seppoman

Hi, thanks for your comments :) please be patient for a while - I´ll meet with TK soon for tests etc. After that we´ll see about how to buy it. I haven´t decided yet about organizing an initial group order or not - in the long run, I hope Smash might be selling them in his shop. A bit early probably, but one service I could provide: For people being afraid of soldering SMT (at least the ones living in the EU so that there´s no hassle with customs etc.), I could solder the DAC for you free of charge - I´ve got a lot of practice and the right equipment, so this takes me about one minute. If anyone needs help in this regard, contact me via PM. :) Seppoman

That would be possible - but the PEK is sooo nice. solid build quality, great design and layout. If I wanted to build an equally pro controller for the rack, it´d take at least 500 Euros, and then the price difference is not so huge anymore. And I just want it, especially for the illuminated Plexi mod wheel ;D

Let´s found a Wavestation fan club ;) I´ve also got an A/D, great machine! My other favourite is the Ensoniq ESQ1. Extremely underrated synth, just because the presets are total crap. They tried to put good acoustic emulations in it, which horribly failed with the few 8 bit samples ;) But when you use it to do synthetic stuff, it´s really fat and mighty. (Got to get another one as my old one became completely braindead :( ) On the wish list: Waldorf Microwave I - great machine and not too expensive anymore. And, most important: DSI Evolver. Last year I was at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, and I just couldn´t leave from the Dave Smith booth. This thing is so fascinating! I would love to get a Poly Evolver Keyboard, just can´t see I´d be able to afford one in the next few years :/ But one day it´ll be mine... S

I also saw that, but I´m quite sure that the big picture is just a projection?

That´s absolutely fantastic :o I want one :) I´ve got no feeling of the size of it though - there´s no reference point to estimate it. So do you think these are motor faders or is it more like 1-2 m long? S

Did you notice that after the ID is changed, you´ve got to send the new program to this new ID? If you don´t change that, the PIC won´t react anymore.

;D ;D ;D PCBs arrived, first one is soldered. Now I´ll look into the software side :) Seppomen

sorry to correct you (the graphics in the wiki is a bit misleading in this regard), but the bars tell nothing about the bootloader. An usual text LCD does them while it is not initialized. As the LCD is not initialized by the loader but by MIOS, the thing you know from the bars is that there´s no MIOS (or there´s a bad connection). But you don´t know if there´s a bootloader. S

If you want to go all digital (no analog processing like the AVRx) and want to start from scratch, I´d recommend chosing either a DSP (the mentioned DSPic is quite cheap and easy to setup, DIP format) or using a 32 bit controller. The ARM7 series is quite powerful and there are cheap dev boards available. E.g. the SAM7-P256 from olimex.com has an Atmel SAM7S256 with 64kb of RAM, 60 MHz, USB, SD-card reader etc. onboard and costs only 70$. You could also go for ARM9 but as DrBunsen said, it´ll get more expensive and become kind of a real computer running Linux etc. The Propeller is a funny idea and has some projects, but personally I dislike that there´s no C compiler and everything comes from a single small company. If they choose to stop making/supporting them because they´re not selling, you´re on a dead end. Stuff from Microchip or Atmel is at least somewhat future-proof, and ARMs you get from a dozen companies. I think I´d chose the ARM7 - it´s cheap, has good processing power and a free gnu C toolchain. Seppoman

ok, my microwave plugs in too, I´ll call it a plugin from now on ;)

Jeff wasn´t logged on for two years now - I doubt he will answer :)

Das joken ;D Witz haben Menschen ihr seid zwei ;)

What about just reading this thread before posting? Wilba specifically requested that people order via PM (personal message..., including your paypal email address) and not via forum post...

