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MBCV v2.01 alternative concept


latigid on
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Fortunately Andy speaks better French than I speak English!

Love this RGB leds .... nice illuminated pots!

Andy please stop making amazing projects , I'm gonna have the MBCV 2.01 on my TODO list.... if you continue i will have no time for the music!
:decayed:

Edited by tashikoma
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  • 1 month later...

I've been thinking a bit about case options for this project as I put together a MBCV2 tests system over the weekend. My test bed consists of a STM32F4 core, AOUT_NG, 4xDOUT, LER8x2, SCS, MIDI I/O and Line Driver.

 

I've mounted the AOUT and DOUT in my Eurorack case and connected these to the Core/CS with the line driver. My use case is as a 8 CV out modulation generator.

 

I propose that your front panel should be 84HP wide/3U , the reason being is that

A) it will fit in a standard eurorack case.

B) If someone wants build it stand alone or rack mountable all they need to get is a pair TipTop Audio Z-rails and Z-ears ( http://www.tiptopaudio.com/zeartbl.php )   and mount the panel in it. These are reasonably priced and readily available world wide. Of course you would need some way to enclose the rear/back but this would be pretty straight forward to achieve. 

 

The 84HP panel could actually provide a really good mechanical standard front panel for the MBHP. Imaging a MBSEQ Wilba CS front panel that was this size? Easy ordering and very easy mounting, no more endless waiting lists for case runs. And the added bonus that it can mounted in a Eurorack.

Edited by Rowan
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Agreed about the dimensions, and following your suggestion these PCBs are 100mm tall, 420mm total width which will definitely fit in an 84 HP case. The only problem being that there's no room for the connectors -- as such a 126HP case (25.2"/640mm usable width) could be a better choice if you wanted them front mounted. The LRE board and displays etc. will be difficult to fit into 3U.

The Wilba SEQ PCB is 121.92mm tall, which will is fine for 3U but doesn't take Eurorack mounting rails into account. My plan is to buy or make some sort of standard 19" road case and have the SEQ, CV and CV breakout panels mounted and powered off a decent triple PSU. 

 

14 minutes ago, Rowan said:

I've mounted the AOUT and DOUT in my Eurorack case and connected these to the Core/CS with the line driver. My use case is as a 8 CV out modulation generator.

Can you comment on your preferred layout of parameters? I.e. most functions accessible from encoders or more "voice" oriented pages?

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30 minutes ago, latigid on said:

Agreed about the dimensions, and following your suggestion these PCBs are 100mm tall, 420mm total width which will definitely fit in an 84 HP case. The only problem being that there's no room for the connectors -- as such a 126HP case (25.2"/640mm usable width) could be a better choice if you wanted them front mounted.

Personally I don't see it as being an issue that there would be no room for connectors on a 84HP panel, the connectors could be mounted on a breakout panel. I use the CGS Trunks modules for this purpose. 

 

30 minutes ago, latigid on said:

The LRE board and displays etc. will be difficult to fit into 3U.

Yes, you are right. I'm not planning on using the LRE board in the long run.

30 minutes ago, latigid on said:

The Wilba SEQ PCB is 121.92mm tall, which will is fine for 3U but doesn't take Eurorack mounting rails into account.

That's a shame, it could have been a good solution.

30 minutes ago, latigid on said:

Can you comment on your preferred layout of parameters? I.e. most functions accessible from encoders or more "voice" oriented pages?

I'm still undecided on this, an ideal solution would be both! A Voice/channel mode that detailed settings are made for a single channel and a Performance/Multi mode where a set of parameters can be adjusted across multipul channels.

An example of Performance mode would be the 4x4 encoders assigned to ENV2, you could control the ADSR of 4 channels without any paging. 

We are going to need some assignable DINs that can be used for things like triggering envelops with external gate signals. 

Edited by Rowan
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30 minutes ago, Rowan said:
1 hour ago, latigid on said:

Can you comment on your preferred layout of parameters? I.e. most functions accessible from encoders or more "voice" oriented pages?

