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midiphy SEQ v4+


latigid on
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Just now, rbv2 said:

thought of a simple switch box that allows me to determine for each synth whether it gets its signals from the computer or the hardware sequencer without moving a cable.

Too much limited for me, no merging or distribution, no channel routing, muting or other event filtering. I want mOoooore ;)

Edited by Antichambre
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Just now, Antichambre said:

Too much limited for me, no merging or distribution, no channel routing, muting or other event filtering. I want mOoooore ;)

hehe.. too complicated for my limited brain i have to keep it as simple as possible i'm just a user.. i wanted to make music once, now i've been plugging cables for years :rolleyes:

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Just now, rbv2 said:

right.. twelve was said in the video.

Again, I'm not sure where? Twelve ports maybe? Anyway, no bother :happy:.

 

Just now, rbv2 said:

it's certainly a bit exaggerated with the 16 ports but i'm using expert sleepers at the moment with 16 midi out and thought of a simple switch box that allows me to determine for each synth whether it gets its signals from the computer or the hardware sequencer without moving a cable.

guess eight outputs will be enough anyway :P

The SEQ v4(+) natively has four USB busses, each with the normal 16 channels. IIRC the USB-MIDI communication protocol is even enhanced over DIN-MIDI. So if your interest is interfacing with softsynths and hardware, that comes right out of the box!

Of course for the synth dungeons, something like Bruno's moar16 would come in handy, but the "basic" SEQ can already do quite a lot.

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Just now, latigid on said:

Again, I'm not sure where? Twelve ports maybe? Anyway, no bother :happy:.

you are right..sorry it's not in the video

its in the description of the features of the seqv4 ..sorry for the confusion.

"..multiple MIDI Out ports (up to 12) for reduced MIDI latency"

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14 minutes ago, latigid on said:

The SEQ v4(+) natively has four USB busses, each with the normal 16 channels. IIRC the USB-MIDI communication protocol is even enhanced over DIN-MIDI. So if your interest is interfacing with softsynths and hardware, that comes right out of the box!

Of course for the synth dungeons, something like Bruno's moar16 would come in handy, but the "basic" SEQ can already do quite a lot.

 

i don't use any softsynths..but since my daw outputs 16 single hardware midiports i had the dream of choosing between daw-sequencer or midibox. ( all synced smultaniously)..but enough for this thread.

this sequencer is unbeatable with "only" eight outputs and even in the "basic" configuration without competition. :happy:

must have it anyway

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@rbv2 if you have a lot of synths hooked up to multiple sequencers (hardware or DAW), as mentioned above, the best way to do it would be to use one big MIDI router to connect everything to :).

Another not-so-bad idea is to use MIDI-THRUs directly on your v4(+) to multiply each of your OUT ports with only a single "hex inverter". That method is cheap, and adds only minimal and uniform latency. If you use the eight output ports of the SEQ and multiply them with eight quad MIDI thrus, you could connect up to 32 hardware synths with really little latency and best MIDI signal integrity while still being able to use USB to be able to connect everything via DAW additionally with just a bunch of SEQ MIDI routes. By chance, Andy has designed such an affordable MIDI-MULTI-THRU board, that should be available still this year :).

Many greets,
Peter

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42 minutes ago, Hawkeye said:

multiply each of your OUT ports with only a single "hex inverter"

http://m.bareille.free.fr/midithrubox/midithrubox.htm

old school! :grin:

 

8 hours ago, rbv2 said:

thought of a simple switch box

From the same website "This patch bay MIDI is designed to use with a sequencer/computer, a master keyboard and 8 MIDI instruments."
http://m.bareille.free.fr/mpb3/mpb3.html

Edited by Antichambre
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9 hours ago, Hawkeye said:

@rbv2if you have a lot of synths hooked up to multiple sequencers (hardware or DAW), as mentioned above, the best way to do it would be to use one big MIDI router to connect everything to :)

ohh yes.. that would be the perfect solution. something like 32x midi in to 16x midi out merger (optionally thru) would be great :)

 

9 hours ago, Hawkeye said:

Another not-so-bad idea is to use MIDI-THRUs directly on your v4(+) to multiply each of your OUT ports with only a single "hex inverter". That method is cheap, and adds only minimal and uniform latency. If you use the eight output ports of the SEQ and multiply them with eight quad MIDI thrus, you could connect up to 32 hardware synths with really little latency and best MIDI signal integrity while still being able to use USB to be able to connect everything via DAW additionally with just a bunch of SEQ MIDI routes. By chance, Andy has designed such an affordable MIDI-MULTI-THRU board, that should be available still this year :).

thats what i do with my old amt 8 (8in - 8out) when i need additional ports from a hardware sequencer. these are quite cheap these days and the routung capabilities are great albeit you have to do it with the computer. with two of them one could multiply 4 outputs by four..

but I'm using expert sleepers ES-4 for midiseqeuncing from my daw (sendig midi within the bits of audio) to omit usb entirely, since latency caused by usb is inacceptable for me.

so an all in one merge/thru with lots of ports would be a dream :grin:

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@Antichambre thanks for the link, looks promising. but seems i need to rely on a more predefined projekt with at least some pcbs to buy, otherwise the simple switchbox is more in my range ..hehe

(because of the bold letters. i'm not screaming..just having trouble with formatting :decayed: )

 

Edited by rbv2
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Hi!

