MOTM

I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was turned 
off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of a 
continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando."  Of course later I 
realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around 
discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.

Is there a way to get around this?

Ivan

Check if the Expressionmate can do either of these:

1. Can it output a continuous controller message instead of note on/off?
2. Can it output note on/off with pitch bend?

Either of these modes should be able to produce a reasonably smooth 
portamento from MIDI messages. The brand D ribbon controller supports 
both of these.

At 10:26 AM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@... wrote:

>I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was turned
>off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of a
>continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando."  Of course later I
>realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around
>discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.
>
>Is there a way to get around this?

Right, but how can you get it to control a MIDI synthesizer so as not 
to play individual notes when sliding up and down the ribbon?

Ivan


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Juskiw <scott@...>
To: ivancu@...; motm@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 10:07:51 -0600
Subject: [motm] Re: Ribbon Controller - Kurzweil Expressionmate

  Check if the Expressionmate can do either of these:

  1. Can it output a continuous controller message instead of note 
on/off?
 2. Can it output note on/off with pitch bend?

  Either of these modes should be able to produce a reasonably smooth 
portamento from MIDI messages. The brand D ribbon controller supports 
both of these.

 At 10:26 AM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@... wrote:
  >I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was 
turned
  >off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of 
a

 >continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando." Of course later I
 >realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around
 >discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.
 >
 >Is there a way to get around this?

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, ivancu@a... wrote:
> Right, but how can you get it to control a MIDI synthesizer so as not 
> to play individual notes when sliding up and down the ribbon?
> 
> Ivan>>

Hi Ivan --

Long time, no chat! 

Regarding the Expressionmate, the bad news is you CAN'T do true 
portamento stuff on it. I bought one a few years ago, and had the same 
frustrations. 

So I called their tech support, and the guy admitted that it wasn't actually 
designed to just play smooth theremin-like notes. A bit misleading, since the 
original Moog ribbons were designed to do just that. 

All I ever found the Kurzweil good for is arpeggio stuff, and I haven't even 
recorded anything with that feature. 

The unit is basically gathering dust with my keyboards. A waste of money.

So I went over to the Doepfer ribbon, which DOES what you think it would.
Check out my modifications here:

http://www.danacountryman.com/ribbon/controller.html

Cheers,

 - Dana Countryman
Everett, WA

> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Juskiw <scott@t...>
> To: ivancu@a...; motm@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 10:07:51 -0600
> Subject: [motm] Re: Ribbon Controller - Kurzweil Expressionmate
> 
>   Check if the Expressionmate can do either of these:
> 
>   1. Can it output a continuous controller message instead of note 
> on/off?
>  2. Can it output note on/off with pitch bend?
> 
>   Either of these modes should be able to produce a reasonably smooth 
> portamento from MIDI messages. The brand D ribbon controller supports 
> both of these.
> 
>  At 10:26 AM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@a... wrote:
>   >I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was 
> turned
>   >off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of 
> a
>  >continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando." Of course later I
>  >realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around
>  >discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.
>  >
>  >Is there a way to get around this?

There has been lots of comments made about the Expressionmate
and it's performance.  I bought it for my son specifically for
his MIDI setup and it and it work fine for his needs.  He no
longer was using it so I adapted it for my MOTM system.

I'm not going to defend it's performance but I have done a
lot of work in software with it.  It has some strange
quirks and I'd love to look inside it's software and see why
it does what it does.  The ribbon is actually constructed
of three ribbon sections each with it's own output (2 common
divider ends and 3 output are used the 6 pin connector). At
one time I had completed an analog design to just use the
ribbon and piece the three sections back together.

I decided to gather my notes and document the Expressionmate
peformance on my ribbon module page.  I see less than 5 mV
steps in a typical setup.  I also have samples of glides with
a MOTM-300 VCO.
http://modularsynthesis.com/modules/DJB-011/djb011.htm

If I were still using this in a MIDI setup I would use my MIDI 
processor to transform the output into any needed command sequence.
Love those AVR processors!


