Miclop: synth, midi controller and step sequencer

[Miclop]

hello I would like to present my project that is available in kicstarter this month, it is called ctrl x and this made up by a complete virtual synthetizer with its own dedicated controller, which in turn becomes a quick and intuitive midi controller of our instruments and favorite effects and which o along with the integrated step sequencer constitute the ctrl-x world.
You can find all the information in
http://www.miclop.com
for any question over here I'm

[noiseboyuk]

(Just seen this thread via this one where miclop makes some comments on p4 - http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=498883 )

It looks really promising, and there's all to play for as - incredibly - there's nothing else out there like this. Some general comments / thoughts / questions:

1. Physical design - imo your black prototype looks pretty ideal. I'd personally pay more to have access to physical buttons across the bottom, since the vast majority of synths contain a mixture of buttons and knobs or faders. Often these buttons or switches might have more than just an on/off state, but I'd hope it would be possible to cycle round X options with the name displayed above of the current selection. So if the key tracking control were as an OB-6 with 3 options for off, half and full, pressing the physical button would cycle round and clearly displaying the current mode. That to me would be far preferable than having it as touchscreen only, but I appreciate there is a cost implication.... my feeling is that it is great someone is doing this, so its important to do it right, and the devil can so often be in these details.

2. Font / UI - yes, none of them look very good to me at the moment. Personally I'd far rather have a good clear more generic font that something that looks retro hi tech or something. I suppose an ideal would be to have a bit of a choice for this and for colours, so the interface could nod in the direction of the synth it is controlling. And, as per (1), I think it's really important it is a high resolution display - if that adds $30 to the price of materials, so be it.

3. X/Y controllers - will it be possible to support something like Omnisphere's Orb using the touchscreen?

4. I'd already asked about some programming issues I didn't quite follow in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raCEIiWt_Dc

...and you replied with

our controller is designed to get instantly to any parameter, so we do not use pages unless strictly necessary, all encoders are dynamic (may contain different CC)
you have to see it as layers, all the encoders have 15 CC posivilidades (more pages if necessary)
the button of general osc, will show you all the oscillators without the need of browsing through pages.

I'm still verrrry confused! The video VO says "Massive has 3 oscillators, so we put these in the first 3 encoders". Where the confusion is that you then map what appears to be encoders 1-5 for the first oscillator on the touchscreen, then touch the physical knob for parameter 2, and then program encoders 1-5 once more.

So I press the Osc tab... what do I see? The first 5 parameters for Osc 1? If so, where are the Osc 2 parameters? If there's 5 knobs per osc, I don't see how all 15 could ever fit onto a single page?

In general I'd like to see some conventions adhered to with this sort of thing, so you always know where to find Osc 1 controls, Osc 2 controls etc, and on an envelope page the first 4 are always ADSR (where possible) etc. Consistency will really help workflow.

5. Great to hear even as far back as 2016 you had hundreds of Omnisphere parameters already programmed. Is the plan to ship with some templates and then have user ones too? Also just wondering about the implication for Omni in particular now it has 4 layers rather than 2 - some kind of shift key while pressing to get into the other layers?

6. In your experience do most synths output midi / NRPN feedback so you get a true reflection of the current state of the synth?

7. Do you have a target RRP? And roughly what timeframe do you hope for, if the Kickstarter is successful?

(8. You need someone to proof read the website, lots of spelling mistakes at the moment which might put some folks off).

Sorry for the many questions, it is really good to see someone finally addressing this gap in the market.

[Miclop]

hi noiseboyuk

Often these buttons or switches might have more than just an on/off state, but I'd hope it would be possible to cycle round X options with the name displayed above of the current selection. So if the key tracking control were as an OB-6 with 3 options for off, half and full, pressing the physical button would cycle round and clearly displaying the current mode

the operation on the touch screen is exactly the same as on the physical button.
These buttons need to receive a CC and 2 velocity values, for the on / off states (this is already contemplated)
in the case of 3 or more states there are two options, assign them to an encoder which will give different velocity values and change the states.
implement this option when making templates, easy to do, this will not be a problem.

Font / UI - yes, none of them look very good to me at the moment. Personally I'd far rather have a good clear more generic font that something that looks retro hi tech or something. I suppose an ideal would be to have a bit of a choice for this and for colours, so the interface could nod in the direction of the synth it is controlling.

I take note.
The ability to put a fund for each synthesizer is something that we had already thought about and I do not think there would be problems with this issue either.

3. X/Y controllers - will it be possible to support something like Omnisphere's Orb using the touchscreen?

already thought, its implementation is quite likely

So I press the Osc tab... what do I see? The first 5 parameters for Osc 1? If so, where are the Osc 2 parameters? If there's 5 knobs per osc, I don't see how all 15 could ever fit onto a single page?

no, I explain

When you press the OSC button what you will see are the 3 massive oscillators and now pressing on the screen (below each encoder) you will choose any of them, and their parameters will appear.
If, for example, you have pressed the osc1 and you want to go to osc2, you will press the OSC button and choose the osc2 and that's it.
that's why each oscillator could have 15 parameters on the same screen.

I put a link to a video that we made with a previous prototype, in case you have any questions
https://www.facebook.com/miclopelectron ... 840288369/

In general I'd like to see some conventions adhered to with this sort of thing, so you always know where to find Osc 1 controls, Osc 2 controls etc, and on an envelope page the first 4 are always ADSR (where possible) etc. Consistency will really help workflow.

using the templates you will place each parameter where you want and in the order you want.

6. In your experience do most synths output midi / NRPN feedback so you get a true reflection of the current state of the synth?

