rutgerv

Hey, that's good news! I'm happy it works now. If only someday Microsoft/Apple/Sun/Java would stick to the official MIDI conventions written down about 30 years ago, and properly test their code before releasing, we could make a stable editor that doesn't need such a work-around on a specific system. But I'm afraid that time will never come. Rutger

Does the problem with the filter control still occur when you restart a fresh editor, disable the stereo mode and unlink all cores? In other words, make sure that you only control one single SID chip? Rutger ps. I'm sorry I haven't provided more support for the editor. I initially made it for my own use and then decided to share it with the community here, but with my current job as PhD candidate I don't have the time to provide much support.

Hmm... is the behavior the same if you leave a bit more time between exiting the editor and editing another? It could be that the midi-driver is still busy and not liking new access to it... Some good new for all MAC users: the new OS release (Snow Leopard) features a Java update that improves MIDI! It means that Java now contains a decent implementation of MIDI classes for Java and we don't have to use the MMJ extension anymore! @ Matrix: maybe this will solve your problem as well! Rutger

Ok, then it's defintely something outside the editor! Does up- and downloading of patches work without problems? And editing single parameters in the editor window? Best, Rutger

Are you changing back by closing the editor window? Normally that's the only way allowed, but I just want to check... This seems to be a really low-level error (i.e. outside the code of the editor). I'm not sure if I can pin-point or fix anything at this level. Best, Rutger

In the editor it couln't be more simple: 1. (Assuming you work with the lead/bassline engine) go to the 'Arpeggiator' tab 2. Click the 'on/off' button for the appropriate arpeggiator. Simple, right? Best, Rutger

Hi, you were right! It was a bug indeed and it affected all controls of Envelope 2. However, the good news is: it's fixed in the next release! Best, Rutger

So who's going to build the first water-cooled (or nitrous?) MidiBox SID?

Ah, found it! Stupid mistake from my side, sorry! Switching back and forth between Java and Matlab I forgot that Java starts array indexing at 0 instead of 1. Whoops ;). Will be fixed with next release (to be expected within a week). Best, Rutger

Hmmm, strange behaviour indeed! I'll check if I can reproduce and fix it! It almost sounds like no cores have been selected. Rutger

Thanks for the report! I'll check, and if it's a bug I'll fix it with the next release. I have spent so much time on implementing new features lately, that I didn't have time for a lot of testing, but I will get to that soon. However, the improvements I made are so substantial that I wanted everyone to be able to benefit from them. I also highly appreciate your input as 'beta' users.

BTW: nice to see that many people are enjoying the editor! Does someone already have a set of patches, that he/she's willing to share? After I fixed the last TODO's for the editor I'll finish up on the promised bank of polyphonic patches and share them with you! Do we already have a place for file exchange? Or do we make that a new topic? Sysex files are small, so uploading with a post woudn't be a problem I think. Best, Rutger

Haha, you're correct! It isn't there. I have already implemented it, but these changes didn't make it into this release. I'm working on some other features at the moment, so there will probably be another release shortly.

Hi! I've been testing the changes today and it really works well! The voice handling runs really smooth. However a minor new problem occured: polling of the slaves sometimes failes when using the editor with WOPT parameters (meaning that the CAN bus is busy for a while and not having spare bandwidth to reply to polls from the master core). Maybe the polling time-out could be increased a bit? Best, Rutger

Oh my god! TK, you're amazing! I'll will get you this bank of polypatches ASAP! Rutger

I don't know about the other guys, but I'd rather be a lab rat for your experimental software, than miss out altogether - even if the experiment fails. IMO: Don't be careful, just mark it as "unsupported feature" or something ;)

Hi TK, as you know we also had some discussion about this and I can confirm what Futureman reported: the latest update doesn't solve the problem (although it occurs less frequent!). I understand that you have spent quite alot of time (way more than intended) to get this experimental feature working and don't want to work much more on it for the PIC based version. However, I think people are just starting to discover the power of the SIDV2 and quite alot of people own (or are constructing) a version of the SIDV2 that really benefits from this SPM feature. Partly thanks to Wilba I guess :). I myself and probably everyone using Wilba's design, have the entire synth on a single PCB, which makes it hard (and ugly) to make modifications. To be honest, I personally would not upgrade to ARM for this reason. I would propose to overwork the SPM to make it work properly for the PIC based version. Centralizing the control of voices sounds like the best plan, while using the CAN bus to switch the voices on and off (if technically possible). I would also propose to simplify the mode quite a bit to make it only use 'all available voices'. I really think there's no need for variable assignment of voices to the SPM, since the number of voices is too small anyway to use it multitimbral. From my point of view the biggest novelty of this SPM is the fact that you can play polyphonic (with the same number of voices as a Jupiter 4) on SID sounds and the fact that you can do this in TRUE STEREO! For instance, the string sound in the demo I put on the forum, is using 4 voices in true stereo. Together with the character of the SID, this sounds unique! As far as I know, there's no other analog synth that has true stereo oscillators! I took a little time to discover the power, but if I now have to choose between 8-voice mono or 4-voice stereo I would defintely choose the latter! Best, Rutger ps. By no means I'm trying to put pressure on you. I'm just hoping to make you enthousiastic about what I feel is right for the SID V2. I'm willing to help in any way I can (discussion of the concept, debugging, building patches), if you decide to overwork the SPM. pps. I have a very nice set of polyphonic patches (string sounds, pads, etc) which I just might share..... :P

