madox
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Posts posted by madox
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In Motif, is there a way to use FM without the sample-playback synthesis? Does Motif's FM qualify as AFM?
I can only assume FM is available without additional sample playback. I don't really know much about these synths, and just wanted to mention them.
I'm really not sure if the Motif/MM6 use AFM. I hadn't heard of AFM before this thread. Just did a quick bit of reading; it seems FM may be an additional module on these synths too. I assume this information should be available through Yamaha.
Also does Yamaha MM6 and MB-FM use AFM? I hope at least one of them does. I googled both of them and no sites gave me any info on whether or not they use AFM.I doubt the MB-FM uses such a thing. I believe it was implemented in the '77/'99 synths using DSP grunt.
There are times when I think I should build my own AFM synth so I can really make it the way I want. However, I need in-depth knowledge of complex mathematics -- such as Bessels functions. I am hoping I can learn it.If you want to implement something yourself, I would think a soft synth would be the easiest option. You could have a look at this site regarding AFM and DFM realised in a Digidesign accelerator card. I had a glance over it, and it seems fairly comprehensive. The name also discusses the SY-77 in his paper.
I was also wondering if a TG-77 with a new MIDI controller may be an easier way to get what you are after. I assume the rack mount '77 would be easier to clean of allergens. Generic MIDI controllers can be pretty handy, too.
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Hi,
I forgot to mention, you would need to be careful washing electronics in any liquid. Even volatile liquids can cause issues with mechanical parts, such as potentiometers, and buttons. The liquid can be retained in the component, due to the surface tension.
Cleaning can still be done, but baths are not generally advised after assembly.
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Hi,
I think it depends how much you want to spend.
I believe the Motif has FM, and I think it is more fully featured than the SY-99. Check that before buying, though. The Motif is expensive though. I think it has a good quality ROMpler behind it as well.
Have a look at the Yamaha MM6 as well. I think these have lesser sound quality than the Motif though. I seem to remember reading some complaints about the quality of the converters.
I'm not sure how many operators these have. Maybe only four.
I believe there is a pretty well featured VST fm synth now. I think it may have 8 operators too.
Do you need keys with this synth? Maybe you could get a rack, and a MIDI controller, or a VST and MIDI controller.
There is also the MB-FM option. 4 operators I think, but an interesting synth, and sounds great with analogue filters.
Hope you find what you are after.
Cheers,
madox
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oh madox, do i feel sorry for you mate.... i got quite a way with japanese and even that was childs play compared to chinese, when one of my friends said there was over 30 ways to pronounce the word "ma" in chinese i freaked!! when i did some and you ask how are you "li ho ma?" he pissed himself and told me it was wrong, i cant remember what it was i said but it wasnt right at all. rasing the tone and the length of the letters tone etc all mad stuff. and then to top it off you have mandarin and cantonese, also in other areas of china some pople speak a really older vision of chinese which is even harder.
my.. i really feel for you!
I used to speak a little Japanese. Learned some in high school. I rather like Jap language, and enjoy some of the cinema. I like their synths and toys too. However, my wife is Chinese. There are over 50 'dialects' in China. Really some of these are very separate languages, rather than dialects, methinks. I think the country is basically an empire of feudal states. Mandarin is the imposed common toungue, and that is what I learn (mostly). I know a few choice words of Cantonese though (learned that in high school too).
In some ways Mandarin makes more sense than English. I think English has an overly complicated grammatical system. Mandarin is simple in that regard. Of course, the more complicated tenses of English can be used to express temporal relationships more efficiently than in Mandarin.
The Chinese tones are tricky for me, though, particularly when superimposed with inflections for questions, etc. Mandarin is actually phonetically simple though, in that it uses quite a small set of basic sounds, compared to other languages. Those sounds are multiplied by the number of tones, to make the phonetic symbol set. Each phonetic symbol can have multiple meanings. A lot is inferred by context, and even native speakers of Mandarin will occasionally have to explain which meaning is being referred to.
Oh well, I digress...
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Hi Eduardo, thanks for explaining.
I am sorry that my English is very bad. :(Hey, no problem. I have a lot of respect for multilinguialism. Actually, I used to teach English as a foreign language, and have some appreciation for what's involved. I'm (slowly) trying to learn Mandarin Chinese, and I am really terrible with that.
Cheers.
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Hi Eduardo,
I'm not quite sure what you mean. I think you are saying that you have used a MIOS based PIC, with a USB link to WinXP based PC, with IIC MIDI ports? That seems to fit the bill pretty well. Presumably this works with the class compatible drivers.
Did you have to do any development for this?
Cheers,
madox
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does anyone here have a way of contacting trevor? prehaps a phone number by chance?
