Quatschmacher

FWIW these were some of my suggestions (I have many others that I have submitted over the course of the last rounds of development): Biggest improvement from a circuit point of view would be to add a class-compliant USB port (C or mini-B) to remove the need for an interface for updates and connection to the editor. As for CV, if there is a way to direct the envelopes to the CV port so that they could be used to control the expression/CV input of an analogue filter pedal, this would be a HUGE improvement that would create something I’ve been asking pedal manufacturers to make for ages. This would also strengthen the case for having amp envelope be made a Flexi mod source. Would there be any scope to add more hardware knobs or more options to the existing parameter dial? (Could be done by having more “notches” on the dial, or by combing the dial with one or more button that switch what options the dial controls. Having top-level access to, say, the individual envelope stages would be most welcome for users that don’t use the editor. There are quite a few fleshed-out ideas that I’ve already shared in our communal Trello board and via emails for improvements on the software side (such as my ideas for having access to all 128 values for the on-pedal parameter knob, increased oscillator resolution, etc) so would be good to revisit those. Would phantom power on the MIDI port also be a possibility? Any scope to have an on-pedal expression port? Perhaps integrating what you did with the 4Control into the pedal housing (could solve the USB thing too, but would need to be possible to do all updates without recourse to any external interface). An OLED screen update showing patch names wouldn’t be a bad thing either. Not sure I’d this is a hardware limitation, if so, this would be a good time to redesign this aspect - have note-on level and note-off level control be a per-preset setting as opposed to only global. (An optional global override of the per-preset setting would still be a good idea too.) For an eventual CV on the MIDI port, the adapter would need to be designed such that it still allows the MIDI out port to be used. So it should have three output wires - the two CV ones plus a standard 5-pin female MIDI out. In software, would be great if one can choose what gets sent out over the CV - one could then use envelopes, LFOs or whatever needed. Probably a per-preset thing.

The pitch detection thing is a software thing, but yes, I’ll be pushing again to have that be an option at preset level, though I don’t know how much software updating he’s up for doing.

Interesting announcement from Andras of Panda on TB today: Dear Friends, In the last time there were very few posts here. No wonder, there was not much news to discuss. Now, by the end of this year there comes the most important news since the original release: the hardware will be redesigned. This is necessary, since the manufacturer of the audio codec chip (the chip that converts audio to digital and back) stopped production of this chip, the current hardware cannot be produced anymore. So, I will have to redesign the circuit. Redesign and production of the new series must be ready before the limited stock that we have from the current design will be sold out. This makes it possible to make some changes based on the experience that we collected. We always appreciated very much ideas and suggestions that we got from visitors of this forum. Gabor reported me several times that potential customers asked for the possibility of 1Volt/Octave CV and Gate output. True, in the last years modular analog synthesizers have a great revival. You can drive them from keyboards or different sources, but not from bass or guitar. I was thinking about this. With relatively low additional costs it would be possible to include this feature optionally in the new FI. “Optionally” means that the circuit board would be designed for the additional CV/Gate possibility, and the necessary components for this option would not be assembled for the majority, but a smaller portion of the production would have this feature for some extra price. While the box was not designed with this option in mind, the following layout would be possible: CV and Gate would be connected to the two empty pins of the MIDI OUT socket, and we provide a Y jumper cable from the DIN plug to two mini TRS sockets to connect to a modular synthesizer. What do you think about this? Any ideas? Andras Szalay

Also, Source Audio. The Ultrawave is pretty bonkers in what it does.

Bear in mind that input gain and output levels will need to be adjust and saved per patch to work best with your own instrument. I’d highly recommend starting with patches by the users I listed above (and my own). Or sort by patches with the most likes. Or make your own.

Finally! don’t know why the link didn’t embed. Pasted below.

Down from £5290 to £4275 here. A long wait but that’s quite a saving: https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/synthesizer/moog-minimoog-model-d-2022-edition-synthesizer

Haha, yes, true.

Thanks. I’d also recommend checking patches by users thehook, sifrancis, nathannavarro, fivestringgecko and markneary1.

Subdecay makes some pretty interesting stuff.

That’s a stock Yamaha DX7 patch. Not really possible on C4, but try some of the FM basses I uploaded last night to get in the ballpark (I did 16 different ones and a few use that high frequency modulation heard here).

I’m hoping he’ll send me some pictures in the meantime.

It has but I can’t get out to pick up for another couple of weeks.

As always, adjust input and output to suit your own instrument. These were all programmed on a passive P bass and are obviously fine volume-wise for that setup.

Just uploaded another series of 16 FM basses.

Had to cancel my birthday plans today due to being snowed in. Annoying as I was supposed to be picking up my custom Shuker bass. On the plus side, I got to do a bit of C4 programming. I recently got to borrow a Yamaha DX7 so have been getting to grips with FM synthesis and wanted to bring some of what I’ve learned to the C4’s FM engine, particularly being able to replicate analogue style basis waveforms. I wasn’t able to accomplish everything due to some of the architectural quirks of the C4 (such as FM depth always being routed through an envelope) but I’ve managed to create a third (somewhat muted) sawtooth wave to make some big 3-saw sounds. Also did some other FM basses. Have posted the new patches to Neuro. Hope you enjoy them.

It’s ready but I can’t get out to collect it due to the snow!

This is normal. It’s a design choice which makes the FI trigger faster. A note-on trigger from the audio input is quicker to calculate than the time it takes to determine the pitch of a note. So, in order to provide fast triggering, the FI plays whatever note was previously played and pitches up or down to the new note as soon as its pitch has been determined. This is great for playing ghost notes on bass but does make octaves a tad frustrating. One suggestion I had made during development was to be able to switch this faster triggering off so that notes only play once pitch has been determined but there was no code space left. (The C4 has two modes, one which prioritises speed, the other which prioritises pitch accuracy.)

Strictly speaking, it’s not really tracking anything at all, which is why it’s fast. There’s no pitch detection in the Boss; it’s adding signal processing to the dry signal received. (The FI by contrast performs a pitch calculation and triggers a DSP oscillator.)

I’d put everything in the C4’s loop, then you can have a single preset which passes the signal from those pedals to the output without having the C4 be in use, but also allows you to route them in whatever way you like as part of a preset.