Messages

16

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: preenfm3 : 0.97 (compressors and level metters)

« on: November 25, 2020, 07:05:52 AM »

I don't understand that. Is it something i broke in 0.97 ?
What do you mean by "every key you play in has the big gap in a different spot" ?

I'm not sure about the issue of .97 vs. the ones before.

I just mean that if you have 5 silent keys, as happens for example with 19-EDO at the moment, then if the chord or interval you play contains that gap, then it will be a much larger PHYSICAL interval [the fingers will have to reach much farther] than if it is played on a portion of the keyboard without that gap of silent notes. For example, in the scenario I described in my post just above, a 19th-tone step sounds between C4 and C#4 [midi notes 60 and 61] while the same interval, a 19th-tone step, would be between F#4 and C5 [midi note numbers 66 and 72]. The same interval in both cases, but played in very very different ways, which is not the normal implementation.

17

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: preenfm3 : 0.97 (compressors and level metters)

« on: November 25, 2020, 06:59:21 AM »

Xavier,

A little hard to explain, it would be easy with video/audio.

I loaded a 19-tone-per-octave Scala tuning.

Since there are 19 notes inside an octave that means that, for instance, 13 midi note numbers, say #60 through #72, which normally make an octave, now are less than an octave. 60 is still C4 let's say, but 72 is not C5 but more like G4-quarter-sharp or so. What the FM3 is doing now is giving 19 notes in a row, perfectly, from C3 up the keyboard to F#4 [midi number 66], then leaves G4 through B4 [midi note numbers 67 through 71] silent--nothing happens. Then when I get to C5 [midi note number 72] it sounds the upper octave of the 19-note chromatic scale I was playing. That note would normally have come with midi note #67 [that is, the key G4], and there would be no silent notes.

I hope that makes sense. What it seems like to me is that the software is applying the principle used for scales with **fewer** than 12 notes per octave, in which case it makes perfect sense to omit notes, in other words to leave silent keys.

If this is still unclear I might try to do a short video.

18

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Three small questions on FM3

« on: November 25, 2020, 05:01:36 AM »

Yeah that's unclear. What I was trying to say is I was actually trying to set up a bank of 6 preset sounds, one per slot per MIDI channel. I was building new preset sounds with Randomize going quite slowly, and then saving each of these as as presets. I was then loading them on different channels/slots on the mixer and I suppose I got to 4 and at that point tried to save as a Mixer [multi] file and got stymied. At that point I had no idea that slots 5 and 6 didn't work, or if I experienced that it was somehow mixed up with my frustration unsuccessfully trying to save a Mixer file. Not only that, but I had taken apart my whole unit because of a different issue and I wasn't sure that that wasn't still sketchy. In fact, until Xavier tells me, or maybe 5 other people weigh in to confirm, that slots 5 and 6 will have to be fixed/added in new firmware, I'm won't be 100% sure   

19

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: preenfm3 : 0.97 (compressors and level metters)

« on: November 25, 2020, 04:00:48 AM »

Scala
. Fix : instrument 1 could not enable scala scale
. For scale with less than 12 notes, notes not assigned are now silent (used to repeat the last note of the scale)

I use tunings a lot that have more than 12 notes per octave. For example, 19EDO. The way I learned to play this tuning is that a sounding octave is an octave-and-a-fifth on a keyboard. So for example from C3 to G4 is one acoustic octave. Currently on the Preen FM3 with this tuning [19EDO, just for an example] you can play from C3 to F#4, almost an octave, but then the octave does not occur until C5, then everything repeats again over two keyboard octaves. In addition to the problem of this gap, another even worse problem is that every key you play in has the big gap in a different spot, so there is no consistency to interval sizes.

The general standard used in all synthesizers I know of going back to Yamaha, Ensoniq, Kurzweil, and Sequential is to not have any gaps for intonations with more than 12 notes per octave, and I would suggest that change for the Preen FM3. Thanks for reading!

