cheater

Hi guys! I am quite confused with all the SEQ revisions, I have some questions on the button matrix. Is the button matrix a SEQ 2 or a SEQ 3 feature? If I build a button matrix, can I use it as a midi controller as well? This would be *extremely* useful for Ableton stuff. Thanks, D.

Hey guys, thanks for working on this thing. I love that new feature, it makes it worth to build a SEQ just for that. :) *starts putting away money for a SEQ*

That's a nice one. How what do you want to do with this in the MB SEQ?

"leds flashing" isn't a very comprehensive description. what do you want those leds to show? do you want them to denote some options in ableton? or are they going to flash just for show (a visualization)?

o no! ;D

What I meant is that you need an ADC to sample the analog output of the sid into the digital domain to show that stuff on a digital LCD. I think it would be enough if you had the `scope scale the scan frequency so the waveform is locked. I mean, with such a small resolution, you wouldn't be able to do a lot more than building a gizmo ANYWAYS :p

You're talking to someone who has no idea how to program :) Hardware-wise, I think the PIC's internal ADC would be more than suitable for this task. And those ADCs are unused in the SID pics... am I right?

How about this: A scope for the synths. Or maybe a frequency analyzer.

The question is, what can be edited through midi. I don't think a lot. It's a ROMpler, right? Get a midi spec for the thing and then build an MB64 around that.

I think those things could work as per-track displays on something like an LC, too. Maybe you could pre-define graphical icons for certain track names in the LC. Like, syn* would give you a synth icon etc...

Sorry. No idea at all. I'm just a newb, posting my crazy researches :P The idea with the directional button is nice. Do you guys know the assembly of a 16-bit-console D-Pad? You could easily do that, with one tact switch (or even a "rubber switch") being in each of the corners. You could even add colored leds in each corner, so you get some kind of feedback with the color. That would require the lens to be split up in 4 and the parts to be optically decoupled (with some black or white paint on the touching faces or something like that).

Hey guys, I was wondering about graphic LCD buttons for cheap today, and was searching around for sources of small LCDs. I found out old Nokia cellulars (i.e. 3310 and so on) had great monochromatic LCDs that can be taken out and used easily. They use the pcd8544 controller. The great thing is that a WORKING nokia 3310 and equivalents cost ~5 USD here in Poland. I haven't bothered to search around, but I bet you could get that stuff much cheaper in "bargain lots" - USUALLY the LCD does work in phones otherwise broken (which are mostly "dropped" or "drowned" phones), unless it has a huge spot of liquid crystal on it - then you know it's broken :) Here are two sites which give a lot of info on these LCDs: http://serdisplib.sourceforge.net/ser/pcd8544.html - identifying and dismantling LCDs in nokia phones. Some basic circuits and app notes of a C driver. http://www.selbing.com/_jakob/electronics/nokia.htm - some more info. So how do you use that for a button? The LCD is too big to fit inside a button. But you can: 1. take a small round button - a kind that would not have a shaft, but rather, would be supported on spokes that are on its sides. Think of an empty cylinder standing upright. On the bottom edge, it has a spoke going left and another one going right. On the left, it is supported on something that creates a hinge. On the right, it rests on a tact switch. This creates a lever which is supported by the left spoke and presses on the tact switch on the right - while creating no obstruction of visibility through the inside of the button. Perhaps you would want to use two of those "spokes" on the left, to create a kind of tripod (for stability) 2. cut the cap off (there's no cap if you're using a piece of PCV or metal pipe :) ) 3. now you can see the graphic on the LCD through the created cylinder. 4. you can put a lens on the top of the cylinder to have the image "crawl on top" of it. I'm not an optician - but you can use a lens so the image appears to be on the top of the lenses surface, instead of being deep inside the button. 5. Maybe, instead of a cylinder, you can use a "thick" lens which would be a cylindrical lens "glued together" with a spheric lens. It would look roughly like this: (_| with the spherical part being the one the user touches. This method means the spacing of this kind of button is limited by the size of the hinged assembly. You can probably use two of those "buttons" per one Nokia GLCD. Has anyone ever tried looking at watch GLCDs? those could also work well... and you even get a lens with them in the watch, which could be used as a button: Just glue the lens on top of the LCD and glue the "hinge" assembly on the bottom of the LCD. The Nokias come with lenses as well... but... what use would such a huge 1-inch-diameter button be? I hope this stuff works well for some crazy heads here.

