m00dawg

Haha well, I was thinking of building the lite version so we have a clock-box. I think that one allows us to send patch changes as well doesn't it? The full version would be great too but we might not have the funds for that before we start playing live. I want to build an integrated 1U rack that contains a GM5x5x5, a few ArduinoBoys, and some external connections to my GameBoy and some extra MIDI ports and things. I suppose I could put a simple clock-box in there too with a read-out on the front...hmm (*ponders*). Either way, I will still need Ableton as a send/return bus for some things until we get a hardware effect box. Even then, I don't know of a hardware box that can do grain delay (which we use for one song). Oh and I'd need something that can send out a click track for us too (trying to stay in time with our GameBoys is difficult for some songs due to how we have the noise drums setup). I've love not to be reliant on a laptop or Live for shows though. That should only be for backup is my thought.

Indeed that's probably worth a try. But from what I've read, I think Live may still filter out those messages. Worth a shot though. It's a shame there isn't an easier way about it but I'll give that a try at some point soon.

@Thomasch Aha, so now this Ableton "feature" finally gets me. I've read of complaints about Ableton filtering things out and I guess this is one of those cases. Unfortunately, I don't have M4L as I just have Suite (would have been great if they included M4L in Suite, but oh well). @Brathering From what I now understand, Live may filter CC0 out and it's also not a selectable option in the automation section :/ I suppose I could also use a virtual MIDI device that strips off the CC32 Live sends. I wonder how many beer donations it might take for TK to add a work-around in the MidiBox firmware :)

For some reason, I thought the MidiBox stuff didn't send patch changes out. But I'll give it a shot once I'm back at home. If I can just record the bank changes, that will work just as easily for me. Curious why setting it in Live's bank/patch section doesn't work though :/

I feel this is a dumb question but I can't seem to get it working. I want to make sure clips I use in Ableton Live set the bank/patch for the instrument I am using on a particular MIDI channel. This is both just to avoid having to select all my patches when I record as well as, and perhaps most importantly, for live settings. In reading the docs patch/bank changes are SysEx commands but I don't know how to send those through Live on my own (without capturing one and recording it). Live has a bank/patch/program section but for whatever reason that's not working. The problem could be with Ableton Live but thought I would check here. I seem to remember trying to do this before and thought it might have something to do with the MidiBox firmware having a special way to change banks? Or am I just dumb? :)

I designed a board and had it made at BatchPCB. Before that, I just wired them to a protoboard, yep. The board layout is really simple so you could probably make your own. You're welcome to mine, although I haven't looked at it in a while. I had one issue with Batch where my ground-plane didn't connect when it should have (specification mismatch probably on my part) but I recommend using DorkBot PDX now for one-off boards.

No worries. I like building PSUs myself - always a fun route to go! Just wanted to point out there does exist and off the shelf solution should that not pan out or you wanted to spend time building something else.

Thus my suggestion to use a linear PSU like the one I linked to which is not a switch-mode (but is a wall-wart).

I love building PSUs so going the DIY route here will be fun and get you what you want. But, if you would rather spending time building something else, you could simply by a linear regulated PSU like this one. I think that is the exact one I use for my sammichFM and modded NES in fact.

Oooh yeah good point - indeed it did.

The chip used in the Genesis, I'm pretty sure, is less capable than the OPL3 chipset. You can generally get a good look at the capabilities of the OPL3 by listening to various tunes made with Adlib Tracker. Most of that can be done using MBFM (though MBFM can do things Adlib Tracker can't and probably visa versa).

That's the impression I had, which is a bummer because those extra waveforms seemed really interesting!

Man you guys make it look easy! Sounds great nice job!

There is a preset patch bank contained in the MBSID distribution / firmware, so you probably already have it. There is one for the 6581 and one for the 6582/8580. They're basically demo patches, but would be a good jumping off point. The thought of a patch repository has come up from time to time. I'm all for it! Never does seem to quite get off the ground, though :/ There are some really good arpeggiator patches on the forum as well if you're looking for good arps. That patch-set could use more contributions if you happen to run into some awesome arps you wanted to share.

