seppoman

Nobody said that you could. You can´t make 64 out of it at all. That´s why I wrote "a few pots". What was your point? Seppoman

Mike sells the regular PCBs. No mods/enhancements. Mplus_v1: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_plus.html - no idea why this one is still sold. Probably because it´s easier to build than a MB64 - just one board for a few pots and no special needs. Seppoman

That depends largely on what exactly you want to build. 1 SID - more SIDs. No CS - basic CS - full CS. Front panel made of cardboard or professionally engraved alu. The list goes on. Some numbers are on the uCApps - Midibox SID page. Another link: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=8162.0 Seppoman P.S. it´s not common to put two thirds of a post into the topic line ;)

Use the search, Luke :) And read at least a few topics in the forum before asking things that were answered only a few days ago: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=8691.0 Seppoman

I think one knob per function is the most simple way to control things. All the functions mentioned above could be done easily in the analog world. Even if you want to have e.g. only pickup select buttons, a volume and tone knob and a phase button, it would be easier to process/mix everything with analog cirquits that are only controlled by a MCU. that means with 8 channels in/2 channels out you have around one million samples per second. so the processor would have 210 cycles time per sample. With even the processed channels seperately transmitted, some cycles to input/output these, handle control surface etc, if you´re lucky you have 100 cycles to do something with the samples. So any processing/effects can´t be very sophisticated. I´m still not sure what you mean by MIDI. Do you want a Guitar-to-MIDI interface? Midibox 16 or Seq have nothing to do with that. If you don´t want many knobs, for what do you need the Midibox at all? Its central purpose is to connect many knobs to it (and the MB SEQ needs dozens of knobs and buttons and two displays to controll it ??? Again: what MIDI? Notes or CCs? Transmit to what application? Why would you want to transmit all audio channels seperately if you´ve already done EQ/Volume etc. processing in the guitar? What protocol would you use to transmit audio? M-LAN? Do you have an application on the PC that can receive this? The 644 is not old. It´s actually newer than the 128 and 256. The others only have more RAM/FLASH, but the 644 runs 20 MHZ instead of 16. But what´s the reason to change to Atmel at all? Ok, it´s 20 MIPS and not 10 like the PICs, but it is still in the same performance league. And MIDI is a really slow communication. MIOS + PIC is able to process everything without adding noticeable latency to the MIDI out. The applications exist and do work well, so what´s the real advantage? Good luck, you´ll need it :o Sure, but when you have it, how would you solder it and on what board? Even if you´d make an 8 layer board, you need a lot of experience and time - design for 150 MHz is really different than for small PIC/AVR toy stuff. No. But you could port it or program something like MIOS on it. Both needs time and knowledge. I know we´re at an electronic forum, but anyway here´s my philosophical part: Most world class guitarists play really conventional guitars. If you´re a great guitarist, you can do magic on a Squire Tele with standard single coils. If you are not, 10 different expensive guitars/pickups and FX units won´t change it. 90% of a good guitar sound is made with your fingers and not by using the best 24/96 DSPs. I know a lot of guitarists who didn´t realize this and spent thousands of Euros on equipment while still playing mediocre shit. Anyway, I don´t want to stop you from dreaming :) Seppoman

Achtung, Pedantenalarm :) Kleine Korrektur: Kundschaft sind Leute, die zahlen. ;) Aber gut für den Ruf und freundlich ist´s auf jeden Fall. Seppoman

"Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post." - Hi audiocommander :) ... Anyway: I don´t really understand what it is you want to do to your guitar. First you talk about a Midi controller (MB64E), then about multichannel audio, DSPs, AVR32, DSPIC, PoE, transmission of audio over Ethernet or wireless (WLAN?). Perhaps you should first describe what this zombie guitar should be capable of? some infos: - MIOS has nothing to do with audio. It is purely MIDI. If you want to do hi res multichannel audio, you´ll have to develop a completely new system, in which the MIDI and interface stuff MIOS is capable of will be your smallest problem. - the dsPIC is a quite different processor - it is a 16 bit architecture (the PIC18 series is 8 bit). The dsPIC is quite nice, but porting MIOS would be a lot of work and the DSP part is cool but not nearly as powerful as necessary. - the "old" AVRs are cool. I like them better than the PICs. It would surely be possible to do something MIOS-like with them. But they are not that much faster or better than the PICs. So why bother? - the AVR32 is a new series. A powerful processor, but it comes only in BGA package which can´t be soldered by hand and you need multilayer boards to connect all pins... the only currently available way to use it is the evaluation board from Atmel which is around 500$. Honestly, I don´t think you have any idea how much knowledge, work and money would be necessary to build something like the thing you´re dreaming of. Even if you know what you´re doing it would take years of work and cost way more than a PC with good audio hardware. One idea: You could put an USB audio/MIDI interface into your guitar together with some small (MB64?) MIDI controller. That way you´d have only one wire to the guitar and some way of remote-controlling some effects plugins on your computer. Seppoman P.S. Even if there´s no real advantage in porting MIOS to AVR, I still don´t know why people in this thread are claiming that it is less suitable for MIDI stuff. Has any of you made real experience with AVRs that leads you to this conclusion? For the last year I´ve been working on a quite powerful AVR-based project which also has MIDI capabilites, and I haven´t come over any problems that would be grounds for such a claim. P.P.S. Word from the master ;) http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6446.msg40118#msg40118

