taf

Hi, Stryd, I didn't forget about giving some ideas for your sequencer ;) Lately I'm very busy with work, but hope to get some time before summer to build mine. Some time ago I did a lot of knobs for midibox in sketchup, although now I have other ideas for the knobs (nicely machined aluminum knobs). I don't know how to insert an image in the text. Aghh! found it, under additional options. Here we go,

Great. I added some more information, because there were some people that thought it was a synth or a midi controller. Both things are not correct. Anyway, I know understand your interest in the software. But you have to take into account that this software will seat between the monome and the application. Monome|---(USB)----|MAPD|----(midi)----|Application (e.g. live) what is able to get mapd depends on the midi implementation of the application, and this will also be available to any other midi device, like a midibox. So if the application doesn't provide led feedback (e.g. ableton live), mapd won't help. ps: Live supports automap which is a protocol developed by novation for their remote line, its a two-way protocol, but I think is propietary.

To which software are you referring? The applications that runs in the computer or the embedded software in the monome? In the first case is a mapping application between the USB protocol that talks with the monome hardware and osc/midi. In the second case the monome hardware is very different from the midibox hardware (different processor architecture). In neither case I see interest of modifiying it for the midibox. The monome communicates with a computer (only mac at the moment I think) via USB2. The monome doesn't do anything by itself, it is always driven by the software running in the computer. They have develop a osc/midi router and some applications in max (for example the 8 track sequencer that they use in the video). So the main use of the monome is to control software in the computer (custom applications, or existing applications through the osc/midi mapper). I suppose that you can also control hardware instruments via this same midi mapper and a midi interface for the computer, the thing is that you ALWAYS needs the computer. Personally I find much more interesting, simple and cheaper to build a midibox. As has been already commented In case you are interested I'm planning to build a midibox with an array of buttons with leds (8 x 8 or 4 x 16 still not decided) and some knobs with several use cases in mind (MBSEQ, Modified MBSEQ, MIDI controller,...). Still doing the design. Once finish I'll post some drawings and ideas for feedback.

These are really sad news! They are really expensive. When some one posted the link for these button I thought also that those where the ONES. There other companies doing illuminated buttons (itt cannon, mec and several japanese companies), but all are expensive if you want a large number. (e.g. mec are around 4 euros including led, transparent cap and diffuser). I think someone (moxi?) was trying to do some DIY silicone illuminated buttons. Did he ever succeed?

These days things are a little busy around here. I'm also reading the manual from the octopus. Once finished I hope to make some kind of reference model in order to compare diferent systems. This link is interesting http://www.sequencer.de/specials/sequencer.html. Lot of sequencers than can provide good ideas. Some time ago I studied also the manuals from the schrittmacher and the Sequentrix P3. This new Octupus http://www.genoqs.net/ seems one of the most powerfull step sequencers I've ever seen. The Story board is an interesting reading. The more I know about these commercial products and how they work, the more I think that TK has done a excellent work on the MBSeq. Would be interesting, what are his ideas for v2. I hope he takes the same route as with the MBSID v2 (go with the more powerful PIC18F4620 and overcome its bug with the new I2C MIDI module). Give me a couple of days to comment on your questions.

