On 12/1/2016 at 7:49 PM, pasbel said:
I found another one board = 6 X-Synth !
Take care, you have only four MIDI outputs on the MBHP. You will run out of ressource if you continue (just joking)
On 12/1/2016 at 7:49 PM, pasbel said:
I don’t know why, but during my test, all synthmaker plugins (not synthedit, they work fine) crashed.
Probably because of a missing DLL or something like that. Or the emulated DLL by Wine is not compatible with original one coming from Microsoft
I knew that V-Machine worked with a linux, but I did’nt know with Wine too, I thought it use a vst host emulator only.On a “real” Windows and mini-ITX motherboard (ASRock E350M1) , I can’t use correctly a lot of vst plugins witch worked with V-Machine…
I have an Axoloti board, but I’m waiting to make an enclosure to use it, I destroyed an arduino board with a teaspoon…
11 hours ago, pasbel said:
On a “real” Windows and mini-ITX motherboard (ASRock E350M1) , I can’t use correctly a lot of vst plugins witch worked with V-Machine…
That’s very, very strange… and not logical at all. Maybe your Windows installation is corrupted or something like that (or typical in Windows world : there are many DLL missing if you made a “light” Windows machine)
A long time ago (2008), I made a VST host similar to that, called the Expandium. There a few running over the world (it was not a big success). It was a PC running a true XP, and I got a few problem reports similar to that. The reason I found was that many plugins are coded with a given Windows set of files (like the VC runtime). If you are lucky and the files have been installed by another application, the plugin start. If not, the plugin fail. And since the Expandium was not intended only to run VST host and not external software, the probablity to install such libraries “by accident” was low.
11 hours ago, pasbel said:
I have an Axoloti board, but I’m waiting to make an enclosure to use it
The Axoloti is a very nice design, I really like it. And the programming environment is wonderful. Johannes (the designed) made an excellent work.
I am working on my side on something similar but based on MIDIBox and Arduino “hosts” (with an external true DSP), I hope to be able to present something very soon (my plans are to present the prototype during the SynthFest in Nantes this year)
Quote
I am working on my side on something similar but based on MIDIBox and Arduino “hosts” (with an external true DSP)
Cool
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am working on my side on something similar but based on MIDIBox and Arduino “hosts” (with an external true DSP)
I live in Morbihan, I’il try to come
1 hour ago, pasbel said:
Cool
I live in Morbihan, I’il try to come
Will be a pleasure to meet another french fanatic if you come
(By the way, I live in Valenciennes…)
Great to discover now that there is quite some progress on the MIDIBOX / ASX combo !!!
I will come back to that topic as soon as I could find time for it.
Hi guyz,
I read this topic from A to Z and found it very interesting.
I own a couple of CME keyboards with a NeoSynth board in one of them. I’ve been proposed the ASX Plugiator instead but, as I didn’t know it much, I prefered the NeoSynth.
Now, i’d like to add an ASX board in the second keyboard but I can’t find one for a decent price. I found some bargains on iCon x-synth. So, I wonder if I could install one in a CME VX controller.
The second solution is to purchase an ASX board. Is anyone willing to sell one of his own ?
Let me know ASAP please.
Regards… from Martinique 
Hi (Salut)
Boards on CME and ICon are the same but connectors on them are different. On icon board, there is only one connector HE10 type.
If I remenber, on CME board, there are to connectors, one HE10 type, and another one.
Here Icon board…
Weather must be better in Martinique than in Brittany…
On 15/01/2017 at 5:17 PM, jelise said:
Hi guyz,
I read this topic from A to Z and found it very interesting.
I own a couple of CME keyboards with a NeoSynth board in one of them. I’ve been proposed the ASX Plugiator instead but, as I didn’t know it much, I prefered the NeoSynth.
Now, i’d like to add an ASX board in the second keyboard but I can’t find one for a decent price. I found some bargains on iCon x-synth. So, I wonder if I could install one in a CME VX controller.
The second solution is to purchase an ASX board. Is anyone willing to sell one of his own ?
Let me know ASAP please.
