Frank

Wow Flexinoodle, thanks so much , i might just take you up on your offer of help. The hardware side i should be able to handle by my self its just the lcd display and plugin interface design that i have no knowledge of. Anyways the guy explains how he did it in this read here :- http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=242084 He most probably didnt know about Ucapps/Midibox thats why he had to hacked the Behringer BCR controller :D. Flexinoodle what do you think? Is it still doable easily? Rgds

Hi Screaming Rabbit, Well the music industry is different nowadays, if the record company or client has the budget, we go to a SSL 4000G+ room, if not, than a Digidesign Icon room and for the no budget clients its my home setup with Nuendo (my choice over ProStools :D) , keyboard & mouse & midibox LC. With what my no budget clients are willing to pay, an SSL AWS 900 for my home setup is a no go but the SSL Matrix is within reach but its still using the mackie control protocol for plugin control. So for my home setup i'm still searching for my dream controller. Rgds

Hi, I'm impressed first of all because its all diy, software & hardware. Secondly i love his implementation of the plugin controller. As an old school guy who mixes only for a living i've been looking for a way to look less at the screen and listen more to the sound when i'm mixing. For me i find the visuals on the screen distracts me from the actual listening. I've tried all the available controllers except the SmartAV Tango and they all get me half way there in regards to plugin control. The problem is they all have a generic display/encoder interface for different manufacturers plugin visual interface and its confusing & slow cos it doesnt relate at all to the onscreen plugin visuals. I love the way his implementation can morph the lcd sreen display to very close to the hardware or plugin visuals (for example the UAD 1176 with meter & UAD Plate 140 with meters and hidden parameters). For me this method feels like how i used to work with hardware; turn back to the equipment rack, adjust the pots on my 1176, while listening to the sound change, only now i can sit at the sweetspot all the time, no need to walk over to the patchbay to patch in the 1176 and total recall. Visually i dont find it too distracting, cos i would just look at it to see what the parameter control knobs are, and then stare straight into the open space between the speakers while listening to cahnges in the sound. This works for me very well. Yes the Soundcraft has it, but the limited screen real estate wouldnt be able to represent well all the plugin interfaces on the market. I wish he had a diy web page like Ucapps ;). Regards Frank

Hi Guys, This is a brilliant controller for Cubase/Nuendo. This guy is a genius for coming out with an original concept especially his Plugins Controller. I want one of this right now :D. Regards Frank

Hi, I would'nt mind these fader assembly boards if you have one to spare. let me know the pice if u have a spare. Peace Frank

Hi Brett & all those interested in this appz, Its not abandoned, its just that i was bogged down with work and family commitments. I plan on finishing the work,final testing and do some simple documentation on it by the end of September. Latest middle of October if work crops up again ;). So hang in there guys cos i'll definitely finish the project. regards Frank

Hi Rowan, I would be keen in getting a look in the SSL4000G schematics. Just the mix buss schematics would be good enough for me. Peace Frank

Hi Brett, If by Automation Mode you mean access to TRIM,READ,WRITE & OFF functions, yes its working. Basically whatever functions Mackie HUI mode in Protools offered, its working in the emulation mode i'm doing. The only thing i have'nt got working yet is the Assignment LED display. If you go to Digidesign's website support section, you can download a pdf on the Control Surfaces support for Protools. In it you will find the User guide for the old Mackie Hui. Every function that is in there is already working on the emulation. But i would like to inform all those who are interested in this emulation that to support all the features available for Protools you will need to use 2 cores with MBLink. The support for Mackie HUI protocol in Cubase SX and Nuendo is broken so i would not recommend using this but better to use Mackie control protocol which is supported by MBLC. I'm really bogged down with work and family commitments till end of May but will try to get the firmware to Thorsten asap. Regards Frank

