Quatschmacher

Source Audio has midi over USB. Or did you specifically mean 5-pin MIDI DIN sockets?

Managed to tear myself away from manual writing and try some patch writing. A new feature that just got implemented a few days ago as part of the flexis has helped me to nail something I was trying earlier with only partial success. Behold - a pad sound that switches between rootless voicings of m7b5, m7, 7 and Maj7 chords via the expression pedal. I’ve even managed to get the ninth to move down to the octave for the m75 voicing to give the typical voicing for that chord. These new features really are amazing. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RZ1sySW33BoJn4nCSrHj8940yv_mw81E/view?usp=drivesdk @GisserD I told you I could do it!

There are already things that do this: https://www.andertons.co.uk/sonuus-g2m-version-3-audio-1-4-jack-to-midi-converter-for-guitar-bass-voice-and-wind-instruments-sonuusg2m?lgw_code=16284-SONUUSG2M&gclid=CjwKCAjwwvfrBRBIEiwA2nFiPXsB8enQjvV96KG1BJQO_RSVLnb5zmB3Xy374j34CH34e8A_N8BIrRoCnQAQAvD_BwE

I guess so. I contacted my local shop to order one before it even went live.

Have you used it with an expression pedal to get the morphing I programmed?

4 is my favourite too, the drive gives it more bite.

Out of interest, which ones did you like? I’m hoping to get some more done once I finish the FI manual.

Why would polyphonic necessarily give better tracking? If anything i would think it would take more processing time to decipher multiple pitches. I would like to try the SY-1 if I can find one anywhere.

Here’s one of the FAQs I’ve written for the new manual covering just that: How do I update my pedal’s firmware? You can update the FI firmware directly in your web browser (Chrome only) by going to https://auraplug.com/fiupdate/start.html and following the on-screen instructions. You will need to connect the FI to your computer with two MIDI cables. Alternatively you can download the latest firmware from http://pandamidi.com/support and install the update using the editor. Power on the FI while holding down both footswitches. Select “update firmware” from the file menu in the editor and follow the instructions. Once the update has successfully installed, power the FI on and off again. See page ?? of the manual for full details of the update process.

I don’t have a five-string so can’t say.

Was your FI on the latest firmware? If not then you should probably withhold judgement about the tracking. It has been improved.

I reckon it’s doable. It sounds like one of the dual-filter models. This is in the ballpark: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q2iaSDeDKZTYO7HNc-kaXuav1f7ncrf0/view?usp=drivesdk

https://www.sourceaudio.net/featured-neuro-presets-268837 Yay!

Also the newsletter!

I just got an email from Source Audio telling me that some of my presets are going to be on the Featured Presets page!

I hope the rest lives up to expectation. I’ve broken its back now and am close to having a releasable version.

