Prisoner of the Mind

How to build your own Midibox SID

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2010-01-24T11:39:28-08:00

“Will you build me a Midibox SID?”

I get this asked via email a few times a year and I figured this time I’d write something to help everyone. The short answer is “No”, but the long answer is that I promise you that no matter how slow, cheap, illiterate, or busy that you think you are, there is no question, you can accomplish building one yourself. It’s not that hard. It really isn’t!

Apple releases Unitor drivers for FREE!!

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2010-01-18T21:57:17-08:00

I like to think that my editor and recent Unitor Driver Checker had something to do with this, but I’m sure it’s just Apple finally coming to their senses. The most recent Unitor driver for Intel, version 2.5, is now available via the Apple website for everyone to download. You can get the download here. There is no requirement to purchase Logic, or iLife, or Garageband any more!!!

Rejoice.

Unitor Driver Check

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-11-25T11:24:17-08:00

I wrote an application that checks your installed USB MIDI driver, and offers you options for where you can get updates to the driver. Its now included with both the Leopard and Snow Leopard versions of the preference pane.

A note about ebay prices

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-10-23T10:30:27-07:00

If you are shopping for a Unitor8 or AMT8 on ebay you really ought to be informed about which one is better.

The Unitor8 is the one with more features!

There is no reason to pay more for an AMT8 than you would for a Unitor8. The fact that people are paying $199 or more for an AMT8 when a Unitor can be purchased at the same time with a buy-it-now price of $150 is rediculous! The only features that an AMT8 has are IO patching and control of the LED brightness. The Unitor8 has all the syncing features for syncing to tapes or video, and a foot switch input that can be configured to do all kinds of cool stuff.

I know that prices are just what the market supports, but think in this case it's just ignorance and confusion about what each products features really are.

Unitor Pref Pane Version 0.9.6

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-10-23T10:30:37-07:00

UPDATE 1: Unitor 8 Preference Pane is now 64-bit and available for 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.5 Leopard. Development might move slow, but it does move!

UPDATE 2: version 0.9.6 - Fixed a silly bug that showed up when I tested it on Snow Leopard where the device selector would dissapear.

UPDATE 3: version 0.9.7 - Fixed 10.5 built to work on all hardware platforms PPC and Intel

There are tons of improvements to the device scanning since I now have 2 devices.
Hover help text has been added to give you assurance that the buttons do what you think they will do.
Added a clear patch button

Check it out now!

Multiple devices will be fixed

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-10-11T15:05:23-07:00

I've acquired an AMT8 to debug the issues with multiple chained boxes. I have it working but I'm searching for one known bug that causes a patch to get copied from one device to the other. If you'd like to test this and see if you can track down the situation that causes it, please contact me.

The AMT8 cost me $73 dollars. To date, 2 people have contributed $10 each toward this project. If you think this project is worth anything to you then please consider donating toward it.

Donate to development

New CNC machine working great!

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-09-14T14:20:47-07:00

More information on the Lumenlab Micro CNC can be found here.

Midibox MB-6582 completed

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-10-11T13:03:46-07:00

What is it?

8 Commodore-64 SID sound synthesizer chips, arranged in 4 stereo pairs.
Controlled by 4 PIC18F4685 microcontrollers.
The controll panel is milled and engraved by me using a CNC machine that I built.

Why?

Because I like building things and playing with synthesizers. And now I have a CNC machine and a really fun synthesizer!

More information on the MB-6582 synthesizer project can be found here.

Snow Leopard

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-08-29T20:54:52-07:00

So it looks like the Unitor Preference Pane is working fine in Snow Leopard. System Preferences will switch to 32-bit mode for the panel, but it does work fine. I'll update it to 64 bit compatible in the next release.

If it gets stuck (beach ball forever) the first time you run it, simply force System Preferences to close then re-open it. The pref pane will work perfectly from here on out. I'm trying to track down what causes this, but I haven't been able to recreate the situation yet.

