creatorlars

On another note, if you are doing individual accent channels for drum voices, it seems much better to just control them via that drum's parameter layer instead of using up a different track. I'm not sure if the firmware can already do this or not (send to an extra DOUT based on a parameter layer.) If you REALLY wanted to beef up your 808's accent potential, you could hook up an AOUT board and send a velocity-dependent CV output to each drum voice's Accent input (added to 5v, to make the range 5-15v.) I know that would probably require all sorts of firmware adjustments and I don't think MB808 supports full Midi velocity, but in that case you'd have a full range of velocity for every drum voice on every step. :)

In order to answer your question, it's neccesary to understand the 808's circuitry a little better (I am assuming you are referring to the 808 drum voices.) In order to trigger, an 808 voice (such as the BD) needs two signals -- one at the trigger input and one at the accent input. Customarily, the accent input of ALL modules is connected to the same output from the Accent circuit (which includes the accent level knob.) What this means is that the accent signal must be always present when the drum is fired, even if there is no accent on that step. The difference in intensity/volume comes by the level of voltage at the accent input. When the accent circuit is not triggered, this voltage is 5V. When global accent IS triggered, this voltage is determined by the position of the accent pot (somewhere between 5v and 15v.) So to answer your question -- Yes, it is possible to have more than one accent channel. But your understanding of the requirements for the Accent signal are not complete. You can't just send an extra DOUT to the Accent input of the module and disconnect it from the global accent -- in that case you'd be hearing the drum ONLY on accented steps (since the drum requires both signals to trigger), and not at an accented velocity (since the accent voltage would only be 5v). In order to get the functionality you want, you'll have to clone the accent circuit from the schematics (which you can find on the eight-oh-eight.org forums) for each drum voice you want to have it's own accent. Please let me know if this is confusing. I have built several 808 voices for my modular synth and it's been a battle figuring out how it all works. :) Also I've discovered that you need a 1ms pulse only at one of the two inputs (Trigger and Accent) -- the other signal can be a constant voltage. I've successfully sent envelope or LFO signals conditioned to fluctuate between 5-15v to the Accent input of my 808 modules with good results. Also you can send the exact same trigger signal to both Accent and Trigger inputs and the drum will fire fine. So if you'd prefer to "deactivate" accent on one or several of your modules, rather than adding extra accent channels, you will find that much easier. :) Just cut the trace from the accent input of the drum voice to the global accent, and short together the trigger and accent inputs.

This all sounds fantastic. Thanks for taking the time with my questions. My SEQ is sitting here begging for a new core board and an alpha release. I can't wait.

My vote is for global instrument definitions, or a way to use that if desired. This would speed my workflow up by 200%, since in my application I have a limited set of instruments/drum modules I use, and a specific way I route everything. Not having to assign midi ch, note number, etc. for drum sounds after saving them in a preset file would be amazing. This would allow me to use the SEQ completely intuitively without messing with the event page or anything -- just sequence away! As far as how many, personally it would nice to be able to define 32 or more drum presets and 8 or more instrument presets.

support for percussion tracks and a way to store some kind of preset drum map would be huge for me, so this is extremely exciting since I am currently frustrated by how tedious it is to quickly program drums (vs. how easy it appears to be with the MB808.) let me see if i understand... with 16 tracks containing 16 instruments each, does that mean you could be controlling up to 256 different drums at the same time? or does that mean you're limited to 16? will labeled drum presets be definable (such as 808Kick -> Ch. 1 Note C-1, etc.) to aid assigning drums to a new drum track?

This sounds incredible. I can't wait to test it out!! For me, my SEQ is a midi merger and master controller for my modular synth/drum machine. I send the output to my Midibox CV and make heavy use of the CV/Gates, Sync, Trigger outs, etc. Being able to run a large number of tracks (24+) as dedicated simple percussion outs (perhaps able to be renamed appropriately according to my drum modules in the firmware) in addition to the normal tracks would be HUGE for me, as well as being able to select either Gate or 1ms Trigger on those outs. I wanted to build a second MB808 sequencer, but that isn't as ideal for me as having a single SEQ -- and if something like this could be implemented, I am just going to go ahead and wait. Plus, i can get my way around C a lot better than ASM and may have more of a chance at customizing the firmware. :) The ability to load/play existing midi files is another huge thing. Now I can compose on the computer and not spend hours trying to get all the patterns and songs transferred to the SEQ for a live show.

