Future Impact v3 and now V4

[lidl e]

Does the 4control need a driver?

[Quatschmacher]

6 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Does the 4control need a driver?

No. It’s class compliant. 

[Quatschmacher]

Do you have a chrome browser open at the same time? Chrome will hog the MIDI connection as windows only allows one usb MIDI device at a time. Close down anything else that uses usb MIDI. 

[lidl e]

Just now, Quatschmacher said:

No. It’s class compliant. 

Hmmm.

 

Something not right then! Will try and figure out. 

 

So with the midibeam4 i should be ablento access and change patches incthe editor? I dint need like a roland um-one also

[Quatschmacher]

Just now, lidl e said:

Hmmm.

 

Something not right then! Will try and figure out. 

 

So with the midibeam4 i should be ablento access and change patches incthe editor? I dint need like a roland um-one also

Correct. It definitely works as I beta tested it extensively. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Quatschmacher

[lidl e]

6 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Correct. It definitely works as I beta tested it extensively. 

Manual says i should be able to tap the button to change frkm standalone to interface mode when hooked up to usb but clicking the button it never changes. I tried with switches and footpedals both in and iut. Midi cables switched. It just never goes into interface mode where the led on the midibeam4 should be blinking.

[Quatschmacher]

10 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Manual says i should be able to tap the button to change frkm standalone to interface mode when hooked up to usb but clicking the button it never changes. I tried with switches and footpedals both in and iut. Midi cables switched. It just never goes into interface mode where the led on the midibeam4 should be blinking.

It should automatically switch to interface mode as soon as you plug the USB cable into the computer.

 

While powered on, you could long press the button to perform a factory reset.

 

Are you using the USB cable that came with it?

Edited February 12, 2023 by Quatschmacher

[lidl e]

Just now, Quatschmacher said:

It should automatically switch to interface mode as soon as you plug the USB cable into the computer.

 

While powered on, you could long press the button to perform a factory reset. 

Cheers, i appreciate your responses and help.

 

I have done the long reset. I did assume it would go into interface mode directly when plugged jn. Im about to try on another computer.

[lidl e]

Not working on this computer either. Will try and ping your man at panda and see what he has to say.

 

What a bummer!

[SumOne]

5 hours ago, lidl e said:

Not working on this computer either. Will try and ping your man at panda and see what he has to say.

 

What a bummer!

Perhaps double check the usb cable type, that's caught me out on a couple of devices not connecting. Not all usb cables are data cables. 

[lidl e]

2 hours ago, SumOne said:

Perhaps double check the usb cable type, that's caught me out on a couple of devices not connecting. Not all usb cables are data cables. 

Schwing!

 

Im sure i was using the cable that came with it, but the other two I tried weren't working either 

 

I grabbed the charging cable from my son's PS4 and it worked right away!

 

Cheers, bud!

 

And cheers to @Quatschmacher

[lidl e]

On 10/02/2023 at 22:35, Owen said:

We actually need some video of this. 

Real quick and dirty just for an example.

 

 

Sounds a bit shite as its the camera mic.

 

I didnt have exp pedal setup, but you can hear the FI, then i step on the freeze, you can hear how it gets that drone and i can play over it.

 

This is using the midibeam4connect and the switchblade pro giving the dry signal mixed in.

 

I can get a better video in the future. Just happened to be using it last night.

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by lidl e

[SumOne]

Does anyone know a cure for this: 

 

Playing a note on the Bass and then playing a note quite a lot lower (like an octave lower)  the lower note does a quick 'warble' doing a higher pitch note before settling into the correct lower note. 

 

It happens with a lot of the FI preset programs and a lot that I have downloaded or made myself so I don't think it's a preset specific thing. I thought it might be a portemento thing but that seems to make no difference.

 

On the same preset playing notes on the keyboard octaves apart it doesn't do it so I guess that means it must be related to the Bass tracking rather than the synth effect. But playing on the Bass and playing through a scale of consecutive notes (e.g. playing gradually down the scale a whole octave) is a all good, it's just those big jumps down seem to confuse it and make it quickly warble up (I guess momentarily reading the harmonic an octave up?) then down to the note played, odd it doesn't do that unless you are doing a big jump down though. And the second time you play that low note it doesn't do it, just after that first jump down.  I've tried with two different Basses and being very careful with technique and reducing overtones and it still does it so I'm concluding it is something with the FI tracking (changing the input level doesn't seem to stop it), or perhaps something that can be changed in the editor?

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by SumOne

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

Does anyone know a cure for this: 

 

Playing a note on the Bass and then playing a note quite a lot lower (like an octave lower)  the lower note does a quick 'warble' doing a higher pitch note before settling into the correct lower note. 

 

It happens with a lot of the FI preset programs and a lot that I have downloaded or made myself so I don't think it's a preset specific thing. I thought it might be a portemento thing but that seems to make no difference.