Regards… from Martinique
Hi Jelise,
the ASX (and iCon) are very different from NeoSynth. The NeoSynth is based on DREAM chipset (DREAM is a subdivision from Atmel based in France) and is mainly a sample player (sample player followed by DCF/DAC chain). The ASX and iCon are based on SHARC DSP, and they run “virtual analog” synthesizers (not based on samples)
The sound you get from each of them is then very different, since they use completely different synthesis algorithms. In my humble opinion, they complement nicely each other.
Now, about the fact you can’t find ASX anymore, the iCon X-Synth is exactly the same board except from the connectors used to interface with the keyboard. In other terms, you need just a an adapter (just connectors and wires, no electronic components). I can give you details about the wiring you need to make. So, if you find a X-Synth rather than ASX, do not hesitate, they do the same thing.
Benoit
On 16/01/2017 at 2:24 PM, pasbel said:
Here Icon board…
Weather must be better in Martinique than in Brittany…
Thank you Pasbel.
I guess weather is better than in Brittany… But, if people live there, maybe they like it…
BTW, would you sell one of your (6) X-Synth boards ?
21 hours ago, BEBDigitalAudio said:
Now, about the fact you can’t find ASX anymore, the iCon X-Synth is exactly the same board except from the connectors used to interface with the keyboard. In other terms, you need just a an adapter (just connectors and wires, no electronic components). I can give you details about the wiring you need to make. So, if you find a X-Synth rather than ASX, do not hesitate, they do the same thing.
Thank you for the precisions Benoit.
I would appreciate the details about wiring the X-Synth board. Thank you.
Joel
Hi guyz,
I received the iCON x-synth I ordered at amazon.de (curiously, it ships from Italy).
The user manual says to connect the 8 pin FRC connector from the keyboard to the 16 pin FRC connector located on the board.
The connector from my CME VX is 8 pin but it’s a JST type.
I wonder if I can just connect the keyboard to the x-synth…
Regards… from Martinique
11 hours ago, jelise said:
Hi guyz,
I received the iCON x-synth I ordered at amazon.de (curiously, it ships from Italy).
The user manual says to connect the 8 pin FRC connector from the keyboard to the 16 pin FRC connector located on the board.
The connector from my CME VX is 8 pin but it’s a JST type.
I wonder if I can just connect the keyboard to the x-synth…Regards… from Martinique
Hi Jelise,
as somebody was saying still recently in USA : yes, you can
It’s just a question of making an adapter between the two connectors. Look at picture from Pasbel, it tells how to do it.
I am not at home right now, but if you need a more detailed schematics, I can send it to you (since there is a risk that I completely forget this meanwhile, don’t hesitate to send me a message as a reminder)
Benoit
Hi
There are two X-synth board, Icon X-Synth for Icon hardware, with HE10 16 pins connector, and another one, similary to Icon X-Synth hardware (same name ?) with JST 8 pins connector for CME hardware. On my Icon board picture, you can see pinout for JST connecteur for CME.
I tested JST and HE10 connectors with ohmeter. I found GND and DIN4 and 5 on 2 connectors but not VCC. I tried to test all others pinout on my board where there are no physical connector, I don’t find link too with HE10 VCC. Perhaps, the two boards use different input voltage for each hardware keyboard.
If I remenber, in the CME guide (I don’t find it again), it used 2 connectors, JST and another one
Warning, I don’t test it with power supply, only with ohmeter (with 0 ohm detection)
Thank you guyz,
I succeeded connecting the x-synth to the CME VX keyboard using your advices.
I don’t know if the MIDI works from the keyboard (because the keybed isn’t attached) but it works from the USB.
At least, it can be used as a stand alone device connected by USB.
Drivers, registration and installing vocodizer plugin worked flawlessly.
Joel
Hello guyz,
I’m looking for a faceplate of the ASX board (the red one, for the VX keyboards, if I can choose).
If someone can give up one of his own, let me know please.
Thank you.
Joel
10 hours ago, jelise said:
Hello guyz,
I’m looking for a faceplate of the ASX board (the red one, for the VX keyboards, if I can choose).
If someone can give up one of his own, let me know please.
Thank you.
Joel
I think I still have one somewhere, that I don’t use. Let me check, if I find it, I will send it to you
Benoit
22 hours ago, BEBDigitalAudio said:
I think I still have one somewhere, that I don’t use. Let me check, if I find it, I will send it to you
Benoit
Sounds good .
