1 Reply by A. Square

(46 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

kitsch wrote:

thanks so much for chiming in to this thread!  we love talking to the brains wink

My pleasure! I'm happy to answer any questions.

jefftheworld wrote:

This isn't someone involved in the project who'd been practicing all day long,  it was just a average musician.

To be fair, he was hardly AVERAGE: dude could play any song I called out. "Rhapsody in Blue?" "How's that go again? Oh yeah!" <plays it perfectly>. I got his contact info, I'm going to have him do a demo video as soon as our schedules line up.

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2 Reply by A. Square

(46 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

Xuriik wrote:

TALK ABOUT HOW YOU ACHIEVE THE ARPS.

To play an arp, you just hold down multiple keys. It will arpeggiate based on the current settings for speed and order.

The code maintains a buffer of which notes are currently sounding, which combines the notes from three sources: the local keyboard (unless it's been turned off with MIDI local mode off messages), the current held notes, and currently playing MIDI notes. The arpeggiator has its own clock. The clock speed is set on a per-patch basis and can be adjusted manually using the secondary function of the joystick.

When the clock fires the current arpeggiator function is called, which selects the next note in the buffer based on the current ordering. There are currently five order functions: ascending, descending, ping-pong, random, and order pressed. I'm considering adding some "pseudo-modes," specifically portamento, but I have some ideas for others. The order is also set on a per-patch basis, but can be changed live using secondary functions as well.

If the Pianocade receives a MIDI clock "start" signal then the arpeggiator clock is overwritten and the MIDI clock signal is used instead. The arpeggiator fires every 24 ticks by default (because the MIDI spec is 24 ticks per quarter note) but other rhythms can be selected, too. A MIDI clock "stop" returns control to the local clock.

The arpeggios can selectively be output over MIDI (see here for a demo: Alternatively, the Pianocade can be set to output polyphony over MIDI instead.

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3 Reply by A. Square

(46 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

I'm the creator of the Pianocade. I saw some traffic from this thread and figured I'd chime in. For those of you who like it, thank you! For those of you who don't, well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I understand that it's not for everyone.

Obviously if you hate the form factor, sound, or concept there's not much I can do to change your mind, but I did see a few comments that I think are incorrect that I wanted to clear up:

nitro2k01 wrote:
egr wrote:

15 patches of a single square wave?  That seems like a shame, maybe you can add other waveforms through the firmware or something...

It's probably using a single digital pin of a microcontroller to output the sound. A shame indeed really, considering how easy it is to build a cheapo passive 4-8 bit DAC using only 4-8 digital output pins and a bunch of resistors. That way you can have a sawtooth or triangle or more complex waveforms pretty easily.

The Pianocade DOES have a 4 bit DAC. In each patch the waves can be modulated in frequency, duty cycle, and volume; it should be able to do anything that one of the NES or Game Boy pulse channels can do. The firmware DOES support outputting other 4 bit waveforms, although it requires a bit more tinkering. Of course, since the DAC is 4 bit, the waveforms can't have much in the way of volume modulation.

chunter wrote:

...I wish it had a bit more synth ability on the board as it is sold, because if it's going to be priced like a monome, it should be as powerful as one. I wouldn't mind seeing its software to find out how easy it would be to modify it for noise and wavetables or polyphony or some kind.

I'm not sure I understand the first part of this comment: the monome isn't a synthesizer, and the cheapest model they've ever sold costs $175 MORE than the most expensive Pianocade. The kit versions are comparable in price, but with the Pianocade you get a synthesizer AND a controller, whereas the monome does not have any synthesis abilities.

As for the hackability, modifying it for noise would be simple, and there's a good chance I'll add it. Wavetables it already can do, as mentioned above. Polyphony would be harder with the current setup, but not impossible.

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