.::GENOVATION.COM::.

[Nakamichi]

Just a quick update... we will be starting a BETA program for the MIDI Patch Changer over the next couple of months. EVERYTHING is tentative at this time.

The hardware platform for now will be a customized MiniTerm 900 with firmware designed from the ground up specifically for MIDI patch changing. It will be a standalone device with 20 keys, a 1 x 16 backlit LCD, a DC power input jack, supplied DC adapter and MIDI OUT. You will not need a PC to use it or set it up, but PC cables will be supplied so that the device can receive firmware updates.

The initial feature set includes support for MIDI patch changing (obviously) as well as optional Bank Select (MSB and/or LSB).

It will support presets (program change per MIDI channel) and possibly other features which may or may not require a PC for configuration.

[Rockitman]

It looks good...when it's time I will spread the word to the posts I have seen. I can also turn off my solder iron for now, and fire up my DAW.

[Nakamichi]

As the device features become more clear we will update the product page. For now we have this place holder:

Genovation MIDI Patch Changer:
http://www.genovation.com/midipatch.htm

[Nakamichi]

The preliminary owner's manual is now available at the link on the product page.

http://www.genovation.com/files/MidiPatchChanger.pdf

[Nakamichi]

The PDF has been updated, a first quick stab at the Librarian software is done and the keys have been printed. Almost ready to go!

[SysExJohn]

Hi All,

May I introduce myself? I'm totally new to both Genovation products and to the forum. I'm both an administrator and moderator on other music or MIDI related fora and frequently converse with musicians.

The new device looks very interesting and has a lot of potential, I think, for the gigging musician. But I'd like to suggest a couple of things that may make it even more useful. Please don't take my input as criticism, far from it!

First off would be a clip-on battery pack. One of the problems that musicians have is the number of "wall warts" that they have to plug in at the start of the gig and any potential (sorry) for causing earth loops. A battery pack that could be part of the unit and even angle-ing the unit towards the keyboard player would be a bonus IMHO.

Next, is there any way of reducing the number of extra connectors? Again loads of wires for mics, signal leads, MIDI cables to expanders etc. is the perennial gigging musicians nightmare. A couple of keyboards, two or three voice expanders, FX units etc. followed by keyboard amps and speakers can create a veritable rats nest. Anthing that can be done to help here is always welcome.

I was delighted to see that the unit has a backlit display BTW, just what's needed on stage.

Next a question. Reading the preliminary manual I wasn't sure whether I could enter a patch change that allowed a SysEx message to be sent first to change the "mode", e.g for a Yamaha expander from "performance" to "XG" (or vice versa), followed by bank select MSB, LSB, Program Change, or whether these would have to be two successive messages?

And lastly price and availability? Worldwide?

It looks most promising!
All the best,
SysExJohn.
_________________
Kein leben ohne Bach.

[Nakamichi]

I will make a quick reply here to cover a couple of points and cross-post it to your forum at MidiWorld. I'm sorry I can't address all the questions at this time.

Really it just comes down to memory and which features are more important. There is no reason that the Arbitrary MIDI data has to come AFTER the patch changes. So a minor adjustment in the firmware and this data could easily PRECEDE the patch change bytes. Of course as soon as we do that someone will want it the other way around. :D

So perhaps the best consideration is to let the user choose. I don't think at this time it will be effective to let the user split the small amount of data (18 bytes) to have some before and some after though.

Back to the memory issue. We could expand the number of bytes available for the arbitrary MIDI data component, but we would either have to eliminate patch-change-per-MIDI-channel (each Preset currently supports all 16 channels of msb/lsb/patch change) or reduce the number of Presets from 100 to (say) 50. I'm not sure the team here would be enthusiastic about either or those downgrades. In the bigger picture it might be interesting to have ALL the data in the arbitrary component, including any patch changes. But that's probably a different product.

One other minor tweak would allow us to chain Presets together so that one Preset would optionally spill over or "play" the next one. Thus you could achieve what the original poster wanted without a major firmware change.

[Nakamichi]

Version 0.72 has been released. We still a have a little ways before a nice shiny 1.00 but the Arbitrary MIDI Data capabilities have been added. You can 16 bytes of ANY midi data either at the beginning or end of a Preset.

The Arb MIDI Data panel is now part of the editor (preliminary implementation) but we are still using MIDIOX as a download vehicle.



Screen shot:
http://www.genovation.com/images/midipatcheditor.jpg

[Nakamichi]

Version 0.76 has been released (firmware/editor/manual).

