MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

[Schrittmacher]

I´ve tested the BLM-Scalar remote... it works perfect. It shows the new possibilities of the Remote app. Thorsten i love this thing :-) the response is very fast. i am looking forward for new funktions.

P.S

My mandolane trail is running out, and i have tested the mios 9.0 in my Parallels Enviroment. It works good with one exception, the core should *NOT* connected thru a USB HUB. I use under Parallels Windows Xp with SP3 and the latest Java Runtime.

Thanks TK for this

Edited November 24, 2009 by Schrittmacher

[Gridracer]

ALL BUTTON:

would it be possibel to have the ALL BUTTON effecting really all steps of a track,

not only the ones that are actually set?

(Just like it was on V3, if I remember right)

For me this would make much more sense,

especially since there is the SELECT BUTTON to call and define a exclude pattern for the ALL function.

At the moment it is hard to set, eg. the velocity, of all steps to a dedicted value.

Or am I just missing something?

Best Regards,

Gridracer

[TK.]

A new "Happy new year to all MBSEQ V4 users" release is available! :)

Gridracer: this issue should be fixed now in Beta15

Additional features:

  o Track sections which should be played can now be selected via MIDI

    Keyboard as demonstrated in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_RQL24j8no


    Each group (G1/2/3/4) has a separate selection zone on the keyboard.

    Key C..B select section 1..12, the first key of the octave (C) plays

    the first section as usual, it has the same effect as if this feature

    is disabled.


    The width of a section depends on the track length.


    E.g., if the track length is set to 32, and if it consists of 256 steps,

    8 sections are available which can be selected with Key C/C#/D/D#/E/F#/F/F#/G



    It is recommented to activate the "Follow" function under UTILITY->OPTIONS

    when using this feature, so that the edit display gets automatically updated

    whenever the section is changed.


  o the MIDI configuration page has been overworked to handle the new parameters.

    Track sections can be selected from a dedicated MIDI Port and Channel.

    The keyboard zone assigned to the group can be changed, so that it's possible

    to merge groups (e.g. all 4 groups controlled from a single octave).


  o an individual section can be selected for each track in the StepView.

    Press & Hold StepView + SELECT button, then press the GP button of the

    appr. section.

    This feature is also nice for editing large tracks!


  o implemented CC#123 (All Notes Off) - it empties the note stacks if

    value 0 is received. Values > 0 will be ignored

[/code]



I guess that you will especially like the "section" feature since it has been requested multiple times in the past.

For a quick try, press & hold StepView + SELECT button and select a new step view.


To control this from a MIDI keyboard (the method that I prefer during live playing), configure the MIDI settings under MIDI->Section Control, and play some keys on your keyboard.



Sections will also be selectable via BLM4x16 and BLM16x16 in future (probably already with Beta16)


Best Regards, Thorsten.

[loompo]

great. thanks TK!

[Gridracer]

Great news and a perfect start for the new year!

Can,t wait to test it on the weekend.

It is getting better and better and better: V4 lives on the fast lane...

Sections will also be selectable via BLM4x16 and BLM16x16 in future (probably already with Beta16)

Once again, thank you TK and also a very happy 2010!

Best regards

Gridracer

[Gridracer]

Just noticed some minor issues on the SONG and PATTERN screen which I want to report:

I am not sure if the section in the manual is just not updated yet

or if it is a bug in the current firmware or only not implemented yet:

From the Manual:

PATTERN screen:

GP buttons: the 128 patterns are enumerated from A1 to h8. The 8 buttons at the left side switch between A-H/a-h (press the button twice to select a "lower case" character), the 8 buttons at the right side are used to select the pattern number (1-8).

I can not toggle between capital and lower case characters, only capital characters are available

SONG screen:

For a fast usage the Track and Layer buttons have a special function in this screen: the Track buttons select the pattern group G1..G4, Layer button A sets the cursor to the "Song" item, Layer button B selects the "Position" item, Layer button C selects the "Action" item.

The layer buttons do not move the cursor

Best Regards

Gridracer

[findbuddha]

Wilba already helps with the layout of the upcoming MBHP_BLM_SCALAR (a scalable button/LED matrix)

Thorsten/Wilba, any idea what buttons are planned for this? I'm curious how the buttons in the matrix will align to the displays.

Thanks :)

[Gridracer]

I noticed another tiny issue:

When "follow" is activated in the options menu,

the paste function does not work correct: The paste offset value gets changed when the chaselight passes.

