kieran

Wouldnt either IR or RF put a hell of a lot of latency into the mix?? :-/ kieran

My sympathies, Tim. I hope not to pry too much, but does your son have Craniosynostosis?? That is one of the areas we work on in our lab, since we are studying the genes involved in craniofacial development during embryogenesis and early childhood. At the moment we are looking at a few specific genes, but we have one project just starting up that is involved specifically with Craniosynostosis. Hopefully we can work something out in the future that will help unfortunate young infants like your son. best regards, Kieran Short.

My sympathies, Tim. I hope not to pry too much, but does your son have Craniosynostosis?? That is one of the areas we work on in our lab, since we are studying the genes involved in craniofacial development during embryogenesis and early childhood. At the moment we are looking at a few specific genes, but we have one project just starting up that is involved specifically with Craniosynostosis. Hopefully we can work something out in the future that will help unfortunate young infants like your son. best regards, Kieran Short.

Here's something much phatter: not FM but wavetable synthesis. :) We've seen what can be done with very basic wavetables and processing through the SID, but this is a big brother in comparison. It is a larger beast and may require some fancy additions, but it could be very powerful indeed. It's the AMD Interwave chip, like what was used on the Gravis Ultrasound (SDK available here: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/manuals/gus/iw_sdk20.zip -- contains all the IC details and more) which is a powerful wavetable based _stereo_ synthesiser allowing user-patchable waves (rather than hard-wired Sines, and other waves in the SID) depending on the amount of supplied ram (up to 8mb of 30pin ram). Synthesiser: The wavetable synthesizer offers 32 16-bit stereo voices, all running at a 44.1-kHz frame rate. Each voice supports frequency interpolation, envelope generation, tremolo, vibrato, panning, and volume control. Integrated Effects Processing An on-chip effects processor provides up to eight channels of delay-based accumulators to simulate effects such as reverb, echo, chorus, and flange. Effects can be assigned to individual voices or to any combination of voices. Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs) Sixty-four LFOs provide tremolo and vibrato effects. On-Chip 16-Bit Synthesizer Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) The InterWave IC converts the stereo digital output of the synthesizer into analog form with on-chip DACs. Patch Formats The IC supports wavetable patches in 8-bit PCM, 16-bit PCM, or 8-bit µ-law compressed formats. General Features of the Interwave IC: InterWave IC Features Major features of the InterWave audio IC include - Support for Sound Blaster, AdLib, and MPU-401 software and compatibility with Advanced Gravis Ultrasound hardware - Glueless, Plug and Play Industry Standard Architecture (PNP ISA) compliant system bus interface - Wavetable-based stereo synthesizer - Local memory control support for — Up to four 4-Mbyte DRAM banks — Up to four 2Mx16 EPROM banks — 8-bit linear, 8-bit µ-law, or 16-bit linear, 44.1-kHz samples through the synthesizer - Synthesizer support for up to 32 simultaneous voices - Envelope control, tremolo, and vibrato for each voice - Synthesizer support for up to eight delay-based accumulators which can provide effects such as echo, reverb, and flange - Built-in stereo coder/decoder (codec), designed to be Crystal CS4231 compatible: — Independent record and playback sample rates — Sample rates up to 48 kHz — 8-bit and 16-bit linear, µ-law, A-law, ADPCM, mono and stereo data formats - Mixer with the following I/O: — Four sets of stereo external inputs — One set of stereo synthesizer inputs — One set of stereo system-bus-sourced DAC inputs — One set of stereo destined-for-system-bus ADC outputs — One set of stereo external outputs — One external mono input and one external mono output - Playback (DAC) and record (ADC) FIFOs in the codec - Sample counters and a timer in the codec I have an old Gravis Ultrasound PnP sitting at home, populated with 8mb ram.. hmmm.. would be nice to breathe life back into it as a fully fledged synth!! :) :) Not to mention that you can probably pick these up dirt cheap now also! cheers! kieran

