Jidis

You can "phase flip" files, if you've properly aligned the start points. Take the original and the copy on two different tracks, tweak the start points (spread the wave display way out and align them), then phase invert one of them and combine the two tracks. Ideally, they should cancel out, but anything left over should show as noise, spikes, etc. Of course, that's only good for digital transfers, but I've used it to check multi-track throughput via ADAT. My current testing is usually only inserting eight tone generators in a Nuendo session on one machine and sending them to the tracking machine via ADAT for a decent amount of time, then later skimming over it for noises. Not the most scientific thing in the world but my tracking demands are usually modest. BTW- Haven't overclocked a studio machine in ages, but when I have, I've figured if I could run the stability test type of things, for lengthy amounts of time with no errors and decent temperatures, I was OK (usually tried to find the max, then went a notch slower). I wouldn't mess with any of those "weird" bus frequencies either for that though. This has all been on stuff that holds the cards and built-ins to the normal speeds. George Also-> DragonMaster, thanks for the recommendations earlier. I'm wishing for a better place to work in my tracking room right now, and the secondary machine in there doesn't quite cut it. I'll likely be doing the shift/rotate thing with my machines soon and maybe upgrading the main one and moving that one's board to the secondary. I was given a nice Dell P4, who's board was killed by lightning, so I may try to get that CPU in there somewhere, but there are machines everywhere here (home and studio).

<edit> realized I wasn't too specific on the question & scenario-- He's trying to do an OS flash update via MIDI, but it isn't a regular SysEx file transfer. The site warns of the stuff below, but neither of us know what the deal is on MIDI interfaces with "selectable" speeds. They make it sound like a common capability. ??? Asking for a user in the MOTU forum (figure there are enough MIDI/synth heads around here ;D). What the heck might all this be about: That speed setting sounds vaguely familiar, but way way old (like some proprietary stuff from back in the "Opcode days" or something. Anybody know what it means? He's running current stuff (a MOTU MIDI Express/ likely USB). Thanks, George PS- The update files are standard MIDI (.mid) format and you actually "play" them as a track.

Thanks! That sounds vaguely familiar. Do you by any chance remember what thread that was in or what might get it on a search (I just tried a few)? Seems I've read a site about using "side-lit" LEDs for that somewhere. ??? Sorry to change the subject, George PS- These are relatively "thin" as well. Looking at the one in front of me now, it's only 5mm from the PCB to the face of the bezel thing. A green lit one here measures almost twice that depth. PSPS- Nice hat that bird's got himself. ;D

Stryd, Thorsten mentioned the Egosys (ESi) to me a while back and it looked pretty good. It's 8x8 but it's USB. Don't know about multi-unit support though. It was also pretty inexpensive. I swear I saw one for $150 (USD) then, but looking around now, it's in the 200 something range. Good luck on the parallel. I busted my head trying to find a DIY of that or even a serial one for current Windows and never came up with anything. Let me know if you do. I still fish around for it every so often. I would be hard pressed to resort to MOTU for much of anything else at this point. Got the parallel MicroExpress (half rack ver. of yours), and the 424/2408mk3. I have a feeling they're going to leave me stuck with upgrading the 424 if I upgrade my main studio rig (maybe soon), unless I sell off the combo and get an RME like I should've done to begin with. >:( Cross you fingers for parallel MIDI! George

Henrygr, FWIW- I have a core, where the LCD sits in a socket and gets pulled out for some stuff, as well as an EQ controller MIDIBox with no LCD, using a custom Core (with a DIN chip, a DOUT and none of the LCD parts). Seems to do fine. I guess it's sort of like disconnecting a DOUT (it just hangs open). George

Michael, Is that similar to the EL foil I've seen around for LCDs? I've got some 40x2s with 'no' lights at all and had looked at getting some weird colored foil. If that's it, how does it compare visually to a regular cheap LED backlight? If it's hard to do AND doesn't look all that great, I probably won't mess with it, but if it looks OK, it would be a fun challenge (I think it was under $10 US per sheet). The other option was edge lighting with LEDs or something. Thanks, George PS- modnaR, a DJ I used to deal with here tried to give me a 950 last year, but I wouldn't take it (I didn't want to feel like I owed somebody). Thinking about how cool that old Akai stuff looked, I may ask about it next time I talk to him though. The racks are getting mighty empty looking in these "DAW times". :'(

Just mailed you. Let me know if it doesn't show up. George PS- Coincidentally, a man named Bill from up there etched, drilled, and tinned my first MIDIBox board for me for barely enough for the parts and some time. I think he teaches PCB/electronics, but I'm not sure what part of Canada he's in. That was a giant "Greg" board BTW (64 ins/outs/pots and Core all-in-one).

