MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

[lp1977]

Just now, Antichambre said:

@lp1977 I forgot to apply the option#28(Invert Mute Leds) to the 2nd line when it indicates Tracks Mute in Layers Mute Page.
I corrected it and refreshed branch and precompiled another time.

Thanks @Antichambre, I will try the updated version.

[latigid on]

Just now, lp1977 said:

I'm about to pull my clear caps off and address the light bleed. Thinking about using some 3/4" heat shrink tubing cut into rings. I saw you settled on black magic marker. 

After that, I will be installing the windowed keycaps. It requires a lot of hand pressure to install the caps onto the switches before inserting them into the PCB. With you having installed different key caps and removing and reorienting them a few times, did you have any issues pressing them onto the switch with the switches already soldered in the PCB?

Any advice?

 

Thanks

Getting a bit OT here... Peter and I have been working on this and will have a solution ready for light bleed that could work for existing SEQs too. If you bought the midiphy L4 caps, they don't really like to come off again after insertion. The fully clear ones are safer in this regard. So for L4 caps you might want to wait a bit...

Or, there are other light-blocking ideas. Heatshrink doesn't work consistently enough as the bottom will pull away from the switch body. Something like LiquidTape could be a good bet but it is very stinky and you should work outside with it at least or even wear an air filter mask.

For keycaps, you could use a nail file (or borrow the better half's) or sandpaper to gently scrape around the stem of the cap, at least at the very tip to bevel the edge somewhat.

[Antichambre]

27 minutes ago, latigid on said:

Would have to try it some time I still don't have my SEQ mounted in its case 

lol, c'est toujours les cordonniers les plus mal chaussés ;)
 

27 minutes ago, latigid on said:

Another one that was intended to be developed was the mute/solo display rather than doubling up on redundancy. 

This can be done and optional too... Let me try it tomorrow evening...
 

27 minutes ago, latigid on said:

An obvious question is how forks in the software are managed if they diverge from the main branch and only Thorsten has "full" commit privileges

Don't worry I didn't touch to the master version, it's an alternative branch, if Thorsten validates it, he just has to merge those changes to the master. And for the precompiled files I shared here I clearly mentioned that it's not an official version, in red with exclamation marks!!! ;)

@lp1977 Yep like Andy I filed the stem a few before inserting it the first time.

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by Antichambre

[lp1977]

@latigid on

 

Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind.

Didn't mean to derail this software release thread with hardware talk. Perhaps a moderator can move these posts to the Midiphy V4+ topic.

 

Thanks

[Antichambre]

1 hour ago, latigid on said:

Another one that was intended to be developed was the mute/solo display rather than doubling up on redundancy. 

In fact it's already the case, the legacy SOLO follows the Track Selection. So you've got it already now with my modifications.
If you are talking about the SOLO which is on the BLM, it overrules the Legacy SOLO, then it will be complicated for the user to understand there's two solo system on the same machine. I think it's good like that.
But tell me when you have tested it. Another idea is to disable the legacy SOLO for Midiphy version only and implement the second SOLO layer(BLM) by using the SOLO button. Then on a SeqV4+, Track Selection and SOLO will be unlinked.

Best regards
Bruno

Edited June 28, 2020 by Antichambre

[u-link]

I have another little request / idea (which is born from my needs): at the moment, you can specify MIDI CCs to mute tracks. It would be amazing if you could chose to mute tracks via NOTES instead of CCs, too. Ideally, one would also be able to configure if "note on=track muted" or "note on= track unmuted". That would make mute automation a doddle in a DAW, you could simply have one MIDI track that sends out notes to mute and unmute tracks.

The reason for asking this is that i got some cheapo Akai controllers (Midimix and MPD218), and I would like to use one of them for track muting. The MPD218, which is a Pad controller with nice backlit pads, can't send CCs from the pads, and the Midimix's buttons cant be set to latch (and their backlighting only works with MIDI feedback, argh)!

[modus0perandi]

On 6/27/2020 at 1:07 PM, Antichambre said:

Full description is above in the thread ;)
I didn't test it with a non Midiphy SeqV4!

