nebula

This looks awesome, and I've ordered my Core32 from Smash! I'm considering building a button/LED matrix as an addition to Wilba's panel. I remember some discussion/speculation that V4 would allow for a bigger matrix. Is that supported now? If not, are there plans to support more buttons/LEDs in a future V4 release?

The notches are in the picture on Smash's page. They don't all face the same direction!

If you really need a place for an SD card that badly, I'd put it on the rear panel. But MB-SEQ is not a digital camera. Extremely complicated sequences are likely to only require a few kilobytes of storage. Personally, I plan to bury a 2 GB card inside the finished sequencer enclosure and never look at it again. It should cost me well under 10 bucks. Just to get really sassy, maybe I'll even solder right to the card.

When this bleeding edge prototypers run was first announced I ordered the parts I didn't already have on-hand from Digikey, including 50 tactile switches. A couple days ago as I was snapping the switches into my PCB I discovered I was short 1. Maybe for every 50 or so who build one of these sequencers, somebody gets one for free!

It could very well be MIDIbox, although I've known a few DJ types to build this type of stuff using Doepfer hardware. It is very sexy though! BTW I don't think the square B3W switches are available in 3 different sizes.

What would be the advantage of LC on the new core?

So ... did you check to see if, with the rapid caps, they would fit your x0xb0x?

You should post a link. And if there's not much info on the other forum, you should ask the person who made it! Electronically a design like that could be easily realized with MIDIbox.

AHA! I knew it was only a matter of time before somebody made one with a clear panel! That's awesome! ... and I think it looks very nice with the P401 knobs. If I were you I think I might just use those instead. The Waldorf knobs are nice, but they are very big, and might take away from the elegance of your panel. Also, if your panel is thicker, the Waldorf knobs might actually not be an option for you unless you use smaller spacers. This is because the Waldorf knobs, when pressed fully on the shaft, actually extend about 1mm closer to the panel than the P401's do. There's a picture which sort of demonstrates it in this post: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10125.msg77965.html#msg77965 (... and read onward in the thread for actual measurements)

If you don't solder them in, you would need to put jumpers in their place. They are "current sinking" transistors. If you opt out of them, you might be OK if you don't use bright LEDs, but if they draw too much current you will destroy a shift register IC. If you have them, there is no disadvantage to using them.

For those who haven't bought their tactile switches yet, search mouser.com for the following part #: 612-TL1100-6JBLK This appears to be the same tactile switch, including a black cap. For 58 pieces they are 50 cents each (USD, from the U.S. site). For 100 pieces they are 39 cents each. Including the cap, that's a steal. I doubt you would find them cheaper without going wholesale or bulk-order. (I have not ordered this personally, because I already had bought the switches from digi-key a long time ago) --- edit: This is the same switch, but the cap is not the one specified for this project, and is probably a little different. (Sorry - I got excited). However, ordering this switch including a cap using the part # above is only a few cents more than the same switch with no cap. I'll probably put one on my next Mouser order just to see it.

There are two different panel designs. One has rack screw slots, while the other is a bit smaller, without screw holes for rack mounting. The fpd files are contained in a zip archive, which can be downloaded at the bottom of this page: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?do=show&id=wilba_mb_seq Personally I'm going with the rack mountable design. Even though the smaller panel may look a bit more polished, I like the idea that if I want to take the seq out of the small wooden desktop rack enclosure I'm building, I can always stick it into a standard rack.

At my work I have one of these bad boys, and I'm saving for one myself: http://www.amazon.com/Pace-MBT-250-SDPT-Solder-Desolder-System/dp/B000PDUQMO The MBT-250 features a vacuum desoldering tool, a very quick-heating temperature-controlled iron, a hot air blowing tool for soldering SMT stuff with solder pastes, and thermal tweezers (usually used for removing SMT stuff). There are five of these at my work. Mine's the oldest - about 12 years. Three are about 9 years old. One's brand new. We've never had a problem with any of them. And they are ridiculously expensive.

That's nice, but it is a far cry from a MIDIbox SEQ. Hopefully it will mature though, it looks like a fun toy.

I got mine too. Very nice. Last night I got started with it. I will get my panel ordered tomorrow (I hope). I am no CAD guy, so maybe somebody familiar with FPD can help me out: I want to order my panel in "natural" anodized aluminum (a very easy change to make), and I want to modify it so all the white text on Wilba's panel design is black. Wilba provides this info in the Wiki: Does this mean I need to select each bit of white text and change it to black using the "In-fill color" field of the "Object Properties" window? Or is there a way I can change this globally? Scanning fpd's help files didn't help me very much.

