Midibox LC and Sonar Question

Testing/Troubleshooting
1

I’m a new forum member, but I’ve been reading and visiting the site for about 3 months.  As so many have said before, this is an awesome project and I’d like to thank Thorston and all that have contributed to it.

Up to this point, I’ve built the JDM programmer, 1 core module, and 1 din module to get a better understanding of the operation of the Midibox before starting a design.  Everything is working as expected after having read and digested the experiences of others.  I’ve programmed 2 pics, one with the Midibox64 application and one with the MidiboxLC application.

I’ve run into a situation that I haven’t been able to figure out reading through this site or searching on the internet.

When using Sonar with the MidiboxLC application, set to Mackie Control emulation, Sonar can’t “connect” to the MidiboxLC.  I sends the following sysex string repeatedly:

F0 00 00 66 14 1A 00 F7

F0 00 00 66 15 1A 00 F7

I understand this much:

F0 = SYSEX HEADER

00 00 66 = MACKIE ID

14 OR 15 = NOT SURE, MAYBE DEVICE ID

1A = PROBABLY A COMMAND TO PERFORM AN OPERATION

00 = DATA FIELD?

F7 = END OF SYSEX MESSAGE

Has anyone tried to use Sonar with the MidiboxLC application and if so, how is this problem addressed?  I could spoof a response with MidiOx if I knew the right response.  Or maybe there’s a way for the MidiboxLC application to respond that I haven’t figured out yet.

I’d like to see if this issue can be overcome before I start working on a design.

Any advice would be appreciated!

xile

2

Hi xile,

0x1a seems to be an undocumented command :-/

Is there a demo version of Sonar available somewhere? (I don’t ask for cracks…)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

3

Thanks for the reply.

Link to Cakewalk trial downloads:

http://www.cakewalk.com/download/default.asp#windows

The program is Sonar 3.

There’s nothing mentioned in the limitations on the trial version about not being able to use a control surface, so it should work.

Also, you mentioned sysex documentation for the Mackie Control, is there a link to that?

xile

4

Cool! I just have downloaded the demo - Do I have to enable the access to Mackie Control somewhere, or does Sonar try to locate it automatically during the startup phase?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

5

You must add the control surface.

Options–>Control Surfaces–>(Window opens)Select the add button–>(Window opens)Select Mackie control

Then just select your input and output midi ports that connect to the controller.

Also, try the following:

View–>Toolbars–>(Window opens)Select “Control Surfaces”

This will add a toolbar to the interface.

When the Mackie control is selected from the toolbars pulldown, you should see the message, “connecting”.

Also, the sysex messages should start as soon as you select and OK the input and output midi ports.

xile

xile

6

Thanks - got it and after some try and error it’s working now :slight_smile:

the ultimate answer to the 1A command is 1B 42 :wink:

You can download the patch under http://www.ucapps.de/tmp/mblc_sonar_mod.zip, just copy lc_mproc.inc into the midibox_lc directory and compile the code again.

I will put this patch into the next release

Best Regards, Thorsten.

P.S.: Emagic published the Logic Control MIDI Implementation one year ago, but in the meantime it has been removed from the website…

7

Wow, that was quick.  I tested your fix and Sonar now connects to the MidiboxLC without a problem.

Thank you for your help.

xile

8

:smiley:  Does this only work on Sonar 3? I have Sonar 2.2 and have been a fan of the Midibox concept for almost 2 years now. I’ve been waiting for the Mackie emulation and now that it is here, I’m ready to dive in and make one!

Would you be willing to offer some feedback on how well it works and I’m still confused on what modules I really need to build. Also, how many I would need to build if I want 25 motorized faders (24 for channels and 1 for a main bus). I really like the layout of the new Tascam US-2400 and I’d like to essentially make a clone of that. I 'm just still confused on what modules I would need for that, how many cores, how to interconnect them etc. There’s alot of info on this site and I need some high level overview to bring it all together for me. Please help!

Thanks!

9

never built one, so i can’t give full details, but i know you get 8 mf’s per core and mf module, so you would need three cores and three mf modules for 24 motorfaders. 25 would up that to four.maybe you could substitue and encoder for the master level(which in my experience is not automated so much anyway), and only need 3. Or if you gotta have it, you could always have some subgroups too?(you would have availible 7 more motorfaders…). just my thoughts.

you will also need din’s and dout’s. ain’s won’t work with the mf’s.

That’s all I know about it…

good luck.