So, I think this is my first post to the list, although I've been around here for several months. First at all congratulations for your idea and your effort stry_one. Kudos also to TK. Great place As many of us, I've been also thinking about a live performance oriented sequencer. Although I use a set with monomachine+machinedrum UW, which are great for live performance I've have always missed the possibility of having more tracks available for direct editing. I like also Ableton live, but I'm more hardware oriented. You can get some idea from this video: http://monome.org/media/monome40h.mov I was trying also to reuse as much as possible from the MBSEQ box, but adapting its user interface to my needs, but your project provides so many good ideas that I will try to use it. Even provide some help in case you needed. So here there are some ideas in case they are of some help. Mainly related to the UI. I was thinking in the following arrangement: |---LCD---| K K K ... K E B R b b b b A s s s s T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M ... T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X S S S S P M Ki: Param Pi edit knobs. (e.g. One knob per layer in the MBSEQ) Ti: Track select pushbutton with LED Xi: Step ON/OFF pushbutton with LED Si: Select slot pushbutton LED (at least four, but could be more) Pi: Play mode select pushbutton Mi: Mute ON/OFF pushbutton with LED B: Begin of sequence pushbutton E: End of sequence pushbutton R: Random mode pushbutton A: Select all pusbutton with LED si: Select column of slots pushbutton with LED bi: Bank select with LED General principles: All the steps in the sequence shall be available for direct editing. Pushing any button at any row, implicitly selects the track involved Any edit operation during live performance needs only a pushbutton operation. A pushbutton operation can be simple (e.g. X on/off) or multiple (e.g <B> + <Xi> simultaneously). Any pushbutton can have three behaviors. - Short press and release. (e.g. on/off of a step or slot select) - Press, and while pressed modify other UI element. (e.g. Press <Xi> and tweak param knobs for this step) - Long press, performs predefined action. (e.g. Long press <Si> stores current pattern in slot Si) Ideally pushbuttons with led will be tricolor, so different status can be displayed (e.g. step muted) Additionally there will be buttons for common operations, like transport (play, stop,...), menu management, tempo, etc. - Up to 16 tracks can be played simultaneously. - The configuration of 16 tracks x n banks x m slots, is stored as a song. Total number of songs depends on memory and n, m. In the example n and m are four, that seems adequate for live tweaking (16 tracks with 16 patterns each one). - There is no save action, but I think it is useful that when you are tweaking a pattern and you find some variation that you like, it can be saved to a slot for later recall. At the beginning all the slots are empty Some examples: <Mi>: Mute track <Mi LONG PRESS>: Clears all the steps <Mi> + <Xi>: Mute step Xi <Ti LONG PRESS>: All the steps ON. <T> + <R>: Initialize Ti pattern with a random steps configuration <Ti> + <Ki>: Modifies param i for all the steps in the track <Xi>: On/off step Xi <Xi> + <Ki>: Modifies param i for the step. LCD shows different param values for this step <Xi> +...+ <Xj> + <Ki>: Modifies param i of steps i,...j(e.g. you can push several steps for editing. Alternate mode: When some step is muted, only unmuted steps are affected when edited doing <Ti> + <Ki>. <B> + <Xi>: Selects Xi as the first step of the track (Changing time signature for this track on the fly) <E> + <Xi>: Selects Xi as the last step in the track (idem) <Si>: Select slot Si. Track will start to play Si depending on track play modes (e.g. immediately, beginning of next cycle, ...). So for each track you have a set of variations (4 in the example). <Si LONG PRESS>: stores current track in slot Si <si>: Select column of slots for playing. So you can use each slot column as a song section, as in live left hand row (e.g. INTRO, CHORUS,....) <P> + <K1>: Selects playing mode for track (forward, backward, ping-pong, random,...) <bi>: Selects bank bi. (e.g if there are four slots for each track, and four banks, we have 16 slots per track) I hope that you get the idea with the examples. For the hardware I was thinking in doing something modular. Well this is true for all the MidiBoxes I'm playing to build. The idea is to have a common module for basic functionality and a set of specific modules for additional functions. In this case a set of four track rows that can be incrementally added. So you start with direct editing of four tracks and you can go 8, 12 or 16 with time. So it can be accommodated to any budget. I would like also to reuse this module for other Midiboxes (e.g. Ableton live controller). Well, I'm doing lot of designs and finishing 3D renderings, in case anyone is interesting in providing some feedback. I hope to finish some for this week. Something I'm also thinking from the point of view of UI and overall software to develop is that at some moment you would need to chose between a performance oriented sequencer and a programing oriented sequencer. I feel that maybe too much of the two could make the system somehow confusing. sorry for this unordered exposition of ideas. I didn't write nothing formal, just thinking about how I would like live hw sequencing.