Low cost midibox FM: Which controls would be essential?

[TheFumigator]

Hi everyone!

I'm new around here, its amazing quite a bit to see people building midiboxes from the other side of the planet eh?

Actually sharing the same synthesis passion, also a vintage sound lover (btw I come from the vintagesynth forum where actually brought me to here, just to discover the amazing midibox projects! many thanks to the designer!)

So I'm planning building an FM box, as is far more easy to find an old ISA sound card with the yamaha chips than a commodore 64. Moreover, vintage computers are really expensive around here.

Almost all components are available locally, except the PIC which I asked my mother to send it to me from Spain and I have it here now.

There are some questions I would like to ask before going green led:

1) I've seen several guys on this forum claiming that the core module doesnt send midi messages. does anybody discovered the frequent error made by the builders that makes the midibox to act that way?

2) I don't think I get the Crystal. "Paralel cut"? is there a good way of recognizing a normal crystal from a parallel cut one? also, I think I should go the spanish section and ask the perfect translation of that kind of Crystal.

3) Now the 2 cents question: which controls would you add keeping costs to a minimum (considering those more interesting ones to add)? what if I don't add any led indicator nor LCD? For now, I'm not planning going for controls (for now)... I'm thinking just in the core, opl, and a 128 stick as first step. Probably I would add just 2 buttons to move forward and backwards in the patches. This way at least I can free myself from the computer monitor. Then in a future, I would add a panel or something, but at first I want to get it working.

I can translate every doc to spanish if there's people interested. I also know french too.

Thanks in advance

[TK.]

Hi,

welcome aboard! :)

1) I've seen several guys on this forum claiming that the core module doesnt send midi messages. does anybody discovered the frequent error made by the builders that makes the midibox to act that way?

Yes, I collect the frequently made errors since years, they are all part of the MIDI troubleshooting guide: http://www.ucapps.de/howto_debug_midi.html

In the meantime this list is quite complete - remaining issues are mostly just variants, where I must say, that I fully understand if a newbie is not able to qualify the effects.

But therefore this forum exists, where you could get help if really required. :)

2) I don't think I get the Crystal. "Paralel cut"? is there a good way of recognizing a normal crystal from a parallel cut one? also, I think I should go the spanish section and ask the perfect translation of that kind of Crystal.

Problem is, that most mailorder companies don't specify the crystal good enough. In general: parallel cut is what you are using for microcontrollers, serial cut is mostly used for RF circuits (analog stuff...)

If a shop doesn't specify the type, it's mostly a crystal with parallel cut

3) Now the 2 cents question: which controls would you add keeping costs to a minimum (considering those more interesting ones to add)? what if I don't add any led indicator nor LCD? For now, I'm not planning going for controls (for now)... I'm thinking just in the core, opl, and a 128 stick as first step. Probably I would add just 2 buttons to move forward and backwards in the patches. This way at least I can free myself from the computer monitor. Then in a future, I would add a panel or something, but at first I want to get it working.

Core/OPL3/BankStick is fine!

MBFM can be completely remote controlled with JSynthLib!

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[TheFumigator]

Yeah, exactly! Thanks TK

However, suppose I want to get out of the computer, can I easily add 2 buttons (? back ; ? fordward) to move through the 128 presets? Also, 2 more buttons to jump 10 more positions so I can reach a preset that is far in the list (ex: wanna reach preset nº 85, I would need to press "?" 85 times, while if there are 10-, 10+ buttons available, I would have to press the +10 button 8 times, and 5 times of the +1 button to reach preset 85 in this example)

Or better, a v-pot... but it would need an lcd to see in which preset you are on.(unless you guide yourself with your ear...)

Thanks in advance TK

[TK.]

Yes, it is possible to add an Inc/Dec button instead of the rotary encoder (-> CS_MENU_USE_INCDEC_BUTTONS) which selects the patch by default (so long you don't press a select button to enter the root menu).

But I'm sure that you won't be happy with this solution, as there are four instruments + 1 drum engine, makes 5 selectable patches. It's easier for you and especially more deterministic to select the patches via JSynthLib (-> ensemble page) or to send them via Program Change

Best Regards, Thorsten.