MIDIbox SID is a project you'll find detailed at ucapps.de, and all over the place in this forum. The simplest MIDIbox SID consists of a CORE module and 1 or 2 SID modules. The Core contains the PIC microcontroller and the necessary MIDI i/o hardware, while the SID module holds a SID chip (duh) and the required components for it to connect to a Core. In that sense, the MIDIbox SID is a MIDI-controlled SID synthesizer that can be programmed using system exclusive MIDI messages from your computer. The next thing you'd probably want to add would be a bankstick (another module, really just some memory chips) and an LCD display (so you can see what's going on inside the thing). The next thing you might want to add would be a DIN module (Digital IN), to which you would connect some buttons and a rotary encoder. This, along with the display, is called the Minimal Control Surface, or "Step A". 9 buttons and a rotary encoder is all you need to control your MIDIbox SID. If you want to get adventurous you can add more DINs (for more buttons and encoders) and DOUTs (so you can connect LEDs). The firmware is already there to assemble a complete control surface including 14 more knobs, and a whole lot of buttons and LEDs. This allows you to build a complete professional control panel. You can gang up to 4 Cores to control up to 8 SIDs (as stereo pairs). The LCD, DINs, DOUTs, and bankstick need only connect to the first Core, and the other 3 Cores become "slaves". This way you can use one control surface to control all those SIDs. That, my friend, is MIDIbox SID. Design whatever configuration of this fantastic synth that strikes your fancy. A few years ago, a respected hot shot from down under created a big circuit board that houses 4 Cores, 8 SIDs, 8 memory chips, and all the DINs and DOUTs you need for a control surface. He also created an accompanying board to mount all the encoders, buttons and LEDs you would need for a control surface. Conveniently, these board mount inside a single Pactec enclosure, to create a slick 8-SID synth in a nice, tight package. That is the MB-6582. People from the MIDIbox community looked at the MB-6582 and generally found it to be very desirable. It is by far the shortest route to a very usable, complete MIDIbox SID. MB-6582: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=wilba_mb_6582&s[]=mb&s[]=6582 See many variants of the MIDIbox SID project, including MB-6582, in the archives of the "MIDIbox Of The Week" section: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/board,15.0.html

I'm talking about whatever it is that Yamaha called FM or AFM synthesis. The sonic possibilities are vast. You have so much control over so many subtleties of the sound that it is easy to get lost. I have a Yamaha DX11, TX81Z, DX7 and a TG77. Most of the presets I have created for these instruments were made when I was trying to achieve something else. For example while trying to create a hand drum sound and you end up with a great mallet sound. Or while you're on your way to building a certain bass sound, you end up with a great clav sound, so you save it as such and then keep working.

Hi Blind, and welcome. Control Surfaces, of all the MIDIboxes, tend to be the easiest to design and build, because the hardware requirements are simple and troubleshooting is easy. If you follow the instructions and the help you get here, you should be able to pull it off. What nobody has told you yet is that all the stuff here is based on the MIDIbox Hardware Platform, which is a collection of simple circuits you'll find at www.ucapps.de. These little boards get put together to form complete projects. The design and software comes almost exclusively from Thorsten Klose, a.k.a. TK on this forum. TK offers his incredible firmware coding chops to us ravenous builders for free! Anybody can build projects based on his excellent platform as they wish, with one condition: nobody is allowed to profit, on a commercial level, for his work. So you'll be hard pressed to find anybody on this forum who is willing to build one of these boxes for you. But all is not lost ... with a bit of soldering skill and a vision, it is easy to realize the MIDI controller you want, provided you can find the time. If you browse this forum you'll find a lot of people come in with no knowledge or experience, and end up building really amazing stuff. Others get intimidated and disappear :( Before you post your design here, may I suggest you browse ucapps.de (particularly look at the MIDIbox 64 and MIDIbox 64e projects), and then search the forum and the wiki (and Google) for stuff you have trouble understanding. Make an evening of it. Then post your needs for a controller here. Noobs are welcome here. Noobs who don't do at least a little research for themselves are generally not. I hope to hear from you soon! (BTW an excellent starting point is here: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=introduction_to_ucapps.de )

That's an excellent article ... maybe too useful to allow it to slip through the sands of internet time. debouncing.pdf debouncing.pdf

Did he tell you how he fixed them?

^^^ Poster needed. Now.

I agree with you to a point. If you don't know anything about the math of Yamaha DX-style FM synthesis you may get used to the character of certain operator frequency relationships and intuitively build nice sounds, but using algorithms with operators stacked more than 2 high becomes pure trial and error. Yeah, the vibes must prevail, but it's the difference between spending 10 minutes and 10 hours to achieve the sound you're looking for.

I don't know if anybody in this forum other than TK has experimented with SwinSID. I've been really interested in giving it a go. I really like what I've heard - it has a sound of its own. I can't really answer your first question, but as for the second question: SwinSID is pin-compatible with the SID IC. So you need a MBHP SID module, and the SwinSID board plugs into its IC socket. An MBHP SwinSID module to house all the SwinSID components on a single MBHP compatible board would arguably be more elegant, but it doesn't exist yet.

Yes, it will do what you want it to do - that's what a sequencer does. Different sequencers have their own strengths and limitations. But, depending on the genre of music you wish to create and your own composition style, the MIDIbox SEQ may or may not be for you. It's great for creating interesting patterns and loops, which you can modify in real time. You can chain those patterns together to make songs. It's not great for recording stuff that you play in real time with a keyboard. With a MIDI interface, apps like Apple Logic, Ableton Live Pro, Steinberg Cubase, MOTU Performer are great all-around sequencers, but if you want hands-on live tweakability it's hard to beat a knobby hardware solution like MB-SEQ. Stuart Mitchell has posted three excellent demos of MB-SEQ on Vimeo. You'll find them here: http://vimeo.com/user710438/videos Also search for "MIDIBOX" on YouTube and Vimeo for more great stuff.

The purpose of the heat shrink tubing is to prevent the bare component leads from shorting against the copper traces that they must cross. You could also use something like a small piece of electrical tape.