Good to hear. I may look for one myself in the near future and it's good seeing a "non-MOTU" name come up. The ESi 8x8 looked good when I looked at it. If I end up needing more than 2x2 and nobody says it sucks, I'll likely go with that (unless of course something DIY shows up ::)). BTW- If you're dealing with one of the regular apps (like the MB64), you may already have your pots worked out. Just look for the "DEFAULT_NUMBER_POTS" and "DEFAULT_MUX_ENABLED" prefs near the beginning of the main.asm file. I *think* it defaults to 8 pots with a multiplexer. You'd just be changing the 8 to a 16 and recompiling. Enjoy!

Care to elaborate? ..... can't help but wonder what it was. ;D

Napierzaza, I've done a couple of the Burner Plus'es. If I can mail you one from the US (in an envelope), it's no trouble. Can't help you with the rest of the parts though (guessing you've got a dealer there). I actually never found a pair of buffers laying around here for mine, so I haven't used it yet. ;D George

Can't believe I'm saying this, but Radio Shack actually has a decent small book called "Building Power Supplies", which goes from really simple ones up to some nicer switching designs with filtration,etc. (been a while since I've seen mine). If you have RS in your area, or can eBay one, you might want to check it out. It was only a few bucks. Take Care, George <edit> Mine was right beside me. ;D It's this thing: http://tinyurl.com/ydqybg and another auction (more money): http://tinyurl.com/y9w6um It's got Archer, Radio Shack, David Lines and Master Publishing on the front, and is catalog# 276-5025 I see it's also on Amazon for under a dollar. :o

That's exactly what happened to me on the toner/ironing. It looked like soda bubbles. The part that worked looked great however, and I only did one or two little trials. It was also at a point when my toner technique and tools weren't all that great anyway. Could be better now. ??? Also, the bar heater you mentioned is what's recommended for postforming laminates in a book I've got ("Working with Plastic Laminates" by Cliffe & Adams). They mention building a jig with a Chromalox (sp?) heating element, like you have in the oven, only a straight rod shaped one. I did the 19" rack width with a heat gun, and it was indeed right at the edge of the maximum width (maybe actually beyond). Not sure I'd do it again at such a tight curve without a better heat source. George

I like to consider myself a hard headed old fool. 8) Assembler just happens to be what I started off with. If all the C wrapper stuff for the MIDIBox was as common then, I'd probably have gotten into that. It was coincidentally around the time I was trying to learn some anyway, but I've forgotten most of it now. ;D George PS- I barely get by with assembler, so throwing something else in the mix probably wouldn't be the best idea right now.

I think "Ready" would be after it's got MIOS installed (so yes, just the upload req's in your case) Adam, I'd be suspecting the MIDI interface/computer until you've actually seen it work. If you open MIOSStudio and connect your ports, I'd guess the 707, even at defaults, will end up spitting out something at some point (hit notes and hit start/stop on it's sequencer and maybe initiate a bulk dump if it can do anything like that). You also might try the input window in MIDI-Ox. Good Luck, George PS @Anybody else--> How likely/easy is it to blow the loader data into the "wrong" part of the PIC? PSPS @Adam- Don't fret the soundcard MIDI. Yeah, it sucks, but it can work. I use it for lots of stuff when there's nothing else around. I've actually used it when better interfaces were screwing up, just because it's simple and it works. ;D

Still interested in this. No one here is by any chance holding any are they? ;)

Most of that track count crap should be "drive throughput related". I remember being pissed when I had a PII with no decent audio card, playing something ridiculous like 50 or 60 tracks, and my 8100 Mac with it's wonderful Digi card would start screwing up after 12 or something. :'( The PII had an ATA100 or something in it. Anything set at ATA33 or above will usually get me at least in the high 20M/sec sustained transfer rate (according to HDTach). I'd guess write speeds may be lower, but I'm not sure by how much. They're all sort of ridiculous numbers when you think about it (the number of tracks that is). FWIW, I think the old Macs with narrow SCSI topped out under 5M/s (by one of FWB's tests IIRC). Mine had an Ultrawide card in it, and I could still only get up to around 12 or 15M (a NubusPPC limitation I believe). Now, the effects are another story..... :o George Speaking of CHEAP secondary machines. I've been reinstalling and fine tuning a rackmount P3 (actually a CeleronII/1100) with a Lexicon Core2 (yes, a Core2) for the past few days. I finished last night. It's got the Core2, a decent TNT4x AGP card, a USB2/FW card, and a 10/100 NIC running smoothly on an ASUS CusL2-C with a DVD burner, and the Powerstrip TSR feeding a giant fixed frequency monitor. I've fed it 8-24bit ADAT channels of tones to see that it records clean, and it does fine (knock on wood). It can also play full screen DVD,MPG,etc. smoothly. Had to turn off the Core's "low latency" option for that, but it's not really a tracking machine, plus there's analog cue capability.

