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DragonMaster

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Posts posted by DragonMaster

  1. 1 Australian Dollar = 0.516375 Euros

    About the same thing here,  :-[

    $15 for a chip and no PCBs to Canada. Add $7 for each chips.

    I won't order I guess, to build two interfaces I'd need two chips and PCBs shipped ($33) + parts ($15) + boxes ($10) + jacks ($12) + shipping for parts ($25), I'd rather solder the MIDI in and out pins in my laptop's sound chipset and just buy a commercial USB interface for my other computer.

  2. I was gonna say "what language is that?" then I saw:

    Heheh, I got your number, Frenchie! :D

    Thanks guys, keep em coming! (although I suspect that my training was actually correct and these are standardised)

    Interesting though.... In English, programfiles and commonprogramfiles and 'documents and settings' are all native (english)

    In German, they are all native (german)

    In french, they are foreign (english) mixed, and foreign.

    I guess that MS figure, that French people are more tolerant of the English language, than Germans are ;D

    Sorry, forgot to tell which language it was ;-) (Location in user profile provides an hint as well)

    Windows was likely translated in France, they use a lot of English words over there.

    Vista calls "Program Files" "Programme" instead, but that's a fake folder name, just like "My Documents" which is really named "Documents". (By the way, My Documents, My Music, etc. are translated in the French version)

  3. Same set of variables as the others...

    ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

    APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\------------\Application Data

    ClusterLog=C:\WINDOWS\Cluster\cluster.log

    CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Fichiers communs

    COMPUTERNAME=-------------

    ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe

    FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO

    HOMEDRIVE=C:

    HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\----------

    LOGONSERVER=\\----------------

    NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=2

    OS=Windows_NT

    Path=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WBEM;C:\Program Files\AT

    I Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files\Mozart\bin

    PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH

    PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86

    PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 15 Model 35 Stepping 2, AuthenticAMD

    PROCESSOR_LEVEL=15

    PROCESSOR_REVISION=2302

    ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files

    PROMPT=$P$G

    SESSIONNAME=Console

    SystemDrive=C:

    SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS

    TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\-------------\LOCALS~1\Temp

    TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\--------------\LOCALS~1\Temp

    USERDOMAIN=--------------

    USERNAME=---------------

    USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\-------------

    windir=C:\WINDOWS

  4. Just to clear up some confusion :

    "Creative Music Synth" is simply the MIDI device name you see in Windows. You can name it whatever you want if you modify the driver's INF file before installing it.

    Creative's drivers have a fixed "General MIDI" sound bank you can't change the sounds.

    If you decide to make your own sounds with a stock ISA card, you can go on MIDIOX's website (http://midiox.com/)

    Go in MIDI Tools and download "FM Synth", "SBTimbre" and "IBK".

    SBTimbre allows you to make your own sounds for the OPL3, it saves them as banks in the IBK format.

    IBK is a collection of custom sound banks.

    FM Synth is a Windows 9x driver that replaces Creative's driver, and is allowing you to use the sounds you saved in IBK files.

  5. I think I can get by on 128x128, which works out to 8x8=64 chips, about 1400 in chips if it's AD, or 1000 if it's zarlink .... So believe me, I'm price-focussed right now Wink But I would hate to spend a grand and be disappointed.

    Well, if you use the transistor crosspoint solution, it'll only cost you $250 worth of transistors and $160 worth of resistors.

    There are just 16384 transistors and 32768 resistors to solder that way  ;D

    (I wonder how much it would cost to get this board built with automatic PCB assembly, it wouldn't be too long though, there are machines that place 13k components per hour.

  6. Well, the MT ones seem to have good crosstalk specs when you keep the impedance low. Also, the X and Y lines are I/Os, there's no assigned input and output pin. They say you can connect the crosspoints in any way you want. It seems more flexible than the 8113. Also, it's not only available as an LQFP package. The only disadvantage I see is an higher THD.

    How do you handle summing though if you use relays?  Wouldn't a transistor/op-amp based approach be better?

    Buffers on the inputs and outputs? Yikes! That starts to be complicated, and you need components around the relays to prevent pops...

    Otherwise, I guess one could use a 100kOhm resistor grid with "muting transistors" between every crosspoints.