UPDATE:

As it turns out there is very little reason to update the preference pane to 64bit. The MIDI system in OS X requires all of the drivers you have to be 64-bit, or it will not run in 64-bit mode. Only Logic Studio 9 includes a Unitor/AMT USB midi driver that is 64-bit capable, but if any midi driver on your system is 32-bit, then you'll be taking a trip back to 32-bit System Preferences. I have not been able to create a situation where System Preferences will run my pref pane in 64-bit mode yet. It's mysteriously difficult to debug 32-bit preference panes on Snow Leopard, so it may be some time before I'm able to find out what's causing this.

Preference Pane Update in the works

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-08-14T10:05:19-07:00

It seems that a recent OS update has caused a bug where the preference pane will search very quickly for a connected device and respond that no device is found. I’m working on a fix and some new features that will probably be released either today or in the next few days.

In the Patch Input/Output grid I have made the column and row selectors work, so entire rows and columns can be toggled.

What the heck is up with the NVidia 8800's in Mac Pros?

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-06-08T20:32:47-07:00

Back from the brink of disaster. My Mac Pro just returned this evening from its one week “vacation" at the Apple Store when the Nvidia 8800 video card died for the third time!

Seriously, how many times does this have to happen before they replace it with something that works.

Thankfully I have AppleCare, so I’m not too concerned. I guess if I didn’t have AppleCare to take care of it, I’d have to demand my money back for this lemon card.

Unitor8 Pref Pane Version 0.9.2

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-06-01T21:43:51-07:00

A new version of the Unitor8 Preference Pane is now available.

Thanks to the awesome help of panel user Art C., the panel is now known to be working with 8 devices chained together. That means you can now configure 128 MIDI ports!

Unitor8 Driver FAQ

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-05-23T15:20:02-07:00

A lot of people have be sending me emails asking how to get their Unitor8 or AMT8 working correctly. Just to be clear, the Unitor8 Preference Pane is not a MIDI Driver. If you can’t see your interface in any midi applications, then you have a driver problem.

To help people out as best as I can without having to answer a million emails on it, I’ve written an FAQ about how to install the drivers correctly for each type of Mac. I hope its simple to follow.

A new favorite

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-04-30T00:03:43-07:00

I recently discovered a new blog/video blog/forum that I absolutely love.

The Fat Man And Circuit Girl

Awesome stuff! Each week they meet up for a video chat and do hacks, and lots of tinkering, and teach little tidbits of knowledge about analog and digital circuits, pinball machines, and music. It’s much fun to watch.

I’ve watched every episode, and just love it all. Feels like I should be there with them working on all this stuff. People that love DIY exploration, music and games.. my kind of people.

An update on the Unitor 8 Pref Pane: It’s still coming along. I haven’t had time recently to put the finishing touches on, but it’s more than usable currently, so give it a go and let me know if you need something fixed.

Status Update: Unitor 8 pref pane

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-04-12T15:02:02-07:00

The end is in sight!

I’m still plugging away at the Unitor 8 preference pane. The SMPTE timing panels are very difficult to deal with. There are lots of customs bytes with lot of small pieces of data all packed together, and many values that are only valid when other values are set.

Of course, I want to make sure I don’t make any stupid mistakes and not make any rash decisions that might cost me time later. I’m estimating a day to two to completion, depending on whether I get distracted playing WoW.

Unitor 8 Version 0.8.5

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-04-04T03:15:25-07:00

What’s new:

Version 0.8.5 (current)

Support for AMT8
Support for 8 chained Unitor8’s or AMT8 in any order
Improved support for the actual Unitor8 midi specification

Go check it out!

This may seem like only 3 new items, but this is really a huge deal. You can now configure up to 1024 midi channels!

16 channels per port * 8 ports on each Unitor/AMT * 8 Unitors = 1024 !!!

Unitor 8 update

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-04-01T01:32:49-07:00

Thanks to a very kind gift from the gods out there, I now have pretty much all the information anyone could ever want about the midi protocol for the Unitor8 and the AMT8.

I’m in the process of updating my code to better support both devices as well as 8 of them chained together!!

The excellent news is that I haven’t found any errors with the protocol as I’ve understood it so far. So it’s pretty safe to use. Even if you have an AMT8 attached. The UI will just be all grayed out while it seeks for a Unitor.

If you have been thinking about getting one of these interfaces on eBay, and you have a newer mac with 10.5 or greater on it, now is the time to buy them. By the time it arrives, you’ll have a working configuration app, even if you buy 8 of them.

