MIDI Input - HowTo?

[Van]

Thanks, Bill! Just e-mailed you my address, let's just hope the customs will have mercy on us ...

My Akai does allow me to set the Midi output channel, so that should be fine, but thanks also for the USB-to-Midi interface as then I can also test its functionality with Ableton etc.

 

F.

Very good. Threw in a little surprise, a little bit of Maryland! Enjoy

I don't know if you use MidiOx, but if not, I can highly recommend this software tool. Between it and Midi Yoke you have a very useful package for working with Midi streams on a PC.

Yogi

[freetz]

Thanks, I always love suprises !

(Un)fortunatley, I work mostly with Mac, so MidiOx might be of limited use for me (unless I can run it under Parallels Desktop). But I'll look out for a similar program if the serial Midi interface won't run from scratch (which I actually hope it does, going by the very similar Teensy source code).

 

Btw, if you guys want to start assembling the interface solderless, I can recommend the following DB-9 adapters from Kooing, a distributor in Hong Kong. The parcel arrived a good week after I ordered it and you can plug these right into the breadboard in a distance to each other that they fit almost perfectly right into the ATARI, so no need for extension cables if your USB cable is long enough:

http://www.kooing.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=20_26&product_id=55

 

F.

Edited August 28, 2014 by freetz

[+MrFish]

@MrFish: Nice tracks, especially because the demonstrate the feature of MidiJoy which is able to handle both Midi files where all chords are coming from one Midi channel and those where the chords are already split up to individual Midi channels. The French Suite sometimes has more than four notes at the same time, so this is where the newest incoming note overwrites the second newest note, as long as there are more than four voices. But it still sounds quite allright, I think . You can download a demo in atr format which also runs on an emulator. Boot with or without BASIC, jump into DOS and load either FSUITE.EXE or FUGUE.EXE - and enjoy ...

http://www.phobotron.de/MidiJoyDemo.atr

 

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to work on those. They sound pretty good. But I think they would sound better if you were using all "pure" Atari tones for the voices, at least in the case of these two pieces. Classical music really isn't a good fit for distorted tones. I also noticed that the speed seemed a little fast for the Fugue. Was this done on purpose?

[Van]

Thanks, I always love suprises !

(Un)fortunatley, I work mostly with Mac, so MidiOx might be of limited use for me (unless I can run it under Parallels Desktop). But I'll look out for a similar program if the serial Midi interface won't run from scratch (which I actually hope it does, going by the very similar Teensy source code).

 

Btw, if you guys want to start assembling the interface solderless, I can recommend the following DB-9 adapters from Kooing, a distributor in Hong Kong. The parcel arrived a good week after I ordered it and you can plug these right into the breadboard in a distance to each other that they fit almost perfectly right into the ATARI, so no need for extension cables if your USB cable is long enough:

http://www.kooing.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=20_26&product_id=55

 

F.

From GearSluts - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/508248-midiox-mac.html

 

 

MIDI OX/Yoke on Max OSX - CROSSOVER WORKS 100%

For over a year we have been using MIDI OX and MIDI YOKE under

CROSSOVER on Mac OSC all recent versions. Including with VERY complex setups involving multiple different types of USB MIDI ports and many virtual ports.

We currently are using 24 virtual yokes in our setup, no problem.

 

Yes, IAC bus allows you to route on OSX.

 

HOWEVER, MIDIOX has VAST and EXTENSIVE features including arbitrarily complex MIDI mapping, which IAC bus TOTALLY LACKS.

 

We RUN it FLAWLESSLY, with ZERO perceptible or measurable latency, at all.

 

MIDI YOKE and MIDI OX run under CROSSOVER on MAX OSC 100% flawlessly!!

 

ENJOY!

 

David Clark, CEO SpaceHarp Corp.

facebook.com/spaceharp

So you may be in luck Midi Ox is a good tool but you should be able to do most things from Ableton just fine without it.

Also, Thanks for the tip with the DB9 adaptor, very reasonable.

Yogi

Edited August 28, 2014 by Van

[freetz]

@MrFish: That is strange, I used only pure tones (no distortion) during playback and recording and when I play the two files from the demo disk, they also have the "pure" sound - does someone else has this problem, too? And do you run it on an emulator or on real hardware? I could do a MP3 of the output from the emulator to show you how it sounds here. Regarding the speed, I set it to 120 bpm, I had to set it to some value because it was not encoded in the Midi files (or my DAW didn't read it correctly), but if would have been possible to play it at a slower speed of course.

 

@Yogi: That is great news, I'll have a look at it!

Edited August 28, 2014 by freetz

[+MrFish]

@MrFish: That is strange, I used only pure tones (no distortion) during playback and recording and when I play the two files from the demo disk, they also have the "pure" sound - does someone else has this problem, too? And do you run it on an emulator or on real hardware? I could do a MP3 of the output from the emulator to show you how it sounds here.

 

Yes, I'm running on real hardware as well as emulation. It sounds like it's the basses that are distorted; the higher notes seem to sound alright. I wonder if the volume levels could affect it, although I doubt it.

 

 

Regarding the speed, I set it to 120 bpm, I had to set it to some value because it was not encoded in the Midi files (or my DAW didn't read it correctly), but if would have been possible to play it at a slower speed of course.

 

That makes sense. No problem there, just wondering.