  7. I believe SAM worked by toggling the SID output off and on fast enough to produce audio.

    That's the only known way to use samples on a SID, I even think I read only 6581s can do this.

    because MIDI is too slow.

    When's OSC coming to the MIDIbox?

  8. The problem with relay based matrices is that they are huge, and expensive.

    It's not that expensive when you get your relays on the surplus market (there's a store around here selling small signal relays for $0.50 ;D )

    Otherwise I don't know if it would be easy to make reed relays out of reed switches to be sure to get something reliable... ($0.30 each + magnet wire)

  9. Bonjour Jules, je crois que le code devrait ressembler à quelque chose comme ça:

    loop:

    if (pinx>=20 & prevstatex==1)

    {send aftertouch-value;}

    else if (pinx>=30 & prevstatex==0)

    {send Note-ON;

    set prevstatex=1}

    else if (pinx<20 & prevstatex==1)

    {send Note OFF

    set prevstatex=0}

    if (x==63) {set x=0} else {set x=x+1}

    goto loop

    évidemment, le code devrait être traduit en C, et utiliser while, else et if à la place de goto, et il faudrait une table dans la mémoire qui associe le # de pin à une note, etc.

    Le code utilise une variable par note pour savoir si elle a changé d'état ou non.

  10. About sound differences - is it like audiophile tuning? "Change of power cord to gold one provides deeper low, and cleaner high and better stereo"? ^^

    Pretty much --> BS to sell expensive products.

    Deeper low, cleaner highs, better stereo image, depth, etc. This is not the effect of better components but the effect of willing to hear something different. You have to do ABX blind tests to see if there's really a difference if someone just replaced a component without comparing directly and said it sounds better, then don't trust it (most audiophile mags, for example).

    However, different capacitor types have different characteristics on an oscilloscope, but the difference is so small (you won't hear it in a blind test) that it doesn't make a difference.

  11. You saw the price tag at Farnell?  ;D

    The MKT polyesters will work fine. By the way, polypropylene caps are said to sound better (probably an unnoticeable difference anyways / totally subjective), but they fail after a shorter time, so the polyesters are better.

  12. Hi,

    styroflex is simply another name for polystyrene capacitors. Local shops rarely carry them, but a decent online store should have some (Farnell, for example has 22nF polystyrene caps. They're far from cheap though.)

    By the way, if you don't need a specific type of capacitors, polyester and polypropylene capacitors (they are much more common) will replace them without problem.

  13. if more than one key is used they could draw a lot of current and maybe damage the AINs,

    They could maybe damage the PSU IMO, but not the AIN. An ADC draws a bit of current to measure voltage, it doesn't provide power to the sensors, which are arranged in a voltage divider fashion and pull power directly from the PSU. The hardware side of the project is working, but the remaining part is the software.

    I'm not sure how pressure sensitivity allows you to play chords with two fingers?

    Pressure is not related to this, but the way the keys/FSRs are placed allow you to do this. What I mean is that he can't just buy a keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch as the key layout isn't the same at all.

    (See attachment here : http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10271.msg78167.html#msg78167 for a basic view of the key disposition. )

  14. It's the Opcode MusicQuest 8Port SE.

    Drivers here:

    http://8portse.earthvegaconnection.com/index.html

    It's quite common on eBay for about $40-$80

    http://www.harmony-central.com/Events/WNAMM96/Other/midi-solution.html

    As I said, it would probably be easy to clone it as it uses commonly available parts (if it ever becomes hard to find, for example).

    I'm surprised I hadn't heard about that.

    The interface isn't that well known. Opcode was bought by Gibson and dropped a few years after, an invididual made the driver.

  15. Hi,

    Jules has a thread about this "keyboard" 's development in the French forums.

    What he needs is polyphonic aftertouch. He's going to use a core with AIN modules to monitor the sensors. So far, he got the sensors to give an input voltage of 0 to 4.5V to the ADCs, but the problem is the software part.

    The code would ideally monitor every sensors, send a note on/off signal over/under a certain ADC input value, and output individual aftertouch signals for each notes while they're pressed.

    Many keyboards already have this implemented...

    The fact is that it's an unusual keyboard design : It's made to be able to play chords with two fingers.

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