Matrigs, Not really an answer, but it's been asked about at least. ;D http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=4503.0 There's a second post linked in that one too. Never did get to messing with that. I asked about shift (modifier) keys too, and eventually got a sloppy version of that working, but I'm not sure if it was done right. :-\ George BTW- I'm strictly assembler right now too.

Oops- Just realized I missed the mention of the JDM in the list of boards. :o (thanks Smash) I sort of guessed he was running a "pre-programmed".

Hi Adam, Dumb question, but did you connect the ports to and from MIOS studio in it's hardware setup pref box? You'll also likely need to reconnect each time you open it. Can you get MIDI into MS from other devices using the same connections? I would think the output line of the MIDI would be the harder one to screw up (the "in" is the one with the optocouple and all), so if your two resistor values and connections are right, you should at least be getting the dump requests. Pin 27 of the PIC should hit a 220ohm resistor (red,red,brown) and go to pin 5 (or 4??) on the socket, pin 4 (or 5??) should go through another 220ohm up to 5volts (Pic pin 11&32,etc.). The only other connection is the ground, which is the center pin of the socket (hits Pic 12,31,etc.). If you're not running a kit with mounting holes for MIDI sockets, make sure your pin 4&5 connections are right (as you can tell, I screw that up also). You may need to flip them. If all that still doesn't work, I'd guess the Pic itself wasn't firing up for some reason, which opens a nice big can of worms, but at least you've got a nice tested board design to start with, rather than a total DIY. Hope something in there helps, and maybe someone else in here can take over if it doesn't ???, George

Antony, On the PC, after you've got that JRE bundle installed, there should be a java "JAR" file type associated with Java. From that point, you can just double click the MS7.4.jar file and it will run (exactly as it came in). I think that type often associates itself with Winzip/Winrar, but it should be opening with Java "as is". hope that helps, George

Couldn't it be IIc or something a bit faster (just to make us feel better)? ;D ;D ;D PS- @Artesia-> Just saw the list of $2899 for the Receptor in the new Recording magazine. Oh yeah, I forgot. ;D ...

HL-SDK, FWIW, if you don't want to build a cable from scratch, you can take the smallest ribbon you can find (if there's enough core space), and cut it in the middle, then just strip and twist together the wires from the newly cut parts to get the pinning you're looking for. I think I use Mac floppy ribbons most of the time. They're 2x10 IIRC. PC floppy and IDE are probably wide enough to get in the way, but you can cut the connectors in half as long as you glue the cut end so it doesn't fall apart. You'll also obviously want to use heat shrink tubing or tape up the twisted ends to keep stuff from shorting together. Yes, the ones with the inverter can't take the regular 5v/ground connection to light them, so that would likely be a separate purchase (a few more dollars). I *think* there was talk here recently of a DIY inverter circuit, but I'm not positive. Take Care George

FWIW, I've done toner transfers to 1/4" plexiglas and plastic (countertop) laminate. If you're not set on using wood, you can build a substrate out of whatever you can make most easily (even pieces of pre-curved molding), and bond to that with contact cement. RTurner and I were just talking about something I was trying to do with a concave curved panel, using aluminum flashing. There's an actual "postforming" grade of plastic laminate which bends really easy, but I've wrapped a 180 degree turn at about a 4 inch diameter across a 19" rack width, with what's known as "vertical grade" (slightly thinner and cheaper than the regular stuff). Bear in mind, some of the above takes a bunch of prior trial and error. The toner to plexi, and the heating/wrapping of countertop laminate both have a really short slice of time where they do their thing. Shorten the time and the toner doesn't stick, or the laminate cracks when you bend it. Lengthen the time and..... :o George PS- If you're talking "wide" curves (big enough to get you hands in) you should have a much easier time on the bending.

Must be nice. :) I found a chemical supply house on eBay a few months back, which turned out to be about 20 minutes from here. They're sort of like McMaster-Carr for weird chemicals, and have just about anything. Got my sodium persulfate from them. They said if I needed anything to regenerate it, or the FeCl, they'd probably have it, and if not, tell them what it was and they'd get it in stock. Our electronics suppliers in this part of VA suck however. AFAIK, we're left now with nothing but Radio Shacks, and they can't talk to you unless you're buying a phone or a radio controlled car. >:( George

Scube, The example app I was talking about is this one: http://www.ucapps.de/mios/mbsid_led_matrix_test.zip AFAIK, there really isn't the same sort of documentation or tutorials for the matrix stuff (LED or buttons), unless you're using the exact same configuration as one of the existing apps. The more standard components (pots, lights & switches) seem to have many "preference variables" in a bunch of TK's code, where you can just plug in your own numbers and be ready to go. Unfortunately, with the matrix, you may need to do a bit more, but the examples and apps which use them should at least show you what you're trying to do (thanks to some really good commenting in the source files). There have also been a few discussions on custom matrix work in here which may have what you need to know. Hope you can get it going, George