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Re: double plex problems



Claude wrote:
>Hi all
>
>I'm using my 2 plexes in a stereo pair both slaved to a MMT8 Midi clock
>
>MMT>>>Plex 1 in, plex 1 out>>>Plex 2 in
>exactely the same settings on the 2 plexes
>plex 1 2 sync in
>one footswitch to plex 1
>boss vol ped as feedback controler
>plex 1 2 brother synced
>
>Here are some problems I have
>
>1- when leaving the brother sync plugged at power on, the plexes refuses
>to boot

That sounds like you are using the wrong sort of cable for BrotherSync. You
should be using a stereo (TRS) type of cable.

Not booting like this usually means that you have a mono cable in
BrotherSync. Is that it?



>2-when leaving the brother sync plugged at power off, the current state
>of the settings seems to not being saved properly (looks like Peter
>harlan's problem "Subject: EDP problem solved?")

that's weird. Make sure you leave parameters before you turn the power off.
When you edit a parameter, it doesn't save to the eeprom until you press
parameters to exit that row. If you turn off the power before that, it
won't save. Otherwise, if you are using a mono cable in BrotherSync, maybe
that's it.


>3- when you are in sync in (slaved to midi clock) and decide to stop the
>seq (nomore midi clock).
>Perform a record  (without resetting the loop) : the slave  sometimes
>starts recording something like 0.5  sec later which creates a serious
>mess. This happens also after a loop reset but lesser
>also when you stop or loose midi sync the 2 plexes desyncronize very
>fast specially if you perform footswitch presses
>Work around: when you stop a synced use of the plex never forget to
>reprogram the sync parameter to off
>
>BTW the normal synced use of plexes works very fine the problem is when
>you loose or cut the sync

Wow! looks like you found a real problem here. Seems like a situation we
overlooked somehow. (damn lazy beta testers!  :-) )   I guess we'll have to
try to figure out a fix for that. And congratulations, this is the first
bug report we've had on the v5.0 software! If we ever have Aurisis coffee
mugs or something, I'll send you one. :-)

For now, if you need this situation, try these workarounds:

- change Sync parameter to "off" or "out" if you turn the midi clock off,
as you noted.

- reset the loop first before recording another, rather than recording it
directly.

- don't turn the midi clock off, if that's possible. (maybe switch to an
empty sequence and leave it running?)


these are the sort of strange corner cases that make verification of the
echoplex code very, very hard.....


>4- when the feedback pedal is plugged in normaly the loop/delay gives
>you 3 possibilities loop, del, out. In stereo mode the slave doesnt get
>the 3; only loop and del

yeah, that one is sort of weird due to the way "out" mode is handled.
("Out" mode is just like loop mode, except the pedal controls the loop
output volume instead of feedback. sort of like a mix control at your
feet.)

The plex detects if there is a pedal plugged in and enables the "out"
parameter value if there is. Out mode is then handled in analog. The pedal
is used to set a control voltage on a VCA, which sets the loop volume. So
there are two problems with stereo here. One is that the slave doesn't
detect any pedal so it doesn't show "Out" as a parameter value, and
changing the Loop/delay parameter from the master will get them out of
whack. Second is that the volume is not being handled digitally, so there
is no way for the master to set the slave's volume. So even if we did dream
up a way for the master to tell the slave about the pedal over midi, we
still wouldn't have a way for it to control the volume there.

some ideas:

- use midi cont controller pedal for feedback, so that neither of them has
the pedal plugged in, and neither shows "out". Naturally, this only applies
if you don't want to use the "out" mode.

- use a stereo pedal and have one output plugged into each echoplex, so
that both detect the pedal and both show "out". This would be the thing if
you want "out" mode on a stereo setup.

- just live with it. When you change the mode parameter on the master make
sure you also change the parameter directly on the slave so that they have
the same value. This also applies only when you don't want the out mode.
(this is what I do, btw)


>Wishlist if ever...the plex will get another update
>
>assign one midi contr per function with the value beeing the  different
>options, a second set of values could be long presses

yes, I want that one too. it's on the list.....


>a reset all edits controler would reset the plex to a known state ( to
>start clean for the next tune)

got a better plan for that one.  :-)


>protect the midi row parameters by some double button presses

hmmmm.....Do you find that you accidently change midi parameters or
something like that? This is the sort of feature that risks being confusing
more often than it is useful....


>a function that could cut out a new shorter cycle out of a longer loop
>or cycle
>this last one needs more information than I have the time for today so
>I'll be back..

That's already there! Multiply-record. That's what we call "unrounded
multiply", which allows you to make a new loop length, either shorter or
longer than the original. (basically allows you to multiply by non-integer
amounts.) So by pressing multiply at the beginning of the section you want,
and Record at the end of the section, you will cut out that part and have a
new loop. Is that what you mean?


Thanks for the suggestions! they are always welcome.

We'll probably do another upgrade for the current echoplex hardware
someday. (not for a long while though, we need a rest from this thing!) So
feel free to make suggestions. Many of the ideas in there now came from
users. Your's could be next.....

Before you get too eager (I know, it's hard...:-) ), here are some things
that will never happen in this hardware, so don't suggest them: any sort of
pitch warping knob, filters of any sort, time expansion/contraction,
modulation effects, or any other sort of signal processing that requires a
dsp chip that is not there; polyphany or simultaneous loops; stereo in one
echoplex (no amount of software will add another audio path!); or
functional execution with midi program change messages (we have other plans
for those).

That being said, any other ideas that fit the echoplex feature set, we love
to hear about 'em!

kim


______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com