what are groups (MB64e)? Can i assign just 3 encoders + button to 5 groups?

MIDIbox HUIs
1

Hello,

In the documention of the MB64e i read about groups all the time, but i couldn´t figure out what they actually are…

 

What i am wishing to acomplish (and maybe groups is just the concept needed) is this:

 

On a controller resembling my channelstrip setup (gate, eq, comp) i wish to use three controllers and a switch to build one eq band.

Frequency,

Gain,

Q-Factor,

EQ-band On/Off

 

I wish to use 5 dedicated switches to select between 5 EQ-bands to controll.

 

At the same time everything else on my MB64e should stay the same.

 

I am sure this can be done, but i am not sure how it should be implemented with minimum effort.

 

 

2

Hi,

Groups are some kind of ‘banks in banks’. E.g. A bank of 128 encoder entries can be mapped to 16 physical encoders, which results into 8 groups. Groups can be switched with buttons assigned to special functions (SFB).

Unfortunately MB64E doesn’t provide the flexibility to define encoders and buttons which are not part of a group, but this is actually what you want to achieve.

This has been solved with MIDIbox NG, which is much more customizable, but this firmware won’t run on a PIC based core.

On a PIC this could only be achieved with a selfwritten application (there are tutorials which describe the basics, but you will need some programming skills to put this together)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

3

thank you!

4

I wanted to get into programming for quite some time and the documention on programming for mios is really good. I already read a bit on C, so maybe i´ll just give it a try. If i manage to put together a little program that puts out one note-on with a button and uses a set of other buttons to change that note on event to different midi numbers i am on the right track.

I am a bit scared i will mess up with all the tools and rutines involved, but i will try. Haven´t programmed since GW-Basic 25 years ago…

 

BACK on toppic:

I see different approaches for this besides from writing my own application, maybe you can confirm that there is no missunderstanding:

 

Have one bank setup for all the controlls and the first eq-band. Use a bankstick housing banks with the same setup exept for the eq-controlls that will send different events with every bank.

Not very ellegant but it should work, right?

Other ideas i had use more than one core and are even less elegant…

5

This would work for sending, but not for receiving. Means: if your DAW sends back EQ values of a channel strip which is not part of the current bank, they won’t be taken over, because there won’t be matching encoder events in the current bank.

Btw.: how many encoder events do you need exactly? Maybe it’s possible to assign the same events in all groups (to the same physical encoders) when they should always be available. Did you already try this?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

6

Yes, i have considered this, although i do plan to send relative inc/dec signals and use no LED-rings. I have not really looked into this yet, i am not sure what date can be made available from Logic to controll the state of DOut pins.

Shure would be nice if a led could show me when a EQ-Band or Insert-Slot is turned on.

I plan a very custom box and might start a new threads as soon as i have a couple of things sorted out and did a real layout. Since i have a bunch of PICs here using multiple cores is not so bad for me and i figure it would be the most easy approach.

Right now i see 16 encoders, 28 buttons, and 1 analog Fader. Problem is, i want the functionality described with the EQ-Bands for the dynamics (gate, compressor, limiter) as well.

I think i could do this with two cores without writing my own application. I still like to learn some programming but i am a realist and i don´t know if i ever will. Although since this setup needs no programming on the fly, no LCD, just one “setup and forget it” it might be quite good for a starter. 

 

Main section:

 

Volume (fader), just passive, i can live with the parameter jump on this/will use soft takeover

 

5 Encoders:

Pan 

Send 1

Send 2

Select track left/right

Focus Insert up/down

 

11 Buttons

 Mute

 Solo

 Arm

 Bypass Insert 1-8 (8 buttons)

 

Then there will be the eq section

2 Encoders Output / Mix

8 buttons to select up to 8 Bands (with leds showing the state)

3 Encoders Frequency, Gain, Q

1 Button Band on/off

 

And a Dynamics section:

 

3 Buttons to select target (like the Band-select buttons on eq), Gate, Compressor, Limiter

 

6 Encoders Attack, Release, Threshold, Ratio, Mix, Output

maybe 5 more buttons for related functions.