PhillPower Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Im am about to undertake my first build.I do have some soldering and electronis knowledge. I have read through as many articles and posts as i can find, and brain can take. I work mostly in ableton but am getting to a point where iv had had enough of flicking through vst's and the endless parameters that software provides and not producing enough music! I play instruments, brass,guitar and some keys, but have very little experience with hard synths etc and dont get allot of satisfaction from tweaking parameters of vst's etc without understanding exaclty what they all do. This project is to teach me more about the actual workings of midi and synths, without spending a huge ammount of money, all though i realise it will not be cheap, and more than anything limit my options slightly so as not to get lost in the virtual software world and improving productivity. I jave seriously been considering mssiah and a modded c64 but am unsure about the 25yr old hardware, reliability, and usability. The attraction of mssiah was the SID chip which i love, and also the step sequencer. SO....i would like to include the midibox SID and a version of the sequencer into one box with the ability to add as much external conectivity as possible and not be limmeted to only using the SID as sound source, having a bank of other sounds etc.....and for the module to be usable as a stand alone synth/sequencer. will it have to exist inside the enclosure as two seperate items with two cores? I would be very greatfull of any pointers to achive my goals, and info if this is at all possible???? Kind regards Phill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Welcome aboard Phill :flowers: What you are planning is to basically put two individual midiboxes into a single physical box. No voodoo involved there. Look at MIDIbox SID and MIDIbox SEQ @ ucapps.de for more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhillPower Posted January 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 If i keep sequencer and synth seperate in the same box could i route the audio and midi from sid to sequencer internally or loop the leads out then in on the back? (i would prefer to do it internally) I belive i will need stm32 core for the sequencer, would this also handle the midibox sid aswell...im thinking not as i want to sample the sid into the sequencer and i could not run both programs at the same time?? One more quick one, i will be using midi keyboard for the sid synth most of the time. Would it be possible to add a row of 13 buttons (1 octave) to play the synth (velocity sensitive???) and have 2 octave up and down buttons to cover more range. I feel this would make it a real stand alone SID-SEQ instrument. Sorry for all the noob-esq questions but would like to get it clear so i can refine my parts list and front pannel plans! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 You seem to not be aware that the sequencer is not a sampler. It's a MIDI sequencer. It does not have an audio in. Hence there is no "route the audio and midi from sid to sequencer" or "sample the sid into the sequencer". Would it be possible to add a row of 13 buttons (1 octave) to play the synth Yes. (velocity sensitive???) With a lot more effort, yes. and have 2 octave up and down buttons to cover more range. Yes. but would like to get it clear so i can refine my parts list and front pannel plans! Not trying to be a downer, but it would certainly help if you were to refine your understanding of what the individual midiboxes do first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duggle Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 It sounds like a really cool project and I'll offer my take: Not trying to be a downer, but it would certainly help if you were to refine your understanding of what the individual midiboxes do first. To add to this, one's ideas of how this kind of gear is used is often altered by the experience of actually using it in the creative context. So there is a catch 22 when designing very specific arrangements of gear. e.g you design and build a beautiful control surface to find that you really need some specific buttons and knobs that didn't occur to you at design time. A lot of work (and possibly expense) has to be redone to achieve your goal in its fullness. May I suggest building the SID and SEQ as standard, standalone units (in low cost enclosures) start using them and learn all about them in a practical creative context. Then combine them (possibly using the units as "modules") fitting them within a common enclosure/front panel, this way you can cater for the changes that I suggest you'll likely want. As for the velocity sensitive keyboard: how about rebuilding a low cost 2 octave midi keyboard (cheap/2nd hand) into the enclosure of the SID/SEQ combo. I think the control surface real estate of these units will be as wide as a 2 octave span. To summarise: I think a standalone workstation is a great idea, but it needs to be developed step by step (having fun using it along the way!) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted January 28, 2011 Report Share Posted January 28, 2011 May I suggest building the SID and SEQ as standard, standalone units (in low cost enclosures) +1 (it is cheaper, more flexible and you can put them in one box afterwards if you really want to do that) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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