Well my DIN board (which is just a single shift register exactly as detailed in the schematic) is working fine. I have checked all the connections successfully from the pins on the shift register back to the PIC, and from the shift register to my DOUT pins... everything is fine. I only have the one DOUT shift register at the moment, so if it's bad, it's just a single one bad and not a whole chain... only other thing I can think of is the PIC has a bad pin, but that doesn't seem likely. I will check out that SRIO test app... the one I was using is the DOUT test app.

Cool, I will do that as soon as I get this working! I think I have burnt shift registers, because I'm getting nothing on my DOUT pins even with the DOUT test application -- ordering more today. It would be cool to add an extra menu page allowing you to route the DOUT triggers to whatever values you liked, maybe I'll try to tackle that in the future. It'd also be nice to be able to select whether or not a specific DOUT is a 1ms trigger or a regular gate.

Worked! Thank you so much. I posted about asking how to change the Midi Channel from Ch. 1 to Ch. 16 in the "Design Concepts" forum, but I realize it may be better off moved here, in case you want to move it.

I am trying to compile the Midibox CV application using code offered for DOUT triggers in the Wiki here: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=how_to_use_midibox_cv_with_a_dout I am getting a "syntax error" on this line: IFNEQ MIOS_PARAMETER1, ACCESS, rgoto USER_MPROC_NRE_NoNoteChn1 The compiler doesn't return any errors if I comment out this line (but I'm guessing then my triggers won't work. :-[) Any clues? My MIOS coding skills are nothing right now, so I'm not even sure what I'm looking at.

I have a very quick question -- on the WIKI there are instructions and code for adding additional DOUT triggers to the Midibox CV. Currently the code works with midi channel 1. Can anyone help me identify which parts of the code reference the midi channel? I'd like to change it to reference midi channel 16 instead. Code reposted below for convenience: USER_MPROC_NotifyReceivedEvent ;; BEGIN --- control DOUT pins via Note events at channel #1 movf MIOS_PARAMETER1, W ; Note Off -> Note On with velocity 0 andlw 0xf0 xorlw 0x80 bnz USER_MPROC_NRE_NoNoteOff USER_MPROC_NRE_NoteOff bsf MIOS_PARAMETER1, 4 clrf MIOS_PARAMETER3 USER_MPROC_NRE_NoNoteOff movlw 0x90 ; check for Note On at channel #1 IFNEQ MIOS_PARAMETER1, ACCESS, rgoto USER_MPROC_NRE_NoNoteChn1 USER_MPROC_NRE_NoteChn1 ;; MIOS_DOUT_PinSet expects pin number in WREG, value in MIOS_PARAMETER1 movf MIOS_PARAMETER3, W ; velocity == 0: off, velocity != 0: on skpz movlw 0x01 movwf MIOS_PARAMETER1 movf MIOS_PARAMETER2, W ; pin number: note number - 0x24, we start with C-2 addlw -0x24 andlw 0x7f call MIOS_DOUT_PinSet USER_MPROC_NRE_NoNoteChn1 ;; END --- control DOUT pins via Note events at channel #1 ;; process MIDI event call CV_MIDI_NotifyReceivedEvent ;; for best latency: branch to USER_Tick so that the new CV values ;; will be mapped immediately rgoto USER_Tick

Yeah, bugfight, we need to get together again to get the SEQ controlling all 8 SIDs...! I'm trying to get a studio set up over the next month or so, so I'll let ya know. Saturday was super-fun. Thanks very much for the link, monokinetic -- I don't know how that slipped past me! I need to join that Yahoo group... I just got 9090 boards in the mail last week. Cheers, Lars

Cool, thanks! This is all working now. New MBCV pics coming this week.