Wie ist die Frage? Das klappt genau so wie's oben beschrieben steht. Seppoman

Hi, Spannungsteiler ist immer etwas schwierig. Das Problem ist, die Widerstände müssen ziemlich klein sein, damit Du etwas Leistung entnehmen kannst. Kleine Widerstände bedeuten aber gleichzeitig, daß der Spannungsteiler selbst ziemlich viel Energie unütz verheizt. Einen Vorschlag hätte ich: Recom R-781.5-0.5 - die Dinger sind super. Das sind kleine Schaltregler, die keine externe Beschaltung brauchen und einen riesigen Eingangsspannungsbereich bei guter Effizienz umsetzen können. der 781.5 hat z.B. eine mögliche Eingangsspannung von 4.75 - 30 Volt. Das einzige Problem ist, woher bekommen? Die Versionen mit 3.3, 5, 12 und 15 V sekundär verkauft Conrad (für ca. 9 Euro, ist also kein billiger Spaß), die anderen Typen? Keine Ahnung. Ich habe von Recom auch schon Samples bekommen, das ist allerdings nicht ganz so unkompliziert wie z.B. bei Microchip oder TI. D.h., wenn Du Samples bestellst, dauert es ein paar Tage, und ein netter Onkel ruft Dich an und fragt, wer Du bist und wofür Du die brauchst. Du könntest ihnen aber auch einfach direkt ne Mail schreiben und fragen, wo man die kaufen kann. Hier der Link: http://www.recom-international.com Seppoman

Hi, zu 1: Man kann diese Funktion theoretisch schon woanders drauflegen. Das Problem bei Dir wird aber sein: Auf welche Taste? Du hast ja keine Tasten, die nicht direkt für die Menü-Steuerung gebraucht werden. Wenn Du z.B. Start/Stop auf ersten Menü-Button + Exit legen würdest, würde die MBSID jedes mal erstmal die Button 1 Funktion ausführen, also z.B. einen Menüpunkt auswählen, wo du gar nicht hin willst. Cooler wäre es also auf jeden Fall, wenn Du noch eine weitere Taste für diesen Zweck einbauen würdest. zu 2: Klingt komisch. Am besten wohl wirklich mal ein MP3 aufnehmen? Seppoman

Was war da so schlimm? Ich muß glaube ich mal Partei für die "anderen Leute" ergreifen. Einige Details des Problems waren ja nicht so ganz klar, und die "anderen Leute" haben doch versucht zu helfen. Ich glaube jeder von uns hat irgendwann schon mal das Thema nicht genau getroffen. Ich finde es ehrenwert, wenn auch Newbies schonmal versuchen zu helfen und nicht nur "Soll ich lieber grünen oder blauen Draht nehmen"-Fragen stellen. Wenn man dann hier Angst haben müßte, von Dir deswegen geschimpft zu werden, das fände ich schlimm... Seppoman

