g’day everybody. oberheim once made a product called the strummer, and MIDI note on/off information fed into it was analysed so that chords were “staggered” (as a guitar sounds - the notes in a chord on a guitar are really played one after the other as the guitarist strums). i’m not sure if i explained that too well, but hopefully everybody gets the idea. it did other things (such as more arpeggiator-like functions), but they’re already covered by other MIDIbox devices. below are some quotes from the 'net of what it did, that i think would be good to replicate in a MIDIbox device:
Strummer can transform the incoming
MIDI data out into performance data emulating that of a real guitarist. Performance data may be delayed,
echoed, harmonized, transposed and sent back out on multiple MIDI channels.
You can even control the number of “strings” being strummed via keyboard velocity
The Strummer can change the speed and direction of the “strums” just by changing the way the keyboard is played.
Also, the Strummer has the ability to distinguish between chords and single notes, allowing chords to be sent
over one MIDI channel, while single notes are sent out over a different channel (like a solo lead guitarsound).
would it be possible to add these features into the existing Magic Delay device, or in a self-standing device? another simple MIDIbox that would be useful (at least to me..!) would be a device that splits sounds into separate channels, either through the keys that are being played (ranges; say A2-C5 output on channel 1, while D5-G6 output on channel 2), or through velocities (bleow a certain velocity outputs on channel 1; above that velocity outputs on channel 2), etc.
i’m much more than willing to give these projects a go; i have experience with assembly programming (though not PIC programming - i can learn, though!), though my real hang-up is that i have no idea about MIDI. where can i learn about this? i remember googling around a while back, and not turning anything up. maybe i just can’t search 
let me know what you all think!
-duncan