So my new Midibox CV is booting up fine, but my DIN buttons aren't working yet... After double checking all my wiring, I realized that the 33pf caps connecting each end of the crystal on my core board were missing. How crucial is this value? I don't have any 33pf caps, but I have some 47pf caps, will those work too? Just don't want to make an order for the 33pfs if I don't have to. Thanks, Lars

Has anyone built the MB808 seq as a standalone drum sequencer yet? I'm about to, and was wondering if there were any notes on this... looks pretty straightforward. I was about to build a simple standalone MIDI-->Trigger converter for my modular drum stuff, and decided that I might as well make it a 2U instead of a 1U panel and make the MB808 seq while I was at it.

This was my original implementation, and still a good idea. I'd only want to do this in /addition/ to a separate MIDI input for the drum modules, though -- because it still means the SEQ is the only way to MIDI control the drums. I'm just trying to cover my ass by modularizing everything as much as possible... so that if my SEQ is having problems, I can always control it with something else. I will probably include 8 1/4" jacks on the back of my SEQ as additional trigger outs if they're ever needed, since those don't require an AOUT board and may come in handy, for situations where I'm using the SEQ with other analogue gear such as my Drumulator, or to send sync pulses to my Juno 6's arpeggiator. I agree with your suggestions about LFO and envelope control, but for my purposes I am fine with patching that sort of thing up. A MIDI tempo-sync'ed analogue LFO hybrid would be really badass, though. I'm guessing you can do something like that with the SID, which I do plan to build later this year.

Thanks for the notes. This is what I'm currently doing. I have a huge console with the trig outputs of the SEQ literally soldered to the trigger input jacks behind my Drum Module panels. I thought integrating everything into one huge case was going to alleviate the stress of setup and performance, but in practical application it's really hurt my workflow and completely stifled the "modular-ness" of my rig (which was the whole point in the first place.) For example, if I want to use anything other than the SEQ to control the drum modules, the SEQ has to be on and enabled as a MIDI-->TRIG converter. I use software for composition sometimes, and it would be much more convenient to just sit there with a 5U rack of drum modules with a MIDI input. Or if I wanted to bring the SEQ over to a friend's all laptop setup to just use as a MIDI controller, it's really impossible. In addition the MIDI-->CV features of the SEQ are much further behind the MIDIbox CV as far as scaling and saving patches.... since my system is all analogue, it's important to have those features. So I'm recasing my SEQ (again) with no analogue outs... and then building MIDI input solutions into each rack of synth modules, or each synthesizer, that I own. In the case of a rack of drum modules, I just need hardwired MIDI--> trigger, and CV of velocity, etc. completely behind the scenes. For my rack of oscillators/filters, I want the full MIDIbox scaling capability, so it will be built on an interface with the panel, etc. I still plan to include sync pulse/reset jacks on the SEQ when I move it back to a desktop case, though. Let me know if any of you have ideas.

First, I apologize for my quick and poorly thought out questions. :) I found most of the answers I needed after the fact. You're right -- if I'm going to get so specific about my needs, it's probably best if I modify the code to fit my system -- it all exists in some MIDIbox project or another anyway. I'm about to re-panel all my analogue drum circuits, and I want to condense them into fully MIDI-enabled standalone drum machines. Some of the circuits have some CV'able parameters and I want to implement everything as fully as possible. I'll post more when I more fully flesh out my concepts and needs.

Hi, I am working on some MIDI->CV/trigger applications for my modular, and have a couple questions. 1) Can the Midibox CV send 1ms drum trigger pulses via DOUT pins, as the SEQ can? 2) If not, should I be able to use the SEQ firmware in a minimal pre-configuration with no interface, as just a MIDI-to-triggers distributor? What about Trigger + Velocity CV? 3) Any other suggestions?

Worked like a charm!! Having a session with a buddy of mine right now. Thanks for taking the time.