As it did already work, it is probably no software problem - I would check and in doubt resolder every wire of the display connection, check for shorts between the connector pins on the core (sometimes tiny blobs of tin fly around on a board after soldering, perhaps one has found a place between the pins). I´d say it´s 99% a hardware problem, so check everything and whe you´re finished, check again :) Good luck, Seppoman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JTbJdLwqMo&feature=dir ;D :o ;D

That´s a good suggestion. I´d also say it´s more important to do complex basslines than to have 16 of them. It´s a nice feature when you can start some cool grooves directly from the box, but for complete song arrangements, I´d prefer a sequencer anyway. So I´d vote for Wilba´s suggestion - or, if this proves too complicated in programming or user interface, I would even suggest to do only 4 sequences/32 steps/second parameter. Seppoman

Resistor values around OpAmps are of course influencing the gain factor - especially when the two values at one OpAmp stage are off in opposite directions, there can be quite some differences in measured peak volume. But as volume perception is logarithmic, e.g. the difference between 7 and 8 volts peak value are not very drastic - such a difference is well below one dB. If you already have the resistors, it´s no problem using them. If you do notice a difference between channels, you can try to find matching resistors. If you didn´t buy them yet: I reccomend using 1% metal resistors for everything. In the meantime, I switched to buying only metal Rs, the extra cost is negligible and in some situations like OpAmps or equally strong LEDs, there´s some benefit in using them. Seppoman

Rio, calm down a bit... Even if our discussion didn´t answer your personal questions, everything we´ve written is kind of on topic - at least for people reading here out of interest and/or having similar plans. I don´t recall you being chosen as a moderator, so I won´t remove anything - but if contributing to any of your topics brings the danger of getting negative vibes from you, I just simply won´t take part in any discussion involving you from now on... :-X

http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7830.msg68050#msg68050 ;D I advise to wait for it - I´m going to order proto PCBs this week, so I suppose it will be not more than 2 months until it is official. It won´t cost more than 4 AOUT_LCs (e.g. you need only one PCB instead of four) and will have better specs. Seppoman

It would be a good idea to just sometimes read the original posts you´re answering a bit closer in order to reduce the number of irrelevant posts... S

No. Polyphonic means that you can play more than one voice of an instrument, so this is exactly the right word. Seppoman

Hi Rio, I can´t answer your questions - but: If you don´t already have 3378s, think about using SSM2044 instead. These are also really nice one-chip filters (don´t know about sonic differences to the CEM, but I found some mp3s of it and it sounds great to my ears). And they are really cheap and easy to get. There´s one(?) guy on ebay calling himself either hongkongsuperseller or goodbuy711 (don´t know if there are more aliases). He regularly offers them and seems to have huge quantities. I just ordered 10 pieces for 75 USD from him, but he also offers 2 pieces for 19 USD. Prices are including worldwide shipping from Hongkong. I plan to use them in my new MBSID :) Main advantage besides price and availability is that they can run on symmetrical supplies like e.g. the +/- 12 V you need for the AOUT anyway. So no need for the extra -5V. Seppoman

Please read stryd´s answer again, it would be way better to build a MidiboxCV AND a MBSEQ. You could build both into the same box - adding a MBCV is only one additional core module compared to a SEQ with AOUT. You don´t necessarily need a control surface for it, just plug a display and DIN to it once to configure/calibrate it and then leave it as it is. You could use an external MIDI loop to connect both boxes, so you stay flexible. This solution would have way better performance, plus you don´t need to program new functions into the SEQ app. Seppoman

Ihr seid ja schon ziemliche Billigheimer ;) Widerstände sind quasi egal (Metallschicht sind besser, meistens ist der Unterschied aber unwichtig...) Kleiner Tipp, falls ihr einen Conrad in der Nähe habt: Dort gibt es 100er-Beutel Metallschicht-Rs für 1€bischenwas. Ich kaufe meistens die, kostet kaum mehr als z.B. 8 Stück bei Reichelt, und irgendwann kann man die wieder brauchen. Bei den Chipsockeln gibt es aber auch schon Gründe für den Preisunterschied. Klar gehen die billigen auch. Wenn aber z.B. nach ein paar Jahren im feuchten Keller/Proberaum die Kiste plötzlich wegen Kontaktproblemen spinnt, überlegt man vielleicht, ob die 2 Euro Unterschied für gute Sockel in der ganzen Box es nicht doch wert gewesen wären... Irgendwie verstehe ich diese extreme Billig-Mentalität nicht (wenn z.B. jemand wochenlang Fehler suchen muß, weil er ohne ausreichendes Detailwissen beschlossen hat, auf Slave-Boards doch nochmal 20 cent/3 Widerstände sparen zu können :P) Seppoman