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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : CMM2 music composition ideas seqeuncers,trackers,etc.

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Daren
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Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 08:46am 05 Aug 2020
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Hello everybody! 1st post and happy to be here!    

After seeing the CMM on 8bitguy last year and the CMM2 more recently on CTRIX and 8bitguy, I decided to track one down and take the plunge.

I am very much not a programmer, although I find it interesting and intend to have a dabble with some simple stuff at first.

My primary interest in CMM2 is the music and sound capabilities, and the GPIO port for interfacing with external devices, I have quite a nice set up of synthesizers and other sound and music making equipment. I also use Gameboys and a C64 for music making, and I have modified these to better suit music applications.

So the things that interest me specifically on the CMM2 are the wav and synthesis capabilities, including the old school TTS speech (gotta love them robot voices!)

I am also very interested in the demo scene, although I was never a part of it personally.

I am hoping to try some midi stuff, including making a midi interface, although I have no idea if it is possible to set the baud rate to the required 31250bps yet?

Also thinking that I can use the GPIO for things like trigger inputs and outputs for various things, a lot of my gear can send and receive voltage pulses, so it should not be too difficult to build some appropriate buffer circuitry to allow this.

I'm not in any particular rush to dive deeply yet, so in the meantime has anyone else done anything or intend to do anything related to music making on CMM2? If so I'd be interest to see/hear what.

Things that I am thinking about:
Trackers and Sequencers
Midi utilities like say midi monitor, editors etc.
Conversion utilities like BPM/Hz/Ms/Bar/Sample rate calculators.
Synthesis using the built in commands
Music playlist creators for wav/mp3/mod files
Alternative music control systems using GPIO sensors etc.
Etc.

Any and all comments welcome!

Thanks

Daren
 
lizby
Guru

Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3472
Posted: 12:06pm 05 Aug 2020
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Great ideas. See CMM2 FM synthesizer

I don't know what progress is being made, or attempted.

(oops, I see you have seen that thread)
Edited 2020-08-05 22:08 by lizby
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
hitsware2

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Joined: 03/08/2019
Location: United States
Posts: 734
Posted: 03:04pm 05 Aug 2020
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  Daren said   I have no idea if it is possible to set the baud rate to the required 31250bps yet?


Good question !
The manual says " any baud rate "
but sometimes that means any ' standard ' baud rate.
my site
 
Daren
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Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 03:09pm 05 Aug 2020
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Yes I hope it is possible, if so it could do a lot of handy midi stuff I think.
 
Atomizer_Zero
Senior Member

Joined: 04/07/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 134
Posted: 03:22pm 05 Aug 2020
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The manual says

"OPTION BAUDRATE nbr : Set the baud rate for the serial console to 'nbr'. This can be any value between 1200 (the minimum) and 1000000 (1MHz). "

This is for the serial communication ports COM1 and COM2 (and COM3 if OPTION CONSOLE SCREEN is used), right?
 
Daren
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Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 06:48pm 05 Aug 2020
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Ok so I don’t have a printed manual yet, I connected a midi interface to the GPIO pins, what I’d like to do next is some rudimentary midi transmit and receive tests, but as yet I don’t have a clue how to code it. Easiest to start with sending data I think, so:

What I want to do
Set com1 to baudrate 31250
Note sub routine
Send a midi note on number 60 channel 1 to com1 tx
Wait 500ms
Send a midi note off number 60 channel 1 to com1 tx
Wait 500ms
loop back to note subroutine until any key is pressed

Can anyone help with the code please?

Here is a breakdown of the midi protocol for reference
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~craig/articles/linuxmidi/misc/essenmidi.html
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4139
Posted: 07:04pm 05 Aug 2020
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Won't the PDF manuals do?

All easily downloaded - unless you're on 1200baud dial-up or some such?

John
 
Daren
Newbie

Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 07:09pm 05 Aug 2020
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I have the PDFs but can’t really see them too well on a phone screen also at this point my knowledge of how to translate what I want to basic even with the manual isn’t quite up to the job :
 
Atomizer_Zero
Senior Member

Joined: 04/07/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 134
Posted: 07:13pm 05 Aug 2020
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Hmm im interested in this myself. I have some midi equipment for playing the music in DOS games from my retro pcs. I have a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 and a bunch of midi compatible sound cards and whatever else. I'm interested in how you connected the Midi Connector to the GPIO's? A schematic would be handy.
Edited 2020-08-06 05:14 by Atomizer_Zero
 
Daren
Newbie

Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 07:23pm 05 Aug 2020
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I just used a Hobbytronics midi breakout:

https://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/midi-breakout

Then bridged the 3.3v solder pads (important as the pins used are 3.3v, not 5v)

Then connect using dupont style female cables:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elegoo-120pcs-Multicolored-Breadboard-arduino-colorful/dp/B01EV70C78/ref=asc_df_B01EV70C78/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310773493424&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=307777361232053736&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9044871&hvtargid=pla-362913641420&psc=1

5v from breakout to gpio pin 2
Ground from breakout to gpio pin 6
Out from breakout to gpio pin 8
In from breakout to gpio pin 10
You will need to solder a 4 way female pin header to the breakout board as it does not come with one fitted, luckily I had one in my parts box, this one:

https://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/header-female-1-4?utm_source=google&utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIh4Gi0OSE6wIVhM13Ch1DYwywEAQYASABEgLFj_D_BwE

Hope that helps!
Edited 2020-08-06 05:24 by Daren
 
hitsware2

Guru

Joined: 03/08/2019
Location: United States
Posts: 734
Posted: 07:27pm 05 Aug 2020
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  Daren said  

Set com1 to baudrate 31250

Send a midi note on number 60 channel 1 to com1 tx

Wait 500ms

Send a midi note off number 60 channel 1 to com1 tx

Wait 500ms

loop back to note subroutine


Not sure but try :

10 OPEN "com1:31250" AS #1
20 PRINT #1, CHR$(144); CHR$(60); CHR$(127);
30 PAUSE 500
40 PRINT #1, CHR$(144); CHR$(60); CHR$(0);
50 PAUSE 500
60 GOTO 20

Maybe need to CLOSE each time ?
my site
 
Daren
Newbie

Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 08:09pm 05 Aug 2020
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hitsware2 that worked just fine, so many thanks for posting it.
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4139
Posted: 08:52pm 05 Aug 2020
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  Daren said  I have the PDFs but can’t really see them too well on a phone screen


Wow - I bet that is true!!

A cheap PC (desktop or laptop) would help you :)

Even a REALLY old one will run Linux quickly and be all you need.

(Otherwise put up with clunky Windows, but again an ancient cheapy will do.)

John
 
Daren
Newbie

Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 09:19pm 05 Aug 2020
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Yes I have a computer but it is in the office, the CMM2 is in the cave, so squinting at a phone is all I have for now until I get the manuals printed :)

Anyway, glad to report MIDI is a go on CMM2, well MIDI out at least.
 
hitsware2

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Joined: 03/08/2019
Location: United States
Posts: 734
Posted: 10:39pm 05 Aug 2020
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  Daren said  
Anyway, glad to report MIDI is a go on CMM2, well MIDI out at least.

What are you using for a synth ?
my site
 
Daren
Newbie

Joined: 05/08/2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 25
Posted: 01:09pm 06 Aug 2020
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So far I just tried a midi monitor and a small Roland sound module (PMA5) it seems to work fine.
Next I will try using keyboard keys to play notes, then probably try using a potentiometer to send midi CC data - that will be a little trickier though as I don’t know how to stop it reading and sending a value everytime through the loop, rather than only reading and sending when the pot value has changed.
 
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