I tried my hardest to get this thing done (pretty bored of posting about it, really want to get back to making music with it) but didn’t quite get there. 3.5mm midi in and out tested and working! LEDs tested and working! All that’s left is to mount and wire the encoders. Not too hard, just a lot of wires.
Oh, then I have to program it to do something. ;)
(New phone this week pleeeease my camera is dying)
Although it’s now apparent that the axoloti module needs some rework to make everything fit, I was able to get it finished to a point where it works to pass midi, and act as a usb host and a device simultaneously. This is really cool! Was using the qunexus to play a sample chromatically, while norns running Kria was triggering and pitching 4 others. This isn’t all that musical, but it’s the record of playing and tweaking and trying and listening for quite awhile so I might as well post it. Regardless, those doumbeks sound cool.
Made more progress on the Moduloti board today. It turns out that whatever aluminum alloy was used for the panel material I have is too hard for my tiny endmills. Not to be undone, I grabbed some plastic laminate that I had and sort of matched the bare aluminum. This cut lots better (obviously) but I did have to cut a second because the hole positions put the axo board into the rail and the module wouldn’t fit.
Boards are cut and all the desoldering is done. It’s a tight fit and wiring this might not be very fun. but in the end this is going to be a really amazing tool for my case. I was hoping to have this ready by the time my modules arrive (tomorrow!) but hopefully I’ll get it wrapped up by next weekend at the latest.
Made some more progress on this today. Tested and confirmed being able to power it board off the modular power bus and that hacking on 3.5mm trs jacks works for midi I/O. I can use the encoder switching/control subpatch I’ve already made for my other Axo, so just need to work out a 3 or 4 midi LFO scheme. Hardware seems like it won’t be too bad, but I always seem to end up in trouble on something. haha
I have an extra Axoloti board here that I never had a plan for. I was thinking today about midi control for the bitbox, wishing I had a rackable host, etc, etc when I put it together that Axo could be this for me. It can’t handle modular levels of CV or Audio, but it can act as a midi device and/or a host and it runs on 12v. It will take some hacking and fabbing, but if I can make it all fit (I think I can, in 10hp) I’ll have a module which acts as a midi passthrough for my controllers and ipad or norns, but I can also program midi LFOs, envelopes, or sequencers, AS WELL AS a standalone audio device that I can plug my guitar into for looping or effects. Fingers crossed but this could be pretty cool.
I got everything wired up according the midi diagram I posted earlier in the week. After a few hiccups (in goes to out and out goes to in) things are running pretty smoothly. There will definitely be some time getting used to it, but already things are much easier and more coherent than with the IC4+. — 1988 tech for the win.
Everything is flowers and sunshine.
As previously mentioned, I do a lot of diagramming for work and it has become “the way I think.” There are lots of problems that I can’t visualize to work out unless I draw them out. That said, this could have been 10 hand-sketches in the time it took to make this, but here we are. Need to stare at this a bit and think.
Witness my shame. Messy wires are my enemy.
I had my studio desk taken all apart this week so I could sit and work on my laptop, but my foot has been feeling better so I think I can go back to my standing desk next week. Put it all back together and wired everything up with the iconnectmidi4+, and although it works, I am second guessing myself on it a bit. I used to run overly complicated systems like this years ago and decided to get away from it in order to be more spontaneous with my instruments. This seems like it might be a step backwards. There is definitely some learning curve involved, but if I have to have a laptop open every time I want to change a routing (spontaneous!) it’s sort of a killer. If I do want to keep things connected it would be much easier to go back to my trusty DMC MX-8 and use the midi matrix in AUM to move things around. Hrmmm.
My setup has gone through a lot of configurations over the years — ebbing and flowing in size and sound and function. I’m working with a lot of different host devices (norns, ipad, axoloti) right now and making them communicate isn’t the easiest so I went looking for a solution. Enter the iconnectmidi4+ and wow this thing is deeper than deep. I’ve barely just started to fumble through setting it up, but (once I got the editor to install and recognize the interface) so far it’s been pretty self-explanatory to route the signals. The only downside at the moment is all these extra cables! (I laughed out loud when I saw all the ports in AUM. I think this thing will be very useful…
Was finding myself having to do a lot of page flipping on the Digitone during transitions so I programmed a master control layout on the Midi Fighter Twister. Such a great and flexible controller for any/every setup. More compact and way easier to program than the BCR2000 I used to have. Still working out a few kinks, but it’s great having all the time access to these parameters across all the tracks. Bonus points for custom colors to match the Digitone’s track buttons.
I’ve had an old M-Audio Uno midi interface for ages and it’s always worked great. Last week, a light bulb went on in my head that I could get another and use them together to get usb hosts (computer, ipad, norns) to talk midi to each other. It is extra wiring (there are a few specific solutions out there for this) but it works! Had a lot of fun with this tonight and am pretty excited that these things are now able to pass signals back and forth.