Here's something much phatter: not FM but wavetable synthesis. :) We've seen what can be done with very basic wavetables and processing through the SID, but this is a big brother in comparison. It is a larger beast and may require some fancy additions, but it could be very powerful indeed. It's the AMD Interwave chip, like what was used on the Gravis Ultrasound (SDK available here: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/manuals/gus/iw_sdk20.zip -- contains all the IC details and more) which is a powerful wavetable based _stereo_ synthesiser allowing user-patchable waves (rather than hard-wired Sines, and other waves in the SID) depending on the amount of supplied ram (up to 8mb of 30pin ram). Synthesiser: The wavetable synthesizer offers 32 16-bit stereo voices, all running at a 44.1-kHz frame rate. Each voice supports frequency interpolation, envelope generation, tremolo, vibrato, panning, and volume control. Integrated Effects Processing An on-chip effects processor provides up to eight channels of delay-based accumulators to simulate effects such as reverb, echo, chorus, and flange. Effects can be assigned to individual voices or to any combination of voices. Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs) Sixty-four LFOs provide tremolo and vibrato effects. On-Chip 16-Bit Synthesizer Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) The InterWave IC converts the stereo digital output of the synthesizer into analog form with on-chip DACs. Patch Formats The IC supports wavetable patches in 8-bit PCM, 16-bit PCM, or 8-bit µ-law compressed formats. General Features of the Interwave IC: InterWave IC Features Major features of the InterWave audio IC include - Support for Sound Blaster, AdLib, and MPU-401 software and compatibility with Advanced Gravis Ultrasound hardware - Glueless, Plug and Play Industry Standard Architecture (PNP ISA) compliant system bus interface - Wavetable-based stereo synthesizer - Local memory control support for — Up to four 4-Mbyte DRAM banks — Up to four 2Mx16 EPROM banks — 8-bit linear, 8-bit µ-law, or 16-bit linear, 44.1-kHz samples through the synthesizer - Synthesizer support for up to 32 simultaneous voices - Envelope control, tremolo, and vibrato for each voice - Synthesizer support for up to eight delay-based accumulators which can provide effects such as echo, reverb, and flange - Built-in stereo coder/decoder (codec), designed to be Crystal CS4231 compatible: — Independent record and playback sample rates — Sample rates up to 48 kHz — 8-bit and 16-bit linear, µ-law, A-law, ADPCM, mono and stereo data formats - Mixer with the following I/O: — Four sets of stereo external inputs — One set of stereo synthesizer inputs — One set of stereo system-bus-sourced DAC inputs — One set of stereo destined-for-system-bus ADC outputs — One set of stereo external outputs — One external mono input and one external mono output - Playback (DAC) and record (ADC) FIFOs in the codec - Sample counters and a timer in the codec I have an old Gravis Ultrasound PnP sitting at home, populated with 8mb ram.. hmmm.. would be nice to breathe life back into it as a fully fledged synth!! :) :) Not to mention that you can probably pick these up dirt cheap now also! cheers! kieran

Crystalfontz? ;D

I am also interested, unsure of quantity because I'm still waiting on a final control surface spec to work out how many encoders it will need, and therefore how many encoders I'll need for my modified surface. I'll probably go for 8-16, so an order in excess of 100 total would probably be doable to reduce the cost further. Always remember that there'll be people popping up here wanting more also, so you could always order extra and sell'em off to guys later. I'm in Adelaide. cheers mate kieran

Hi Everybody, I ordered some memory chips from Microchip. I have some standard 24LC256, as suggested by the Bankstick parameters. However, I also ordered some 24LC512 Â chips. Can the 24LC512 be used instead of the 24LC256? If so, can the Midibox or MIOS handle the full EEPROM space (512k) available to the 24LC512, allowing for a greater data storage capacity over the 24LC256 (256k) model? The clock speed is the same between the two models, the only difference is the greater capacity, 512k for 24LC512 http://www.microchip.com/download/lit/pline/memory/pnp/21754a.pdf and 256k for the 24LC256 http://www.microchip.com/download/lit/pline/memory/ic/21203j.pdf. :D best regards, Kieran.

Hi Everybody, I ordered some memory chips from Microchip. I have some standard 24LC256, as suggested by the Bankstick parameters. However, I also ordered some 24LC512 Â chips. Can the 24LC512 be used instead of the 24LC256? If so, can the Midibox or MIOS handle the full EEPROM space (512k) available to the 24LC512, allowing for a greater data storage capacity over the 24LC256 (256k) model? The clock speed is the same between the two models, the only difference is the greater capacity, 512k for 24LC512 http://www.microchip.com/download/lit/pline/memory/pnp/21754a.pdf and 256k for the 24LC256 http://www.microchip.com/download/lit/pline/memory/ic/21203j.pdf. :D best regards, Kieran.

Thorsten, do you ever think that with a full complete control surface, that a sequencer could also be implemented off the same 18F main core? If not, and there was more than one Core available, do you think those functions could be offloaded to another core, which could have sequencer functions to send to the main controller core to trigger the time stepped notes etc.? best regards, Kieran.