I'm nearly finished my first draft of the new v3 manual and I thought it might be useful to compile a list of FAQs. Below are the ones I've already thought of. If you can think of any others then please let me know via PM and I'll consider adding them. Thanks. Apologies for the formatting failure when pasting in here. I may well paste this into the first post at a later date. @GisserD, @andybassdoyle, @Bo0tsy, @SICbass FAQs How do I choose which sound plays when the pedal is first powered on? The FI always starts up at the most recently-saved program. Navigate to the program you want to have as the start-up sound using the PROGRAM switch. Turn the EDIT dial one click in one direction, one click in the other direction then press the dial again. How do I change the order of sounds on my pedal? If you have never yet sent programs to your FI then the likelihood is that you are still using the default sounds on the FI. For the purposes of answering this question, let’s suppose this is the case. You’ll need to connect the FI to your computer using two MIDI cables. Launch the editor, go to the file menu and click select directory. Locate and select the folder called “defaults_pr3”. If you don’t already have this folder on your computer then you need to go to http://pandamidi.com/support and download it. To change the order of the patches, you need to change the two-digit numerical prefixes at the beginning of the files you wish to move. The prefix corresponds to the slot number on the pedal that the program will be sent to. When you have renamed the programs you wish to rearrange (taking care to avoid any duplication of prefix numbers) then click write all to write the programs in the folder to their newly chosen locations on the pedal. How do I listen to and add new sounds to my pedal? Firstly you’ll need to download the Program files of any sounds which you want to audition. It will be helpful to place these all in a single folder on your computer as it will make browsing quicker. Connect your FI to your computer with two MIDI cables. (If you just wish to audition sounds without writing them to the FI then you only need to connect one cable from the MIDI OUT of your computer to the MIDI in of the FI.) Launch the editor and in the file menu click on load program and click the first program in the folder containing your candidate programs. You should now be able to hear it when you play. Click on the “+” button to move to the next sound in the folder. If you have found a sound you like and want to write it to the pedal, click on the write one button in the top left of the editor screen. Locate the program file. If the file name begins with a two-digit numerical prefix then this is the location (slot) on the pedal to which it will be written. If you want to write it to a different slot, first rename the file, prefixing the name with the two-digit slot number of your choice. When you are ready to write the program to your pedal, either double click the file or click open. If you want to write multiple programs to the pedal at once, make sure they are all in a single folder. Go to the file menu, click select directory and locate the folder. Make sure that all files in the folder that you want to write to the pedal have a unique two-digit prefix corresponding to the slots you want them to be sent to. Click the write all button to send the programs to the FI. Does the FI have MIDI clock? No, the FI does not currently send or respond to MIDI clock signals. Can I use an expression pedal to sweep the filter? Yes. The filter cutoff in the FI is controlled by MIDI CC11 and CC74. You will need a third-party piece of equipment to connect the expression pedal to the FI’s MIDI In port. How do I use an expression pedal to control the LFO depth? LFO modulation depth to the filter cutoff and the oscillators’ pitch is controlled by MIDI CC1 (modulation wheel). You can again use a third-party product to attach an expression pedal and send the relevant CC messages to the FI You can also plug in a MIDI keyboard to the FI’s MIDI IN port and use the keyboards mod wheel. Can I listen to and create sounds on the editor without using the pedal? No, in order to hear FI program sounds via the editor you must have have the pedal connected to your computer. (Whilst it is technically possible to create sounds on the editor and save them to your PC without having the pedal attached, there would be little point as you’d be unable to hear how they sound!) How do I restore the factory patches to my pedal? You will need to use the editor for this and connect the FI to your computer with two MIDI cables. If you haven’t done so already, go to http://pandamidi.com/support and downloaded the latest “distribution package” to your computer. The factory patches are located in a folder called “defaults_pr3”. Click the “write all” button in the top left corner of the editor window, select the aforementioned folder and follow the on-screen prompts. How do I update my pedal’s firmware? You can update the FI firmware directly in your web browser (Chrome only) by going to https://auraplug.com/fiupdate/start.html and following the on-screen instructions. You will need to connect the FI to your computer with two MIDI cables. Alternatively you can download the latest firmware from http://pandamidi.com/support and install the update using the editor. Power on the FI while holding down both footswitches. Select “update firmware” from the file menu in the editor and follow the instructions. Once the update has successfully installed, power the FI on and off again. See page ?? of the manual for full details of the update process. Can I play chords on the FI, is it polyphonic? These are really two separate questions. The FI cannot respond to polyphonic input, that is, you cannot play chords on your guitar and have the FI synthesize them. The FI responds only to monophonic input pitches. You can however play chords using the FI in the sense of being able to set the oscillators to different pitches to give a polyphonic output. With the clever use of Flexi Controllers routed to oscillator pitches, you can even change the chord quality on the fly. Where have all the “bass” sliders gone? As mentioned, though the FI was originally a pedal for bass guitar, it can now be used with a variety of instruments thus we deemed it necessary to change the names of the “BASS” sliders to “INSTR” (instrument) to reflect this. Rest assured, they function in exactly the same way as before. How do I access the tuner? Press and hold the ON/OFF switch to turn the tuner on; press the switch again to turn it off..

That’s kind of my feeling too. I love what it does and it has a lot of strengths but it’s never going to unseat my FI v3. It could get closer if SA see the light and add ADSR.

They track similarly well. FI has a way way better implementation of the VCA envelope and having the sustain parameter in both the VCA and VCF envelopes means you can actually get notes that sustain for an age; remember my FI OC-2 patch? I got a good 30 seconds of solid sustain out of that. The C4 can’t do that as the envelopes all decay to zero (or really low values).

I've been there plenty of times. I have also had plenty of well-paid gigs.

As far as I’m aware, yes, Andras IS Panda (though Gábor is closely involved). And yes, I think resources are quite limited and the company is alongside his main work. I want so much for this new version to come to fruition and be the best it can be that I am happy do devote my time and energy to it without the expectation of a (monetary) return. If everything in this life were only done with the expectation of financial gain, then it would be a miserable existence. I’m happy that I’ve been able to make a large contribution to the development of new features and I’m hoping that my work on the manual will help to make the pedal more accessible to others so that more people can use it and make cool music.

I just want to state for the record that I do not feel exploited. This was a voluntary role and I knew that upfront. I’ve ended up putting lots of time and thought into it because it’s something I care about a lot; it speaks both to my passions and to my skill set. I certainly wasn’t moaning about not getting paid! It would be AMAZING if I could do this kind of thing for a living so I see this a useful first step towards getting some experience in this area and getting myself out there a bit.

I’ve been working on the manual several hours each day for the last few days. Still need to alter a couple of things in the filter section and am awaiting clarification on a few bits elsewhere but I’ve got through a big chunk of it. I’ve still got the two biggest sections to tackle (envelopes and the new flexis). One thing that is proving tricky is the choice of how much new information to include which explains a bit about synthesis along the way. The manual is currently written in a way that assumes a lot of prior knowledge of synthesis and I think many users coming to this pedal don't have that knowledge. There is a bit of a time pressure, I’m doing this for free in my spare time alongside my full-time day job and it’s a lot of work so I’m not sure I’ll be able to turn it into exactly what I think it should be (at least not yet) but will do my best to make it more digestible.