delay + reverb, etc within the multi-host. You can, of course, stack them in Reaper, but that means they’re in different hosts and you can’t jump from one to another.
Those are all pretty minor, with the exception of “not all VST’s recognized”. In general, im very happy and still enjoying it & glad i bought it.
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Thank you so much for doing this excellent review.
I’ve mentioned before here that I nearly went for this in its original kickstarter but decided not to because I was really unsure about how useful it would be with a software modular. We’re a hardware revision and several firmware revisions on from that now and everything looks super slick.
I guess in an ideal world it would have some buttons too (I have a couple of fader solutions) but in hardware I also have a dearth of buttons (the ADDAC Manual Gates and Manual Latches modules being out of stock for years) and often use an attenuverter in exactly the same way as the knobs here, to manually gate something by turning a knob.
Tempting, very tempting. I see nothing wrong with the price; it is about the same as a battleship Eurorack sequencer module.
Thanks again.
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Hi Declan,
the host plugin, like a DAW, will control any automatable parameter of a plugin. There are some cases where plugins will report 2 or more parameters together. Use the MULTI LINK mode to link and see if these are reported. If not, they are probably not automatable and they cannot be controlled/automated.
The way the MP detects plugins is a bit different than the DAW. To avoid the dreadful waiting time to scan in depth the plugins, we decided to just read the files from the VST folders. So, at first it will just read the VST files and this happens instantly. Once you double click on a plugin to load it, it gets scanned for the first time and loads. Once it is scanned we get information about the type of plugin, vendor, version and category.
If the plugins are not listed in the plugin list delete the host.properties file and open the MP Host FX. It will populate the list of available plugins. If your VST2 plugins are not listed because are not in a standard VST folder, send us an email and will explain how to link the folder. It should show all the plugins that you have installed on the computer.
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