Meinst Du vielleicht Bourns? Burr Brown machen dachte ich nur DA-Wandler (und wurden inzwischen von TI gekauft). Seppoman

thanks guys :) About building your own vocoder: This would be a lot of work. There are a few schematics for analog vocoders found in the net, but if the result should be good you always need half a square meter of PCBs. The most compact one I´ve found is the kit from PAIA. But it has only 8 bands and is more expensive than e.g. a used MAM VF11. Going digital is not possible without a suitable DSP. No way to do this in software with a PIC. You could use a "Miss Parker" and programm your own algorithm. But that´s the same DSP that is used in the Alesis Metavox, and I suppose Alesis have quite maxed out what is doable on this DSP. The question always is: Why would you do this? If you just do it because of the fun and to get experience, then do it. You need some DSP programming experience and a lot of time, but it is possible. But if you want do build a vocoder that sounds better and/or is cheaper than commercial alternatives, then forget it! The commercial hardware alternatives I´ve already mentioned. The Metavox used in the phone is really great value. It´s not the best vocoder in the world, but the sound is better than in most multi-FX boxes (I´ve heard vocoders in 90´s Digitech, Zoom and Boss FX units, and the Metavox is way better). And you can probably get it at around 30 Euros on eBay. The MAM VF11 is another beast. I have one and it´s absolutely great. Fully analog, 11 adjustable bands, unvoiced detection with possibility to feed external unvoiced signal. It sounds really fat and the intelligibility is quite good for "only" 11 bands. It´s going for around 100-150 Euros on eBay. Both machines have definitely a bang for the buck ratio you can´t beat by DIYing. Seppoman P.S. perhaps a moderator could move this thread to Design Concepts or Miscellaneous as it doesn´t have anything to do with MBSID?

nur wenn Du mir noch einen Sprachanalyzer programmierst, der das in den Hörer gesprochene direkt auf dem SJ wieder ausgibt 8) :P Gruß nach Nömbärch, Thomas

Hallo ihr zwei, ich habe zwar bisher keinen SJ und werde so schnell auch keinen kaufen, trotzdem aber ein kleiner Beitrag zur Qualitätssicherung: Ich würde wenn irgend möglich empfehlen, dieses Projekt nicht in mehrere Release-Stränge zu zerpflücken. Selbst wenn das gelegentlich Kompromisse bedingt, aber der SJ ist sowieso schon eher ein Seitenprojekt hier auf ucapps, und wenn sich Newbies dafür interessieren und dann mehrere verschiedene Software-Versionen zur Auswahl finden, dann ist das eher verwirrend als nützlich. Viele Grüße, Seppoman

I would first ask telesincro if they can provide a datasheet. Perhaps you can manage to print some characters without it, but you´ll definitely need to know the escape codes for cursor positioning and clearing the display. Is there a max232 on the display? because most VFDs I´ve seen (in reality or as a datasheet) have just normal TTL levels, so if there isn´t some 232 onboard I wouldn´t connect one to the inputs to not damage the display. Can you describe with more detail which pin of the VFD you connected to what? Another hint: the usual serial vfds mostly have very low data rates, that are often fixed or selectable through a jumper. Probably it runs with 1200 or 2400 baud - if you´re very lucky perhaps it can do 9600 baud. This will also bring preformance issues to MIOS-based projects. Seppoman

http://highlyliquid.com/kits/mpa/assembly.html They´re MCP42xxx from Microchip. They are available for free sampling (or at least they were two years ago, didn´t check today). Seppoman

Zur eigentlichen Sache spar ich mir jeglichen Kommentar und denk mir meinen Teil... Aber das hier ist normalerweise ein friedliches Forum mit angenehmen Umgangsformen, und wenn Du nicht mal nen Gang runterschaltest und Dich für diesen mit Schimpfwörtern und Gemotze gespickten Redeschwall entschuldigst, plädiere ich dafür, Dich allein deswegen schon rauszuschmeißen. Wie Rio schon sagte: Pay_C hat Dir was gutes getan und sonst ist hier auch keiner für Deine persönlichen Probleme verantwortlich, also höre bitte auf, hier die Atmosphäre zu vergiften. Seppoman

What if the power supply is no power supply at all? ;) If it is switching, you can´t do anything about it. But it also doesn´t mean it is necessarily bad or causing problems. Honestly, why don´t you just try it out before asking another dozen questions regarding problems you don´t have (yet)? I don´t want to sound rude but I get the impression from you that you use too many time for worrying and your life would get easier if you´d just spend part of that time building things :) Seppoman