Here the whole release. !!! This is not official release !!!

Will these be merged to Master or will this just be a diverged branch / fork? I'd really like to be able to switch between track and layer muting, feels essential for drums.

Edited June 29, 2020 by modus0perandi

[Antichambre]

1 hour ago, modus0perandi said:

Will these be merged to Master or will this just be a diverged branch / fork? I'd really like to be able to switch between track and layer muting, feels essential for drums.

It's essential for me too.

But we will let Thorsten decide and maybe he has a better way than me to get the same result, he knows this firmware by heart much better than me ;)

[Antichambre]

Another interesting idea would be to synchronize the fx loop as the mutes can be.
But more precisely. With a variable rate from the loop length(steps) to the maximum number of steps in the sequence.
And the possibility of synchronizing the entry and exit points independently(enabled/disabled).
To be able to play with this effect and to always start or/and resume at the right time.

Using 2 new parameters: In and Out rates,  value range from Off,1, 2...256.
With In limited in software by the loop length and Out by the track length.

e.g. Here Loop In is applied when Loop is activated(no sync) and resumed in sync to the measure(16 Steps) just after the Loop is deactivated. Then the Measure restart correctly.

  // layout:
  // 00000000001111111111222222222233333333330000000000111111111122222222223333333333
  // 01234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
  // <--------------------------------------><-------------------------------------->
  // Global Loop Mode       Offset Steps     Loop     Sync In  Sync Out                    
  // All Tracks/Step View       15    2       on        Off       16

Best regards
Bruno

Edited July 2, 2020 by Antichambre

[modus0perandi]

This is for a seq v4+, dunno if it affects the normal v4, but anyhow (v.0.96):

Dunno if this is a bug or intended, i think its a bug or just weird behavior.

If i'm in phrase mode and have "restart all tracks on pattern change" enabled, as soon as i press a keycap on the bottom row, to change from ex, A1 -> B1, tracks restart just when i press the button (i also have pattern change synchronization enabled), even tho i see it "queueing" up a pattern change to synchronize, then when the synchronized pattern change occur, the tracks do not restart.

Shouldnt it be that the tracks actually restart when the synchronized pattern change occurs rather than when i trigger/queue a pattern change? To me this feature is useless like this, and i cant understand who would want to use it like this at all tbh?

Edited July 17, 2020 by modus0perandi

[modus0perandi]

another bug i found is in the duplicate fx (v0.96):

when using alternate channels: first channel is ignored, instead it only acknowledge additional channels but in a broken way.

This is the way it works and how channels alternate:

example, with first channel set 3

• Additional channel 1: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 2
• Additional channel 2: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 3 -> channel 4
• Additional channel 3: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 4 -> channel 5 -> channel 6
• Additional channel 4: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 5 -> channel 6 -> channel 7 -> channel 8
• ...and so on

It never care about the first channel setting which you can put to whatever you want and still get the behavior above.

It seems to always start from channel 2 regardless of source channel as well. if i put the effect on channel 4, and put first channel 6, it would still start to alternate from channel 2 as in the explaination above.

 

What should be according to the manual and common sense is:

example, with first channel set 3

• Additional channel 1: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 3
• Additional channel 2: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 3 -> channel 4
• Additional channel 3: source channel (chn 1) -> channel 3 -> channel 4 -> channel 5
• ...and so on...

Edited July 17, 2020 by modus0perandi
added firmware version

[modus0perandi]

Something of a feature request if its not already possible (havent found a way atleast), with the v4+ i understand there are more resources to use, so this might actually be doable i hope!

A "performance page" for lack of a better name where the knobs and buttons turn into "programmable" controllers which send output to where they are assigned.

ex,

knob 1 = midi output 1, chn 2, cc 60,

knob 2 = USB 1, chn 5, cc 45

knob 3 = midi output 2, chn 2, cc 61

etc....

also the buttons could have triggers on them, assignable in the same kinda way, send on/off's, program changes or just control mutes (custom groups or similar), turn on/off fx and other features on the sequencer.

