MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

[Rio]

Please can anyone explain me what the last commit 2597 in repository means:

Quote

Proposed UI changes for v4 + (to be discussed in person !:

It is a bugfix or a discussion? It isn‘t clear for me … Is it v4 related or only v4+? If I take a look inside source, it’s more blm8x8 related, right? I hope the master branch will not mixed up for uncertain testing purposes…

greetings. Rio

Edited October 12, 2018 by Rio

[latigid on]

It's specific to the midiphy v4+, not to worry. The options should be broken out to the hwcfg file. But I would refrain from compiling this version for now.

[Rio]

It is not good to use further check-ins in this way ... the branch was always cleanly maintained for years. I use the master branch all the time for my V4. At this point, I'm not sure if I can continue build releases from that branch.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Rio

[latigid on]

Good point, but please be patient for the next 12 hours or so.

[latigid on]

Commits approved by TK. himself. As the config uses conditionals based on the midiphy version, you've got nothing to fear when using other formats. Happy compiling! 

[Hawkeye]

@Rio no worries, it was only a "minimal invasive" patch that, as Andy said, would not touch or affect any non-midiphy SEQ v4+ variants. We visited TK today, thus the subversion commit comment "for personal discussion", which also had a smiley behind it. I tested the patch on my side thoroughly and expected it to be accepted by TK., but if it would not have been, it would have "cost" only a single subversion commit number to rollback.

Many greets,
Peter

[Rio]

Ok, and what has changed in rev. 2597? Please can you explain it to me? It affects TPD and blm8x8 sources - or I am wrong?

greetings,

rio

Edited October 13, 2018 by Rio

[Hawkeye]

@Rio

blm8x8: minimal bitmask changes for the midiphy frontpanel matias switch superflux backlighting, conditional logic not active for a standard v4

tpd: added additional mode for slightly different midiphy frontpanel mini led matrices, conditional logic is not active for a standard v4 (+ optional external tpd)

Many greets,
Peter

[latigid on]

Simply use the compare function in the SVN and you'll see the changes are minor and will have no effect on anything that you do.

Edited October 13, 2018 by latigid on

[Rio]

Thanks for detailed Infos. maybe it will be good next time to commit what has been changed and for which variant it is (or affects). Thanks and greetings, rio

Edited October 13, 2018 by Rio

[midilab]

I had write a manual usage for Pattern Remix workflow for those wondering what it is all about. Documentation suggestions are welcome as well.

http://midilab.co/midibox-seqv4-pattern-remix/

I had use a midibox seqv4 photo from user galery on this doc article, and if you're are that user and feels that its not good to have your photos outside this community please drop a line so i can delete the photo from the article or at least put your credits on the photo.

 

[ilmenator]

It is great that you have come up with such a document/page!

Please, upload that to the MIDIbox Wiki. We have seen a lot of effort lost over time because authors lost interest in MIDIbox for whatever reason, and then their website went offline, and all the fine documentation disappeared. No matter how enthusiastic you might be right now, there is a certain danger involved in offsite documentation. In short: offsite docu = bad.

Thanks!

[midilab]

On 22/10/2018 at 0:36 PM, ilmenator said:

It is great that you have come up with such a document/page!

Please, upload that to the MIDIbox Wiki. We have seen a lot of effort lost over time because authors lost interest in MIDIbox for whatever reason, and then their website went offline, and all the fine documentation disappeared. No matter how enthusiastic you might be right now, there is a certain danger involved in offsite documentation. In short: offsite docu = bad.

Thanks!

any ideas on where can i upload the documentation images? basicly those are just images simulating a lcd screen, i know that people here use some sort of lcd screen generator also for midibox seqv4 documentation. Maybe someone can point me the direction booth to standardirize(where can i generate those screens like seqv4 doc) and avoid offsite problems(a server to upload the images) on that matter.

[Antichambre]

14 minutes ago, midilab said:

any ideas on where can i upload the documentation images? basicly those are just images simulating a lcd screen, i know that people here use some sort of lcd screen generator also for midibox seqv4 documentation. Maybe someone can point me the direction booth to standardirize(where can i generate those screens like seqv4 doc) and avoid offsite problems(a server to upload the images) on that matter.

http://avtanski.net/projects/lcd/

("character lcd simulator" on google ;)

Edited October 29, 2018 by Antichambre

[midilab]

12 minutes ago, Antichambre said:

http://avtanski.net/projects/lcd/

("character lcd simulator" on google ;)

yeah there are a lot of then, i had use one for the matter. But when talk about standards for seqv4 doc i want to know exacly the one TK had use.