Hi guys, I know one of the biggest reasons against moving to more "advanced" chips for the MIDIBOX is that this stuff is just so hard to solder. Has anyone thought of using adapters? Does that sound feasible? This would let us still DIY our toys - but with more power on board. I have today found this guy: .html]http://www.allegro.pl/item165150697_adapter_plcc_32_dip_32_profesjonalne].html Seems this kind of adapter is cheap. This eeprom adapter is about EUR7.50. I bet we could special-order a bulk of 50 pieces or so and they would design a special part that suits our needs - for free, or for a good price. Thanks, D.

That's a great tool. Is it possible to make it scan in smaller bands? Thanks, D.

Guys, Maybe I'm very wrong here, but with small typical error and a big maximum error, if you output the same value many times you will get the "typical" range most of the time. Does AOUT only output (and hold) a single value? Or if you hold a certain note will it keep on outputting that certain voltage (and each time with a different error - the longer you output it over and over the more of this "typical" range you get there)? Maybe a circuit which takes in around 200 values and rounds them all off would be simple to make. You don't need the CV outputs at 192 kHz and stuff! So using this extra precision this way could be feasible. Thanks, D.

Hmmm... Does this CAN port mean easy memory extension, TK?

sure. i think my idea is more in the area of "application" than "basic design" after rethinking. especially if this CAN thing can be used to get the necessary pitch info and other kinds of info..

That's wonderful, TK! Does this CAN interface allow us to connect this PIC to more "muscular" cousins? For example, will it be possible to write some MIOS apps so that 8 of those PICS = 1 "bigger" PIC that only advanced users know how to solder/operate/etc? Thanks, D

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the synth called Evolver. It's a synthesizer built mainly around the idea of feedback loops. To achieve this you would need a separate effect for each voice (to separate the notes in an obvious way) If you put delays in the feedback loops you can have even more fun, especially with very short delays (~1 ms). Those delays can be tuned musically to create feedback and oscillation. To do this, you would need note pitch info from the synth.

I think a separate unit wouldn't have easy access to the MB SID patch info. Also it wouldn't be able to communicate with the SID itself - don't you think? Cheers, D.

Thinking of plugins.. How about this: People like to experiment with FX for the SID. How about making a standard for FX plugins? It would be a card/cardridge which would be connected to two busses: 1. audio out from the SIDs (separate connection for each SID so you can build a quadrophonic card) This would be a buss which would be "broken up" by the insertion of an FX. Either the FX would have a separate output somewhere (for example, a separate audio jack) and would just pass on the original sound, OR it could pass on sound with FX on it. 2. I2C stuff which would communicate with the core: get the FX parameters from it, tell the core what effect it is (name, some kinda global effect ID, etc) This could let you have e.g. 12 FX cardridges installed. Then, in the UI, you could select several of them (perhaps two, limited by what the core could support) and it would control them. If you later load a patch, it can tell you if you got the FX it needs etc. This design would need a DAC on every FX cardridge. Alternatively, we could S&H signal from a common bus given to a "global" DAC. The S&H would be triggered by means of the I2C bus. Don't know how well it would work, though.. Audio-rate modulation would start being sucky... Why cardridge? Well, cards are easy to connect and swap around. And "eurocards" come with the edge connector most of the time, too. Cards are good since this idea would require a lot of connections to be made every time you reinstall an FX box. Perhaps the cards could have access to two busses for each SID voice: 1 bus which would go from the SID to the first FX box, then it would pass on the signal to the second FX box, and so on (the signal passed on could either be the original or "wet"). A second bus which would start at the first FX box and would go the same way as bus 1 (so: FX1 -> FX2 -> FX3). The FX could, again, pass on the input signal or "wetten it up" with effects. This way you could for example set a parallel topology: SID -> FX1 ---OUT \___> FX2__/ (this is an ASCII drawing of a parallel topology: SID->FX1,2->OUT) or a serial topology: SID->FX1->FX2->...->FX99->OUT thanks to the possibility to "break up" the buss. The edge connector of the cardridges could also contain AOUT leads, power, etc. My idea is probably very wrong with regards to technicalities.. but.. it's just an idea. ;) Cheers, D.

