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Showing posts from February, 2024

MIDI Drawbars - based on D9U

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 When Guido Scognamiglio (Zioguido, GSi) released the D9U drawbard kit on GM-Lab I ordered the kit and built it. It was my first experience of the programming an Arduino Pro Micro and thanks to his excellent code I was able to modify and improve the unit. I then went on to build many projects based on the Pro Micro. GM-LAB I sold the D9U then picked up a set of old Hammond MIDI drawbars so I was able to build a unit based on Guido's design. One thing I didn't like about the D9U was the tiny micro switch at the back of the unit. This was used to switch between 2 sets of drawbars. I realised that it would be easy to use a rotary switch instead and then change the code to allow the adjustment of 4 sets of drawbars. Th CCs for the drawbars are stored in an array: int CCMap[4][9] = { { 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20},  // Upper B { 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 },  //  Upper A { 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88 },  // Lower B { 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, ...

Keydown weights Nord etc.

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The Nord Electro 6D has a Fatar TP/80 keybed which is the same as organs like the Mojo 61. However, I was surprised at how stiff the action was. I ended up swapping the key springs with an M-Audio Keystation 61-ES. I think this might use the Fatar TP/9 synth keybed.  That reduced the Keydown by 10g - not huge but it feels a lot better for smears etc. The Prophet 6 uses a variant of the TP/9 There has been much interest in the UB-Xa and some people are unhappy with the lightness of the keyboard so here are my unscientific results: Model No 1ps 3.56g Weight in grams needed to move key from rest White Key Length mm C-C 1 octave mm Nord E6D 15p 53 To the LH edge of the C key Prophet 6 14p 49 136 164 UB-Xa 8p 29 136 164 Behringer Odyssey 6p 21 138 164 So the Electro  with  new springs is very close to the Prophet 6 but the UB-Xa is 20g lighter than the P6. It would definitely be worth replacing the springs if they are the same size as Fatars. They are easy to replace - just ca...

Simple MIDI USB Clock Converter for Analogue Sequencers

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Title says it all really. I have several analogue sequencers that I designed and built years ago and I clock them with a Kenton Pro Solo Mk3. This unit can switch the MIDI THRU port to SYNC24 mode to work with Roland Drum Machines. This is a great solution but does tie up my Kenton which uses with my Editor and needs MIDI THRU for 2 way comms. Arduino and the Pro Micro  I realised it was a simple job to reprogram on of my Pro Micros to convert MIDI Clock and Stop/Start messages. I've used it for a few weeks and its a worker so I thought I build proper unit: Pro Micro 24 Pin DIL Socket 1 x PCB Mounting 1/4 Stereo Jack Socket (my sequencers are all 1/4) 1 x 10K pot (I used a 47K pot) Like my SYNC24 breakout box this will be mounted on the back of an existing 19" rack panel. The code is at the bottom of the post - you  will need to install the MIDIUSB.h library Analog pulses are output on the clock jack connected to Pin 2. When stop is pressed on the sequencer the Stop command ...