Hi Guys, When its done with a little documentation, this will be my contribution to this great community ;). @moebius pls excuse me it should have been Yippee! ;D. @ Screaming_Rabbit, sad but true that ProTools is the defacto industry standard :( . I myself prefer to work on Nuendo in my home studio, but have recently had to buy M-Powered ProTools just to have stable file exchange capability with my peers. I used to mix on SSL but since the only SSL studio in my country was auctioned off (killed by all the ProTools studio wannabes) i've had to cave in to the darkside and now when i'm hired to work in commercial studios i work on ProTools TDM systems with Procontrol or Icon. Ah well , live goes on. Peace Frank

Hi Guys, Finally there is a midibox emulation that supports ProTools fully. This is an emulation of the original Mackie HUI protocol. I'm doing this coding for a friend who tried the Motormix emulation and found it did not work in ProTools. The code is done but i havent fully tested it out yet. Below are some pictures of the emulation running on my ugly Asus development board ;). I hope the pictures come out right. The above shows the DSP display where parameters of inserts and plugins are shown while editing with encoders The above shows the scribble strip for track names and the track level meters. They will also show inputs/outputs/sends assigned to the corresponding tracks and track automation status. And below is a picture o my hardworking Asus development board. Man i'm so glad it done now, after the testing i'm gonna take a long break ;D. Peace Frank

Hi TK, Thanks for the update. Great that you have a much better plan B for the Pic USB interface, so i guess you wont be needing my spare PIC. Yes learning C programing is my next objective this year after i finish the HUI Protools emulation for a friend. My last major obstacle to overcome is trying to do the 2 LCD thing. I'll try to solve it for a while more but if i cant i'll forget about the single core version. I've learnt alot about assembly programming and MIOS doing this project but yes assembly takes up too much of my time. But what the hell it was still enjoyable :D . regards Frank

Hi TK, How you're doing, i still owe u a USB pic ;D. I've been working on a HUI emulation for Protools since the Motormix emulation doesnt work with Protools. After much hard and painful work since i'm not much of an assembly programmer i've never less succeeded in getting 98% of the emulation done. The full Mackie HUI emulation for Protools requires 14 encoders,12 ledrings, 8 motorfaders, 167 switches, 149 leds and 2 40x2 lcds. I've done it using 2 cores with a mix of MBLC and Motormix code and some other code to bang it all together. Later in the week i'll try to post some pics of the development prototype. But i'm also trying to do a simpler version that will fit on 1 core so i have some questions. With regards to the LC application is there a way to get the 2 lcd screen to not wrap around at 64 characters? The reason is the HUI protocol has 2 separate sysex dislpay strings for the scribble strip and the DSP edit display. If i could get the full use of 80 characters then i could use different cursor offsets for each different display sysex withou changing too much of the LC code. Or is there any simpler or better way to just use the displays as 2 separate 40x2 and call them when writing for diferent sysex strings? Any help is much appreciated. Regards Frank