[freetz]

...ok, MP3 recordings are up on my website:

http://www.phobotron.de/FSuite.mp3

http://www.phobotron.de/Fugue.mp3

 

There is a bit of echo/reverb present which is probably due to the recording from the emulator, but by and large this is what the songs sound like here, both on my emulator as well as on real hardware, so no distortion etc. here...

Edited August 28, 2014 by freetz

[Synthpopalooza]

One thing: If you are in 8-bit mode and using distortion 12 for bass, it is going to sound out of tune a bit, this unfortunately cannot be avoided. The tunings are a lot better when you are in 16-bit mode.

 

Also: Seconded on MIDI-OX, it is an invaluable tool for me in my studio ... altho I mainly use it as a SYSEX tool to load patches into my synths.

 

You should also get a program called Renoise to test this hardware out. It's a music workstation, but it works using a tracker style interface. It works with samples, VSTs (virtual instruments) or your MIDI hardware. So, you could dedicate one instrument to the MIDI channel that MIDIjoy uses, and essentially track 8-bit chip music from Renoise.

 

http://www.renoise.com

 

You can, of course, layer this with other hardware, samples, or other VST instruments too. And it is freeware, if you register, it lets you export wav files, but the freeware version is still very functional. It's also multi-platform (Mac, PC, or Linux)

 

This is eventually my intended use of this hardware, once I get one.

[Van]

 

You should also get a program called Renoise to test this hardware out. It's a music workstation, but it works using a tracker style interface. It works with samples, VSTs (virtual instruments) or your MIDI hardware. So, you could dedicate one instrument to the MIDI channel that MIDIjoy uses, and essentially track 8-bit chip music from Renoise.

 

http://www.renoise.com

I like Renoise's tracker UI very much, but if I could justify the cost, would jump on to Ableton Live. A different style but very powerful with Max for Live. Littlescale's blog is full of M4L patches that make my mouth water

 

@ freetz Just returned from the post office so you should get the package in a week (?)

Like those MP3s allot, getting excited!

Yogi

Edited August 28, 2014 by Van

[+MrFish]

...ok, MP3 recordings are up on my website:

http://www.phobotron.de/FSuite.mp3

http://www.phobotron.de/Fugue.mp3

 

There is a bit of echo/reverb present which is probably due to the recording from the emulator, but by and large this is what the songs sound like here, both on my emulator as well as on real hardware, so no distortion etc. here...

 

You're right. I had Altirra set to "Non-Linear Mixing" for some reason, which was causing the problem there. Oddly enough the problem still exists for me on real equipment, which I'm yet to figure out the exact cause for.

 

Anyway, sorry about the hassle, and thanks again for posting the demo songs. They sound quite nice.

[freetz]

I have uploaded some images of the interface in its solderless design on my website, in case you are interested to start assembling now already:

 

http://www.phobotron.de/InterfaceConnected.jpg

http://www.phobotron.de/InterfaceFullSize.jpg

[freetz]

Good news everyone !

Bill's parcel arrived today and I was able to hook up the very nice designed board in no time. It works like charm, both Midi In and Out and you can still use the USB-Midi functionality at the same time . Hope you guys will enjoy that in your setup, can't wait until end of October to finally offer MidiJoy to the public!

 

[freetz]

In what is probably my last feature added to MidiJoy (more features eat up more time in between receiving Midi data from the joystick ports and thus result in delays), I have now added ADSR envelope capabilities. The envelope file is rather simple (details on my website) and can be loaded prior to starting MidiJoy. This gives you the flexibility to have various envelopes for different sessions and you can change or adjust them even later on and experiment on what sounds best. To visualize the output, I have also added a simple equalizer to MidiJoy's GUI.

 

The demo disk on my website as well as the MP3 recordings are updated, so you can find ESTHENV.EXE and EsthEnv.mp3 there which enables you to compare Händel's "Esther" with and without ADSR envelopes. Enjoy!

 

Edit: Here's the direct link:

http://www.phobotron.de/EsthEnv.mp3

Edited September 7, 2014 by freetz

[freetz]

Thanks to a suggestion by Bill, multiple (up to eight ADSR envelopes can now be pre-loaded prior to starting MidiJoy and switched between them using keys 1-8.

The envelope structure is now also more flexible, allowing you to use the 251 available bytes in each envelope block in whichever way you like, i.e. three voices with just a very short ADSR pattern while the remaining voice can use up to four seconds of ADSR data.

Information on the new ADSR strucutre, a sample MADS file for easier envelope creation as well as a bugfix for the Teensy code are up on my website now.

Edited September 14, 2014 by freetz

[Van]

Hi Freetz,

Sounding very fun and hands on! For allot of chip musicians, live shows means hitting start and doing 'something' while the song plays. Not much improvising.

Looking forward to this:)

Yogi

[freetz]

Hi everyone,

 

as the original topic is now only loosely connected to what MidiJoy has become, I have started a new thread here, feel free to post your questions/comments/suggestions over there from now on!

 

Thanks for all the support so far,

 

F.

[freetz]

Just to let you know: I also added the possibility to change the distortion within the ADSR envelopes. Bits 5-7 of each ADSR-envelope byte now sets the distortion of that specific time-frame. If it's not set, the standard distortion set for this channel is used. With this feature one can create a whole lot of new instruments by mixing different "clean" and "noisy" distortions while at the same time adjust their volume. Only a few more days to go until the competion !

[freetz]

With the ABBUC hardware contest over (MidiJoy came in 4th), the software can now be ordered on a donation basis on my website:

http://www.phobotron.de/midijoy_en.html