I'm still undecided on this, an ideal solution would be both! A Voice/channel mode that detailed settings are made for a single channel and a Performance/Multi mode where a set of parameters can be adjusted across multipul channels.

An example of Performance mode would be the 4x4 encoders assigned to ENV2, you could control the ADSR of 4 channels without any paging. 


Right, so now we have three concepts of paging:

ChA_modulators.thumb.png.6c4887d91fa91aa

 

  • 8/4/2 Voice mode (TK.'s choice) which is like a traditional MIDI-CV
    • e.g. 4 voice with pitch CV, filter CV, gate and trigger; encoders are arranged in blocks within a voice and menus are used for finer tweaking.
  • Single parameter mode (my choice) where all modulator depths across a single channel are accessible on one page, and specific parameters of modulators are on others. Each modulator is thus tweaked on a channel basis; see the mockup picture:
    • e.g. Channel 1 is selected from the 4*4 button grid
      • the encoders are colour-coded to match modulators represented on the bottom half of the button grid and adjust depth only on Channel 1.
    • Env. 1 is pressed, the encoder field changes to yellow and all stages/other parameters can be tweaked. Unused encoders are unlit.
    • For transpose and tuning, there's the "keyboard" layout of buttons and a dedicated encoder 
  • Multi parameter mode (your idea, kind of a hybrid between those above) assigns encoders to specific controls across multiple channels,
    • e.g. ADSR of Channels 1-4. You'd have to make some judicial decisions when more than four useful parameters were needed.

We'll have to test the hardware to get a good idea of the most useful workflows, but hopefully it's flexible enough to accommodate everyone's needs.

Edited by latigid on
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Just now, latigid on said:

We'll have to test the hardware to get a good idea of the most useful workflows, but hopefully it's flexible enough to accommodate everyone's needs.

If/when you have PCBs I'll happily help fine tune this.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 years later...

Hi Latigid and others,

It's really been a long time since anyone mentioned something about MBCV V2, but I'm really curious if there was some progress in your alternative version. Your build looks really good but we never saw the finished project, like with all MBCV V2's........

Last month I powered on my own build and I was again really impressed by all possibilities. It took a while to connect it to my Ipad/lemur but I succeeded and I compiled new MBCV V2 project.h files from the mios32 github for LPC1769 and STM32F4.  My own test version is on a LPC1769 but I want to make a new one on a STM32F4 core. But I can't get my ethernet module and SC card to work simultaneously. I red that Rowan and Sneakthief had the same problems , see here  When I upload midibox NG to my core the ethernet card and Sd card do work simultaneously. You are also using a STM32F4 for your mbcv v2.01, did you get it to work with ethernet and SD card at the same time?

Hope to get some answers after all these years....cheers, Roel

 

 

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Hi Roel,

I honestly haven't looked much more into this over the past years. There is a basic hardware setup and I still even have a few PCBs left, but I am not sure about whether this is the right approach. I also don't see a huge amount of activity on MIDIbox, meaning the uptake might be quite low. I could never fully agree with TK. on the UI/usage and that probably demotivated further development. 

Regarding SD card/ethernet, I have not tried to use both at once. The assigned "SPI/PHY" ports definitely conflict, so it might need more elaborate software handling.

Best,
Andy

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  • 2 weeks later...

i am on work the last years, on my own midibox CV- project... since i am a one man show, and there are a lot of projects running in paralell - and money is aviable only all "holy times"... it is not finished, and will not be in near future, but it will be in far future,  since it is a  core  thing in my setup. (since i am on the way to modular...)

 

http://wiki.midibox.org/doku.php?id=cv1

 

it has not much to do with a NG, or MB-CV2... but it is a CV-Envelope Generator, Recorder and Looper, LFO, and Mixer, and the future goel is to have one UI that remotes a lot of Core-Modules which are connected to independend Midibox-AOUT-Modules,   so you could use One to build up a complete midified (so you can save and load presets) Analog-Synthesizer - a drumsynth for example, and multiply that by for example by 8 so you have a 8part Drumsynth with one UI - so you save space in your eurorack...

 

how ever not finished - if interestd follow this topic:

 

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