Starting the midibox box!

Bought some pine wood the other day (total cost was under $30) and started sanding and varnishing it. Still not done but here are some pics.

Front panel for the mixer

Went to a friends house to cut and sand the front panel. Have';t decided the placement of all the knobs yet but it is a start.

A quick and dirty Lame MP3 Encoder implementation

I have been very frustrated with some of the tools out there that use the LAME MP3 encoder. First off they all have a user interface, or some type of GUI wizard that requires user input to generate an mp3. This is great, however it is not so great when I want to quickly convert a wav file to an mp3 with the click of a button. I haven't found a tool that does this, but be sure to tell me if there one that does.

What I wanted to do was right click on a wav file and select send to -> mp3. Similar to that of winzip when you want to quickly convert a bunch of files to a zip archive.

To solve this issue I downloaded the LAME MP3 encoder source and built it on my XP machine. The compiled files I placed in c:\Lame and in my environment variables I set LAME=c:\Lame

I created a batch file called "Mp3.bat" and placed it into the c:\Documents and Settings\Jamie\Send To folder

The contents of the Mp3.bat file is below:

call "%LAME%\lame.exe" -b 320 -h %1 %1.mp3
pause

Now when I right click on my wav file I can easily convert the file to an mp3!

For anyone wanting a quick and dirty way to convert their files to mp3s this is a good solution.

Here is a snapshot of the process

STEP 1:




STEP 2: Select the wav file for conversion




RESULT:

Motunation

Found a useful site for Motu people

http://www.motunation.com/

Motu can't get IEEE 1394 right

So I used to own a M-audio Audiophile Firewire sound card. Everything worked great with both my desktop PC and my Dell m65 laptop with ableton.

The only thing the m-audio card lacked was the additional inputs/outputs I needed to route to an external mixer such as the pioneer djm-800.

So I decided to purchase a Motu 828 Mk3, which was the best sound card available for the money, offering 10-in/10-out, which is exactly what I needed to route 4 channels from ableton into an external DJ mixer.

The new Motu worked great with my PC. However when I went to use it with my laptop I ended up getting a blue screen of death when installing the drivers. The BSOD reported a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error.

So I contacted Motu's technical support and they told me that they only support Firewire chipsets manufactured by Texas Instruments. Well thanks for NOT stating that on the box f**ckers! You clearly claimed that you were IEEE 1394 compliant. Obviously f**cking not! Maybe you should have stated you were IEEE 1394 compliant with TI chipsets only!

So I took the liberty in ordering a Syba Expresscard (model# which contained a Texas Instruments XIO2200 chipset and re-attempted to get the Motu working. After connecting the Syba expresscard it showed in the device manager that the firewire chipset card was indeed Texas Instruments.

So my question to Motu (which they never answered) was "How come my existing M-Audio firewire worked with BOTH my PC and Dell m65?, where the Motu does not". Apparently Motu blames it on the non-TI manufacturers of the firewire chipsets. But really can they claim this?

I have a degree in electrical engineering and IEEE 1394 is a specification. If M-Audio can get the IEEE 1394 spec right why can't Motu? To my understanding Motu manufactures much higher quality products than M-Audio.

So it appears to me that the only real solution is to purchase a laptop with an onboard TI firewire chipset. Reason I know this? Because my friend owns a Macbook which I tested the Motu on and everything worked fine.

Anyways,

Word of the wise -> Don't buy a Motu unless you have an onboard TI chipset

Workbench

Pics of the workbench

EHC knobs

The EHC knobs arrived. They are very nice, however way too expensive if you are buying more than one. I need roughly 56 knobs, so 56 x $6 = $336. Even Allied Electronics has them for under $5 but that still was going to cost a lot of money.

So instead I am still searching for something less expensive. Perhaps something plastic for now.

Posts on midibox.org

More detailed discussion into my midibox can be found at http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,11847.0.html

It will discuss any low level technical problems I have encountered that this blog will likely not cover.

Testing the AIN

So I was able to get some midi generated into Ableton. I used the MIOS studio to upload a .hex file that I found on the MIOS downloads section on ucapps.

Photos here are testing the AIN module and also a rough draft of what the layout for the front panel will be. FYI There are some missing pots in the layout.

First attempt at uploading the software

Well it looks like it failed.