Well, to be clear, it's not our vocals - it's Famikon's (the guy we contacted via fiverr.com). You will hear us on our next album though, although my band-mate will be doing most of the vox (I'll be doing background vocals mostly). That said, it turned out really well. The whole chiptunes + rap thing is a pretty good combo :)

Though not many MidiBox things are found on this track (we did use my GM5x5x5 if that counts :P), made heavy use of the GameBoy with LSDJ and our ShieldBoy (our own ArduinoBoy adoption for folks that are familiar with that project). It's a fun tune we were able to complete with the help of fiverr.com and a rapper on there that helped us with the lyrics and vocals. This is I think the 2nd or 3rd song we ever worked on for Chipsurf Pipeline, but it never fit the album. Turns out it's because it was destined to be a chip-hop song, not a chip-surf one :) Anyways enjoy! If you like it, it will be available as a free download later on. We released it as a pre-master early so we could add it as an option for our Kickstarter project (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/victimcache/chipsurf-pipeline-on-vinyl):

You mentioned vinyl EPs - I hope that means this might end up in vinyl form as well perchance!?

Mine is also soft and I'm pretty sure it's due to the low power op-amps being used. I would recommend fixing it in post or putting a amp-stage (say a mixer or maybe a Cmoy Headphone Amp) in front of it is you need to boost the signals into your sound-card. I would guess the reason the low-power op-amps were used was to keep the power supply solution simple as they can work with as low as +/- 2.5V.

My personal opinion on that is that analog filters make me really excited. So I will always pick VCF first I think. My application will be for an external filter for my SID and GameBoy so I will be adding additional capabilities as opposed to going all analog and won't have too much of a problem there. I do eventually want to move to an analog modular setup (or something like that). Either way, you could always, in the worst case, just build multiple MBCVs if you need more CV inputs. I would think, in that case, having a 3xOSC, 3xVCA in one, and VCF's in another would make the most sense? I suppose that's not quite as ideal as it could be but still rather flexible I would think.

I don't have one yet (the old or new MBCV), but to my knowledge, you're not too far off. The new MBCV will have patch recall, in addition to LFOs and all sorts of fancy things. It will eventually also have a hardware control surface option (but the software control surface is being designed first). Obviously you still need something that makes noise and speaks CV but sounds like you already have that covered.

To my knowledge, the only thing asidxp would allow you to do is play C64 SID tunes through MidiBox. Beyond that, the two synthesizer designs are likely too different to make porting patches a possibility today. For be able to manipulate the MBSID, load and save patches, etc., have a look at the sticky threads on this sub-forum as there is both a CTRLR-based solution (still in development) and a Java-based solution (the MBSID Editor).

I agree with you, but I'm pretty sure TK is planning on a physical control surface. He just wanted to get the basic design down where it is more fluid and cheaper (in software). Even if he doesn't, I wouldn't think it would be too difficult for someone else to add. For today, though, you can accomplish basically the same thing with a MIDI controller and CTRLR and could even build a customer MIDIBox controller if you so desired. You could even put those two things together in the same box such that the difference would be almost indistinguishable from a native control surface.

Saving a patch is a menu-driven option if you are changing patches on your MBSID itself. Another option will soon be the CTRL interface TK is developing, which should support patch saves soon. In the meantime, if you're not sure where to find the save option, I would recommend you check out the manual. It is hugely helpful, particularly if you have a small control surface and has some nice step-by-step instructions to help you get acquainted with things.

Thought I would reply to this thread instead of a new one since it was already mentioned above and apologize it's a bit off-topic. We have finally setup a Kickstarter project to put Chipsurf Pipeline on vinyl. The minimum goal is a 7" single, but if we end up getting more support, we'll shoot for an LP instead. We have already listened to a dub-plate of one of the songs to test out how things might sound (the very same dub-plate we are giving away to the top contributor to the project). While it doesn't have the clarity of the master (obviously), it does sound better than what you can get from iTunes or Spotify, and it has a bit of a smoother sound. I'm an avid (non-hipster) vinyl guy so I appreciate the sound but also the experience of having a collectable that is physical and real, as opposed to just 0's and 1's that happen to comprise a song. Either way, if you're interested in participating, head on over to our project page for more info!

Whoa that was amazing! Sadly I didn't get to watch the whole thing because YouTube was not behaving. Was able to watch about 3/4 of it though and it was really neat! The FS1r is an amazing synth! And you appear to be a pretty good pilot :)