Best Regards

Gridracer

[robotfunk]

Got my barebones sequencer working this week, spending all my days learning this thing, great fun so far!

One thing that isn't working for me is the Record page, whatever I try I don't seem to be recording anything from MIDI, realtime or not.

Got a MIDI keyboard into MIDI in port 1, and I see activity in the MIDI Monitor page, but can't seem to record it. Could be a user error though, but I assumed you could just play MIDI and it would be recorded in this page.

Also looking at dumps in MIOS Studio (juce beta 5) I noticed my SD card does not have the file MBSEQ_G.V4, don't know if that could be related? Otherwise, wow, I'm going to be lost in this thing for a while :)

[robotfunk]

Managed to get it working thanks to vcfool in the chat, needed to choose the in1 port in transposer and arp, to be able to record, hadnt' thought of looking for it there... woop!

[TK.]

From the Manual:

PATTERN screen:

I can not toggle between capital and lower case characters, only capital characters are available

Yes, because only 64 patterns per bank are available.

I will change this in the documentation

SONG screen:

The layer buttons do not move the cursor

I'm still unsure if I will take over this function into V4, since the handling is inconsistent.

It's easier to select (and change) a parameter with the encoder

Thorsten/Wilba, any idea what buttons are planned for this? I'm curious how the buttons in the matrix will align to the displays.

There wasn't so much progress on this project lately.

I will probably create a prototype on veroboard first, but before I'm starting with this, I have to be 100% sure about the additional buttons/LEDs.

I noticed another tiny issue:

When "follow" is activated in the options menu,

the paste function does not work correct: The paste offset value gets changed when the chaselight passes.

fixed in beta16

Managed to get it working thanks to vcfool in the chat, needed to choose the in1 port in transposer and arp, to be able to record, hadnt' thought of looking for it there... woop!

Btw.: I noticed a bug in the live recording function - it's fixed in beta16 as well

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TK.]

A new release is available:

MIDIboxSEQ V4.0beta16

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


  o MIDI->Section Control: Octaves which are not taken for section selection

    can now be optionally forwarded to a configurable MIDI port.

    This saves you from adding a keyboard splitter to your MIDI keyboard, if

    you want to play a MIDI instrument from an unused keyboard zone.


  o fixed bug in live recording function (notelength sometimes not recorded correctly)


  o MIOS terminal functions have been added. Just enter "help" in the terminal

    which has been integrated into MIOS Studio 2


  o copy function now works correctly together with the section concept


  o Follow function now available as dedicated button and with key combination MENU+EXIT


  o the Follow Song option under UTILITY->Options has been removed. The selected

    follow mode won't be stored on SD Card anymore. Follow is deactivated after

    power-on and has to be manually enabled (e.g. by pressing MENU+EXIT)

[/code]



Plans for the next version: it will allow to store/restore the complete setup (banks, songs, configuration, grooves, etc...) into "session" directories.

This will lead to a new way how to organize patterns. 


E.g., it won't be required anymore to remember the banks where you stored your favourite sequences from last week, or the week before, or 3 years ago - just give the session a name, and store your work into a separate directory. Switch between the directories (load different sessions) to restore the complete setup.



There is currently only one blocking point to realize this concept: the FAT32 driver I'm using to access the SD Card (DOSFS) doesn't support "mkdir" - I will have to implement this by myself.


Best Regards, Thorsten.

[philetaylor]

There is currently only one blocking point to realize this concept: the FAT32 driver I'm using to access the SD Card (DOSFS) doesn't support "mkdir" - I will have to implement this by myself.

Yes I noticed that... Have you thought about moving to FatFs? http://elm-chan.org/fsw/ff/00index_e.html

It seems to be a pretty complete FAT12/16/32 implementation including LFN support :)

Cheers

Phil

[TK.]

Looks very interesting! It's worth a try - not at least to compare the performance (the integrated caching mechanism will make things easier)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

Plans for the next version: it will allow to store/restore the complete setup (banks, songs, configuration, grooves, etc...) into "session" directories.

This will lead to a new way how to organize patterns.

E.g., it won't be required anymore to remember the banks where you stored your favourite sequences from last week, or the week before, or 3 years ago - just give the session a name, and store your work into a separate directory. Switch between the directories (load different sessions) to restore the complete setup.

:thumbsup:

[TK.]

The migration to FatFs was successful, directories can be created and especially copy operations are working much faster now! :)

Questions to the users: do you really need 8 banks, or would it be sufficient to work with 4 banks in a session?

