> 4 chan midibox FM

[DragonMaster]

I have a few(6) soundcards with YMF262/YAC512 chips coming on their way home :o ::)

I was thinking of putting them all in a single box and control them together with a single interface. Is this possible???

Is there an advantage of running 2 cores / 2 dacs vs. 1 core / 2 dacs? (I'll be using more than one of them anyways...)

And just wondering... will I have to use an MBHP CORE and panel for every single FM chips?  :-\ (I'm thinking of controlling using a computer only actually, cost reasons)

[TK.]

Hi,

yes, each OPL3 chip requires a dedicated core - the application is already extremely busy (more busy than the MBSID) due to all the software engine features, no chance to control an additional OPL3

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[DragonMaster]

Oh, I see... Is there a way for the interface to be joined together for all of them?

[TK.]

No, otherwise I would have mentioned this option on my website.

From the beginning I never planned a CS option which allows to control multiple synths, this was a basic design desision and cannot be undone w/o a major redesign (new chip, new application, new frontpanel)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[stryd_one]

'Course, you could always program them via a PC (JSynthLib), and use a minimal CS for realtime tweakage :)

[DragonMaster]

Now that I looked at the connections diagram, I see I could switch the DINX4, DOUTX4, etc. between each cores. (Or maybe just DIN)

TK, you mean that each cores have to use the same MIDI channels? Now that's an other story... Maybe I could add a PIC to reassign the channels between multiple inputs...

[TK.]

TK, you mean that each cores have to use the same MIDI channels? Now that's an other story... Maybe I could add a PIC to reassign the channels between multiple inputs...

I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly.

MIDIbox FM provides 4 independent instruments and a drum kit, they have dedicated MIDI channels which can be changed from the CS or from JSynthLib, and which can be stored in one of 32 ensembles. If you use 2 MBFM in parallel, just assign the instruments to different channels. For the drumkit, either use another channel as well, or map the drums to different keyboard zones.

So, why do you need a core for reassigning the channels? Or did I oversee something?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[DragonMaster]

Oh, OK, you can assign different channels, no problem then!

Since the front panel has a quite simple layout, would you say I should have one panel for each synth or switch between them?

[TK.]

I'm not sure here, I never needed more than one MBFM - so, it's really your own decition.

If you like the workflow, you could prepare the sounds from a "main" MBFM with frontpanel, and send the ready made patches via SysEx to the other MBFM, which consist of a MBHP_CORE, MBHP_OPL3 and BankStick module only. This can be done from the CFG menu (press the CFG+SyxD button)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[DragonMaster]

I'm not sure here, I never needed more than one MBFM

::) I'm not sure I would need more, but I'll see! (Maybe I'll play the same sound detuned on multiple channels at the time, it's one of the only way to make nice sounds with my Kawai K5, and I need a lot of channels for this)

[freddy]

::) I'm not sure I would need more, but I'll see! (Maybe I'll play the same sound detuned on multiple channels at the time, it's one of the only way to make nice sounds with my Kawai K5, and I need a lot of channels for this)

Hi,

Reviving an old thread, did you ever find a need for multiple FMs? And did you solve it either via J8/J9 switching or similiar way MBSID works (with software re-design)? I'm not saying I'll ever need more than one FM but the 2U box just seems sooo empty with only a single core/fm.

Thanks,

freddy

Edited October 29, 2012 by freddy