Future Impact now available!! WAS: deep impact reissue!!! interested?

[ilovesteak]

Did you install the correct driver before attempting plugging it in? Did you make sure it was set to “computer” (not “tab”) using the switch on the side of the central box?

Tab (class compliant) mode works better on macs, it uses the built in apple midi driver and you don't have to install anything

 

[Quatschmacher]

What is meant by this? The FI as it is already can power a WIDI Jack over its MIDI ports, so I assume it is properly wired for the MIDI standard for passing power, unlike some other devices (looking at you, Source Audio Reflex).

OK, ignore that one then. I’m not knowledgeable about that particular aspect.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Tab (class compliant) mode works better on macs, it uses the built in apple midi driver and you don't have to install anything

That is a very useful nugget of information!

 

[Quatschmacher]

LOL. I know I have that part right since I properly marked plugs and jacks with red and blue paint pens.
I'll double check the switch. Don't think I have had a reason to toggle that.

But did you get them the right way round when you marked them? Seriously, so many people get this wrong even though the markings are very clear: “connect to MIDI in” goes into the FI’s MIDI in; “connect to MIDI out” goes into the FI’s MIDI out. There are even arrows pointing to the signal flow. (It seems many people don’t see the “connect to” part and so assume the former is just “MIDI in” and so mistakenly connect it to the MIDI out.

 

[ilovesteak]

@Andras Szalay I’ve already suggested this but worth repeating:

would be good to be able to switch off the option which sends out the previously-detected note before the new pitch has been detected. It’s very useful for lots of uses but it would be good to be able to disable/set it on a per patch basis. Would also be good to have this accessible via the top panel and via dedicated MIDI command so that behaviour can be set quickly according to the user’s immediate needs.

That would be fantastic, ideally I'd like a mode that combines this with the "AR Dist" and sends through the distortion until the pitch is detected properly. You can sort of get this effect with an attack of 15-20 but there's occasional glitchiness in fast lines

Some other things I'd like in a circuit redesign:

• Pass sysex over midi thru (so I don't have to unplug the FI to edit some other pedals)
• process midi faster (for the same issue) - I find the FI can get laggy if it's passing through a lot of midi on other channels
• A dry out

I think it's out of scope for what Andras is asking but my dream is 4 edit encoders with the parameter knob choosing the 'page' you're editing, so if you select filter then you could edit cutoff/resonance/env follow at the same time, then you could select OSC1 and edit coarse/fine/saw/sqr or something similar. Basically the UI of the micromonsta 2 synth married to the FI - incidentally they're almost exactly the same size!

 

[sunbeast]

That would be fantastic, ideally I'd like a mode that combines this with the "AR Dist" and sends through the distortion until the pitch is detected properly. You can sort of get this effect with an attack of 15-20 but there's occasional glitchiness in fast lines

Some other things I'd like in a circuit redesign:

• Pass sysex over midi thru (so I don't have to unplug the FI to edit some other pedals)
• process midi faster (for the same issue) - I find the FI can get laggy if it's passing through a lot of midi on other channels
• A dry out

I think it's out of scope for what Andras is asking but my dream is 4 edit encoders with the parameter knob choosing the 'page' you're editing, so if you select filter then you could edit cutoff/resonance/env follow at the same time, then you could select OSC1 and edit coarse/fine/saw/sqr or something similar. Basically the UI of the micromonsta 2 synth married to the FI - incidentally they're almost exactly the same size!

That on-pedal editing capability would be amazing! Its stuff like that that has me using the Boss SY-1000 instead of the FI even as I prefer some of the sounds of the FI

 

[Andras Szalay]

Hi all,
I am glad to see that there is still great interest for this product, and many great ideas appeared on the previous pages immediately. I will return to discuss some of them in details later. But let me step back to the fundamentals of reality, and explain what is surely not possible, at least not in the next production that we are preparing now.

1. Redesign is limited by the time frame that we have. We do not want to have a break is supplying customers with FI, and if the production of the next series is not ready until end of this year then we will be out of stock. So we have less than one year for redesign AND production. This means that redesign -- especially concerning hardware changes -- must be kept minimal, and must be finished very soon.

2. We cannot change the housing in this time frame, so potentiometers, dial, display and connectors must remain as it is now. I understand that USB would be very desirable, but for many points of view it is out of question at this point (e.g. connectors must be at the back side of the box, and there is absolutely no space there for USB).

3. Any hardware design changes must be fixed in very short time, in order to leave enough time for circuit board testing and production.

4. You have to remember that we had to stop software development because the processor's program memory is full. I am thinking about solutions to resolve this situation, but in the moment only minimal software changes would be possible.

So, these are the restrictions that we have to live with. Now let us see on the other side, what is possible:

1. As I described, it would be possible to add CV and Gate out signals to the unused pins of the MIDI OUT socket, so these would not hurt MIDI OUT functionality at all. Originally I thought about pitch CV, as probably this is the most important use of CV control, but Peter's idea with assigning envelopes or other control parameter to the CV output makes sense and could be possible.

2. Although currently the jack sockets are mono, the output socket could be stereo, as Peter recommended for stereo effects. However, it is either stereo output sound, or CV output because the same DAC would be used for either one or the other function.

3. I am not sure what was meant by MIDI phantom power; if it means drawing current from the MIDI output signal, it is possible to connect such a device on the FI; however, I treat this solution a very bad idea, resulting in an unreliable product. However, it would be possible (we considered this already before) to connect ground and +5V to the two unused pins of MIDI IN. E.g. if you want to connect a hand-held control device wirelessly to the FI through a midiBeam, than you would not have to use an extra power supply for the midiBeam receiver.

So, these are my first thoughts about the ideas requested here.
Thank you for the suggestions, and let me know if you have some more of them within the restrictions described here.