Back to the drawing board

Mackie Control emulator for UC33e

Here is the mackie control emulator for the UC33e. It allows you to use the UC33e as if it were a Mackie control. You can upload it to your UC33e using the Enigma software.

I use this for ableton and it allows me to select, play, and stop tracks without the use of a mouse!

Credit goes to the originator of the XML file.

http://jamie3.googlepages.com/UC33eMackieControl.xml

*Note* I have not been able to get this to work under Ableton 7.x (only 6.x). Others have report no problems using this emulator with 7.x but I haven't been so fortunate. If you do get it working please let me know!

Powering the midibox for the first time

I went to canadian tire and purchase a multi-volt AC adapter. You can switch it between 1.5V and 12V, and supply a maximum of 500mA.

I used my breadboard to test the AC adapter with the midibox core module, powering approximately 7V to the core at the VS and VD pins.

I tested the voltage across the VS and VD pins for each of the Jumpers that will power the DOU/AOUT/LCD, etc.

Everything measured at a flat 5V. Voila! it worked!

The next step it to test the LCD and the potentiometer to determine if I am getting midi signals.

Got bitten by a mouse! I mean mouser!

So I ordered some parts from mouser.com, come to realize their ridiculous cost on shipping.

$20 flat rate shipping to Canada from the U.S.

This is OK, only if you are getting a bulk order, but for someone like me who is sampling parts and making small orders this was a big disappointment.

So beware of the mouser!

I am on the hunt now for some Canadian distributors or even distributors that offer cheaper shipping. Or if all else fails just buy a whole whack of parts!

So hopefully this blog will be a guide for you for buying parts.

Illuminated pots and knobs

After taking a look at the impressive aurora mixer I decided to go ahead and order some of the same parts:

• LED X-Brite HYPER ORANGE WTR CLR 630nm, 7000mcd, 20mA
• LED Super Bright ORANGE WATER CLEAR
• LED White WHITE WATER CLEAR
• Tactile Switches 6x6 260gf RED LED
• 14mm Clear Shaft Potentiometers 20mm LINEAR 10K PC Mount
• Knobs BLACK RUBBER

Essentially these parts will add style to the mixer, especially in the dark.

Hunting for DJ style Knobs and Faders

hThis week I spent researching various options for knobs and faders. Coming from a DJ background and playing on a variety of DJ mixers (Allen & Heath, Pioneer, Vestax, etc), I knew I wanted something durable and heavy duty, yet stylish at the same time.

I purchased some plastic knobs from my local electronics store, however I wanted something a little more heavy duty. They recommended a company called EHC (Electronic Hardware Corporation). EHC had some nice heavy duty aluminum anodized knobs for pots. I purchased two types:

• PVL-19B-2

• PVL-19A-2

The knobs were roughly $6.50 each, pretty pricey, so hopefully they will do the trick. The knobs are 3/4" in diameter and roughly the same in height. I wanted something somewhat compact but also wide enough that i can grip easily during performances.

Now the faders...

After spending some research I found out that the Allen & Heath and many other mixers use ALPS faders. My local distributor didn't carry ALPS so I had to order them from Mouser.

I wasn't 100% sure which one to purchase, so I bought a few to sample and see which one I like the most.

Here are the ones I purchased:

• 60mm 10Kohm Illuminated Slider - ALPS website said they carried red illuminated sliders but I could not find them on the mouser website. Cost was $3.33.
  
• 100mm 10K - This one is not illuminated. It features

Both sliders are linear offering 10Kohm of resistance.
Now just waiting for them to arrive!

Studio Pictures

Pictures from the music studio:

• Mackie HR824 Speakers
• Virus TI Keyboard Synth
• Motu 828 MK3 sound card
  
• Some additional midi controllers (trigger finger, mk249c, uc-33e)

The beginning of the Midi Box

Started construction of my midibox www.ucapps.de. This will be a 6 channel 19x14" controller for ableton. Will contain a built in firewire sound card, perhaps a motu.

The parts were ordered from Tim aka SmashTV. Great guy and professional packaging.


Thus far the core, dout, ain, and aout are assembled.


I am in the process of searching for pots, knobs and pcb assembly.

Performing a pot test using some LEDs and my old cell phone charger

First post

First blog post. This will contain entries to my music, technology and interests of all kind.