Keith McMillen SoftStep Midi-Expander

It doesn't convert usb to midi.Only for their devices.
And it cannot work as a midi through either.

So the only reason to buy this,is because you want to expand your Keith mcMillen product.

The problem is that this thing exists as an external piece of gear in the first place.Meaning that it should be built in.
So if you want for example to hook your Softstep 2 to a device that works with midi,you have no option,you need to spend extra 70 euros for this.

It is unreasonably pricey,and my first one stopped working for some reason.So i had to buy a second one.140 euros in total for something that should have been built in.

At least with such price,one expects some good sturdy quality.On the contrary,my first device started being slower sending midi commands until one day it stopped sending anything.

You can't avoid buying it though,sadly.Only thing you can do is avoid products that need it.

I am disapointed with the tactic of this company.
It's such a shame because they have great and innovative ideas,but the execution could be better.

I'm extremely glad I purchased the Midi-Expander, and any negative feelings I have towards it are more about the principle than anything else.

In short, the Midi-Expander allows you to plug your SoftStep into a DIN MIDI device, as the SoftStep itself only allows for USB MIDI connections. It also allows you to power the unit without it needing to be plugged into a computer.

Now my concerns here are that SoftStep itself is quite a pricey piece of equipment, and to have to pay another ?44 to be able to fully take advantage of the device's capabilities seems a little bit on the cheeky side to me. I say this because there is almost nothing to the Expander, it's a flimsy little metal case that has almost no weight at all, with a couple of sockets in the front. KMI, I truly believe you should have bundled this with the SoftStep.

It's hard to rate this properly: it serves its purpose perfectly, but its construction seems so cheap and flimsy it could have come out of a Christmas cracker.

4/5: Necessary, but too expensive, and for what it is it really should come bundled with SoftSteps.

Hi,

I have bought this unit with McMillen SoftStep. If this is your only goal its ok.
Max ok because if you use it you have to connect Softstep via little mini USB plug, and as the unit is FOOT controller its horrible idea...I don't see any logic to it, Softstep as a unit is rock solid but to connect it via mini usb...
Also around the same price point here at thomann you could buy a third party USB MIDI HOST that works with all kind of USB-midi controllers not just McMillen (as this expander), and lets you connect to Softstep with better printer type usb plug.
All in all I would not buy it again and in fact got extra usb host that served me much much better.

The 12 step (and I assume the soft step) works fine if you want to plug it into a laptop, which is easy enough at home or in some venues, but if you play pubs / clubs where you might not want to take a laptop, you probably just want to plug it into your keyboard or synth module. This is what this device does.
Its a little metal box, plug your 12 step in one plug, usb power into the other plug and connect the midi out to the midi in of your module / synth. Then press the pedals and make sound. There are no controls or settings in the module itself, it is effectively transparant in use.
The box is tiny and pretty robust (I have stepped on it). It comes with the (very long) leads you need to use it and the 12 step (unlike the 12 step) as well as a generic 5v USB power supply.

Not really much more you could add to this - if you have a 12 step, you pretty well need it, so it is good that it is so well made.