It's a shame, but none send value or name data outside the daw.
but I assure you that ctrl x will end up working like this

7. Do you have a target RRP? And roughly what timeframe do you hope for, if the Kickstarter is successful?

that information will appear in kicstarter in a few days

(8. You need someone to proof read the website, lots of spelling mistakes at the moment which might put some folks off).

Thanks for the warning, I will try to get someone .. this will be difficult

regards

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks Miclop, so picking up on a few things:

1. Buttons - you mentioned there were two ways to enable a 3 position switch, but I think you only named one?

4. Control issues (eg multiple oscillators). I see now in that video - the buttons on the top row also have a push option, and that's how you select multiple oscillators or what have you?

I'm still curious to know what you think about Omni now having 4 layers.

A few more videos like that old one you did on the prototype would be helpful, would like to see how you handle modulation routings etc.

[Miclop]

1. Buttons - you mentioned there were two ways to enable a 3 position switch, but I think you only named one?

1- assign them to encoders that will give different velocity and will change the states
2-configure a button so that different velocity

I see now in that video - the buttons on the top row also have a push option, and that's how you select multiple oscillators

that's it, but now instead of pressing the button, you do it on the screen

I'm still curious to know what you think about Omni now having 4 layers.

in what sense?

A few more videos like that old one you did on the prototype would be helpful, would like to see how you handle modulation routings etc.

you would do it like an osc
for example.
1 you indicate extra button
2 push the encoder where you want these parameters to be (for example encoder 2)
3 you put a name, matrix, routings or whatever you want and put their parameters in the order you want and ready

[noiseboyuk]

1. Buttons - you mentioned there were two ways to enable a 3 position switch, but I think you only named one?

1- assign them to encoders that will give different velocity and will change the states
2-configure a button so that different velocity

Sorry I still don't understand - (2) only refers to a 2 position switch?

I see now in that video - the buttons on the top row also have a push option, and that's how you select multiple oscillators

that's it, but now instead of pressing the button, you do it on the screen

Hmm, I'm beginning to think we really do need to see a comprehensive video before starting the kickstarter campaign. Your material shows 3 different hardware controllers, all with major differences, and it's getting very difficult to work out what the proposal actually is. Having guided me to a 2016 prototype video, it now seems it works differently.

You may think all these differences are trivial, I do not. The phrase "the devil is in the details" really does sum things up. I'd like to see clear demonstrations, step by step, using the closest version to what will actually be made. If there are to be differences from the current prototype, you should make this clear.

I'm still curious to know what you think about Omni now having 4 layers.

in what sense?

Your controller has dedicated buttons for 2 layers, which I assume would work nicely with the 2 Omnisphere layers per patch. How would one access layers 3 or 4 in Omnisphere?

A few more videos like that old one you did on the prototype would be helpful, would like to see how you handle modulation routings etc.

you would do it like an osc
for example.
1 you indicate extra button
2 push the encoder where you want these parameters to be (for example encoder 2)
3 you put a name, matrix, routings or whatever you want and put their parameters in the order you want and ready

Really I was referring to how you intend modulation to work in general, which is a complex area - or is there no modulation by default and anything has to be added manually as per the above? The talk in the 2016 video was that you have 800 parameters for Omni all ready to go - do these include modulation and if so how is it implemented?

I want to support you guys, and its great that someone is now taking on the idea of a synth programmer, but personally I'd need to see a good deal more solid and consistent detail before backing the kickstarter campaign. Hopefully this is something you can do before the launch - cheers.

[Miclop]

Sorry I still don't understand - (2) only refers to a 2 position switch?

As I was saying, the buttons change status according to the speed you send, some of 2 state will have 2 different speeds, one of 3 will have 3 different one of 4 will have 4 different and if respectively

Hmm, I'm beginning to think we really do need to see a comprehensive video before starting the kickstarter campaign. Your material shows 3 different hardware controllers, all with major differences, and it's getting very difficult to work out what the proposal actually is.

we do not show 3 prototypes, we only show one that is white.
the other is the software (with a representative image of the hardware in 3d) and is for the creation of templates.
and as for the old prototype he only tells it to see if it helped him to understand the operation, but it seems that it has confused him more, I'm sorry.

Your controller has dedicated buttons for 2 layers, which I assume would work nicely with the 2 Omnisphere layers per patch. How would one access layers 3 or 4 in Omnisphere?

at the moment we only contemplate two layers.

Really I was referring to how you intend modulation to work in general, which is a complex area - or is there no modulation by default and anything has to be added manually as per the above? The talk in the 2016 video was that you have 800 parameters for Omni all ready to go - do these include modulation and if so how is it implemented?

there is no more complex or less complex area, the operation is the same for all sections.

I try to explain ...

On the one hand we have 6 buttons on the left (oscillators, filter, modulation ...)
When you press any of those buttons the controller will show you all the posivilidades that that section has.
for example in a synthesizer like massive
if you press osc it will show you 3 oscillators , and you will have to click on the one that you want to modify (it is pressed on the tactile screen) and thus you'll get the parameters (pitch, amp ...)
the same would happen if you press filter as we are in massive shows you 2 filters and click on the one you want to modify and go.
in the case that the synthesizer has more than 15 parameters, for example in an oscillator or in a filter, you will have to press the "PAG" button and you will be shown those parameters that did not fit on the first page.
 this will hardly happen to you, thanks to how we have organized the structure
the operation in the other sections (modulation, fx, extra ...) is exactly the same.

I hope this helps

right now it is impossible for me to make more videos, I think it's all explained,
but do not hesitate to ask me anything, I will be happy to answer you.
a greeting and thanks for the interest

[Miclop]

Now live on Kickstarter

http://kck.st/2Jm5fZP