I found he usually will answer emails, though it will often take him a long time to get around to it. He has mentioned in the past that some emails have not reached him.
I assume you have also tried the 9090 list? I doubt it will be any better an avenue than his email though.
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As best I can tell, the problems with making a USB-MIDI interface that is PIC based are related to internal problems in the PIC devices. Based on what I have read, it is NOT POSSIBLE to make it right, unless you are somehow more talented than all who have tried so far. The PICs are broken, and until Microchip bothers to fix this, they will remain broken.
Hi, thanks for bringing that up. I had thought that Microchip had fixed the issues with the USB interface. This is not something which I have reviewed thoroughly, though.
For the benefit of vsmGuy, PICs have had a long standing silicon bug with their USB interfaces, which prevented reliable operation. This is not limited to sysex transfers. All communications had been subject to random corruption. Microchip had swept this under the carpet, even removing threads on the subject in their forum.
I thought this issue had been addressed already, but I could easily be mistaken about this. I haven't ever needed to use that interface on a PIC. I imagine TK may have kept in touch with this issue. You could try contacting him. From memory, this is something that he abandoned some time ago, due to the unworkable hardware.
If you are really keen to do this yourself, you really should review this issue first. If the issue has been resolved, then you would have to be sure to use a recent revision of the PIC. Also, I expect you would be largely on your own, in following that course. Probably people would answer questions as best we could, though I doubt it will be something that other members will be involved in.
If the hardware issues still exist, you could try an Atmel device. Alternatively, you may be able to use a PIC with a UART/MSSP to USB bridge IC. Your PIC would drive comms as a standard serial port, and the bridge would handle the USB side. Again, I think you would be on your own with these options.
I also don't know how much support is available here for writing a driver for your USB device. I have had no involvement with this side of things.
Although you may be on your own in some of these endeavors, I think members here may take some interest in your work, although I suspect it would not have a lot of relevance to the current directions of the MIDIBox platform.
I think that is probably about as much advice as I can offer, other than to restate that for what you are doing, a cheapy eBay purchase may work out better.
Good luck, and hope you enjoy it.
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...a tool that HAS to work right ...
Damn straight. Data integrity can be critical, for more than just the sounds we play.
I know some people on the Viscount OB-12 mailing list who have bricked their synth by transferring an erroneous sysex dump. It may not be caused by the interface, and probably the synth isn't performing error checking in a robust way (or at all), but this sort of thing is just not worth messing with.
Sysex is actually fairly commonly used, and may even be used without you knowing it, with virtual editors etc. Some not so nice MIDI implementations pretty much require sysex be used for basic instrument control. I believe sysex has also been used by manufacturers to implement features a little outside the foreseen scope of the original MIDI specification. OS updates of instruments are frequently sysex based, and are quite commonly worthwhile, provided you have a reliable interface.
As mentioned, I don't think anyone is upset by what you have written in this thread, so apologies are not necessary. The community likes to help people who are interested, and I think most people here would want to do so as best we know how. The reasons you have put forward really didn't make sense. I think most people would be happy to give you advice, but also willing to just leave you to do your own thing, in that case. We certainly don't need to convince you.
In terms of lead time for a replacement part, you have a couple of options mentioned already. You can buy spare chips up front. I bought a couple more than I needed, as I know they will get used. Furthermore, you are in no way bound to replace a GM5 with a GM5. You could just as well by a $5 interface from eBay as your spare, backup, or replacement (though the quality may suffer), or even an expensive MOTU device, which is unlikely to perform any better than a GM5, and possibly worse.
Of course a blank PIC is probably an easier replacement (although obsolescence can also be an issue here). However, the work involved to bring your own PIC based interface, and drivers up to the performance of a GM5, would be substantial for most people. If you are a good programmer, and have a good handle on hardware and microcontroller architecture already, or are wanting to learn these things anyway, then that effort may be worthwhile. If you just want a tool to run your studio, then it seems a little ill advised.
I hope that makes sense, and apologies if I seemed upset. I'm really not. I think everyone would be more than happy to welcome you to the community here, and hope you have fun with it all.
Cheers,
madox
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By the way, I have a feeling this topic has come up before. Maybe it was a different forum?
Oh, my bad. Didn't notice its a 2005 thread.
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madox: What decks you bought?
I got American Audio HTD4.5's. These turntables are essentially a badged product, which is also sold by Stanton, and a few others. I think there may be some very minor differences between the offerings of the different brands, but basically the same deck.
I got them for a low price on eBay. Unfortunately, these turntables don't have a cover at all, so I am concerned about the tonearm assembly getting smashed in transit. That would be pretty upsetting. Still, I don't mind a few risks. I'm yet to sort out an interstate courier for these.
I still have a soft spot for SL1200MkII's, but I am more than happy to have some decent, cheaper decks at home. I'm not a DJ anyway.
