L1V3 BOX

As a Techno producer and live performer, L1V3 (aka Pascal Jardé) seeks the ultimate hardware setup for live improvisation. To streamline his workflow, he needed a superior MIDI solution to control his entire hardware setup and create efficient shortcuts, minimizing the time between his thoughts and actions. Frustrated with using multiple MIDI boxes (splitters, routers, mergers, processors), he recognized the market’s lack of a truly customizable MIDI router that could bring his complex ideas to life.

Thus, he developed the L1V3 Box, a nearly limitless MIDI device that allows him to craft, code, and share presets with ease. “Now, I can bend MIDI messages at will, enhancing and expanding all my gear in ways I never thought possible.”

Using a web MIDI editor accessible from anywhere, L1V3 Box users can now create the most advanced and complex MIDI routing ever possible. As the central piece of a setup, the L1V3 Box smartly handles any MIDI message from its 10 inputs. Users can code custom responses based on MIDI message types, data, numbers, and values, sending tailored outputs to any of the 10 available ports.

Instead of a traditional MIDI chain, you can now adopt a “Hub & Spoke” configuration. Making the L1V3 Box central allows all your controllers to manage all your synths. Combine multiple knob presses or fader movements from various controllers simultaneously, turning them into a highly sophisticated remote control.

The L1V3 Box’s compact form factor allows you to stack and serialize 4 units on a 19″ rack, creating a MIDI station with 40 inputs and 40 outputs for your studio.

Additionally, it can control an external LED strip, and with an additional box, it can manage professional lights through a DMX connection.

The L1V3 Box was designed to cater to both casual users and demanding professionals, offering an easy-to-use MIDI router with powerful capabilities. It allows users to craft intricate MIDI rules, with presets written in LUA, an easy-to-learn coding language. These presets are fully open-source, enabling the community to access, edit, improve, and customize them to fit their configurations. Creating new presets is straightforward with a comprehensive web editor accessible both online and locally.

With USB connectivity, the L1V3 Box’s firmware is editable live — no need to compile firmware or send SYSEX data for reconfiguration. Once unplugged from the computer, the box operates fully standalone.

The box can memorize, compute, recalculate, forward, block, and reroute any MIDI messages from its 10 inputs based on any conditions or data combinations. It enables advanced uses like sending multiple program changes with a single key press, adjusting multiple volumes with one knob, adding MPE capabilities to standard controllers, modifying fader response curves with math, and creating note scalers that adapt to melodies played by external sequencers.

To my knowledge, nothing like this exists on the market. While similar products, such as the Blokas MIDI Hub and the Retrokit cable RK-002, exist, none offer the same level of customization and ease of use. While the first offers a user friendly editor, sysex are not managed, the code of the blocks are closed and can’t be updated, and the second offers more latitude, but offers only 1 input, 1 output, and you have to compile your firmware each time you need to update it.

My box uniquely allows full editing of 10 inputs and 10 outputs via an instantaneous web MIDI editor, enabling anyone to create highly complex scenarios without needing to be a tech expert. Additionally, with full access to the open-source preset codes, users can freely customize and share their configurations.

The possibilities are endless, limited only by its user’s imagination.

I created this MIDI Box because I lacked this type of machine during my live performances. Tired of waiting for it to magically appear, I decided to build it myself. Although I’m a coder, I’m not an electronic engineer, so it took me three years and more than 50 iterations to achieve what I now consider a true game-changer. During those three years, I used this box extensively in all my gigs, continuously testing, improving, and upgrading it.

I was fortunate to showcase this project at Superbooth 2023 and Synth Fest, gathering invaluable feedback. The reactions from people discovering the possibilities of my box have been incredibly inspiring. Seeing the excitement in their eyes as they envision a whole new world of possibilities is truly refreshing.