Modulating CRAFTsynth2 with MIDIhub LFO

So I have been struggling to get this to work all evening. Surely this should be an easy operation. I swear, every time I sit down to program the MIDIhub it wastes an entire evening. This could be such a killer bit of gear, but it just doesnt work. At least obviously. Intuitively. Reliably. So disappointing.

Anyway. I attached the very very very basic preset.

I started with Local Off on the CS2 so all midi notes played on the tiny touch keyboard would be sent to the MH, parsed for operation, and the resultant data sent back to the CS2. In this config I was able to get the LFO to modulate CC parameters on the CS2. However, I could not get Sustain to work reliably in this setup (another serious pain in my you know what). So I moved the Sustain pipe to an earlier pipeline further up the stack before the LFO operation. In this manner I was able to get Sustain to be a bit more reliable but now the LFO had no effect. Not with a Channel Remap, not without. Not with any one of the thousand variations of settings in the LFO block.

Its possible the problems are with the CRAFTsynth not recognizing the incoming data. I need to check with another hardware setup to see if there is any difference. But knowing the experience I’ve had with MIDIhub since the day I got it, my bet is on some arcane quirky setup requirement that just happened to be left out of the documentation.

God it would be nice if there was a way to monitor the inputs and outputs to troubleshoot this sort of thing. Even, god forbid, if there were a virtual LED indicator on each block so one could see what was going in at that level of activity.

If anyone reading this is feeling generous enough to take a look at the pipeline and test it, please please do. Better yet, anyone have a CRAFTsynth or any other Modal synth.

Cheers, a very tired and frustrated and unproductive failing musician.

Testing CRAFTsynth LFO.mhp (195 Bytes)

Hey, could you please attach the preset? :slight_smile:

I must admit, I fired up my MH for the first time last week and found that it wasn’t that straight forward getting the LFO to work. The documentation seems lacking in a “variety” of examples of very basic applications for each process. Anyway, its back in the box for now.

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Element, Thank you, glad to know its not just me. Mine’s about to go back in the box and off to Reverb or Ebay.

Reading the doc pages once again

“If it is placed as a Modifier, it can be synchronized to the beat, as well as it can apply modulation to previous CC LFO pipes in the pipeline, and/or to the incoming CC value from the input.”

What does that even mean. Functionally, how? No mention of modulating external hardware, only incoming CCs. Who needs that? I know I don’t. But I DO need to modulate EXTERNAL gear.

An example perhaps, a flow chart, god forbid a downloadable preset. I mean you ARE trying to sell and support your product are you not.

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Thank you for showing which parts you find unclear, it’s helpful for us to know. :slight_smile:

That paragraph means the CC value that’s passing through an LFO placed in the middle of the horizontal pipeline can be modulated by that LFO - offset by its own value. This way you can stack 2 or more LFOs to get more interesting waveforms, just like you’d do in modular synthesis, or subtractive synths that are mixing the waveforms of multiple oscillators. Also you could just send a CC using a MIDI controller and offset the base value of the waveform.

Such examples depend a lot on the external hardware - each device have their own CC mappings, so you must reference the device manual in order to know what CC number does what and whether special configuration is necessary for it to react to the incoming MIDI CC values.

We do try and help everyone who ask about specific configurations they aim to achieve.

In your preset, you’ve set the LFO’s CC to number 34, but the CC Remap pipe just after it is set to remap CC 1 to CC 3, dropping every other CC, including the one produced by LFO just to the left of it. Started of the LFO should be turned on, if it’s off, the position in the waveform is ‘paused’. The BPM clock is reaching the LFO correctly, ‘Sync to BPM’ should be enabled for it to sync to it.

I’d recommend to first just get the LFO controlling some parameters on your external device. CC #1 is the most significant part of the mod wheel, a lot of synth presets react to its changes. Try placing a new LFO pipe at the very bottom, set the ‘CC’ to 1, and send it to a synth. Place a Channel Remap with Out Low and Out high set to the desired channel number after the LFO pipe in case you need to change the channel from the very first one.

For CRAFTsynth2 try CC 34, the filter cutoff, just like in your attached preset.

If CC LFO is being sent to an output port, you’ll see the activity LED blink every time the value changes (but the blink rate is limited on purpose in case there’s just too much messages going through, as it would be lit all the time otherwise :slight_smile: )

Let us know how it goes.

Sadly, I have to agree that the Midihub is a pain in the ass, and I’m no noob with gear and programming etc. It does basic stuff well but I never really dig in because you end up wasting too much time troubleshooting stuff.

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I suspect there’s some fundamental misunderstanding here on how Midihub does its processing. It’d help us make Midihub and its documentation better if you’d provide some examples of what’s not documented clearly or what else you’d like to see explained, or just ask how to do some processing feats you’re after. :slight_smile:

It does sound like a MIDI stream probing / MIDI monitor tool in the Editor would really help understand better what’s going on when building presets at each part of the preset. :slight_smile:

Do you have some other suggestions on what else could be improved?

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Hi @SonikElectrik - I show how to modulate parameters on external hardware using the Midihub in this video: https://youtu.be/Moe0Bts77dU

Perhaps it will help you with what you are doing?

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Okay, well that makes more sense. And useful. If it worked. Be nice just to get one LFO working for starters.

You’re missing the point. Whether a CC number controls filter cutoff or envelope attack is irrelevant. Those details can be worked out by the end user. I’m talking about functional examples of the pipes. Just show us how to apply an LFO (or any other pipe for that matter) to a CC, and I can figure out how to swap CC54 with CC37 for example.

I tried every conceivable combination of options with those settings. Nothing made any difference. It sounds like I misplaced a CC Remap with a Channel Remap pipe, as this was recommended to remap from Ch1 to whatever Ch my synth was on. Maybe revisit the pipe icons as that’s a mistake I make all the time. They all look so alike and the grey is too light and vague. I will go back and investigate that setup as it sounds like the error lies with that CC Remap.

I do notice the LEDs lighting up so I know data is getting through.

Thank you for looking at the patch and pointing out the error. I think thats a good indication of the sort of stupid problem I ALWAYS run into. Make of that what you will.

Cheers
Adam

I think either a screenshot of an example pipeline setup that demonstrates not only HOW you would use a given pipe, but WHY also. Of course, a fully working preset (with general references, not synth specific) would be better.

A midi monitor would be gold. The LEDs help a lot but they are kinda top level data. I’d love to be able to drill down into a pipeline to see what is happening to the data at any point.

Cheers
Adam

Hey SynthDad

Your videos were instrumental in making the decision to buy a midihub, and in learning some its function. I even have your preset from patchstorage that helped understand the Distribution pipe, so thanks for that.

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Also for what its worth, for anyone looking at this thread later looking for CRAFTsynth info. It seems the CS2 is particularly wonky when hooked up to a midihub. I get consistent errors that I cannot repeat on other synths. It also does not play well with my Keystep, so something weird is going on that hardware combo.

Yeah so I’m a total idiot. As you suggested I had a CC Remap in place of a CH Remap. With the correct pipe in place it behaves as expected. The icon letters are pretty big so I dont know what I was thinking. Its not the first time Ive done that. So frustrating tho, wasted about 48 hours trying to make sense of this.

Thanks for pointing this out, and for your patience

Regarding setting one LFO after another, do I need to Remap the CH each time?

Cheers
Adam

While I disparage the general sentiment and tonality of the OP and some others (“pain in the a…”), I generally agree that display nodes or a logging/debug mode that shows what is being received and sent on which output would be awesome and indeed very helpful.