Cheers,
madox
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You should also note that the GM5 handles sysex transfers correctly, which you may not get from a cheap commercial product.
If you really like DIY design for its own sake, then you may as well go ahead. Personally, I would rather waste my time writing crap music than re-inventing the MIDI interface.
Anyway, I think it's a no brainer.
i cant hang around here...... bttdnuf said
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I think the deck desk looks great. I just ordered a pair of decks on ebay last week, and waiting for them now. First real decks I will have owned. Hopefully the tone arms won't get mashed in postage. :o
I wondered what the space in the bottom center of the shelf area is intended for? Will there be amp, eq's, CD etc sitting on the floor under there?
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Do you really think that the delay differences between a Darlington pair and a BJT will be significant...A bit off topic ... Probably either would be quite fast enough though...
Timing is not an issue between these two options. Just thought I would mention it, for anyone interested. The reason I mention the power BJT was mainly that it may be a better option for supplying drive current for an electromechanical transducer.
on a related topic...Yeah, seen that before. Brilliant!
By the way, I'll buy beer for the first person to build one of these MIDI percussion triggers, and hook it up to an e/V-drum.
By the way, I have a feeling this topic has come up before. Maybe it was a different forum?
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...The GM5's really are your best choice, for the reasons above...
ditto
...the usb gm5 is fine and the chip is a new product from ploytec...the gm5 will do everything you want its the most sensible choice to make reallyditto
Don't be put off by this one. It really is an excellent USB MIDI interface. It is much better than my M-Audio USB MIDI interface. Class drivers are fine, and custom drivers are better still. I don't use Vista, but I imagine some here would, so just do your reading.
Check out Ploytec to see what they are about. They are a commercial venture. TK arranged a bulk order of their chips w/ drivers for this community. There is really no reason to be concerned about their devices.
For the price of the chips, you could quite happily buy several of these, and keep some for spares, if you like.
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Something like the pic attached
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Hi,
A bit off topic, but I'm pretty sure a single power BJT will respond quite a bit faster than a Darlington pair. Darlingtons have high gain, but are not the fastest. Probably either would be quite fast enough though.
Perhaps one could use a solenoid to hit a hammer, which in turn hits a percussive target. The hammer would be hinged, with a spring return, and bump stop. I'm not certain how much dynamic range one can get from a solenoid though.
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Try the Yahoo! group. Can it take Jupitor 8 patches? I would also be surprised if there is not at least one software editor around.
Good luck.
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Pretty cool! :D
Hey, that was great. Thanks for the link. I really wasn't expecting too much, but it was well worth a look. Seems like a guy with a great imagination, and enough know-how and dedication to really get things done.
Cheers
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Hi,
Thanks Janis. I have looked at the 24064-1 and 24064-18 data sheets, for comparison. Seems like pretty standard stuff for this kind of module, but I think they are a bit sparse on the details.
I do appreciate you finding and uploading that one for me, though. Cheers.
I guess what I would really like to know, is if my line of thinking is OK, substituting a module in this way. I wondered if I may have missed or misunderstood some factors in finding a compatible substitute.
Cheers,
madox
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For standard cheapo electrolytics, there is often a recommendation to use capacitance and voltage tolerance quite a bit higher than what the first order circuit model may suggest is necessary. As stated in previous posts, this is to provide sufficiently low impedance at the ferquencies of interest, and to handle power dissipation in the cap.
The different capacitor types vary a lot in their physical properties, so using a cap of different type may allow for a lower safety margin in the voltage rating. For example, the cap may present a lower impedance, dissipate less power for a given driving signal.
I think if one reads suggestions for power supply capacitance values, and voltage ratings, it would usually be for standard cheapo bulk electrolytic.
I don't know anything about what Smash has selected, but it seems that he has done his homework on this.
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Hi folks,
I have just tried to swap out a dead graphical LCD on my Viscount OB-12, without success, and wondered if anyone with more experience of LCD's could please give me some advice? I suspect I may have killed the relplacement display, rather carelessly, but I'm not sure, as I have essentially no experience with these.
The OB-12 uses a 240 x 64 graphical LCD, with Toshiba T6963C controller, part number MGLS24064-67C made by Varitronix. I bought this display from futurlec as a replacement. It features the same controller, and essentially the same pinout. The display is actually a CM24064-8 from Shenzhen Brilliant Crystal, for which I have not found the manufacturer's data sheet. I don't have any specific info on the timing requirements of the Brilliant Crystal display, other than from the controller type.
I gather from the data on the futurlec site, and the Varitronix data sheet, that the two displays are essentially similar, with the following main differences (that I can see):
- Varitronix LCD uses -5V drive, Brilliant Crystal LCD used around -10V drive
- Varitronix LCD uses 1/64 duty, Brilliant Crystal uses 1/28 duty
I think the difference in drive voltage is just a matter of applying a suitable supply.
