MIDI to CV controlled LED VU Meters

MIDIbox NG
1

Hey All,

 

So I haven’t posted in quite a while, I’ve managed to get my current 32 channel control surface working well with Pro Tools. 

 

The next step is to interface the missing components of my control surface (SSD1306 displays, rotary encoders, and VU Meters) using the MidiBox NG core.

 

Next project is the meters, so please, if you have any info to help me understand if this works, feel free to chime in. 

 

I have PT sending all meter MIDI messages outputting via HUI into a translator program. What I would like to know is, If I configure the core to receive those messages, and convert them to CV outputs using the MBHP AOUT NG, theoretically I could send the voltages to an LED VU meter circuit using the LM3914 chip (8 channels).

 

Can the NG core receive midi messages from 8 channels and convert them to  8 CV output channels in this type of application?

2

I’d remove the CV from that chain.

What you propose is converting digital to analog and then to digital again.

Those VU LEDs could be driven by a LED matrix, which contains shift registers.

That would be much cheaper and easier to build.

3

Ok… good point. However, I’m unfamiliar with LED matrices but will look into it. I see that 8x8 matrices are fairly popular, and I was looking for at least 20+ LEDS per channel for higher resolution.

I see MidiNG can support 16x16, but then I would need another 16 for all 32 channels :^/

This is where I decided the CV option would be better, as the LM3914 chip can support even 100+ LEDS on a channel, providing really high resolution.