The bottom row could select between different pages even, perhaps have page one to control synth x, page 2 could control synth y, page 3 could a mix of different things such as internal sequencer features and multiple external controls and so on....

i guess the sky is the limit regarding things to customize on such a page. I just think it would be nice to have a page that is really customizable for these kinda things since jumping around in menues to mute, change tracks or whatever is doable, but i think it could be made easier with this.

Edited July 17, 2020 by modus0perandi

[Rio]

I found a serious error in the Edit Page when selecting the MIDI port. It occurs when the CV ports are selected back and forth while the SEQ is playing. the whole thing occurs only sporadically. I do not use CV, there is also an *-sign behind it, but it crashes here...

!! HARD FAULT !!
at PC=0x00047e38

i'm using the last mios32 master branch and my hardware is a LPC17.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Rio

[Againsistm]

Hi,

It seems i ran into a bug or maybe there is an explanation for this.

I am using the midiphy with CV expanders and trigger expanders. I like to have separate trigger drum channels on G3T1 to G4T4 so i have 8 separate drum tracks. When a i add on G3T1 a trigger drum for the bassdrum everything works perfect so in this case G3T1 is a BD (CV1 / Channel 16 / Note C1) . 

Next i go to track G3T2 and to the same but then for an Closed Hat (CV1 / Channel 16 / Note C#1). When i do an init the problems start to arise. the BD track suddenly get a CH track or the CH track gets a SD track. This way i can't set up a good template for my liking. 

I know that you can have 1 track with all drum in there but i like to have them separate because i don't like a separate mute for this channel and i like to have different track length per drum voice / fx / groove etc. So doing everything on 1 track is not my ideal way of working. 

I should be possible to have 8 separate tracks for the same channel 16 and different triggers per channel right? It confuses me why everything gets garbled when i try to create this setup.

Many thanks.

Niels

 

 

 

[K-rAd]

I'm trying to use "note limit FX" to keep my bass track in the bass range while transposing and using FX.

I have noticed on version .096 an previous versions as well that, when I implement the "note limit FX" on my AOUT_NG, CV1, CH1, it makes the gate output get stuck on. The only way to unstick the note that I have found so far is to shutdown the midibox and restart. :(

Otherwise the note limit  works fine as far as pitch information. The feature just seems to have a glitch in the gate department.

Thanks for any insights. I'd love to get this feature working with the analog outs.

Edited September 23, 2020 by K-rAd

[TK.]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to catch up with the issue reports.

Some days before @modus0perandireported the issue with Duplicate FX, a user named "nullptr" at Github submitted a pull request which fixes it - cool! :)

-> https://github.com/midibox/mios32/pull/9

Here the new binary: http://www.ucapps.de/mios32/midibox_seq_v4_097_pre5.zip

Are there other issues which still appear with this version?
(I need a detailed description how to reproduce it at my side)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Rio]

Hi Tk,

did you notice the hard fault described?:

Greetings, rio

Edited October 6, 2020 by Rio

[TK.]

Yes, but I wasn't able to reproduce this at my side.
Could only be related to the LPC17 build (it has reduced RAM, and the hard fault address indicates a problem with memory writes), but unfortunately I don't have the HW ready.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Rio]

the whole thing occurs only sporadically while the seq is playing and ports are selected forth and back...

is additional memory required/allocated for CV ports?

[TK.]

We will continue the dialog via PM, and if a solution is found, post the update here.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[modus0perandi]

I have a question regarding the midi router.

Im trying to route midi from an external sequencer / keyboard / etc to selected tracks on the midibox but I dont understand how its supposed to work, so let me explain what im trying to do and what i expect since its supposed to route data.

 

1. I have an external sequencing source (that also acts as a master) that I put into the midibox seq on ex, port 1.

2. Using the midirouter I set up a node to receive on midi channel 6 -> route this to track 6 (on the sequencer).

3. Since im routing this to a track, im expecting (as the most simple use case) to for example be able to mute this track (and the incoming data) using mutes on the midibox, but this doesnt work at all. If i mute it, the notes from the external source still keep playing on the synth thats attached to the midiout of track 6. Also, i would expect to for example press record, and have the midibox record the routed data on the target track, this doesnt work either, so im totally perplexed as what the supposed function of routing to a track really is good for.

