JX-Programmer MKS-70 adaptation

[opuswerk]

From now, the panel updates the KeyMode, but its state is not reflected by the patch dump, as I can’t find which byte has that information. I will get in touch directly with Fred to check this issue.

Let me know if I can be of some help to get the panel working with your JX. CTRLR is a bit strange to setup the first time, but once you wrap your head around it, it’s very easy.

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[AnalogJunkie]

I managed to get it going. I dont know why the older panel didnt work – but the latest does. I couldnt get it to change Tone Lower B though. That just wouldnt budge. When I changed it on the JX it reverted back to what it was on the Panel. maybe I am going mad.

On the MIDI set up I hastily set the Thru option – I had MIDI feedback and it completely trashed the memory of the JX – hilarious – took a special feature that Fred put in “Hold Lower & Write” at switch on to clear RAM, then reload factory data from a cartridge.

I will have to play with it a bit more but testing other things on it at the moment.

Cheers
GUy

[Possemo]

@opuswerk: here is a dump changing a patch on the MKS70.
About the Keymode issue: I found another editor, looks nice, costs about 20€ but there is a demo version where keymode is implemented (the demo lacks some other essential parameters). I wanted to record the code that it sends when changing keymode but until now I did not managed to get it. I am using Reaper at the moment which is really great for the price but I still have to get familiar. I will keep trying but maybe you get this much faster yourself:

http://www.vst-control.de/MKS-70v.html

By the way: I am still using MKS70 v1.08 firmware, MidiexpressXT(first usb ver.), Cockos Reaper as VST-Host.

Edit: Strange, I tried to read the data with the “verbose” verson of your dump. But either I did something wrong or these dumps are quite different (or – 3rd possibility – I am not able to read sysex at all). Here is how I made the dump step by step:
1.) Let the Ctrlr Midi Monitor listen to INPUT (raw data).
2.) Change a Patch on the MKS70 – e.g. form A1 to C4
3.) Wait until nothing more happens in the Midi Monitor, copy/paste in a textfile.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by Possemo.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[opuswerk]

@possemo:

The panel can update the patch on the MKS70/JX10, but it doesn’t currently update its value on patch dumps. I do however now know how to go about this. So I will update it ASAP.

Thanks for your patch dump. It seems all works as expected on mine too. Although, I still can’t explain why the synths sends the patch twice. It’s almost as if it’s receiving and sending the PRGM change on patch load, forcing the synth to load twice…

Is there a way in CTRLR to prevent the panel from sending ANY midi information until the panel has finished updating? Any Lua trick to do?

@AnalogJunkie:
Please keep me posted on how things go with your synth.

xx edit xx

Updated the latest version, which reflects the KeyMode properly!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by opuswerk.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

So it was the third possibility: I don’t have a clue when it comes to sysex. My posts may not make much sense, sorry for that.
With Reaper I have to disable all midi-thru options in the Ctrlr Panel otherwise it will do a feedback-loop. I cannot use the “input from plugin host” this seems not to pass sysex data. But selecting the Input from the Midiinterface works fine. On the other hand “output to plugin host” works well. Maybe this is information is of some use for some people.

The Keymode does not update with my MKS70 even with the new panel. Maybe this is due to my firmware v1.08. Apart from this all parameters seem to update. At this state the panel is really useful, much better than the editor from vst-plugins.de.

[robohymn]

I haven’t found it to be the case that MIDI thru has to be disabled in Reaper, but otherwise you’re right, no Sysex in via the “input from plugin host” option. Things seem to be working quite well with my Vecoven 3.03 JX-10 otherwise, tracks automation very well, etc. Nice work! and thanks for this, too, before finding it I was casting a skeptical eye on MKS-70v… seems a bit, er, overpriced. Ctrlr is a great solution.

[Possemo]

Hi robohymn, interesting that you don’t need to disable MIDI-thru. I think the MKS-70v is not that bad. It is quite a different concept which limits its functionality. For instance you can eiter send or receive data but not both at the same time. This way a MIDI feedback loop is impossible. I think the price is quite ok. But, yeah the opuswerk-panel should cost about 60€ when compared.

And now for something completely different: my Vecoven PWM-Mod-kit has been shipped! Yess! :-))

Edit: Just saw, that Fred published a list of the new features:
http://www.vecoven.com/superjx/pwm/index.html
omg! The SuperJX, already rich on parameters will become UberJX :-). Implementing all these parameters in the panel will be a bit of work.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Possemo.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Possemo.

[opuswerk]

Glad to see my panel is getting used outside of my studio. Didn’t expect it could be worth that much cash. I’m always open for donations 🙂

That is indeed a LOT of new parameters, which deserve a re-thinking of the GUI. Especially with all the power brought by the looping enveloppes. This would need some graphical ADSR visualisation. Which would be really cool to implement on the current enveloppes too. I find the sliders are a bit hard to use, as you currently have no way of knowing how long your attack or decay will really be.

About the CTRLR setup. The way I go about it, is couple (rack) it in Ableton Live with an external instrument device. That way, the CTRLR only takes care of sending the SYSEX and controlling the synth parameters, while the external instrument sends the MIDI notes and receives the Audio directly in the same channel.

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[superlewing]

Live’s external instrument is a nice idea but as you’ll need a second track to record audio anyway, I find it best to just use a separate input track to begin with. This also means you can layer the audio.

[opuswerk]

Yes, I should’ve said that I usually record the master out of my mixer, and don’t do much multi-tracking.
Also, like this I can directly compensate the latencies and thus apply fxs and the likes on the signal and have this directly in the monitors too. When needed, I usually then fire another channel that records the MKS70 directly, or any other hardware synth that I use.