Andras Szalay

 

[Quatschmacher]

1. As I described, it would be possible to add CV and Gate out signals to the unused pins of the MIDI OUT socket, so these would not hurt MIDI OUT functionality at all. Originally I thought about pitch CV, as probably this is the most important use of CV control, but Peter's idea with assigning envelopes or other control parameter to the CV output makes sense and could be possible.

Would it be possible to have all these options with the ability for the user to choose what is sent? So either pitch and gate as one option for the two outputs, two freely-assignable choices for the two outputs (chosen from envelopes, LFOs, envelope follower, velocity, etc) as the other option.

2. Although currently the jack sockets are mono, the output socket could be stereo, as Peter recommended for stereo effects. However, it is either stereo output sound, or CV output because the same DAC would be used for either one or the other function.

Does a decision as to which of these options is available have to be made at the hardware design stage? Or could the DAC be reassigned to one or the other function on the fly via a software option?

If it is a strict hardware limitation of one or the other, could you make two models, one with the CV option, the other with the stereo output option?

Would there be enough code space to make the chorus and delay into stereo effects?

 

[squish]

But did you get them the right way round when you marked them? Seriously, so many people get this wrong even though the markings are very clear: “connect to MIDI in” goes into the FI’s MIDI in; “connect to MIDI out” goes into the FI’s MIDI out. There are even arrows pointing to the signal flow. (It seems many people don’t see the “connect to” part and so assume the former is just “MIDI in” and so mistakenly connect it to the MIDI out.

I got the midi plugs correct. When I was interfacing/editing with my old Windows laptop, this was the configuration I used. That's when I used the paint pens. But you'r right, it wasn't very clear how they went. Thanks

 

[Andras Szalay]

Would it be possible to have all these options with the ability for the user to choose what is sent? So either pitch and gate as one option for the two outputs, two freely-assignable choices for the two outputs (chosen from envelopes, LFOs, envelope follower, velocity, etc) as the other option.

It would be possible to assign freely different functions to the two outputs, but only one of them can be a CV (analog voltage), the other is a 1 bit HIGH or LOW. For that one I cannot think about other useful functions as GATE.

 

[Andras Szalay]

Does a decision as to which of these options is available have to be made at the hardware design stage? Or could the DAC be reassigned to one or the other function on the fly via a software option?

I just realized that there is one problem with stereo output. Although technically stereo would be available from the circuitry, and a stereo output jack can be used, but the output volume control is mono. The potentiometer that we use is very low profile, a higher one would not fit, and stereo potentiometers are higher profile. It is hardly acceptable to have stereo output while the volume control adjusts only one of the output channels.

 

[Quatschmacher]

It would be possible to assign freely different functions to the two outputs, but only one of them can be a CV (analog voltage), the other is a 1 bit HIGH or LOW. For that one I cannot think about other useful functions as GATE.

If the 1-bit output could be optionally linked to an LFO (rather than just to note-on/off) that could give a clocked gate signal to pass on to devices that don’t accept clock. So send a gate at the start of every LFO cycle. (A decision would have to be made about how long that gate signal is held on for over the cycle. Could have a setting to determine what portion of the wave cycle the gate is held on for.)

 

[ilovesteak]

I just realized that there is one problem with stereo output. Although technically stereo would be available from the circuitry, and a stereo output jack can be used, but the output volume control is mono. The potentiometer that we use is very low profile, a higher one would not fit, and stereo potentiometers are higher profile. It is hardly acceptable to have stereo output while the volume control adjusts only one of the output channels.

You could still put a dry through on the ring! It would be a nice quality of life feature for processing bass and synth separately

Can the 1 bit output do PWM? If so it would be fine as an envelope or LFO CV

 

[Quatschmacher]

Can the 1 bit output do PWM? If so it would be fine as an envelope or LFO CV

In what way? Do you mean used as a source to control PWM on something external?

1-bit is literally either on or off. Do you mean something like “can the time between the on/off part of the 1-bit out out be varied?”? This is what I was alluding to earlier when asking if its on state could be tied to a set portion of an LFO, I which case it would itself be capable of being a pulse with variable width which could be sent to the gate-in port of an external synth.

 

[ilovesteak]

PWM is a way to get continuous analog output from digital output pins. It's the same principle as PWM in synthesis but at much higher rates. Many ICs have a PWM mode for their digital output pins that lets them work as a low accuracy analog output (when compared to an actual DAC)

Here is an explanation - PWM: Pulse Width Modulation: What is it and how does it work?

 

[Quatschmacher]

PWM is a way to get continuous analog output from digital output pins

Would this require audio rate capability to achieve this?

 

[ilovesteak]

Much faster, but it's generally ran at a few MHz by a dedicated PWM output feature on the IC. It's often overlooked by synth designers since the resolution isn't good enough for pitch CV

 

[Andras Szalay]

Much faster, but it's generally ran at a few MHz by a dedicated PWM output feature on the IC. It's often overlooked by synth designers since the resolution isn't good enough for pitch CV

unfortunately all PWMs of the processor are already in use.

 

[Quatschmacher]

@Andras Szalay emailed you this but am posting here too.

In addition to being able to direct a single control single to the CV output, it would be desirable to be able to sum the signals from several sources to the output. I’m thinking of things like when there’s an envelope modulating the cutoff but the envelope follower, input instrument pitch and LFO are also controlling the cutoff for more complex motion.

Maybe the way to do it (at least in the editor) would be to have a mixer-style slider array for all the control signals that could be routed to the CV output. There’d be a slider for each source which would control how much of that signal were being sent to the output. This would avoid having to select individual sources. It could just be the sum of the signals in that mixer. The levels would be saved as part of the preset data.

 

[Somnambulance]

Will the knobs be any wobblier?