The MidiBox SID lives again! Now with more LCD! (UPDATED)
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:34:36
Music : Interesting
It lives again! I finally added more parts to my MidiBox SID project. It has been a while since I had worked on it mostly due to other things. Working on music in general, getting into photography, and, of course, revamping my website. But I found a renewed interest in it after I went to an after work meet-up about Arduino and PICs. I still have a long way to go, but I did manage to clean up the cabling, add a BankStick board, add an LCD panel. I also put the whole thing inside a fantastic looking case...a shoe box. I needed to stuff it in something and I am still working out what I should do for the front-panel and all that. Even with the minor additions, though, it is much more usable.
In fact, I was able to crank out a quick little demo tune just using the MidiBox! I cheated a little bit by using delay and reverb from my Virus but otherwise it is all SID. Savvy listeners will notice that sub-par timing of the instruments. Well, I ran into some MIDI timing issues that appear to be related to using different MIDI interfaces or something. The tune would have also been longer, and would have had drums, but Cubase decided to hate me more than it did before. In fact, I think it's time to upgrade either to a newer version of Cubase, or to another MIDI sequencer entirely.
For a while now, Cubase has opted to pan my main input from my primary sound card all the way to the left when it starts up. Yesterday, while dealing with MIDI timing issues, it decided to make that setting permanent. I can't freaking figure out how to fix it! Every-time I play recorded audio, it's off the right speaker, even though audio from the synths is not. So that tied to poor MIDI timings (which may not be Cubase's fault but even so) makes me thing I need something else. Instead of spending all my time chasing random issues, I need to spend it making music!
I'm a bit bummed since it's hard to find support for my aging version and a new version is likely to cost money that I could be spending on the MidiBox or my camera! Oh well. Either way, the MidiBox project is both fun and is getting to be useful. I think I may end up spending the amount of a new syntn by the time it is complete, but it sure is fun! And very unique!
UPDATE: Turns out the timing issues were due to, in part, an issue with patches on a SID bug. Some details can be found here (and in other forum posts). I was also able to fix my Cubase issue. Turns out that the VST sync feature had someone been enabled over the left channel of the main sound card. After fixing that everything is good to go!
Tags:
In fact, I was able to crank out a quick little demo tune just using the MidiBox! I cheated a little bit by using delay and reverb from my Virus but otherwise it is all SID. Savvy listeners will notice that sub-par timing of the instruments. Well, I ran into some MIDI timing issues that appear to be related to using different MIDI interfaces or something. The tune would have also been longer, and would have had drums, but Cubase decided to hate me more than it did before. In fact, I think it's time to upgrade either to a newer version of Cubase, or to another MIDI sequencer entirely.
For a while now, Cubase has opted to pan my main input from my primary sound card all the way to the left when it starts up. Yesterday, while dealing with MIDI timing issues, it decided to make that setting permanent. I can't freaking figure out how to fix it! Every-time I play recorded audio, it's off the right speaker, even though audio from the synths is not. So that tied to poor MIDI timings (which may not be Cubase's fault but even so) makes me thing I need something else. Instead of spending all my time chasing random issues, I need to spend it making music!
I'm a bit bummed since it's hard to find support for my aging version and a new version is likely to cost money that I could be spending on the MidiBox or my camera! Oh well. Either way, the MidiBox project is both fun and is getting to be useful. I think I may end up spending the amount of a new syntn by the time it is complete, but it sure is fun! And very unique!
UPDATE: Turns out the timing issues were due to, in part, an issue with patches on a SID bug. Some details can be found here (and in other forum posts). I was also able to fix my Cubase issue. Turns out that the VST sync feature had someone been enabled over the left channel of the main sound card. After fixing that everything is good to go!
Tags:
Last Modified: 2008-07-06 18:43:28
0 Comments