Just wondering... what cap types have you guys had the best experiences with? What prices did you get on those parts and where? Thanks, D.

Hey guys. I was thinking of the interoperability between MB SID and other projects. With MB FM, it has been suggested that you could route individual outputs through individual SID chips. That's cool, but some things are desired: - synchronized "tweaking" i.e. you control a knob on the FM and it controls something on the SID. - synchronized modulation i.e. the FM and SID would have synchronized LFOs etc - consciousness of the FM voice -> SID input connections e.g. if you're playing 4 notes on the FM - and they all go to individual SID inputs - the SID would have to know what cutoff frequency to use. You could think this could be done with proper cycling, like in old 6-voice analog synths, i.e. the FM voices and the SID voices cycle independently. But this could go out of sync for some reason and then it'd be impossible to resync it. Also, how would it know what the initial config should be? Another idea would be to have FM chip 1 to have the lowest note, chip 2 the next lowest note, etc, same with SID. But then, if you play e.g. C3, D3, A2 it could get glitchy. Maybe these ideas could be realized with a special connection: FM voice -> SID voice, which would tell the SID voice how to act correctly. ---[blah-blah]--- If this were possible, you could use the power of the FM's outputs: multiple notes in one output. I don't know if you ever tried this synth structure: [ synth 1 plays a chord ] -> [ perhaps an IR echo ] -> [ synth 2 has the LPF set on the lowest note of the chord ]. What this gives you is the lowest note of the chord, but it's enhanced by the higher notes in a way which doesn't add harmony, but adds "timbre" (especially if you correctly turn down the volume of the higher elements of the chord on synth 1 as their frequency rises). It is much like the box of a guitar or violin resonating. If you change the chord you change the timbre. This really makes for some great accoustic instrument sounds. The FM could perhaps be programmed to allocate whole chords instead of single notes to each sound chip, and then it would all work nicely. The echo on the other hand adds a "memory" effect. The note is still there when you release the keys, it's just not on, because the synth 2 output is closed. When you play a new note, in addition to the new chord from synth 1 you get the echo of the last chord. Think of sympathetic strings or something like that. I think it's impossible to create this effect with an accoustic instrument. This might sound shallow, but I say this is the greatest sound type I've been able to make with synthesizers. I'll try uploading some examples for you of what I mean once I've repaired my keyboard (so until next week) ---[end blah-blah]--- Also if there are 2 chips for one voice, why not select different filter types for the separate voices? Another idea for the mod matrix, from Linplug VSTi synths: mod matrix entries 1-4 are special. For example, Entry 1 would read LFO -> 50% -> VCF cutoff. Entries 5-12 can do something like this: Velocity -> 50% -> Matrix entry 1 depth. More LFO waves and more speeds (audio-speed) please! BTW: has anyone thought of adding inductors instead of (or together with) caps in the SID filter caps spot? Perhaps some more complicated network than just a capacitor? This is my wishlist. :) Thanks for reading, Damian

Put it in the oven or heat up the solder side with a heat gun (better) until the solder gets really hot. Then shake the parts off. Or shake the solder off, if the parts are hinged in a way that won't let them fall out. Then it's easier to unhinge the parts. Shake n bake works best with SMD. C64 isn't SMD....

The Remote SL has this cool thing where it automagically shows you the names of parameters you're editing, and this stuff changes when you select different plugs in your host. It has some sort of memory, but I hadn't played around with it enough to know how exactly that functions on the user side of things. I know the remote uses special drivers in the VST host that does the magic. Another cool thing: cracked Remote SL driver = connection over midi.. Speaking of "cracking drivers"... has anyone ever looked at MIDI interface drivers...? Midisport, mackie, etc?