Dave

With the upcoming Stooge panel run, I thought it would be prudent to 
let everyone know about the status of printed circuit boards that I 
have (or will have) available for some of the panels. I've also 
gotten a number of queries about PCBs in the past couple of weeks.

1. The TLN-156 Neural Agonizer will be available again by the end of 
August. This is my spring reverb circuit. I have another batch of 
boards ordered and there is already a Stooge panel for this.

2. The DB-120 will be available again by the end of August. This is 
Richard Brewster's circuit that adds more outputs to the MOTM-120. 
I've had a few requests to run another batch of boards and there is 
already the Stooge 120R panel for this.

3. The DB-320 will NOT be available anymore. The DB-320 is Larry 
Hendry's circuit that adds more outputs to the MOTM-320. Instead, 
there is a new multi-purpose daughterboard coming out that will be 
able to recreate the functionality of the DB-320 (and a whole lot 
more). This new board is another joint effort between Richard 
Brewster, Larry Hendry, and myself and will also be available by the 
end of August. I don't have any information about this new board 
posted yet; I will be working on that fairly soon. So if you were 
thinking about getting a Stooge 320R panel, go right ahead.

4. The DB-800 is still available. This is my add on board to the 
MOTM-800. No Stooge panel is required for this one.

5. The JLH-2090CV is still available. This is Larry Hendry's add on 
to Dave Hylander's expansion board for the Blacet MiniWave (which is 
an adaptation of Wiard's Waveform City). Whew. There is a Stooge 
panel for this entire concoction.

6. The TLN-854 Sword Of Kahless is available now. This is my new 
ribbon controller project. The Stooges and I are still working out 
the details on the panel. You can order the PCB now, but if you are 
also interested in getting any of the other boards that are coming 
out in August, I'd rather you wait until then. Less boxes to ship 
means less trips to the post office for me and less shipping costs 
for you.

The launch point for all of these boards can be found here:

http://www.tellun.com/motm/diy/diy.html

Thanks gang.

I'm not sure about the Expressionmate, since I don't have one, but 
the D*epfer one can generate a MIDI message with pitch bend that does 
not generate multiple note on/note off messages as you slide up and 
down the ribbon. You would have to program your MIDI synth on the 
receiving side to have quite a wide range of pitch bend if you wanted 
to cover several octaves. Otherwise, I would just have the ribbon 
generate some continuous controller message and use that over the 
full width of the ribbon.

At 6:06 PM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@... wrote:

>Right, but how can you get it to control a MIDI synthesizer so as 
>not to play individual notes when sliding up and down the ribbon?
>
>Ivan
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Scott Juskiw <scott@...>
>To: ivancu@...; motm@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 10:07:51 -0600
>Subject: [motm] Re: Ribbon Controller - Kurzweil Expressionmate
>
>  Check if the Expressionmate can do either of these:
>
>  1. Can it output a continuous controller message instead of note on/off?
>2. Can it output note on/off with pitch bend?
>
>  Either of these modes should be able to produce a reasonably smooth 
>portamento from MIDI messages. The brand D ribbon controller 
>supports both of these.
>
>At 10:26 AM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@... wrote:
>  >I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was turned
>  >off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of a
>>continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando." Of course later I
>>realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around
>>discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.
>>
>>Is there a way to get around this?
>
>

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Scott Juskiw wrote:

> With the upcoming Stooge panel run, I thought it would be prudent to

Alright, silly question

Uhm, I slipped on a banana and accidentally typed "ctl-X, Y" in pine. 
Nothing to see here, move along...

--mikes

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Mike Estee wrote:
> On Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Scott Juskiw wrote:
>
>> With the upcoming Stooge panel run, I thought it would be prudent to
>
> Alright, silly question
>
>
>
>
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