[Antichambre]

What's the difference? those Character lcds are already standard.
...But of course you can wait for TK's answer, he follows this thread very closely...

Best Bruno

Edited October 29, 2018 by Antichambre

[ilmenator]

18 hours ago, midilab said:

any ideas on where can i upload the documentation images?

Yes, that would be the MIDIbox Wiki.

[jjonas]

As to where there exactly, I think the MBSEQv4 documentation page would be the logical place to put the link to a "MBSEQ v4 Workflow" wiki page. A workflow page doesn't exist there yet, you have to make it. And if you are in the business of making a new wiki page with your workflow info there, I guess it could just as well be a general "MBSEQ v4 Workflow" page; even if has only your workflow there, others can add their later.

http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=mididocs:midibox_seq_v4

UPDATE: Oh and about the LCD generator, I remember using something that I think was a perl script to generate them, I think I got it from TK when I was making similar shots for the MBSEQv4 Beginner's Guide a couple of years ago. I can't find it right now though, it's been too long, I don't remember anymore.

Edited October 30, 2018 by jjonas

[monokinetic]

On 6/22/2018 at 11:53 PM, TK. said:

 I added an experimental AOUT calibration feature:

   o V4+ AOUT: support for AOUT channel calibration.
     In the CV configuration menu, turn GP ENC #7 until 0V/1V/2V/.../Max will be visible.
     Calibrate the offset of the target value with ENC #8.
     Each V has a dedicated calibration value which can be configured this way, the output will be interpolated accordingly.
     Note that with exiting the CV configuration menu the calibration values are stored on SD Card in the MBSEQ_GC.V4 file
     (-> CV_Cali <cv-counting-from-0>).
     You could backup/set/restore the values from there if required.
     To reset all calibration values: delete all CV_Cali items in MBSEQ_GC.V4, store the file and enter "reset" in MIOS terminal.

Please try this version: http://www.ucapps.de/mios32/midibox_seq_v4_095_pre13.zip

@TK wow this works really quite nicely. FYI I tried v4_095_pre14 on my STM32F4 based MBSeq. I observed the following:

- when scrolling through the options using ENC #7 it seems to go min/middle/max/wave. When set to wave there's a full voltage range triangle type wave coming out of CV, is that intended?

- once I scroll through to the end of possible values using 7, the last value is Max:. That seems a bit weird over here. When I initially scroll to Max I get almost 0 volts out of the CV channel, then if I touch ENC #8 the offset value on screen jumps to -3700 ish! At that point I get the full voltage out of CV. I guess this might weird out the interpolation a bit? And I started to scroll ENC #8 to get it back to around 0 but it was taking ages and I gave up :)

Otherwise, this change seems great. I have used it to play a couple of basic patches from MBSeq to my modular and it seems really accurate, excellent work, as usual!

Tiny feature idea: could presses of GP8 cycle through min/0/max offset? for quick changes?

Cheers

David

[TK.]

@midilab you will find the script which generates LCD screens under: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq/gen_mbseqv4_screens

It requires "perl" and "convert", and probably only works under Posix-like systems such as Linux and MacOS

@monokinetic thanks for the feedback, it has been considered in the official release :)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TK.]

Finally v4.095 is available with a lot of christmas presents as found in the wishlist of many people :)

MIDIboxSEQ V4.095
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   o support for midiphy Frontpanel.
     The appr. HW configuration file can be found under
     hwcfg/midiphy_lh/MBSEQ_HW.V4 and hwcfg/midiphy_rh/MBSEQ_HW.V4

   o introduced first "MBSEQV4+" function.
     MIDIbox SEQ V4+ is a special firmware variant for the STM32F4 core.
     It offers additional memory and/or CPU hungry functions which can't be implemented
     for STM32F1 or LPC17 due to resource limitations.
     These special functions are marked with "V4+" in future.