The editor handles arbitrary midi input better, the firmware adds the new "Bill Bateman" Preset Browse mode and the manual has been brought up to date.

[EdK]

Sounds like a winner!!!

I'm the user who originally inquired about developing this function (inserting SYSEX messages before a patch change).

This will save me the effort of dragging along a laptop to gigs.

How do I obtain this device to give it a try?

Thanks! Ed

[mjchase]

I just came across this product thanks to a post by EdK on korgforums.com, and it looks like this product will meet my needs perfectly except for one thing. I find that I'm too busy to actually take my hands off the keyboard, and since my main keyboard has patch remain (where the notes from one preset will keep sounding after a preset change until I take my hand off the keyboard and foot off the sustain pedal) and I've arranged things on my laptop so that I get the same effect, I really don't want to move a hand to hit a button for a patch change.

Currently, I do this by using a foot pedal which has a current patch number and Up and Down buttons which increment/decrement the current patch number and send the corresponding program change (basically, it's like using the arrow keys on the MIDI Patch Changer, except that instead of selecting a preset, it sends a program change with the preset's number on the specified MIDI channel). So, in a performance, as long as all my sounds are in the right order, I can keep hitting Up (or Down, if the vocalist throws out a surprise extra chorus) and advance through my set in order, hands-free.

Since the MIDI Program Change unit can take MIDI input, it'd be really nice, if possible, if it could be programmed to switch presets in response to a received program change.



EDIT: I should also make it clear that I do use a laptop on stage and already have a perfect solution in this regard using a piece of software called Bome's MIDI Translator that can do pretty much anything in response to MIDI or other input, so I have it listening to incoming program changes from the MIDI Mouse pedal and sending program changes to my keyboards and passing them through to another piece of software that hosts a battery of virtual instruments.

I'd prefer to use a device like this though because it can be run independently from my computer. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I trust my hardware devices over my laptop, to the point of having backup keyboard-only presets for every song we do so that if my laptop ever crashes, I'm not holding everyone up for upwards for 5 minutes while I reboot and load audio samples back into memory. The MIDI Patch Changer would be ideal for this reason.

[Nakamichi]

Yeah we could add that. Some people have even added a footswitch jack for the up/down key, but that takes some basic electronics skills.

[mjchase]

I have a few more suggestions; this time, some usability suggestion for the editor. Firstly, a bit more detail on my workflow.

I play mainly at my church, where unlike a more standard band that might play the same or similar sets every gig, we have a large pool of songs to choose from and only use a few each time we play. Also, because of the way I'm using the MIDI foot pedal to send program changes, I need my master device to be organized differently from the 'slave' devices. On the slaves, it's fine for me to have one preset for each sound I need, and have them in whatever order I like, since the master calls them up specifically. On the master, I need a very different order, with some repetition, something like this:

Song 1 Intro
Song 1 Verse
Song 1 Chorus
Song 1 Verse
Song 1 Interlude
Song 1 Chorus
Song 1 Instrumental
Song 1 Bridge
Song 1 Chorus
Song 1 End
Song 2 Intro
Song 2 Verse
etc.

As you can see, I have a few presets for song 1, most of which are duplicated and put in the right order. When I prepare the sounds for a song, I'll write down what the order needs to be, so that when we get the setlist for a given performance, I can copy the presets on my master in the right order. Having this go as quickly as possible is really nice.

The editor gets this right in the sense that I can add individual sysex files (for each song part) in the order I'd like. This is extremely useful, and some major keyboard manufacturers don't get this yet (you have to use a third party program to move presets around between files for Korg's Triton line, for example).

The editor could make this a bit easier, though, and I suggest the following:

1) Have a separate view of the current presets that is simply a named list of all presets, so I can see at a glance that I have everything in the correct order without having to repeatedly switch presets within the editor's main window. Perhaps this could be a separate window, where double-clicking a preset in the list jumps to that preset in the main window.

2) It would get a bit tedious to repeatedly use file dialogs to find the preset on disk that I need for each 'slot' in the main sysex file. Another possible workflow might be that I'd make one sysex file containing each unique preset (so only one Song 1 Verse preset, for example). I might have to use more than one of these files as the number of songs in my library grow, but that's fine. What I'd want to do is have a two-pane list view, listing the presets in each file by name, where the left pane is some secondary sysex file and the right pane is the list of presets currently on the device that I'd be editing. I could then copy presets from the left pane to the right pane easily.

Overall, I'm impressed though; this is clearly a well-thought-out product and everything I'm suggesting is just what I'd see as minor improvements.