Hi, DIYing a high quality sampler is nearly impossible. First problem: you´d need A LOT processing power and RAM, no way to do this with a PIC or AVR. For stuff like a harpsicord you´d need at least 16 voices. A good 16 bit sample that doesn´t loop after half a second needs a few hundred kilobytes RAM per note, so you need at least 16 MB of parallel accessed external RAM and the data throughput for 16 voices is immense. Perhaps an at least useable quality would be possible with a ColdFire or top notch ARM processor, better to accompany them with one or more powerful DSPs. Commercial samplers use a number of custom ICs which are designed for that special purpose. It might be possible (and even fun) to design a really basic LoFi sampler (8 bit, e.g. 4 voices, external analog processing with e.g. SSM2164 (VCA) and SSM2044 (VCF)) that plays a few short samples from a small RAM, but even that would be a year of work for more than one of the more ambituous MidiBoxers. But this wouldn´t be suitable to get a perfect (or even just good) harpsicord... The best thing really would be to get a commercial sampler. In Akai format, there are thousands of sample CDs in mostly very good quality available. E.g. I´ve got the Wizoo Magnetica that has different Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos with several velocity layers etc. that really can compete with stuff like the Nord Electro. Suppose there´s also a few good harpsicords out there. Commercial samplers can be found really cheap used as everyone is going VST these days. I wouldn´t buy an s2000 anymore - I had one several years ago, and while the sound and technical specs are quite ok, the user interface is a royal pain in the ass... It´s nearly impossible to do anything with it on the front panel other than firing up presets, the OS is booted from floppy etc. A nice machine that could go for under 200 € these days would be the S3000XL, or better the CD3000XL that has a built-in CD drive. Really powerful samplers are the Akai S5000 and the E-MU EOS series. I´ve got an E-MU e6400 with digital out and effects option, 128 MB of RAM, hard disc, external CD and MO drive. With a setup like this, really everything is possible. The EOS is a very ergonomic system and the various E-MU filter models and virtually unlimited routing/modulation possibilities are famous for their sound and synthesis power. Even these units go for 300-400 € nowadays. Designing something comparable is absolutely impossible for hobbyists. Dozens of engineers have worked for years to achive this sound quality, features, reliability etc... Seppoman P.S. I´ve just noticed that this is my 256th posting, which makes me feel very 8 Bit right now ;)

Has this got something to do with sex? ;D :P Sorry, couldn´t resist :) Seppoman

No, it´s not possible in the way the MBSID does it. But you could build one full FM and another one without control surface. So you´d have the full one for editing patches etc, and could just copy over the patches via Midi (and some Sysex manager/JSynthLib etc.). Main goal of 2 boxes is probably to have more voices/multitiblrality, and for that you won´t need two control surfaces. Actually I don´t see for what one would need more than 6 voices of FM - when you use it in big arrangement songs, there are (or should be for my taste) normally other synths (soft/hard) involved and the FM is just there to give some flavour. And when doing chip tunes, 6 voices plus 5 drum voices is plenty - after all, the whole chip tune concept lives from simplicity and arpeggios. No, there are not :o There are 24 V transformers with center tap. As Lall explained before, "Ground" is just some reference point. From the center tap, the ends of the transformer are both 12 V away, one positive and one negative. But why don´t you give your existing PSU a try? I´d say it is probably regulated anyway. You normally can´t buy transformers with 5V AC output, so (95% chance) it´ll be regulated. And a question like the one above implies that your experience with mains voltage is very limited, so i´d strongly advise against tampering with lethal voltages!!! Seppoman

Hi, the question still is - are the voltages all regulated DC? About consumption: the +-12 V are not a problem. This is only needed for the FM module´s OpAmps. Probably even 50mA would be enough. 5V DC 1A are definitely enough for one MBFM. I don´t see why you would need 2 of them. But if you really want them, you probably want one with full CS and the second one only as a Midi slave? For that, 1 A will be enough. The things that consume most power are generally LCD backlights and LEDs, so for two FMs with only one display/surface, 1 A will be sufficient. Seppoman

Hi, I´d say they both should work. They are oscillators and as they come from sound cards with opl, they must be suitable. I would keep the second one as a spare if the first one doesn´t work. One thing I noticed: Thorsten states a 14.318000 MHz oscillator in the order list, while yours are 14.318180 MHz. But that´s a difference of only 0.01%, so I doubt there will be any noticeable tuning error. Seppoman

Hi guys, thanks for your comments! It doesn´t look like an open relay at my side - the domain is hosted at 1&1 (the largest service in Germany), I can´t imagine they could afford having open servers. And some of the bouncing mails have full headers showing different (often Polish) originating servers. I just turned off the catch-all and made a few forwards. Don´t know if I´ve got all newsletter adresses, but if I don´t notice something´s missing, it was probably not important anyway... So my inbox has peace again for now and I hope my normal adress is not blacklisted yet... Thanks again, Seppoman