Hi everyone, thanks for the positive comments! Thanks to TK for making this possible and putting my MBSID up as Midibox of the week. I considered sharing the schematics and PCB layout, but I decided not to do so at the moment. There are a couple of flaws in the prototype that I fixed manually, but I haven't updated my schematics and PCB layout. Doing so would require alot of work and time. If I would put it up as is, I would probably have to give alot of support with it as well. The other thing is that the PCB was customized for parts that I had lying around (some spare cooling blocks for the regulators and stuff). This would probably not fit for anyone else, unless you happen to have the same spare parts lying around. However, I'd be happy to share knowledge from this design with you. It's basically just Thorsten's schematics in a different layout with included AOUT_LC modules, modified Moog filter (Rick Janssen schematic), PSU and mixer/headphone module. The headphone-mixer was inspired by a schematic from musicfromouterspace.com (although modified quite a bit). The biggest 'novelty' is probably the addition of an extra VCA circuit in the Moog filter design to make the resonance controllable with CV from the AOUT_LC. Best, Rutger

And finally a sound demo! Note: * All sounds except drums come from the MBSID V2 * No EQ's or FX's were used except for a little reverb and delay on the master mix * All sounds were designed with the MBSID V2 Editor :) Enjoy! Rutger SIDv2_demo.mp3 SIDv2_demo.mp3

And some more pictures: 5. The inside of my MBSID V2 (the upper part shows 8 SID's on a row, the bottom part the 8 Moog filters on a row. On the right hand side the transformers and the power supply can be seen.) 6. The final version in my rack with the frontpanel in place! 7. The final version in my (new) rack with the power on! 8. Same thing in the dark! Best, Rutger ps. The 'product number' TR-3, as mentioned on the frontpanel, is a slight hint to the people that made this thing possible: Thorsten Rick (Jansen) Robert (Moog) Rutger

Hi midiboxers, I've been building an MBSID V2 some time ago, but after I finished it I spent all my time on playing and developing an editor for it. Now I finally have the time to share pictures of the construction process, the end result and a sound demo with you! The specs: * MBSID V2 with 4 cores * 8x SID (types 8580 and 6582) * 8x Moog ladder filter (1 per SID) * AOUT_LC modules to control Cutoff and Resonance of the Moog filters * Stereo mixer and headphone amplifier * 2x analog input (to first 2 Moog filters for processing external signals) The first 4 pictures show: 1. The plain double sided PCB (own design, manufactures at www.goldphoenixpcb.biz) 2. Halfway populating the PCB (power supply already finished) 3. Transformers for the power supply mounted in a 19" enclosure 4. Display module with home made transparent (LED-lighted) pushbuttons Best, Rutger

Hi nILS, could you check if this new release also solves your issue? Best, Rutger

Hi Nils, congrats! I think you found a real bug :). I was already aware of a much bigger problem: in some situations the editor and the synth can get out of sync (the bug you report is probably caused by it). So the patch that you save in the editor is not identical to the one in the synth. There's a new version of the editor to be released soon, which fixes this problem. However....this new version somehow elicits a bug with some midi-systems that I still don't understand! I cannot replicate it at home, but Thorsten can. I'm still trying to work over the MIDI connection stuff to find the cause of it. I'll let you know as soon as the new version is available! Best, Rutger

Hm, interesting! I haven't been able to reproduce this yet on my machine. Have you tried the work-around TK suggested? If that doesn't help I think some sort of discrepancy comes into life between the cores that are actually responding to the editors messages and the ones that SHOULD respond according to the information the editor has. Before certain commands the editor sends a 'primer'-message that enables the cores that should listen to everything that follows. Then the cores respond to everything that follows with a message saying 'acknowledged' for each of the cores that received the info. If that doesn't line up the editor gives an error. Best, Rutger ps. Are you still able to continu working after the error's occur? I think I implemented this core-checking thing only as an extra checkup, but no further actions are taken or blocked if an error occurs.

Hmm, it smells like a bug indeed. The communication between software and MBSID is quite difficult. Usually the software sends and the MBSID responds. If the MBSID doesn't respond you get this error, but it might be that the message still arrived correctly at the synth, in this case there's just no way for the software to know. I'll try to find out what's happening. Best, RUtger