Hi TK -- I tried to compile the src files from the zip file you posted, but am getting a bunch of errors (several thousand.) I'm using MPASM the same way I have used it to compile the source files after modifying the configuration file before. Am I doing something wrong? I can't use the default hex build because my buttons are configured on different pins. Thanks, Lars

Absolutely! You don't have to ask. :) The trigger pulse outs of the SEQ are hardwired to all the trigger inputs of my modules (drum modules and envelopes) from behind the panels -- this way I don't have to patch them. (The 6 modules on the left side are cloned 808 voices and other drum circuits.) You can see there is an "AOUT" module with the 16 jacks for CV/Gate outs. The back of the synth has an auxillary panel with the 2 MIDI ins and 4 MIDI outs from the SEQ. There are also two Footswitch inputs, for seq start/stop. I use it mainly to sequence analogue gear, the MIDI data is sent to sync our video projection software, etc. The Midibox SEQ is the core part of my rig and I'm in love with it. :) I want to build a new panel soon, with the 64 LEDs, and maybe a second MB808 seq too. I also am going to make a dedicated tempo display/BPM encoder. Thanks so much for checking this out for me -- I will drag my rig into the house tomorrow and try it out to see what's going on. :) I'm going to be Nine Inch Nails at an early 90's cover band show this Halloween, and I am doing it the lazy way by just downloading midi files. And playing them thru the SEQ-->AOUT via a laptop. :) Maybe I like Skinny Puppy too much... haha. I just bought a Drumulator too. :) The Mirage is great...

Quick question. I'm trying to use my Midibox SEQ3 as a MIDI-->CV converter to play my Ableton Midi sequences. This works great for the relevant CV out, routing via the Midi menu -- except Gatelength does not translate appropriately, no matter what I do. Has anyone else noticed any similar issues? When I start the pattern, it appears that the AOUT Gate out turns on and just stays on. My AOUT CV & Gate outs work perfectly when driven by a SEQ track, so I'm guessing it's a firmware issue (or something I'm missing that may be turned on or off.) I've been considering building a second core and making a Midibox CV to replace the AOUTs of my SEQ, to rectify the problem. But I'd rather not. Please let me know if you have ideas! I've been working with the sequencer heavily. Attached is a pic of my modular console, with Midibox SEQ on the bottom left (i took it out of its desktop console -- and really want to redo the panel soon.) Thanks, Lars

I would love to see a tempo-synced envelope generator feature implemented into the SEQ someday, using the CV outs. :) I don't see a need for delay on the sequencer tracks, though... if sync'ing up the peaks were an issue to me, I'd just modify the analog circuit to have a variable trigger delay at the input. (I'm not sure how this would work exactly but I'm pretty sure a very simple drop-in logic type circuit could do this.)

I build my decked out MBSEQ3 a couple months ago to use primarily as a drum sequencer (secondarily as a CV sequencer for my modular.) I love it, it has been 100% stable and I love the implementation of the machine... BUT, it's immediately obvious that for drum programming applications, the workflow would be so much smoother with the new MB808 firmware. And also, I'm building a large console-style portable cabinet for my modules and would like to integrate all my sequencer stuff and a mixer into the same console, so that I can leave things patched in, hardware trigger-outs to trigger-ins of my drum modules, and not require tables/stands/carrying cases, etc. etc. (The cabinet will close up to protect everything, and have removable legs for stage use.) So, building a new SEQ for this console is definitely on the to-do list. What I would like to do is build a mega-Midibox panel to fit rack-width into the console, including hard-sync'ed MB808 sequencer + MBSEQ3 with some sort of hard-wired "master tempo" feature w/LED display and dedicated encoder -- with hard-wired control of both sequencers, and some pulse outputs to sync analog LFOs, etc. Now, hah... what would be involved in building a master interface for both sequencers... and having some sort of "Drum Seq<-->Regular Seq" toggle, which basically would swap all frontpanel mounted components back and forth between the two core boards running each SEQ? Is this possible, with some sort of switching board? Or would breaking the connections screw up the running firmware, etc? What are the possibilities as far as having some sort of "Master Song Mode" type feature, integrated w/both seqs?