How about me ;D. When shall i pay you. Greetz Frank

Hi, Okay i'll check it out. Thanks TK Peace

Hi, i'm trying to use this emulation in a non standard setup and was wondering if it would be easy to add another group of switches but with ability to send NoteOn and NoteOff messages. This is the original motormix emulation code for button handling :- MM_BUTTON_Handler ;; in calibration mode, jump to dedicated button handler IFSET MM_STAT, MM_STAT_CALI_SEL, goto MM_CALI_BUTTON_Handler MM_CALI_BUTTON_Handler_Return ;; calc address to button function: MM_IO_TABLE + (button_nr << 1) TABLE_ADDR MM_IO_TABLE_LAYER0 ; init table pointer movf MIOS_PARAMETER1, W mullw 2 ;; if layer1 selected, increment high byte (-> +256) btfsc MM_STAT, MM_STAT_LAYER_SEL incf PRODH, F movf PRODL, W ; add low-byte of offset to TBLPTRL addwf TBLPTRL, F movf PRODH, W ; add high-byte of offset to TBLPTRL addwfc TBLPTRH, F ;; read ID tblrd*+ ;; exit routine if no event has been defined for this button (entry = 0xff) incf TABLAT, W skpnz return ;; if bit 7 is set, branch to MM_SFB handler! movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x7f IFSET TABLAT, 7, rgoto MM_SFB_Handler #if TOUCH_SENSOR_MODE >= 1 ;; if note event matches with any ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHNx, use the MIOS function ;; to suspend the faders #if ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN1 != 0x00 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN2 != 0x01 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN3 != 0x02 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN4 != 0x03 .error "inconsistency in ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHNx - the TOUCH_SENSOR_MODE won't work properly!" #endif #if ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN5 != 0x04 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN6 != 0x05 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN7 != 0x06 || ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN8 != 0x07 .error "inconsistency in ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHNx - the TOUCH_SENSOR_MODE won't work properly!" #endif movf TABLAT, W andlw 0xf8 xorlw ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHN1 bz MM_BUTTON_Handler_MFSuspend movf TABLAT, W MM_BUTTON_Handler_MFSuspend movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 IFCLR MIOS_PARAMETER2, 0, call MIOS_MF_SuspendEnable IFSET MIOS_PARAMETER2, 0, call MIOS_MF_SuspendDisable MM_BUTTON_Handler_NoMFSuspend #endif ;; for MIDIbox Link: notify begin of stream call MIOS_MIDI_BeginStream ;; send first MIDI byte, must be 0xb0 movlw 0xb0 | ((MM_MIDI_CHANNEL-1) & 0x0f) call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send second MIDI byte (0x0f) movlw 0x0f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; now branch depending on button ID range movlw 0x30-1 IFLEQ TABLAT, ACCESS, rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_R1 movlw 0x38-1 IFLEQ TABLAT, ACCESS, rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_R2 movlw 0x40-1 IFLEQ TABLAT, ACCESS, rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_R3 movlw 0x50-1 IFLEQ TABLAT, ACCESS, rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_R4 rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_R5 MM_BUTTON_Handler_R1 ; Range #1: Fader/Select/Mute/Solo/Multi/RecRdy ;; send third byte: button 0-7 movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fourth byte: always 0x2f movlw 0x2f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fifth byte: 0x00-0x05 rrf TABLAT, W rrf WREG, W rrf WREG, W andlw 0x07 rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont MM_BUTTON_Handler_R2 ; Range #2: 0x08 group ;; send third byte: 0x08 movlw 0x08 call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fourth byte: always 0x2f movlw 0x2f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fifth byte: 0x00-0x07 movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont MM_BUTTON_Handler_R3 ; Range #3: 0x09 group ;; send third byte: 0x09 movlw 0x09 call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fourth byte: always 0x2f movlw 0x2f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fifth byte: 0x00-0x07 movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont MM_BUTTON_Handler_R4 ; Range #4: 0x0a group ;; send third byte: 0x0a movlw 0x0a call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fourth byte: always 0x2f movlw 0x2f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fifth byte: 0x00-0x07 movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont MM_BUTTON_Handler_R5 ; Range #5: 0x0b group ;; send third byte: 0x0b movlw 0x0b call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fourth byte: always 0x2f movlw 0x2f call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; send fifth byte: 0x00-0x07 movf TABLAT, W andlw 0x07 ;; rgoto MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont MM_BUTTON_Handler_Cont ;; fifth byte: set bit#6 if button pressed IFCLR MIOS_PARAMETER2, 0, iorlw 0x40 call MIOS_MIDI_TxBufferPut ;; for MIDIbox Link: notify end of stream call MIOS_MIDI_EndStream ;; thats all return So i was wondering if its possible and easy to add another group of 8 switches and corresponding leds to send NoteOn/Off messages after Range #5: 0x0b group. Any tips or info would be much appreciated. Thanks Frank

