MY first midibox adventure.. planning stages

MIDIbox HUIs
1

Hi everyone, ive been a long time lurker and posted a bit. but now i have decided to plan on building a midibox :smiley: I hope this post is in the right place.

and of course i have alot of questions but i will limit them to a few in this first post.

first a bit about me. I’m a guitarist/drummer, etc… and a video editor by trade. i have a small bit of experience in programing C for Blender 3d, and also in python and flash actionscript. i have also be doing DIY electronics for a few years, build a distortion pedal, and 2 theremins, one a midi theremin. I’m also quite resorceful at hacking code together. and know midi quite well.

now my questions  i will give more detail on what  the application is afterwards

What i want my midibox to do, is send rotary encoders, or just standard pots as a midi SysEx message to a hardware controller.

eg, i want it to send something like F0 41 12 3A XX F7 where XX is the pot or encoder. is this possible with midi box?, i have searched, and not found anything describing it.

second, i would also like a button that can send a longer line of about 20-40 bits in length.

and on the matter of software, im assuming the answer will be the later… but should i use midibox 64 or MIOS. or will both be capable of what i want to do? which is easier for a noob to midibox.. but not to a bit of programing

Application:

i own a G9.2tt and i want to make a midbox to control it better, as the on board controls are a bit limiting and the midi implementation is limited to patch changing, turning each effect block on and off, and CC for the assignable expression pedals. i want this to be a bank of pots or encoders, to be used by hand.

so it seems midi Sysex is the only way to change some of the parameters on it.

on top of that (actually on the floor), i would like to have a bank of pedals to be used by foot, that will change a single effect blocks settings, which would be a midi sysex line of about 20-40 bits. i would like to have say 5 pedals, and an up and down bank button. so i can store it as such:

bank1 , clean, soft distortion, fuzz, deathmetal distortion, clean 2.

bank2, Big muff, OD-2, etc, etc, etc

bank3 , delay 300ms, 450ms, 1000ms, 2000ms, 2500ms.

etc etc.

i havent dont the calculations yet.. how much memory is available on the chips to store this sorta data, or could i use the bank stick for this?

also what is the best way to have the 2 devices in different boxes;

would it be better to make one midibox main cpu, and have a separate slave midibox for the pedal.

or have the two midi boxes independent of each other and build a midi merger to combine them before going into the G9.2tt

i have alot more questions, but ill leave it at these to start. thanks to everyone who helps, its about time i finally get off my arse and build a midi box :slight_smile:

2

GDay Levon,

Given your experience and the very specific nature of your project, I would recommend writing a custom app in C.

You could use the onboard RAM or load from bankstick, whichever suits your needs best. I would guess that the onboard ram would be ample.

As for the handheld+footswitch box, I would say you could probably have a single core in the handheld part, and attach the footswitches (just switches) to that… Some others have tried this or talked of it, there were initially some concerns about cable length (noise/interference/resistance) so I’ll leave it to someone who’s done it to confirm it.

3

thanks stryd one for the hints.

ive been looking throught examples of code and realised how easy it is to send midi SysEx data, with MIOS so there we go.

ive decided ill build the two parts seperate.. and can just use the midi thru on one of them. means i can have them a few meters apart, and also only use one if thats all i want. so ill start with the midibox of knobs and buttons, then once that is done, attempt the floor controller.

so, for now i got two tasks ill be working on

designing the UI, and thinking what ill need to control everything from my pedal, and

sorting out the midi sysEx data from my pedal, as zoom do not provide a midi data sheet.

im thinking of going for mainly rotary encoders, as some variables (like the delay time) goes from 10ms to 5000ms, but then also a few pots, that ill assign to certian variables to be able to use them easier.

so im thinking:

1 CORE

1 LTC (for midi thru)

1 LCD

1 AINx4

1 DINx4

1 DOUTx4 for leds

though i will cut down the chips needed for the AIN,DIN and DOUT deppending how many i need of each.

one question.. my pedal does not have the BPM tap accessable via midi, so the BPM needs changing by SysEx. is there a MIOS application already writen that will take a series of button presses and calculate the BPM?

cheers everyone.

4

Heres my initial layout design.

not sure if ill go for a 2x40 or 4x40 LCD

the red circles are encoders, the green ones are LED’s and buttons. a nd blue squares are bigger buttons.

2x40 or 4x40 LCD

48 encoders

51 LED buttons

3 Switches.

then all the normal midi ports etc..