royal_orchestra

Hi, I have a question about how to realize a combination of a Raspberry Pi and the Midibox Sid. I made something like a DSP-FX-Unit with a Raspberry PI, Usb-Soundcard, USB-Midiinterface, some Pots, Buttons and a LCD. Everything in a Steel-Case not much bigger than a Guitar-FX-Stompbox. It is running Puredata on Linux, programming is done via LAN. Among other things it is great to connect my Sid V2 to it and add some digital effects to the Sids. Now I wonder how I could add a Sid directly into my Puredata-Box. I have a few GPIOs left - Could I connect a SID-Module directly to the Raspberry, leaving out the USB->MIDI->Core parts? or connect a Core to the GPIOs and reuse parts of the MB-Sid - Software? All thoughts, advices or hints are highly appreciated... best regards

Hi! Since there is no Wavetable Editor in Ctrlr for the lead engine yet, i made one in PD. I attached a simple Patch that just writes into the patch-buffer. The second also reads from the buffer or from saved patches (*.syx). You will need Pd-extended to run the patches. Editing the wavetable is done by drawing around. I kept these patches as simple as possible, so you can use them as a starting point and add other sysex functions, ipad-support (via osc), reversing, scaling, harmonizing,... ( try py/pyext) by yourself, before porting it to Max for Live. tested on Mac OSX and Linux ( Raspbian ) have fun Jens sid_wavetable_editor.zip

Hi, I'd like to give some additional ideas. As another user mentioned somewhere else in the forum, I think the control extension should be useful to edit all wt patches. think of drum sequences or wavetable-sounds. One thing i miss in the sketch is a wt# button since there are three cc sequences. The cc# could be entered via an additional led for the select button. There should be a possibility to define the jump (and end?) point. I think it should also provide a function to edit the length of a note (or another cc manipulation) perhaps with a shortcut: Press and hold for example button 4 and press button 7 and it automatically writes "play +++" for step 5,6 and 7. I already thought about how such a breakout box could look like some weeks ago. In my sketch I thought of the center buttons more like a keyboard like the 303 has. (C - c + "Key1" - "Key4" = 16 buttons) I don't know much about programming but perhaps it's possible to add a step-edit mode where the user enters the notevalue with a button and changes the octave (+-5) with the datawheel. The play-button should be called RUN/STOP like on the C64. :-) Best Regards

kokoon: Â i assume it routes midi notes + all the rest from one midi channel to separate channels for 4xmbsid to achieve 12note polyphony. or maybe not? That's right for midi notes and especially for NOTE OFFS. But not all the rest yet. Programm changes or controller data simply go thru. What means pure data?

Hi, One Sid-chip has three voices. If you want to play chords with more notes, you need more Sids of course, but also a tool that splits the chord and sends it to the different sids. My Reaktor Ensemble supports 4 Midichannels with 3 voices, 4 Sids. It sends new notes to the lowest free voice. I tried the demo version of Reaktor 5, but it is not allowed to load Ensembles, which are not included in the demo. So you need the full version to use it. Perhaps I'll try to do this again with Synthedit, so that everyone can use it as free vst. But I'm not shure about the available functions in Synthedit yet. There is a shareware demo for cakewalk called frank's split poly somewhere on the web, but it is designed for monophonic synthesizers. Best regards

Hi, I made a MBHP-SID Superpoly-Router for Reaktor 5. If someone wants to test it just post your eMail. (I don't have webspace)

Hi Thorsten, do you already know which functions or knobs the tb303 box will provide? playmode(midichannel): Its not a problem. It is more a feature. Just choose the same Channel for another Sid and it will run unisono for sure. (Perhaps you could let the LCD know about this feature. but that's not important) I think continue-playing is also not important. I already thought it would be an ineffective, propably buggy feature (strange bleeps and clonks during switching). Now it is a clear solution. edit-mode: The incoming cc values do their job perfect now. Only a programm-change does not save the values, but a programchange from the cs makes a fast save anyway. Sometimes its interesting to change the values of a patch directly at a slave device. For example if you use very different SID Chips. I' ve got a 8580 rev5 and a 6581 (old, rev1/2?). The second has a built-in distortion-feature ;), I like to use for drum sounds. But I got a cs for making the patches. "But on the other hand I think that the current implementation isn't that bad, that everybody can live with such imperfections when he knows how to handle with it... " "that bad": It is f**$§&/***'# great, because it works well. The Mbhp Sid makes any other SID-Synth I saw on the web a nice try. Thank you. And the users (like me) get information how to to treat their sids by this forum. Perhaps Microchip will fix the silicon-bug someday. Let's make music until then. Best regards Jens

