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Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by tofflos on Saturday August 26, 2017 @02:48AM (#15104383)
Awesome! The market is really short on good MIDI pedals. Most pedals are in the €150 - €500 range and they have no versatility. You have to buy different pedals to be able to connect it to different gear. When you compare them to MIDI controllers from of the likes of Akai and Korg it's just depressing. They have velocity sensitive buttons, wireless-, USB-, standard MIDI and beautiful hardware for less than $80.

Someone go make a Kickstarter!

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by Joeboy on Saturday August 26, 2017 @03:45AM (#15104524)
http://moddevices.com/mod-duo

There's this kickstarted product that has a midi in (not out), but it's pretty pricey. It's open source and extremely versatile / hackable though.

Honorable mention: The Howton Owl which is cheaper and you can program it in C / C++, but it's audio only (no MIDI).

Edit: Actually it turns out the Owl can use its USB port as a MIDI port of some sort(s), and also there's a UART that can theoretically be used for MIDI but you'd have to work out how to do that yourself.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by tofflos on Saturday August 26, 2017 @04:50AM (#15104694)
Damnit!

Those are some nice projects and I like that you can plug your instruments and microphone directly into the pedal. Now my requirements list for the ultimate controller pedal has grown. ;-)

Start with something like the Behringer FCB1010. Add some programmability and get rid of a few unnecessary cables similar to the mods that are available on http://www.fcb1010.eu. Switch to USB-MIDI and add two TRS combo jacks with so I can plug in my microphone and my guitar. The pedal should double as a audio interface, a MIDI controller, be powered over USB but be capable of powering my tablet over USB when hooked up to 9V.

As I write this I realize that what I'm looking for is pretty much a Guitarjack Stage https://www.sonomawireworks.com/guitarjackstage but with more footswitches, less knobs and two built-in expression pedals.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by kaffeemitsahne on Saturday August 26, 2017 @08:13AM (#15105125)
You might be interested in axoloti: http://www.axoloti.com/

Stereo input/output, midi in/out, and it can function as a USB host to class-compliant usb/midi devices. Programmable using a puredata-esque visual programming editor, but you can also extend it with C.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by jdietrich on Saturday August 26, 2017 @12:09PM (#15106034)
Keith McMillen Instruments make a fantastic foot controller based on "smart fabric" technology. Each of the footswitches can detect pressure in three axes, so it can be used for some very sophisticated expressive playing.

https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by damnfine on Saturday August 26, 2017 @08:27AM (#15105157)
Okay, I will be the guy.

MIDI is dead.

The latency, is simply not musical. I have worked with midi since the early 90s. Its a low baud serial connection. Play 5 notes at once? Nope, its now a really fast appregio. Got a nicer keyboard that sends velocity, aftertouch and control commands? Even more quickly flooded.

The problem is, its such a widely implemented standard, and yet there are few, if any, out of the box midi-on-chip solutions that make sense.

If someone produced a new standard, focusing on latency, and somehow made a midi failover/compatibility mode. Midi2 if you will... that could be easily implemented by device makers. The whole world would get better music.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by lightedman on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:40AM (#15105378)
"MIDI is dead.

The latency, is simply not musical. I have worked with midi since the early 90s. Its a low baud serial connection. Play 5 notes at once? Nope, its now a really fast appregio."

I suspect that's wholly upon your equipment. I've got an old 486 with an AWE32 on it. Never once in my life have I encountered the problems you describe and my keyboard was a DIN5 connected Korg.

"Got a nicer keyboard that sends velocity, aftertouch and control commands? Even more quickly flooded."

Let me guess, you were using the game port on the back of your sound card instead of a sound card with a dedicated MIDI input/output?

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by jdietrich on Saturday August 26, 2017 @12:06PM (#15106017)
Open Sound Control is effectively MIDI2 - it ameliorates all of the obvious shortcomings of the MIDI standard. It isn't hugely popular, because MIDI is good enough for 99% of users 99% of the time.

http://opensoundcontrol.org/introduction-osc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sound_Control

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by michielderhaeg on Saturday August 26, 2017 @08:50AM (#15105219)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but these days everyone usually sends MIDI over USB. It doesn't have any of the problems you described, every computer has USB ports in some form or another. Every operating system has default drivers for these devices, so they usually work out of the box. Yes, MIDI as a hardware standard is dying. But why should we care when we have something more universal that replaces it?
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by damnfine on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:19AM (#15105293)
Sure, but we need the physical layer. Somewhere between the 5 +1 pin DIN and the logic.

We need a standard to replace it becaue music should not nessitate the use of a seprate computer to communicate.

Beyond that I could dive in to the MIDI signaling standard itself, and why it is outdated for sending most types of relevant digital information using todays synthesis and controller technology.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by SeanLuke on Saturday August 26, 2017 @10:40AM (#15105634)
USB isn't optoisolated. This is its killer flaw as a replacement MIDI transport.
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by photojosh on Saturday August 26, 2017 @10:04PM (#15108682)
It can be, see https://www.adafruit.com/product/2107

Surprised the high-end gear doesn't built it in!

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by hammerandtongs on Saturday August 26, 2017 @11:27AM (#15105847)
You have system configuration problems.

What you are describing would stop the entire music industry from functioning.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by Joeboy on Saturday August 26, 2017 @12:55PM (#15106249)
I would agree that you probably can't literally hear the delay among five note-on messages if nothing else is happening. That'd be about .5ms which is pretty insignificant.

But it does become a real thing if you're sending a lot more than that around, like pitch, velocity etc.

It doesn't affect the music industry much because MIDI is overwhelmingly a software standard not a hardware standard these days, so the low baud rate doesn't apply.

Edit: Wait, no, 5ms which is heading towards noticability but not there yet.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by wedowhatwedo on Saturday August 26, 2017 @01:22PM (#15106368)
Each midi note on and off always sends both pitch and velocity.

The first byte tells you it is a note on or note off and the MIDI channel, the second byte tells you the pitch and the third byte tells you the velocity.

Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by Joeboy on Saturday August 26, 2017 @01:39PM (#15106453)
I should have said pitch bend and aftertouch.
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by Joeboy on Saturday August 26, 2017 @08:57AM (#15105232)
Well there's MIDI the electronic standard, and MIDI the musical serialization format. The former is moribund, the latter definitely isn't.
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by damnfine on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:22AM (#15105297)
Fiar enough. I was looking at it as a whole system. Because if I connect my keyboard or pedal, it isnt just the data format. But I am mostly talking about the physical standard in my post. Its just infuriating I still suffer the same or worse delay when using hardware as I did in the 80s.
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by radiowave on Saturday August 26, 2017 @08:56AM (#15105229)
True, but to put things in proportion: I'll be delighted the day I can have a soft synth with a latency as low as MIDI.
Re:Converting a Guitar Effects Pedal to Output MIDI by MrsPeaches on Saturday August 26, 2017 @04:58PM (#15107412)
MIDI MPE goes some way to addressing some of these problems.

https://www.midi.org/articles/midi-polyphonic-expression-mpe