I was also expecting, or atleast hoping, that it would also be possible to use the midibox, not only as an "insert" sequencer between this source sequencer and the final destination, but also as a midi effect unit and use the existing midi effects on the midibox on the incoming data (i saw this and got inspired; blokas.io - midihub).

Adding this as feature toolset for the midibox would be really awesome, and also possible to expand the usage of the sequencer as a midi effect unit.

 

Am i misunderstanding the concept of the midi routing on the midibox or is there something i have set up wrong here?

[TK.]

This feature was requested from a user who just wanted to forward MIDI messages to the preconfigured MIDI port/channels of the tracks without further processing, and this is how it's working.

Your request goes into a different direction, it's more like a multi channel live/recording function - currently we can only record or play live (+ FX) on a single (selected) track. Allowing more channels would lead to higher RAM consumption, but it could be provided as a MIDIbox SEQ V4+ option, only working on a STM32F4.

I'm unsure how Mutes should be handled in this case. I would expect that independent Mute control would be preferable, e.g. to mute the sequence played on a track when the instrument should be played live, but this contradicts with your request. On the other hand: if separate mutes for this forwarding function are provided, where/how should they be controlled?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[modus0perandi]

3 hours ago, TK. said:

...

I would think it would just work as a filter, anything routed to a track should be considered track data/information. As in: if i mute this track i think its natural to expect anything routed to this track would be filtered out (muted) along with any sequenced data on this track.

If it works as you say, its not really routed to a track as i see it, but just using any midi out settings from that track which is something else.

 

But in this case; i would humbly ask for this as a future feature request since i think it would add alot of value to the v4+ as a sequencer / midi device. The possibilty to add more extra/interesting midi effects would be icing on the cake.

Edited October 18, 2020 by modus0perandi

[TK.]

Yes, the function is different, see also the MIDI Router documentation under http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_manual_m.html

Alternatively, also "Track" can be selected as target channel. In this case, incoming MIDI events will be routed to the MIDI port and channel of a track depending on the incoming MIDI channel number.
Usecase: MIDI events, such as CC or Notes, should be sent from a master keyboard or MIDI controller to synths which are assigned to different port and MIDI channels in the track configuration.
Just select the track with the MIDI channel on your keyboard/controller, the router will take care that the events reach the right destination.

I think it makes clear, that incoming MIDI messages won't be forwarded to the tracks, they will be directly sent over the MIDI port + channel of the appr. tracks.

For the mentioned use case, it would even be counter productive if track mutes would disable this forwarding - just imagine, somebody wants to mute some sequences played by tracks in order to play live over one or more keyboards by using this routing feature  - this wouldn't work anymore.

Your proposal is something different, and it would fit better as a multi track feature for the Record & Live function, not to the MIDI router.

Some general changes have to be done in the firmware to allow this - I added it to the Wishlist.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[modus0perandi]

3 hours ago, TK. said:

Yes, the function is different, see also the MIDI Router documentation under http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_manual_m.html

Alternatively, also "Track" can be selected as target channel. In this case, incoming MIDI events will be routed to the MIDI port and channel of a track depending on the incoming MIDI channel number.
Usecase: MIDI events, such as CC or Notes, should be sent from a master keyboard or MIDI controller to synths which are assigned to different port and MIDI channels in the track configuration.
Just select the track with the MIDI channel on your keyboard/controller, the router will take care that the events reach the right destination.

...

Your proposal is something different, and it would fit better as a multi track feature for the Record & Live function, not to the MIDI router.

Some general changes have to be done in the firmware to allow this - I added it to the Wishlist.

...

Ok cool, i hope that also means that i would be able to apply fx on incoming data, mute etc even without recording, which was mostly what i was after, like how that box works which i linked earlier, but with added sequencer possiblilty of the midibox. :)

Best regards!

Edited October 18, 2020 by modus0perandi