Hi, I too like some of the others do not understand what the fuss is all about. There is a morals standard side to this which i will not get into. I would like to start a discussion on the legal and not the moral issues of the GNU licensing scheme which the Midi Zen Master T.Klose ;D has chosen for his MIOS platform. I put to you this scenerio, lets say a person has taken MIOS and coded his own simple application around it (none of the available apps on UCapps.de is used). This person offers his code and schematics to this community freely and also decides to market and sell it on ebay for whatever price he wants. Together with his product he also distributes his schematic, his application code and source files together with the MIOS files and the GNU Licensing legalese stuff. He also states that any support for this product of his should be sought directly from him and nowhere else. So what i would like to know is , is he legally wrong? Would some of you here stone him to death?, or find out which country and whereabouts he stays and send the goon squad after him (if i remember correctly someone once threatened to do this exact thing in one incident of profiteering from midibox). My take on this, i wish the guy goodluck on his commercial venture and thank him for contributing his application on this forum. If i find his application useful to me, i would diy build my own version of it or modify it to better suit my purposes. Isnt this what the GNU is all about? MIOS is not the only game in town if you want a controller. But it sure is the ultimate DIY custom midi controller . I've heard that Allen & Heath and some other companies are coming out with controllers for Ableton Live and other DJ software based on Sascha's rig. So I hope the above will put things in a better perspective for some of the guys here. The big companies will not swipe MIOS for many reasons which i will not get into here, and the small time guys who use MIOS for commercial reasons will not survive for long and even if they do, they're not gonna make tons of money. As for us here in Midibox world, we have the most awesome midi controller platform available for free. So everybody just relax and enjoy. Peace Frank

Hi, the followinh is my order. 10 x RSAON11M9, N-Type Motorfader 10 x FK13x25 silverchrom. I'm from Singapore thanks Frank

Hi Guys, The new pic 18F4550 which is pin compatible to the 18f452 but with built in high speed USB 2.0 capabilities is slated for release in December 04. Finally a midibox for laptop use is possible without needing a midi or serial midi interface. Any USB programming experts out here up for it. Microchip says that it will provide free utilities to port existing serial code into usb code for the new pics. Good news eh? ;D Peace Frank

Hi doc, Cubase SX at this point does not support two Midibox LCs in Mackie Control Emulation mode (Mackie Control and Mackie Control XT). What you're trying to do is a non standard emulation of the MC protocol. Nuendo's next release in early May will have Mackie XT support which will then allow correct functioning of 2 midibox LCs. So i guess Cubase SX support for more than 1 Mackie Controller will follow shortly after Nuendo in their next update of cubase SX. Peace Frank

Hi Guys, I guess to be fair and reasonable to all concern we should give Wouter van Ooijen the first shot at selling us encoders or whatever midibox components at a price acceptable to us individually. As an example lets say Rowan manages to find 10 midiboxers in NZ or Pacific Rim area each wanting 10 encoders. He then asks Wouter van Ooijen to quote him for a bulk order of 100 encoders to NZ. If his China contacts are still much cheaper ( maybe 25- 50% cheaper overall), than he is free to order from China. Is this acceptable to you TK? Actually i would also like to know your stand on this as i would like to start pimping for my own Alps Motor faders bulk order ;D. Peace Frank

cool. pls keep me inform :) Frank

no, they dont do knobs :) Frank

Hi, yeah i wouldnt mind doing the groundwork for the bulk order if we could get enough people interested. Maybe someone in Germany can do the bulk order for the conductive slider knobs for us? Peace Frank

Hey psytron, what price are you getting the alps for? Frank

Hi, i've made contact with a supplier here in Singapore and can get the Alps motor faders for US$15.00 each for a minumum order of 100pcs, but cheaper for larger orders. The faders do not come with the conductive slider knobs. Besides www.albs.de do you know of anywhere else to get the knobs and how much do they cost?. Dealing with ALBS.DE in Germany from Singapore is not easy. I'm looking for info on the weight of the fader to calculate cost of shipping to other countries. If its cost effective and if my price is the lowest around i wouldnt mind buying it and distributing it to the guys on this board who are interested. I was also pondering on this, if the price of 8 Alps motor faders + conductive knobs + shipping charges & taxes is gonna exceed US$250.00, you might as well buy the Behringher controller (MSRP US259.99 ) rip of the buttons, motor faders, encoders with ledrings and merge it with the midibox LC hardware for your own Mackie Control ;D Peace Frank