Another remark If the start/stop function is used from a submenu, the menu button still has its normal menu function. best regards Jens (This is the topic about the 303 keyboard: http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=4373.0)

oops. not a threat, a posting. i really got to improve my English.

Hi Thorsten, i'd love to check the 303 version. and I did of course: the play function is wonderful. It gives the feeling of playing with a real bass/drum-box. and it is useful for editing all kind of patches (but polymodes). I remember a threat about designing a 303-like additionaly cs especially for the Mbhp Sid or not. I think it would be nice to interact with the wt-sequencer more physically. just a remark I saw that all sids start playing, if they got the same midichannel#. another remark. Its fun to change the wt# in the playmode, but my new sid303 stops playing when i change the the patch. (I don't know if it would be good or not to change this, because of the time needed for switching. Perhaps the sid could switch to the new patch a short time (latency-time if known) before the current loop ends?) The delay works fine now. And finally my experiences with the edit function: -It works if you are in a menu ( = have pressed one of the select buttons of the cs). -if you are in the top screen ( where you can see the patchname) instead, the led flashes (thats new), the sound changes, but the values stay the same. -you have to change the patch with the cs buttons to save. If I change the patch after editing it from the Masterkeyboard, the changes are not saved. But a programmchange from the masterkeyboard with the current patch# does not reset the values anymore. (I was not able to check all the edit things with the slave because it is a PIC16f.) I hope this helps you. Best regards Jens

Hi! 2) The patch does not matter. For example the "new patch" with an increased delay. 3) Good, a useful improvement. I'm looking forward to the release of this version. 4) I only have two sid devices until now. That means the buttons sid3 and sid4 have no function. So in my case it would be possible to make "sid3" a start/stop button for sid device 1, "sid4" a start/stop for Sid device 2. I think a good combination would be SIDx + Menu. If you want Sid 1 and Sid 3 for example to play a sequence, you could press and hold the Sid1 and sid3 button, then press "menu" and both sequences start at the same time. (Perhaps the Leds of sid1 and sid3 could flash) This combination would be suitable for every user, with one sid device or four, with complete or minimal control surface. and if you make a mistake (for example press only one of the buttons) nearly nothing happens. (compared to link,cc,...) best regards, Jens.

Hi, I finished a sid synth with mininimal control unit, one slave. I had some problems. Perhaps someone is interrested: I finally got the jdm burner working by replacing the 8,2 V Zener diode with a 9,1 V. Another problem that took a lot of time was caused by dirty sid-pins. ::) (I controlled the circuits and the soldering points for days) But now I've got some questions: 1. Since I've updated to a PIC18f master, ( the slave is the old 16f) I can't get Jsynth (version 0.20 mod) running. It's not possible to choose banks ( got two banksticks now), or to GET something from the sid. (The patchmanager and all other software work fine.) Jsynth version 0.18 worked with the single 16f sid (I think I didn't have a Bankstick), but now it complains about an unknown format: "propably an otari patch" 2. If the delay in the osc menu is set to something different than 0 the master sid (6581) makes no sound. 3.I've got an evolution masterkeyboard with some assignable controllers. In the edit mode I see the change of the values on the lcd screen and I can save it manually, but the led does not flash if i change a value not from the control panel but from the outside. The values on the lcd only change for the master. the slave only changes the sound. 4.Is it possible to use the sid3 /sid4 buttons as start/stop toggle buttons for the Wavetable-sequencer? Perhaps they could send note on/off events. I created some drumloops and this would be useful live. (no beer-bottle on the masterkeyboard that does this job ;) I searched the forum, and found some topics, but I still don't know which changes in the code I've to make. Thank you for answers