   o V4+: implemented CC layers for drum tracks.
     The CC numbers are statically assigned for all tracks of the session.
     They can be changed in the Options page (item 20/26)

   o trigger/layer edit views now also supported for drum tracks

   o reference step for pattern changes now works indpendent from reference step used for sync-to-measure

   o PATTERN page: pattern is switched immediately if SELECT button is pressed, regardless of
     the pattern change synchronisation option.

   o OPTIONS page: new option "Print and Modify Steps w/o changing Gate".
     If enabled: note values will always be print regardless if they are played or not.
     Changing a note value won't automatically enable the gate

   o OPTIONS page: new option "Print Notes with transposed value".
     Enabled by default (due to change in V4.093), can be optionally disabled now.

   o OPTIONS page: new option "Swap LED colours" (relevant for Wilba and midiphy Frontpanels)

   o OPTIONS page: new option "Invert Mute LEDs"

   o OPTIONS page: new TPD option "BPM" and "BPM with Beat": prints tempo value and optionally flashes to measure/beat

   o OPTIONS page: new TPD option "Logo" and "Logo with Beat": prints a 16x8 logo and optionally flashes to measure/beat
     There are individual logos for each session which can be edited in the MBSEQ_C.V4 file.
     If you don't find "TpdLogoLine" items there (because you are using an older session) just trigger the "Save" function

   o AOUT: MIDI Channel 9..12/13..15 now set the gate pins #1/3/5/7 as documented (previously it was #1/2/3/4 due to a code translation error)
     New: gate pins #2/4/6/8 are now set whenever the velocity is >100.
     This way the pins can be used as an accent trigger

   o V4+ AOUT: support for AOUT channel calibration.
     In the CV configuration menu, turn GP ENC #7 until 0V/1V/2V/.../Max will be visible.
     Calibrate the offset of the target value with ENC #8.
     Press GP #8 to cycle between min/0/max offset of the calibration point.
     Each V has a dedicated calibration value which can be configured this way, the output will be interpolated accordingly.
     Note that with exiting the CV configuration menu the calibration values are stored on SD Card in the MBSEQ_GC.V4 file
     (-> CV_Cali <cv-counting-from-0>).
     You could backup/set/restore the values from there if required.
     To reset all calibration values: delete all CV_Cali items in MBSEQ_GC.V4, store the file and enter "reset" in MIOS terminal.

   o Bugfix for permanently cleared notes if live recording is used after previous step recording

   o ProgramChange Layer: steps now disabled by default when the track is cleared

   o Whenever a track or parameter layer is unmuted, it will be automatically selected
     This option can now be disabled in the OPTIONS page (item 9/29)

   o new terminal command "lcd" allows to display a temporary message from on LCD from
     an external device via SysEx

   o encoder buttons can now be assigned in the MBSEQ_HW.V4 file (currently hardcoded to FAST function)

   o STM32F4 board: orange LED shows SD Card available, red LED any received MIDI IN, blue LED any transmitted MIDI OUT

   o experimental: terminal command "backup" creates a .tar file of the entire SD card.
     Whenever "backup" is entered, a new bak<incremented-number>.tar file will be created.
     This file can be downloaded from MIOS Studio (might take a lot of time!) or from a computer by
     plugging the SD Card into a SD Card reader.
     .tar files can be unpacked with "tar xfv <filename>" or with other decompression tools (might be 
     already installed on your computer by default)

   o experimental (might be optional in future): show measure and pattern step position in main screen

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Hawkeye]

Fantastic work! Thanks a lot! :)

Many greets,
Peter

[monokinetic]

@TK: oh my, did Christmas just come early :)

Excellent to see some updates, thank you! Will test over the coming days.

re: the AOUT extended calibration, is there a chance to merge this into MBCV2.0 at some point? I would find it really useful in that app as well.....

Just a thought!

Warm and festive regards

David

[latigid on]

Is there something like an "enter" button? Seems it would be useful e.g. to confirm a "flashing" menu item when using the jog encoder push function.

Edited December 23, 2018 by latigid on

[TK.]

@monokinetic yes it should be possible without much effort to activate the same functions for MBCV (and MBNG) - will check this the next days

@latigid on an optional enter button to confirm entries is not considered in the firmware and also not so easy to implement (too many changes at too many places) - I also wouldn’t use it by myself, therefore it won’t be supported.

Best Regards, Thorsten.