Thank you Benoit.
Joel
On 28/02/2017 at 8:11 AM, jelise said:
Sounds good .
Thank you Benoit.
Joel
Hi Joel,
apparently, the alert system with the private message is failing (it failed for me)… but I think that you will get an alert with this message in the forum. Please check your private messages
Benoit
And after a long silence (being VERY busy with other stuff…), here are some news of the project to turn the ASX/X-Synth into an open DSP platform for music.
But first of all, I have to report some of the bad news about ASX/Plugiator : Use Audio is now completely dead and silent. The website is closed. It is now handled by a company who wants to sell the domain name to the highest bidder (I hate those companies who want to make money with “well known” domain names). Since Use Audio was the only source for Prodyssey, Pro12, FMagia and Drums&Bass plugins, the ASX is little by little getting the status of abandon-ware. Moreover, we tried to get in touch with inDSP in India, and the answer we got was “all developments of the ASX/Plugiator is completely stopped”
In other terms, the only available board is now the X-Synth from iCON, for which it’s very hard to get a clear status. It’s still existing on iCON website as an active product, and they sell it with 300USD off (see here https://www.icondigitalusa.com/shop/xsynth), but it seems out of stock. And at the same time, it can still be found on various places on the web, but with crazy prices (I saw some over 400 USD !!)
Software support from iCON is simply non-existing, since the software they provide is not even branded “iCON” but “Use Audio” (the name appears on all plugins in the Manager). That means that iCON does not even probably know that there are other plugins (and does not probably even want to deal with the licensing issues with inDSP)
Now, the “good” news : after countless hours of experimentation on my ASX boards, I think I have finally found a way to inhibit the local microcontroller and be able to download DSP firmware directly from an external board through the SPI link. The process involves to solder two connectors on X-Synth boards (SV1 and SV3) and place a jumper on SV1. It’s also needed to solder a wire directly on U204 (pin 11) to get access to the SPI CS line to the DSP. Soldering this wire is quite difficult by the way, and requires serious soldering skills.
Apparently, inDSP has implemented a special mode in the ATMega32, probably for DSP debugging on something like that. This mode is activated by shorting pin 1 and pin 2 of SV1.
But take an extreme care if you start experimenting with that : shorting the wrong pin on SV1 will activate the ICSP mode (In Circuit SPI Programming) mode of the ATMega. That means that you can format the microcontroller Flash memory through the ISP connector!! And there is NO WAY to recover the ATMega32 program in that case (in other terms, your synth board will be DEAD!!)
I will post more details on the forum as soon as possible, but I think I am on a good way now.
Once again, if you decide to experiment with the DSP SPI link, note that you need to know exactly what you do and you take the risk of erasing the microcontroller memory in case of any failure.
In other terms : don’t tell me I did not warn you about risks
Hi everyone,
I’m new here. Not an electronics engineer, neither a midibox builder, not even (yet) a happy owner of a Plugiator. But I’m trying to get mine soon.
However I feel I could bring some valuable good (old) news that I’ve read on
http://forums.scopeusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33080&hilit=plugins+for+plugiator
User Hypersonix -that I don’t know as I’m not even a member of that community- posted the following text in 2014:
" *******Update*******
I had an email back from Rahul over at InDSP. He is now the last man to support Plugiator and was kind enough to help me register my secondhand unit.
This now means I can purchase the four extra plugins directly from inside the PC Manager software, downloaded from the Use-Audio website. Plugiator lives!!
I did ask him if I could mention on here that he can help others in the same situation as me and he was happy for me to post his updated details. The info(at)use-audio.com email box is not used much any more due to a flood of bot spam etc. The correct address now is rahul “at” use-audio (dot) com. He asked me to “encrypt” the address like this for obvious reasons.
I’m very happy with the Plugiator and that Rahul is still around to help.
Cheers,
Ben "
_ " They are $149 for all four. That’s £88 here, good deal! " _
Althoug this should make every Plugiator fan extremely happy, if we analyze it, it could also be a scam. I would had expected more replies after he posted that info on the forum, but nothing indicates it to be true or fake. So if anyone is willing to risk some $, please share your results with the rest.. And I hope I can get my hands on a plugiator soon.