This would speed up the creation of a new session, resp. the copy operation of an existing session would work faster as well.

Note that it will be possible to switch between sessions in zero-time! :)

But creating/cloning a session will consume some time (e.g. copy: ca. 30 seconds, with 4 banks instead of 8 maybe 20 seconds), and the sequencer will run unstable while files are copied.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[gjvti]

The migration to FatFs was successful, directories can be created and especially copy operations are working much faster now! :)

Questions to the users: do you really need 8 banks, or would it be sufficient to work with 4 banks in a session?

This would speed up the creation of a new session, resp. the copy operation of an existing session would work faster as well.

Note that it will be possible to switch between sessions in zero-time! :)

But creating/cloning a session will consume some time (e.g. copy: ca. 30 seconds, with 4 banks instead of 8 maybe 20 seconds), and the sequencer will run unstable while files are copied.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Well, I don't know how you can count my opinion (I'm waiting for my sequencer parts from smashtv since January so I still don't have a real machine at my hands), but from what I have read about MBox sequencer I think that 256 patterns (4x64) per session with the condition that it is possible instantly to switch between sessions is really ok. On the other hand 20 seconds or 30 seconds for initializing session seems to me not much difference and I can't imagine why one should run sequencer while creating/cloning session.

Best regards

gj

[strophlex]

The migration to FatFs was successful, directories can be created and especially copy operations are working much faster now! :)

Questions to the users: do you really need 8 banks, or would it be sufficient to work with 4 banks in a session?

This would speed up the creation of a new session, resp. the copy operation of an existing session would work faster as well.

Note that it will be possible to switch between sessions in zero-time! :)

But creating/cloning a session will consume some time (e.g. copy: ca. 30 seconds, with 4 banks instead of 8 maybe 20 seconds), and the sequencer will run unstable while files are copied.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Sorry, but are we talking about the banks for saving patterns? There are so many concepts in the SEQ V4 so I get a bit confused... I have not had the opportunity to use my sequencer so much yet, but it sounds to me that the drawback of a bit longer copy time is worth it for twice the space for saved patterns.

[moroe]

Hello

Are there some news about the implementation of the synth preset recording and sending feature ?

Here some ideas and wishes:

I would like to use single preset dumps and multi dumps.

Each synth should have a dedicated preset dump folder with a single and a multi folder in it.

If possible also Subdirectories for Soundcategories would be usful (pad,lead,bass...)

Possibility to assign a preset dump folder to a track and its corresponding midi in and output.

I also would like to send preset dump request messages to the synths, because some synths doesnt have

a option to send dumps from the hardware manually (like the yamaha tx81z!!!!!).

The dump request message could be placed in a txt file which lies in the single and multi folder.

When pushing a button on the seqv4, the seqv4 should send a dump request to the synth.

After the dump request was sent, the seqv4 should record incoming dumps.

Then switch to the next synth and do it again.

I would like to choose a preset in a folder and then use forward backward buttons to send them to

the synth without to push an extra button (like the forward and backward buttons on a synth)

If possible, during the sequencer is running.

Possibility to save all used synth presets with the whole project/song.

I know this will not be easy but it would be a complete set of features to work without computer.

Greets

Moroe

[TK.]

Sorry, but are we talking about the banks for saving patterns? There are so many concepts in the SEQ V4 so I get a bit confused... I have not had the opportunity to use my sequencer so much yet, but it sounds to me that the drawback of a bit longer copy time is worth it for twice the space for saved patterns.

Yes, each bank stores 64 patterns, and I'm normaly using a separate bank for each group (e.g. one bank with drum patterns, one with bassline patterns and synth lines, one for filling the song, another for loopback sequences to transpose/arpeggiate other patterns)

Are there some news about the implementation of the synth preset recording and sending feature ?

It's half finished, but especially since a mkdir() is available now, there is no blocking point anymore

I would like to use single preset dumps and multi dumps.

Each synth should have a dedicated preset dump folder with a single and a multi folder in it.

already available, just create /SYSEX/<mysynthfolder>

If possible also Subdirectories for Soundcategories would be usful (pad,lead,bass...)

Do you really want such a deep hierarchie?

Just create three folders for your synth

Have you already tried to navigate through the SysEx menu?

It's really fast - I don't really see a need for subcategories!

Possibility to assign a preset dump folder to a track and its corresponding midi in and output.

Not implemented yet

I also would like to send preset dump request messages to the synths, because some synths doesnt have

a option to send dumps from the hardware manually (like the yamaha tx81z!!!!!).