Hmmm.. velocity for 12 buttons of the keyboard (1 octave) that would be great. Aftertouch?? ;) Those would tie into the mod matrix OK, atleast! :) Power: Still, its getting close to 1A total once you take into account all the SID+core slaves as well as the master. Perhaps a small powerboard PCB might be worthwhile sorting out which can also have headers to supply each MIOS sid board the right currents with a simple single input (eg. 12V 1A) to the PCB powerboard itself. I'll have a think about it further.. ;D kieran

Great! The only thing that could make this even better is a small simple 1 octave keyboard.. ;D Don't tell me you're going to pull that "rabbit out of the hat" when you release the control surface!! ;) I'm going to need some fancy power circuits sorted out to feed multiple sids different voltages (6581 vs 8580) + the cores!! kieran

Sweeet.. ;D now I can think about putting these three 18F452's to work, they've been sitting here lazily for 4 months!! ;D I think I'll drop the my original MB64 idea and go with a MIOS-Sid with perhaps some simple step sequencer. My question is though, if I want 4 sids for my MIOS sid, will I need 4x18F452's, or would 1x18F452 + 3x16F877, or a mix of both be adequate? bonza, k

you could call it the "MBHP Special Edition" ;D flipside! :D

Hi people, I have built myself a P16Pro programmer, and am looking for software which will allow me to program the new 18F452 PICs as well as the current 16F877.. I dont really want to spend $50 australian dollars for the software which will allow me to just program one chip that I'm going to use for the MBHP. Are there any other software programmes which will allow me to do this? thanks, kieran

d2k's idea for the panel artwork is good. If you can export your design in whatever software you use to WMF, PDF, AI, or Autocad files (DXF, DWG), corel draw, EPS/PS, then do it and use Illustrator, it is a fantastic piece of software and you can nearly do anything with it to beautify your surface, add curves, stroked outlines, interesting fonts, text following around a curve, anything. :) regards, kieran

d2k's idea for the panel artwork is good. If you can export your design in whatever software you use to WMF, PDF, AI, or Autocad files (DXF, DWG), corel draw, EPS/PS, then do it and use Illustrator, it is a fantastic piece of software and you can nearly do anything with it to beautify your surface, add curves, stroked outlines, interesting fonts, text following around a curve, anything. :) regards, kieran

Happy new year from Australia! ;D

What is the Midibox NG design? Can you elaborate further? thanks, kieran

Hi Thorsten - this is reposted from the "latest news" section Will the sequencer differ markedly from the MHBP standard MB64? (apart from 64 LEDs.. ) I certainly do like the idea of a four track sequencer almost more than the use the MB64 has as a software/hardware midi controller.. So would it ever be possible to control one (perhaps called) Midibox65 which contains perhaps two cores (once with new PIC for the Seq, and one with a 16F877 for standard MB64 functions) both all wired to the same pots, with a master switch which is used to swap between the two "master modes", ie. SEQ or Controller? The two machines are very similar in layout and principle (perhaps apart from the 64LED and 4x16 display), and I think it would be fantastic if this workaround could house both beasts in the one box with essentially the same controllers. I look forward to your response.. your thoughts? kieran

Hi Thorsten Will the sequencer differ markedly from the MHBP standard MB64? (apart from 64 LEDs.. Â ;D ) I certainly do like the idea of a four track sequencer almost more than the use the MB64 has as a software/hardware midi controller.. Â So would it ever be possible to control one (perhaps called) Midibox65 which contains perhaps two cores (once with new PIC for the Seq, and one with a 16F877 for standard MB64 functions) both all wired to the same pots, with a master switch which is used to swap between the two "master modes", ie. SEQ or Controller? The two machines are very similar in layout and principle (perhaps apart from the 64LED and 4x16 display), and I think it would be fantastic if this workaround could house both beasts in the one box with essentially the same controllers. your thoughts? kieran

Thanks.. yeah, that's what I ended up doing.. but it was a little haphazard. I ended up with just the traces and the holes.. but i need to get the border off before etching. I've pretty much almost got it. :) thanks Kieran

Hi all, How the hell does one go from a .brd file that Thorsten has in the MBHP pages, to something resembling a PCB? Sure, I've read all the "how to make a pcb" tutes, but this is before all that. Can someone show me how to take the Eagle Light .brd and turn it into a negative ready for photo-etching. I have acrobat distiller, so providing I can print in some sort of Traces=Black mode, I should be okay.. can someone enlighten me further please? cheers, kieran.