Unitor 8 Pref Pane now listed on macmusic.org

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-03-27T09:11:57-07:00

U8PP is now listed on macmusic.com.

I’ve also submitted it to be listed in the Apple Downloads section, but they say it takes up to 90 days for that to happen if it ever even does! Yowsa.
** Update: now listed on Apple.com Downloads in the Audio section .

New version of Unitor 8 Preference Panel

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-03-26T00:33:50-07:00

What’s new:

Version 0.8.0 (current)

IO patch editing works!!!
Patches can be named (names are only stored in the preferences).
32 customizable IO mappings.
Copy, paste, and initialize IO patches.
Displays the Unitor version number when valid input and output are selected.
Recognizes most settings dumps that are sent from the Unitor.

Go check it out!

Building apps that few will use

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-03-21T16:55:49-07:00

While I continue to build midi apps that few people will use, I’m building a software architecture behind scenes that will allow me to basically piece large portions together to create new and interesting midi applications.

Unitor 8 Preference Pane Progress

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-03-15T18:50:03-07:00

This weekend I’ve made great progress with the Unitor Preference Pane. I added patch configuration. Unfortunately it’s brought my attention to the fact that I have yet to request any information from the Unitor. The latest build initializes all the patches and can copy, paste, customize, and send them to interface, but it never requests what the interface has. So if you have custom setting already stored, they’ll be overwritten. I’m not posting this build because of this. If I was certain that no one cared about their patches that are currently stored in their Unitor, I would release it, but its better if I just fix it first.

CocoaHeads meeting in Lake Forest

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-03-11T22:17:00-07:00

I should have read my own blog a little better. I never noticed until now that the text for the Unitor and microWAVE XT blog entries was all mixed up (fixed now).

Anyway, tonight I went to the Lake Forest CocoaHeads group meeting to see what a discussion about using Cocoa to write games might be like. It was pretty cool. I wish I could say that my immediate future held doing anything game related with Cocoa, but it definitely does not at the moment.

Unitor8 Preference Pane

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-02-21T01:58:00-08:00

For weeks I have been working on creating a modern, functional, replacement for the Emagic Unitor8 MkII USB MIDI Interface. To accomplish this I’m reverse engineering the midi system exclusive messages that are sent to the Interface by SoundDiver and Unitor8 Control. Apple has made it clear by now that this is near abandon-ware. While they have amazingly provided Intel based drivers with Logic, the Unitor8 control and SoundDiver applications have languished in such a poor state that I consider them to be nearly unusable.

Follow along here.

Midibox - Tascam MM-RC

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2008-07-08T23:31:00-07:00

Today I began taking apart a Tascam MM-RC remote tape control and using the Midibox hardware platform to assume control of all of the functions on the device. You can view the conversion process here on the midibox.org forums.

High resolution optical encoder

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2008-07-25T23:29:00-07:00

Last night I wrote some code to allow a high resolution optical encoder to work on the midibox platform. Here’s a link to my post there.

Waldorf XT Patch List Grabber

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2009-01-22T23:28:00-08:00

I’ve written an app that communicates with Waldorf microWAVE XT synthesizers, requesting all the patch names, then placing them on the clipboard or in files so they can be pasted into Apple’s Logic multi environment objects.

Read more about my work on this application here.

Added Audio

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2008-04-12T17:07:00-07:00

Under the Studio menu I've added Music that I've worked on. Nothing too special.. just for fun stuff.

Redoing the website once again

kurtarnlund@mac.com — 2008-04-12T15:12:00-07:00

I think this is the third time I've redone my website from scratch. I keep searching for easier and easier ways to deal with the content. This time I've chosen RapidWeaver since iWeb was running way to slow and I didn't really feel like upgrading it to the '08 version.

RW feels like a step up, but I've definitely already noticed that it does have it's bugs. Take this entry for example. I can only type this text in the blog summary panel since the Main Entry panel is bigger than the box it draws in.. ie: the top 5 lines of test are impossible to view since they are chopped off above the text box and no scroll bar is offered. Technically there shouldn't even be a scroll bar until the text goes off the bottom of the panel, but anyway..