The dump request message could be placed in a txt file which lies in the single and multi folder.

Not implemented yet, but prepared

(you are just quoting the concept that I wrote some times ago in a different thread ;))

When pushing a button on the seqv4, the seqv4 should send a dump request to the synth.

After the dump request was sent, the seqv4 should record incoming dumps.

Then switch to the next synth and do it again.

Thats the way how it will work.

It's already possible to send dumps by pushing a button, have you already tried this?

Is it working at your side?

I would like to choose a preset in a folder and then use forward backward buttons to send them to

the synth without to push an extra button (like the forward and backward buttons on a synth)

If possible, during the sequencer is running.

How would you exactly like to edit such a list?

Would a .txt file with references to the dumps be sufficient?

I'm not sure if I will find the time and motivation to integrate such an editor into the firmware (no usecase for myself)

Possibility to save all used synth presets with the whole project/song.

Again: how exactly would you like to edit this? I don't see a clear vision how the UI should be realized.

I know this will not be easy but it would be a complete set of features to work without computer.

It would be interesting how many people would really work this way, so that I know if it is really worth the effort to integrate additional editors so that absolutely no computer is required.

To repeat Strophlex' statement:

> There are so many concepts in the SEQ V4 so I get a bit confused...

and this is what many people are saying.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Gridracer]

Questions to the users: do you really need 8 banks, or would it be sufficient to work with 4 banks in a session?

For me, 4 banks would be fine. This would match the number of groups so it's easy to remeber if you always store 1:1

Bets Regards,

Gridracer

[Schrittmacher]

for me too....

[TK.]

and me too... ;)

The session concept is implemented, and I can't believe it myself: the sequencer is running pretty stable while a new session is created or stored into a new directory.

Magic! :sorcerer:

This means, that the sequencer doesn't has to be stopped, e.g. you can play a nice bridge while the copy operations are in progress. :)

And changing between existing sessions doesn't lead to any hick-ups of course! :)

Beta17 will be released tomorrow.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

and me too... ;)

The session concept is implemented, and I can't believe it myself: the sequencer is running pretty stable while a new session is created or stored into a new directory.

Magic! :sorcerer:

This means, that the sequencer doesn't has to be stopped, e.g. you can play a nice bridge while the copy operations are in progress. :)

And changing between existing sessions doesn't lead to any hick-ups of course! :)

Beta17 will be released tomorrow.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

:frantics: I have to quit my job to get time for this! So exciting!

[TK.]

Beta17 is now available for download:

   o implemented "Sessions" concept. Now you can change between different setups

     stored on a single SD Card


   o Sessions can be opened/saved/created in the main menu (press EXIT button)


   o your old session isn't lost, it's just at the wrong place.

     To take over this session:

       - enter MSD mode (UTILITY->DISK)

       - create a backup of all *.V4 files on your PC (recommented for Beta17!!!)

       - create a /SESSIONS directory if it doesn't exist yet

       - create a session subdirectory (8 characters maximum)

         if you name it "DEFAULT", it will be loaded after startup!

       - copy following files:

         MBSEQ_B1.V4, MBSEQ_B2.V4, MBSEQ_B3.V4, MBSEQ_B4.V4, 

         MBSEQ_S.V4, MBSEQ_G.V4, MBSEQ_C.V4

       - create a second session subdirectory

       - copy following files:

         MBSEQ_B5.V4, MBSEQ_B6.V4, MBSEQ_B7.V4, MBSEQ_B8.V4, 

         MBSEQ_S.V4, MBSEQ_G.V4, MBSEQ_C.V4

       - rename these files to MBSEQ_B1.V4 to MBSEQ_B4.V4

       - don't copy MBSEQ_HW.V4 (always read from root directory)

       - remove the copied *.V4 files from root directory, or move

         them to another directory for backup

       - unmount the SD Card on your computer

       - wait until MSD mode is disabled!

       - press EXIT, thereafter OPEN the session by pressing GP button 9


  o changed default track configuration to 256 steps/4 parameter layers

    since it's more useful in most cases

[/code]



To give you a full overview I created a dedicated manual section for this topic:

http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_manual_sessions.html


Other parts of the manual have to be overworked to cover the changes.



Note that I haven't "stress tested" the code yet - means in other words: there could be bugs.

I will do this in the next days (by creating some nice Sessions :))

Please help beta testing - if the sequencer should crash or behave strangely, please describe the scenario in a way which allows me to reproduce the issue.


Best Regards, Thorsten.