MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

[strophlex]

I will update and try the FAT12 SD-card tonight.

[Schrittmacher]

Hello,

just tested the new release, but i have problems!

I created som folders on my SD card like discribed on the changelog...

but when i create a new session, i can´t load anything! The patterns are lost, and in the patterns screen i can choose nothing .. every group looks like so .... pattern A1... nocat for every group and every bank ...

the first session that i create works i can load my patterns but the patterns screen looks also different as seen in beta16 Version

I don´t no what im doing wrong?

For troubleshooting i make a screenshot of the SD Card state

Folder 1 contains MBSEQ_B1.V4... MBSEQ_B4.V4 the old one from the beta16

Folder 2 contains MBSEQ_B5.V4... MBSEQ_B8.V4 correctly renamed to MBSEQ_B1.V4..MBSEQ_B4.V4

Sessions1 and Arp2 are Sessions that i create under EXIT> Create new....

Edited March 12, 2010 by Schrittmacher

[Schrittmacher]

can anybody send me the beta16 .. i deleted this .. :-(

[TK.]

I can reproduce this and will create an update soon

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TK.]

Beta18 is now available:

  o the current patterns/mixer map/song/groove templates will be cleared before 

    a new session is created.


  o last patterns now correctly selected after startup

[/code]


Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TK.]

I uploaded another update (midibox_seq_v4_0beta18b) which fixes sporadic "FatFs" errors, e.g. after a preset pattern has been stored and a new pattern is selected.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Schrittmacher]

I uploaded another update (midibox_seq_v4_0beta18b) which fixes sporadic "FatFs" errors, e.g. after a preset pattern has been stored and a new pattern is selected.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

The link doesn´t work!

Marco

[TK.]

Should work now: we reached beta18c ;)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Schrittmacher]

Should work now: we reached beta18c ;)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Jawoll High Commander.. it works. :-)

[Gridracer]

Also works fine here :)

But importing my old files did not work at once:

I got an error message "invalid session" when i tried to open the "imported" sessions from Beta 15

I was missing the "MBSEQ_G.V4" file! I had no such file on SD card.

Solved it by creating a new session and copying the file from there.

Best Regards

Gridracer

[TK.]

Fine :) Yes, the checks for a consistent session are a bit pedantic, but only people who worked with previous

beta versions are affected.

Good that you found a solution by yourself. :)

Meanwhile I migrated most of my songs. The manual copy operations were time consuming, but less

effort than writing an UI menu to automate this...

I can only recomment to all beta testers: forget the old workflow, always create a new session when

you are starting with a new song - this ensures that you will never overwrite an important pattern

(like it happened to me some time ago). It's also important to start with A1 patterns, and

it's helpful to create some phrases in Song S1 so that you can quickly switch between the

intended pattern combinations (important to get an oversight if you don't remember the "flow" anymore).

I also noticed another issue with FatFs - sometimes (rarely) "SaveAs" is finished after 1 second, but

actually no pattern has been copied into the new directory. I've enabled some debug messages in the

hope that I'm able to catch enough informations if this should happen again (at my side).

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Gridracer]

I noticed that the new dedicated FOLLOW Button is not working in BETA18C.

FOLLOW LED works, MENU+EXIT works also. I can exclude an hardware issue: button works when I assign it an other function.

Really like the new session concept! No longer worrying about overwriting patterns or whether they are in use or not. :)

Best Regards,

Gridracer

[TK.]

Thanks! :)

I fixed this, follow button should work with the next release

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[mattias]

I am having trouble to read the SD card on Mac OSX... reports 2 TB and unreadable?? Any ideas??

[TK.]

See this thread:

There is a new application which allows to format the SD Card - hopefully it helps.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TK.]

Beta18d is available now.

The follow button should work now, the "save session" function has been optimized, and there are no SD card errors anymore when using the "Save As" function (stack was overwritten on long filenames)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

I don't manage to get the arpeggiator to work. I have tried with a midi keyboard. I set the appropriate midi channel and port in the midi->transposer and arp. menu. Have tried port: all too. And I have set the mode of the track to arpeggiator. T/A split is off (tried on too) and in midi->misc->midi monitor I see incoming midi on the right port. The keyboard works fine for transposing. I must have missed some setting.

Also, how can i control arpeggiator via loopback? making a loopback track with chords sends only chords with root note unless i transpose them with the keyboard, right?

Another one, there are several bus ports, what are they for.

[strophlex]

More questions:

What is the "reset stacks" under the midi menus for?