My understanding is that the duty cycle is a matter of internal implementation to a display, and should be agnostic from the synth.
Can anyone confirm this?
I bought the LCD from futurlec, as they had the best price I could find in a local reseller, and I thought the module would probably work.
Anyway, I made a mistake when plugged the replacement module into the OB-12. The OB-12's ribbon had been installed backwards, with the red wire on pin 20 instead of pin 1. I carelessly plugged the ribbon header into my new module, with the signals going to the wrong pins. I believe this actually applied a -5V (LCD drive of the original module) to the font select input of the new module, which is intended to experience no lower than -0.3V.
Once I realised my mistake, I reversed the connector back to its correct orientation, without success. I have tried running the new module with LCD drive of -5V or -12V, neither of which has worked. The only thing I have achieved is a nicely backlit blank display.
I currently don't have a scope available to monitor the signals to and from the module, though I may either borrow a scope, or take my synth in to work, to get a closer look.
So, does anyone with some experience working with modules have any advice? Should I just try again with a different module? Have I made some bad assumptions when I selected the module? Are there other critical factors for compatibility? Is it likely to be necessary to seek an exact replacement?
Any info or advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
madox
- Varitronix LCD uses -5V drive, Brilliant Crystal LCD used around -10V drive
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Hi,
It's been quite a while since I did my introduction to programming micros, so all my books are somewhat out of date.
I think using C is fine for programming modern micros. I believe some of the modern architectures are designed with compiler optimisations in mind, anyway.
Of course, assembly brings you closer to the hardware, but I think it's not necessary for most jobs.
I'm currently moving away from PIC assembly, and trying to get into C/C++ on ARM processors. These days, ARM provides excellent features for an affordable price IMO.
Do you have particular need for low power or battery operated embedded systems? I think the MSP430 is aimed at that market, isn't it?
I have found that understanding the hardware has been crucial for my work with micros. It sounds like you already have a grasp of programming, and you are already reading TI's docs, so I think you should be pretty well prepared for working throgh a text book.
Personally, I don't think it would be necessary to start with a PIC for programming. I'm also not sure that PICs are the easiest platform to work with.
I used some books from Sqaure 1 as a young fellow. They do provide an easy walk through for PICs, and I think are well texts. It has been a while since I looked at them though. The ones I used are for now long obsolete PICs.
I later used (an edition of) Microprocessors abd Microcomputers, Tocci, Ambrosio. This book is not bad, but I wouldn't pay the RRP at Amzon for it. It introduces number bases and general base n arithmetic, binary arithmetic, 2's complement representation etc. The microprocessor content focusses on the HC11/12 architecture. I do think this was an easy chip to play with. It is not a modern, feature rich design, though. I think the book covers important topics on register manipulation, and routines and interrupts in micros. However, I believe this coverage is available in many books, including books in a lot of public libraries. Personally, I like to own a text which I am to use extensively, though I just want to emphasise that there are many options for accessing the same sort of material.
I haven't got stuck into using ARMs yet, but my next design project is using a Cerf Board running Linux.
In some way, I would like to advise you just to start on a fully featured micro platform, use something that will give you a hardware abstraction layer, and focus on design for your application. However, maybe that is just where I am at right now. I think the best thing for you, would depend on what your real interests/aims are for this persuit. Do you want to be close to the hardware? Do you want to produce really efficient applications that make the most of limited resources? Do you want to produce absolute minimum cost, minimum size, minimum power designs? Presently, I am more interested in the applications side of embedded systems.
Hope that helps, and sorry if it's a bit irrelevant to your concerns.
P.S. Portability of applications, speed of development, good user interface, and rich peripheral options have become rather important for my work. I think all these factors are most easily addressed with programming in a high level language such as C, and using well featured platforms with a common, free/cheap OS/HAL. This is probably not what you are thinking about now, but it may be in a short time.
Cheers,
madox
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Also, do you really need to do this? Is it for power supply anywhere near a mains outlet? If it is for a vehicle/mobile supply, I would think the inverter suggestion is definitely worth looking into. These can be really affordable. Unless of course you want the design experience with a DIY project.
Lyle, just curious about your suggestions for driving a transformer with a switched wave; do you use a capacitor before the transformer? I wondered if there may be issues with a DC component presented with a low impedance from the transformer primary. Not sure if that would be the case.
Cheers
CNC Teaser
in Miscellaneous
Posted
Hi,
Nice looking kit.
Does the kit include a cutting tool? I couldn't see one listed.
Do you know how precisely this will cut, and what size plate you can work on? Is this pretty much limited to 2D work?