20

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Three small questions on FM3

« on: November 25, 2020, 01:56:06 AM »

No, that must have been working on one of the slots 1-4 . That message was from earlier I think where I didn't even have a Mixer file set up yet.

21

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Mixer slots 5 and 6 on Preen FM3

« on: November 25, 2020, 12:33:26 AM »

Yes, same here. I dial to slot 5 or 6 on the mixer, press menu, press Preset, then press 'Load' and the unit freezes.

Thanks much, good to know it's probably a bug then and not my synth.

22

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / [Fixed in 0.97b] Mixer slots 5 and 6 on Preen FM3

« on: November 25, 2020, 12:02:48 AM »

Sorry to be so vocal and pesky here.

Anyone else have trouble loading Presets into Mixer [Multi] slots 5 and 6?

It's almost as if the file structure is not seeing those slots, and my unit immediately freezes.

Without jumping to conclusions, could it be that the firmware still retains the 4-instrument maximum of the FM2? That's just how it seems to me.

Thanks in advance. Would appreciate it if someone could confirm they can load into those two slots.

23

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Three small questions on FM3

« on: November 24, 2020, 06:29:13 PM »

Super, thank you. That works very well. I should have been able to figure that out -- since the <Empty> prompt was greyed out.

Great synth!

24

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Three small questions on FM3

« on: November 24, 2020, 05:39:06 PM »

Thanks all - Xavier, well, I was setting up five different instruments on different MIDI channels, controlling from a sequencer, and everything working really well. Then I would like to save that configuration of 5 different instruments, so I push Menu, and then Mixer, it gives me a page that says 1 <Empty> etc, and then a Select option below, but nothing happens when I do Select, and I can't seem to change anything except the Slot number for these multis, with encoder no. 1.


Served: thanks, I will be in touch!

25

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Three small questions on FM3

« on: November 24, 2020, 04:41:57 AM »

Hello all -

-- Does the Mixer tab under Menu substitute now for what used to be "Multi" on FM2? How do I save, and load, a "multi"? I can't seem to get the Mixer page to do anything. [ although the MIX commands work great! ]

-- I know it's early in the game, but I imagine a software editor is planned maybe, i hope i hope, sometime in the future..? 

-- anyone else have trouble with rotary encoder #5 [bottom row, middle] not working?

26

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: [solved] Screen dark on FM3

« on: November 22, 2020, 09:55:45 PM »

Thanks Xavier!

Yes, and now I know how to successfully access the SD card over USB with my computer.

Back to making music!

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preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: [solved] Screen dark on FM3

« on: November 22, 2020, 09:52:59 PM »

Xavier,

Great thanks for all that.

Now I have no problem getting access to the SD card. This is the method I used. Could you tell me if this is the best way, or is there maybe something from the main FM3 menu? Either is fine of course, I just want to be sure I'm doing the right thing:

<<Power the FM3 off
Power it on while holding down the red menu button

You will get a menu. For SD card access it will say to push button 3. Do this.

Wait up to 15 seconds and you will see the image appear on the computer screen.

Again, at your own risk -- and whatever you do don't accidentally push button 1 when you're in the boot loader, LOL>>>

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preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Screen dark on FM3

« on: November 22, 2020, 09:35:10 PM »

smart man

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preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Screen dark on FM3

« on: November 22, 2020, 09:30:14 PM »

Actually just figured it out.

Please try this at your own risk, because this is how I accidentally erased the boot loader before.

Power it off
Power it on while holding down the red menu button

You will get a menu. For SD card access it will say to push button 3. Do this.

Wait up to 15 seconds and you will see the image appear on the computer screen.

Again, at your own risk -- and whatever you do don't accidentally push button 1 when you're in the boot loader, LOL

30

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Screen dark on FM3

« on: November 22, 2020, 09:22:13 PM »

Xavier, now that that is fixed: could you tell me the method for accessing the SD card without opening the case? I can not find a way to access the SD from my MacOS computer over USB.

Thank you.

Jeff S.