MIDI Trap and beyond

[ColinP]

This is a spin-off from another thread that I didn't want to derail...

viewtopic.php?t=2912

MIDI Trap was just a little breather project rather than part of a well-thought out strategy and it doesn't conform to LSSP's skinning mechanism so for now it'll be a standalone module on sale for $3 pretty much in the same category as Adroit odds and sods like Hit and Tandem.

However, given your (drohnee's) suggestion it'll be available as a free download for anyone who has LSSP XL. So I hope this seems fair.

LSSP XL isn't intended to be a catch-all "ultimate" bundle that includes everything from Adroit. Although it has ended up with various things in there that haven't got anything to do with Large Scale Sequencing pretty much by accident

I need to re-evaluate a lot of things and an Adroit Complete option will probably be part of this.

My real focus at the moment is Adroit Custom and it's turned into a mammoth task as although the basic functionality was pretty easy to implement the final product is very complex (under-the-hood at least). The bulk of the work is complete but there are still a few elements in flux, lots of edge cases to test and things to polish. Part of this is improving my modest graphics design skills in Inkscape.

It's taking up a lot of bandwith - 10 hours a day 7 days a week sort of bandwidth. You know you're overworking when knocking out another module in four hours seems like a break!

Once Custom is released I want to build a series of things that will look like standalone products but will actually be Custom presets. Some of these will be free, others on sale for modest amounts to try to cover my costs.

LSSP is rather special in my heart but it's starting to look a little tired now so I want to go back through all the LSSP modules adding improved graphics and proper skinning. I'd also like to tidy up and expand a few things so need to devote some considerable time to this. So it's likely that there'll be an LSSP 2 coming down the line at some point.

Returning to the MIDI Trap discussion - modulation of a discrete 0 to 127 signal isn't something straightforward while conforming to the interface standards I like to meet. Adding a CV input is one option but drastic impacts from a 0.0390625 V change doesn't srike me as good design.

I think a well thought out remapping module (or two) is the way forward on this rather than bolting on a cheap and cheerful bodge.

There does seem to be a lot of demand for MIDI utilities but as I described above I'm already working at full capacity. It seems like a gap for other people to fill.

Rather than just dump some random MIDI code on the forum I'll have a think about how to curate something that's compact and to the point. Look out for something in the Designer subforum in the next few days.

[drohnee]

I appreciate the explanation here and understanding some of the constraints. I should not have made a suggestion about how MIDI Trap could be added to the LSSP XL bundle, although I certainly would not complain about that! Also seems perfectly fair to keep this separate if it does not fit with the concept for LSSP.

Regarding the method to set the trapped note, would a MIDI in port be an option? A user could then leverage the existing CA CV to MIDI module, connecting the output of that module to the trapped note input of MIDI Trap as one way to bypass the MIDI Learn and dynamically set the note.

I understand you are already at capacity with projects more to your own needs and interests, but hopefully another dev will feel inspired at some point to provide a set of simple MIDI processing building block modules. A few well-designed MIDI tools could greatly expand the flexibility of VM especially for users that like to provide input with hardware controllers and sequencers.

[ColinP]

No problem with suggesting MIDI Trap should be free for LSSP XL users. It's nice to give little bonus modules to people who help support Adroit.

That's a great idea about using a second MIDI input to optionally "teach" the note. It should be dead easy to implement in code but will need a slightly wider module to prevent it from being cluttered....

[ColinP]

It doesn't quite have the elegant simplicity of the original but here's the new version...

MIDITrap.png (37.28 KiB) Viewed 5292 times

[drohnee]

Looks great to me. Glad that having a MIDI input for the training signal could be implemented without too much disruption. Opens up the modulation possibilities while keeping it all fairly simple. I assume the "velocity out" (unpatched jack in the picture) is the MIDI velocity rescaled for CV? I can imagine a couple of ways I will use this module immediately...

[ColinP]

Looks great to me. Glad that having a MIDI input for the training signal could be implemented without too much disruption. Opens up the modulation possibilities while keeping it all fairly simple. I assume the "velocity out" (unpatched jack in the picture) is the MIDI velocity rescaled for CV? I can imagine a couple of ways I will use this module immediately...

Yeah, the 0 to 127 velocity range from the most recent MIDI Note On message is scaled to 0 to 1 for the "gain" of the VCAs and then multiplied by 5 to give a 0 to 5 V output from the VELOCITY OUT socket. Although zero velocity is actually treated as Note Off as per the MIDI running status spec so once a note has been received you'll never actually see a 0 V output, instead the lowest velocity voltage will be about 39 mV..

You can use either VCA to scale to other voltage ranges of course (as they are "DC coupled" - in other words they just do a multiplication!). So if you send -2 V to a VCA's input its output will vary between 0 V and -2 V instead of 0 V and 5 V.

[Steve W]

Thanks for your comments in the other thread, for this thread, and for your dedication to the VM community.

I have been silent (except for the start of some draft replies) because there's too much to write about related to both and not enough time. In fact that's part of the reason I made the suggestion in the other thread. I had a feeling you'd be able to put something useful together in much less time than it would take me to sort out some issues I stumbled onto with VM's handling of midi data, to revive and flesh out my old C64 asm, my arduino C midi processing concepts, and all the notes on real-time midi processing I have made since those projects (including some dream ideas for VM modules), and to teach myself Java!

With this module (MIDI Trap) as usual you haven't disappointed me!

[seal58]

Hello Colin,

thank you for creating MIDI Trap beside your project and giving it to LSSP XL users for free. This module is very helpful.

Since Dec 2022 I'm also working on a big VM project. But for me it is only part of my hobby. So I can take breaks any time I want or I need it. I wish you much luck with your Custom project.

Best Regards
Roland

[T.Strand]

Hello Colin,
Thanks for creating this module, and the rest of your modules. I enjoy working with them, and I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome of your ongoing projects and plans. Keep up the good work .
/Torben

[drohnee]

You can use either VCA to scale to other voltage ranges of course (as they are "DC coupled" - in other words they just do a multiplication!). So if you send -2 V to a VCA's input its output will vary between 0 V and -2 V instead of 0 V and 5 V.

Thanks for pointing out that these VCAs can be used to rescale the velocity to another range. Very handy.