I just finished the boards from video tutorial 1. It was all very clear, straight forward and I didn't find any difficulties, but I've a lot of soldering experience :). Great to work with the video only, without all different kind of documentation to check. The video has a very high Bob Ross level, lovely soldering this way, I got really tranquillio!!!

If I had to be critical, only point I would mention is next time I would also use high quality IC sockets for the 6n138 optocouplers. In the BOM are cheap ones and the video mention that the cheap ones are OK for the optocoulplers, but I had some trouble to put the IC's in nicely. 

I attached the Core to MIOS Studio and I could upload the sequencer app, so that's good. It could also find my SD Card but I couldn't format it. And none of the LED's did any flickering, should they?! and is there more I can do/test right now? I don't know about jumper settings or other stuff to do, but I would like to play along or test some stuff.

And I didn't notice before but there isn't any ethernet socket?! I have a SeqV4 now, with LPC16 with onboard ethernet, and I use it a lot to attach my Ipad to the sequencer and play with the virtual BLM. I think that's a really cool feature, how will I be able to attach my Ipad to this new sequencer?

Cheers and looking forward to build the  rest! Roel

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Hi Roel,

congrats to the build, thanks for the confirmation that it mostly worked out without a problem and glad that you like the docu, can't wait to get working on the second part! :). If there is similar feedback from other builders regarding the cheaper 6N138 sockets, we will replace them in the BOM. Personally, I've not yet had problems with them, but you are right, you need to make very sure, that the IC legs are properly bent for them to fit nicely.

Regarding the SD-card, can you try to format externally using your computer using FAT32 as a filesystem? If the micromatch connection is ok, you should then be able to use it in the SEQ. (You could use the MIOS studio filebrowser to verify it works and try to store files on the formatted card via MIOS Studio filebrowser).

You can also partially test some of the PCBs that you built using MIOS studio, e.g. if you enter "play" (or "start", can't remember right now :)) at the console prompt, a backside LED should flash (like in the video right at the beginning when the unit backside is shown), the other backside status LEDs are yet unused - the v4+ software would need to be extended a bit to make proper use of them (should not be terribly difficult, i think we could indicate "BLM connected", "Gate" and "MIDI in" activity with the remaining three LEDs). Also, when the sequencer is playing, the first track imho is filled with some notes per default, so if you attach a synthesizer to OUT1, you should be able to confirm that the first port on your MIDI8 PCB works properly.

There is no ethernet extension planned (or room for it in the case) - effectively "on board ethernet" was dropped after the LPC17 core generation and the introduction of the new STM32F4 cores. But i am sure, if there was enough demand, with a bit of tinkering, it should be possible to design an "out-of-the-box" solution, that might connect e.g. to the BLM port (also carrying power) or two classic MIDI ports (external power required then), which could provide ethernet forwarding. Until a solution like that is implemented, it should be possible to forward/route a MIDI pair to your old sequencer and use that as an ethernet bridge (even if it does nothing else and just sits in the corner :)).

Have a great day and many greets,
Peter

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Hey,

Bit of feedback from me too. I've completed the wCore, USB, RES-SD, Midi8, and starting on the I2C and Line boards.

  • Very well laid out, and excellently notated boards. Symbols and writing are clean and obvious - amazing work guys particularly Latigid on
  • The video is excellent, clear and well paced. I'm impressed on how you (Peter) made links to each section of the video/build.
  • SMT... I've done lots of through-hole, but I've only ever soldered a few caps on a broken JP-8000 before but took the plunge with the method from the SMT tutorial and it was a breeze. The only complex bit is getting the right amount of paste on, and struggling with syringes that won't suck in enough paste!
  • I've got a STM32F407G core, and intend on using that to flash the Waveshare. It would be helpful to provide a link in the video info text (youtube) to where info on this process is. I'll certainly be hunting it down myself later today.
  • Might be good to provide some "test as you go along" info. I don't know how feasible this is as I'm not that savvy with the design side, but I always find it helpful when doing a build where the tutorial makes me check certain sections before I embark on building the rest and then not knowing where to start on diagnosing issues (hundreds of solders are hard to check for cold solders etc)

Overall, excellent and really fun build. Can't wait for the next essential kit!

Oh, and the BLM mention in the video has got me hyped for that now too.

 

King Regards,

Keir

Edited by Solapse
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Thanks for the great feedback!

I don't use solder paste myself, but it may be easier to work with once it's a bit warmer, so I've heard of leaving it in your pocket or so.

You can find out about SWD programming here: 
http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=wcore

The test-as-you-go idea is a good one; this would basically consist of checking SMT pins were not shorted together, that the +5V rail is good before applying power etc. There's not too much to debug especially on the I2C/MIDI8 boards etc. as they're quite simple. But a basic MIDI test would not be a bad idea.

Best,
Andy

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Finished the rest of the boards, managed to flash with the Discovery board successfully. Getting the complaint about the SDcard partition so I'll do that tomorrow and check it. Peter updated the video as I was a bit confused about what type of capacitors went in each location for the I2C board. The BOM came to the rescue though!

I did the +5V rail testing, all seemed good before switching on :-)

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Hi,
just studied this thread a little and became very interested in the v4+. But when it comes to soldering and building electrical stuff I got like three left hands. So if there is someone in Germany building this very interesting device, I would gladly like to hear from her/him.

Thank You and Best Regards,

jingo

 

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