 

On the same preset playing notes on the keyboard octaves apart it doesn't do it so I guess that means it must be related to the Bass tracking rather than the synth effect. But playing on the Bass and playing through a scale of consecutive notes (e.g. playing gradually down the scale a whole octave) is a all good, it's just those big jumps down seem to confuse it and make it quickly warble up (I guess momentarily reading the harmonic an octave up?) then down to the note played, odd it doesn't do that unless you are doing a big jump down though. And the second time you play that low note it doesn't do it, just after that first jump down.  I've tried with two different Basses and being very careful with technique and reducing overtones and it still does it so I'm concluding it is something with the FI tracking (changing the input level doesn't seem to stop it), or perhaps something that can be changed in the editor?

 

That's a really interesting observation. I was struggling with a similar point when I played with the FI live - just found it glitchy when first engaged and it let out a bit of an unseemly squeal which seems to be similar to what you are describing. Part of the reason for my sticking with the Boss SY 200 - the quality of the tracking / non glitchy fx is the trade-off I've taken for it not having the same quality of synth tones that the FI undoubtedly has. I think it's partly down to the SY-200 having polyphonic tracking which the FI doesn't.

 

I was advised to change my playing style to suit the FI. My preference was to change the pedal - maybe that was me being lazy, but sadly I've too much else to try remember and get right when playing live.

[Quatschmacher]

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I think it's partly down to the SY-200 having polyphonic tracking which the FI doesn't.

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.)

[Quatschmacher]

10 hours ago, SumOne said:

Does anyone know a cure for this: 

 

Playing a note on the Bass and then playing a note quite a lot lower (like an octave lower)  the lower note does a quick 'warble' doing a higher pitch note before settling into the correct lower note. 

 

It happens with a lot of the FI preset programs and a lot that I have downloaded or made myself so I don't think it's a preset specific thing. I thought it might be a portemento thing but that seems to make no difference.

 

On the same preset playing notes on the keyboard octaves apart it doesn't do it so I guess that means it must be related to the Bass tracking rather than the synth effect. But playing on the Bass and playing through a scale of consecutive notes (e.g. playing gradually down the scale a whole octave) is a all good, it's just those big jumps down seem to confuse it and make it quickly warble up (I guess momentarily reading the harmonic an octave up?) then down to the note played, odd it doesn't do that unless you are doing a big jump down though. And the second time you play that low note it doesn't do it, just after that first jump down.  I've tried with two different Basses and being very careful with technique and reducing overtones and it still does it so I'm concluding it is something with the FI tracking (changing the input level doesn't seem to stop it), or perhaps something that can be changed in the editor?

 

 

 

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.) 

[Quatschmacher]

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

[Al Krow]

Sounds exciting! If you can also get your "glitch-fix" encoded at the same time and maybe a more capable visual user interface (something as basic as the Boss RC5?), that would be a really cool upgrade. 

[Quatschmacher]

29 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Sounds exciting! If you can also get your "glitch-fix" encoded at the same time and maybe a more capable visual user interface (something as basic as the Boss RC5?), that would be a really cool upgrade. 

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. 

[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.

[SumOne]

Sounds good. If they are taking requests then the main things on my wishlist are:

 

• USB
• Expression pedal port
• Fast/Slow detection switch (dosn't need to be a physical switch, but good if it could be set per preset)
• Notches on the parameter dial
• Perhaps this is user error but the EQ seems to act in quite an odd way for me (and I'm used to para EQ), just a graphic EQ option would be good.
• More compact

[Quatschmacher]

4 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Sounds good. If they are taking requests then the main things on my wishlist are:

 

• USB
• Expression pedal port
• Fast/Slow detection switch (dosn't need to be a physical switch, but good if it could be set per preset)
• Notches on the parameter dial
• Perhaps this is user error but the EQ seems to act in quite an odd way for me (and I'm used to para EQ), just a graphic EQ option would be good.
• More compact

I think I’ve suggested all of those.

 

EQ via the knob is a tilt, how it behaves exactly is determined by how it is set in the preset. 

[Al Krow]

39 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

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.

 

Sounds great! 

OLED screen plus if it's no longer limited by chip storage to allow for later software updates from you Peter, that would actually nail it for me! Colour me super interested! 

[Quatschmacher]

23 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Sounds great! 

OLED screen plus if it's no longer limited by chip storage to allow for later software updates from you Peter, that would actually nail it for me! Colour me super interested! 

Yes, they were looking at an upgraded spec chipset so that should create more code space for improvements to oscillator resolution, modulation signal resolution and allow for some new features. Let’s see how ambitious they are feeling. 

[Owen]

I prefer the original chip. The sound is warmer than the new one will be. It enables me to express my innermost feelings more succinctly.