How is the probability implemented? It doesn't seem to work like expected. When I set 50% to a few steps i a drum sequence some steps always trigger anyway (in this case step 15). I guess the value set should be the actual probability.

Anyway, what I have discovered so far of the sequencer is really great! Keep it up!

EDIT: Same prob. thing poped up again on step 15. Set the prob. to 0% and it kept playing...

Edited March 23, 2010 by strophlex

[TK.]

I don't manage to get the arpeggiator to work. I have tried with a midi keyboard. I set the appropriate midi channel and port in the midi->transposer and arp. menu. Have tried port: all too. And I have set the mode of the track to arpeggiator. T/A split is off (tried on too) and in midi->misc->midi monitor I see incoming midi on the right port. The keyboard works fine for transposing. I must have missed some setting.

I just have noticed, that the arpeggiator doesn't work with Input ports set to "All", you have to select a dedicated port.

I will fix this in the next release

It works when a dedicated input port is selected, with and without T/A split

Also, how can i control arpeggiator via loopback? making a loopback track with chords sends only chords with root note unless i transpose them with the keyboard, right?

Yes, you will have to activate T/A split and send the root note with the lower keys (either from a keyboard or from a second loopback track), and the chord with the upper keys. Use track transpose to correct the octaves.

The "loopbacked chord track" should be in transpose mode

Alternatively you could transpose the "loopbacked chord track" from a second loopback track via CCs. This makes sense if you prefer an independent transpose.

Another one, there are several bus ports, what are they for.

You could play certain tracks on Bus2, 3 or 4, and use the MIDI router to forward the MIDI stream to a physical MIDI device.

This gives you more flexibility, e.g. you can change your MIDI wiring without changing the track configurations, just adapt the global MIDI router settings.

It's an expert feature only.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

I just have noticed, that the arpeggiator doesn't work with Input ports set to "All", you have to select a dedicated port.

I will fix this in the next release

It works when a dedicated input port is selected, with and without T/A split

I don't get it to work... Which port did you use?

[TK.]

I tried USB1 and IN1

Did you ever use the arpeggiator? I mean: do you know how it is working?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

I tried USB1 and IN1

Did you ever use the arpeggiator? I mean: do you know how it is working?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

No, but I expect it to work like this: I input a chord from the keyboard, the seq sorts the notes and cycles through them in the order defined by the current arp step. Thus, to try this out: I set the track to arpegiator, set a few arp events in the editor and press and hols some (several) keys on the keyboard while the sequencer is running. I used IN1 too.

[TK.]

No, thats wrong.

If the descriptions in the MBSEQ V4 manual are not sufficient, have a look into this (expired) tutorial for V2:

http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_tutorial1.html

You could help me to find an explanation which is better understandable for people who never worked with such an arpeggiator mechanism before.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[strophlex]

No, thats wrong.

If the descriptions in the MBSEQ V4 manual are not sufficient, have a look into this (expired) tutorial for V2:

http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_tutorial1.html

You could help me to find an explanation which is better understandable for people who never worked with such an arpeggiator mechanism before.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Great! I will read up and provide a description that makes more sense to me! :D

[strophlex]

Great! I will read up and provide a description that makes more sense to me! :D

Now I have read up and tried it out and understand how it works. The text in the manual is actually OK if you read it carefully and the link to the tutorial is there too but there is allot of information to absorb.

I wrote this, it deviates from the example and it might be a bit too through but I think it would make me understand it faster...

Notes are controlled in a special way: instead of specifying the actual note, you make a note selection and an octave transposition selection. The note is selected from the currently received choord and the octave transposition is relative to that note. Both selections are done for each individual step and are displayed in a special format concisting of note and octave transposition. The following example shows the notation:

Let's assume the Chord C-3, E-3, G-3, B-3 is played on the external MIDI keyboard and that the pattern

1+0 --- 1-1 --- 1+1 --- 2+0 --- 3+0 --- 4+0 --- 2+0 3+1 2-1 4+2

is entered into the sequencer.

At the first step the note C-3 (first note, no transpose) will be output.

At step 3, C-2 (first note, -1 octave transpose).

At step 5, C-4 (first note, +1 octave transpose).

At step 7, E-3 (second note, no octave transpose).

At step 9, G-3 (third note, no octave transpose).

At step 11, B-3 (forth note, no octave transpose).

At step 13, E-3 (second note, no octave transpose).

At step 14, G-4 (third note, +1 octave transpose).

At step 15, E-2 (second note, -1 octave transpose).

At step 16, B-5 (forth note, +2 octave transpose).