mkultra

Forgive me but I don't know where else to post this. I recently bought a Roland pg-1000 controller and while googling documentation, I came across this guy's site who apparently has programmed his own eprom for the pg-1000 that makes it a regular midi cc controller. http://timara.con.oberlin.edu/~jtalbert/Roland/roland.htm So the question of the day is, can I program my own MIOS based chip to convert the pg-1000 into a standard midi controller ? Thanks

Found the right forum for this. Apologies

Yes, I do want that. Find me a controller with more than 32 knobs or sliders? These are usually very costly, and often software/sequencer-oriented controllers. Besides, I have done this before with a pg-800, and it wasn't very elegant. Although I do love how small and compact it is. Compare the pg-1000 to the beringher BCR2000. the beringher has 32 crappy, 360 knobs, all very tight together. The pg-1000 has an staggering count of 56 sliders!, and it isn't all that big either. Please do point me to these controllers, because I cannot find them. The only controllers I ever laid eyes on were the doepfer regalwerks and drehbank, which are impossible to find. The PC-1600 seemed to basic to me. You know, I'll probably end up getting a pg-1000 with a d550, or d50, and remap things to logic in order to control other gear. Unfortunately, you cannot plug ANY roland pg/mpg controller directly to a midi setup. Thanks Roland! My love for roland gear is very selective. I've found the jd-800 is a bit overhyped compared to the rack version. Yes I can make great pads with it, but I can make that (in true stereo) plus a heck of a lot more on a jd990. an MKS-70 with a pg-800 will always be better than a jx-8p, or jx-10. I've had x3 mks-80 in the past. Once with an mpg80, and it made a huge difference. ugh, interfaces.. I do have to say though. What some of you are doing with this project is very interesting. I don't blame anyone for not being interested in doing custom dumb controllers.

I'd like a basic controller with the option to store global presets for each synth/efx box. This could sound confusing. I don't want to save synth patches, but global control templates according to each piece of gear. That way I wouldn't have to re-program it every time I use a different piece of gear. Every knob/slider would have a different sysex manufacturer's ID for every global preset for a particular synth. Does that make sense? I looked at the project and didn't make much sense of it, applied to what I'd like to do. I'd assume (since I can't grasp this much info) this would allow me to translate the code coming out of a lighting controller into sysex code tailored to a particular function. Often times I wonder if I'm better off getting a PG-1000 controller, and remap msgs within logic's environment to other synths. As far as availability concerns. It's incredibly tough to find old roland gear, even if they're only controllers. The pg-200/300/1000/800 could fetch as much as $370 on ebay, or $150 depending on the alignment of the planets at an auction's end. For the roland gear it takes me as long as months to hunt down what I want. Only to sell it back later at whatever price I'd find justified, often on the first try and at a fixed auction. Does that mean that in this syntax, instead of putting a range value of 0-127 in cc. In Sysex I'd have to type out every hex step between 0xF0 & 0xF7 ? That was such a tease.., and it signals what I could get myself into.. I'm having second thoughts now Odd layout btw. But it does save on multiple LCD screens I guess. Nice collage. it looks interesting. Thank you all for replying!

I have a JD-800 that I've been wanting to put on the market now for a week. The premise is that I don't really need it, and it's missing two essential things I use heavily when making sounds; cross-mod, ring modulator. Enter the JD-990, the JD-800 rack version which has those two essential things thrown in. Currently I use the 800 to control the 990. But it's very limited to what it can control on the 990. You can't switch which tone to edit, change waveforms, x-mod/ring, etc. It occurred to me that if I can do just about everything from a software based editor (sounddiver/Unisyn) I may be able to edit the same parameters with a custom made controller. Now. How cost effective would be to build myself a controller for such a synth. Would I be better off sticking with the JD-800 as a controller? What would entail to complete this kind of project? Are there examples of completed projects I could look at? Is it possible to have both a Sysex & CC controller in one box? Would I need to learn assembly or C if I just want a controller? Would a stock midibox64 do the job? Mind you that I'd also plan to use this controller to control other synths (and possibly efx gear) that have passed through my hands on & off throughout most of my life. Roland MKS-80-70-50-7, Digitech gsp2101, ensoniq dp2/dp4. I'm a rack oriented kind of guy. Yet another question.. Is it possible to retrofit MIDI lighting controllers as synth programmers?