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

I never looked into Ableton Live. I always used Cubase (very old ver.). Now with my new x64 Windows-PC I am trying out Reaper.

I received the kit from Fred yesterday. So, yesterday I fitted the components on the daughterboards (I ordered a non-luxury version). The new PWM-kit pictures on vecoven.com are showing the use of ribbon cables. This looks nice, I think I will do it this way. I’m still looking for the best way to fit the daughterboards in the already crowded 2U-Rack of the MKS. The PWM-kit pictures are all taken from a JX-10 where you have plenty of space. But no problem, I will find a way it will just take some time.

If everything goes well I will need a patch editor to explore the new features. Will have to try to get into sysex…
I found a good starting place for this. Do you know it already?

http://llamamusic.com/super-jx/mks70SysEx_I.html
http://llamamusic.com/super-jx/mks70SysEx_II.html

On part 1 he explains the weird KeyMode, as well as many other JX-sysex specialities.

[opuswerk]

Hello Possemo,

Thanks for the links. I wish I had found those when I was programming the panel… Most of the parameters sysex I had to find myself by trial and error, which was VERY long….

So you know, the panel already works by using the data sent by the synth on PATCH and TONE dumps. This data is used to update the whole panel. This bit of code could definitely be optimised though.

Basically, to extend the panel, you will have to extend the sysex capabilities. I do not know how the PATCH and TONE dumps are handled on the Vecoven 4.0 OS. So you’ll need to ask him about those so that the synth will update correctly when data is sent from the MKS70/JX10.
I’m hoping I will have time to add the extra functionalities myself, as it shouldn’t be too long, but i’ll have no way of testing it at all.

Maybe it’s worth having a button the user can engage that extends the UI if he/she has the PWM mod installed. That would be nifty 🙂

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

Hi opuswerk,
According to Fred the OS v4.0 should be downwards compatible. So, everything should work as before as long as you don’t use the new features. The new sysex-IPR parameters are already documented. Or is my way of looking at this naive/noobish? I will see, But first I have to finish this plumbers job. You don’t plan to get a PWM-kit?

[opuswerk]

Hello Possemo,

I suppose I could try out and plan the panel for the PWM mod, but as I’m not 100% sure of how the patch dumps work with it, i’d rather not yet venture in developping this.

I just read that Fred’s out of PWM kits, so my upgrade will need to wait. But i’m on the looout for a EPROM burner, as I need to update my ROMs in my MKS 🙂 Do you have one to recommend?

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

Hi opuswerk,

I never bought a eprom-burner because I use it too rarely. As a starting point I would look here:

http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2012-10-21-eproms.htm

The CPUs are already desoldered and the sockets are in place. I noticed that I miss practice for soldering/desoldering. I haven’t done it for a long time. I really hope I did not fry any chips…

I had to wait for some ribbon cable and other things I ordered so I looked into the MKS-70 panel and now I understand it much better. I have a question about the “uiCombos”. You made a piece of lua-code to set the sysex-strings, but you could make it simple by just defining the changing values in the uiComboContent like this:

For example dco range (you have to put dec. values):
16 = 100
8 = 80
4 = 50
2 = 0

And then you can set the sysex-string like the other controllers with the MidiMessageSysexFormula like this (just an example from dco tune): f0 41 36 00 24 20 01 0d xx f7
Or does this has some disadvantages?

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Possemo.

[superlewing]

The UI combo content is just the displayed text string, in your case the combo would still send the values 0, 1, 2, 3.

What you describe can be achieved by editing another field called sysexExpression I think, which is normally set to “modulatorValue”. If you change that to “modulatorValue*32”, the modulator will send 0, 32, 64, 92 to the sysex string.

I tried this but found problems with parameter linking breaking. The current code is light enough and works well.

[opuswerk]

I indeed tried to go the route Superlewing described, but not all parameters behave in such a smart way. Ie being multiples of 32 for example.

So to make things easy to manage, I built the Lua routines instead, which are all similar. I have an excel sheet somewhere with all the possible values of all the parameters that I used to keep track of the whole thing 🙂 .

@Possemo: I’m curious how well your upgrade will go. 🙂

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

superlewing wrote:

The UI combo content is just the displayed text string, in your case the combo would still send the values 0, 1, 2, 3.

I use the newest build of ctrlr, and with this it definitely works. Values are changed with the ones that you set. For example “16 = 100” displays “16” and sends “100” resp 64 in hex. I checked the results in the midi-monitor.

Edit: I saw now that this example was quite wrong, but I’m sure you got the point. Here is an example which is actually correct for “dco1range”:

uiComboContent:
16 = 0
8 = 50
4 = 80
2 = 100

MidiMessageSysexFormula:
f0 41 36 00 24 20 01 0b xx f7

The “xx” variables must be lower case.

And of course MidiMessageType set to Sysex.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Possemo.

[opuswerk]

I’ll test this ASAP. If this works, it would save quite some Lua, especially when expanding the panel to the PWM features.

I believe Lua could be used ONLY for updating the synth on patch dumps and adding extra functions that are not on the synth, and that need extra programming, like the Patch Linking.

http://opuswerk.tumblr.com
www.soundcloud.com/opuswerk
www.facebook.com/opuswerk

[Possemo]

Hi,
I did it. pwm-mod installed. 🙂 It looks like I could avoid to brick my mks70 🙂 Now it seems there is some work to do on the panel. But maybe there are some wrong parameters on the mks70 – there are many new things on the midi-page. For now the panel does not work any more. All I can do is change a patch. That too is the only thing the panel updates when I change a patch on the mks70 (e.g. it changes from A1 to B2).

I recorded a program change and I attached it on this post. For now I am too tired to look into it.

Cheers

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Author]

Posts