CV/MIDI plugins wishes

My current wish list:

There is the Audio to CV plugin, an Audio to MIDI would be nice.
In addition to the MIDI to CV plugin a CV to MIDI would be interesting.
A MIDI meter, a CV meter already exists.

And more stereo plugins.

:smiley:

I have a few MIDI plugin issues/requests.

Iā€™ve been trying to use the ModX with a MIDI Guitar and have discovered a few snags. In my mind this is the PERFECT application for the Mod ecosystem and was one of the main reasons I got one in the first place. Cross fading between a guitar tone and a synth tone is likeā€¦ the coolest thing. I can do it in my DAWs but I really want to leave the computer out of it, like many of us.

As of the moment, only a couple of the MIDI Synth Generators have an option to change bend range. The MIDI guitar situation I have is hard coded to 4 semi-tones to match the electro acoustic signal to the MIDI note, so your string bends match. Most of the MOD synths are (seemingly) hard coded to 2 semi-tones. I donā€™t know the code, because Iā€™m not a coder, but I think some of them have the option internally it just doesnā€™t have the option in the GUI.

The other issue is MIDI guitars send out MPE/Multi-Channel MIDI. ā€œFakingā€ MPE/Multi is definitely possible, though CPU expensive with SIX copies of whatever synth receiving a single channel. Re-coding older plugs (like Dexed and the Fluid synths) for MPE /Muilti-Channel is surely not a simple project, I assume, but moving forward into the future with MIDI 2.0 and the increasingly popularity of MPE/Multichannel expression controllers, itā€™s something to keep in mind.

In the meantime, what happens is bends conflict across strings and it makes a warbly floppy pitch bend across all notes when using a single instance of a synth. Sooooooo to avoid this it is easier to strip all pitch bend data from the MIDI stream. A relatively simple pitch bend killer MIDI plugin would solve this issue, most specifically for use on piano type sounds.

A MOD version of the AuV3 MIDI plugin ā€œStreambyterā€ would really be amazing.

There is no standard on LV2 on how the pitchbend range is defined/used.
VST kinda has something for this, but not LV2. It is a good conversation to have, likely we need to ask something on the LV2 development mailing list.

MPE vs MIDI2 is a great question.
Will MPE be phased out now that MIDI2 is starting to be a thing? from what I understood, they are not compatible.
I have seen a few opensource synths that handle MPE (surge and helm, anything else?).

This should do https://pedalboards.moddevices.com/plugins/aHR0cDovL2dhcmV1cy5vcmcvb3NzL2x2Mi9taWRpZmlsdGVyI2V2ZW50YmxvY2tlcg==

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The other issue is MIDI guitars send out MPE/Multi-Channel MIDI. ā€œFakingā€ MPE/Multi is definitely possible, though CPU expensive with SIX copies of whatever synth receiving a single channel.

And this should be a nice workaround for your multiple channel issue:

Just set the 6 channels your guitar is sending to the one the synth plug will receive.

I am also a guitar MIDI user so I absolutely feel your pain with the pitchbend situation. That filter that @falkTX posted above will surely help, but it still sucks that so many of the synth plugins have different bend ranges without any way of knowing what they are or a way to change them. :confused:

Not sure how I missed the event filter.
/smacks forehead with palm.

falkTX Will MPE be phased out now that MIDI2 is starting to be a thing? from what I understood, they are not compatible.

Iā€™m not entirely certain. I donā€™t see how MPE could possibly be incompatible with MIDI2 since the new standard will allow you to define things any way you want to. I may only be a fledgling programmer but Iā€™ve been a using MIDI since 1988 with my Commodore64 :slight_smile: SO Iā€™ve been following the MIDI2.0 thing pretty religiously for the past two years or so. As far I know just about every single thing is addressable and definable, even on the fly if need be. Iā€™m not sure theyā€™ve released an official ā€œstandard parameter namesā€ list yet but the entire construct is designed to be backwards compatible.

edit: MIDI-Capability-Inquiry (MIDICL) is the concept theyā€™ve rolled with.
You can join the MIDI Association for free and download the spec files here: https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/category/midi-2-0-specifications-v1-1
Words words words, basically you can make a controller that says ā€œI am a controller with a knob labeled cutoff frequencyā€ and a source that will say ā€œI have a parameter named cutoff frequencyā€ and they will auto connect at high resolution, instead of having to assign specific CC numbers to each thing.
OR, to address the specificity of MPE, you would tell a sound source that it was receiving MultiChannel/MPE from a port and it would just work.

bleo
Yeah I got that part. I was referring to ā€œfaking MPEā€ as in having six instances of Dexed all being fed separate channels.
As far as I can tell, all of the synth plugins receive MIDI as OMNI so channel mapping isnā€™t neccesary, they just play whatever channels you feed them.
Stripping the pitch wheel should do just fine, for piano/pads/strings anyway. Not so great for the expressive leads though.

Oh duh, I was reading fast and totally missed MPE being the real focus! Oops!

I also have a wish for a CV plug-in. In principle, it is a modification of the LFO plug-in. It is intended to be used to turn the controls of plug-ins (e.g. reverb, delay, etc.) up to a defined point at any speed.

In CV_Tutorial it is shown how to turn a knob of an effect with the AMS LFO2 plugin. The controller is turned back and forth in the form of a sine curve with the help of the LFO plug-in.

My wish for the plug-in would be to limit the running time of the curve. That means, for example, that you only run through the first quarter of the sine curve, then the process stops. If we take the example from the tutorial, this would mean that the controller is only turned up, where it then remains. Only when the LFO plug-in receives a new command does it continue.

Maybe this possibility already exists, but I havenā€™t found anything about it.

Have you considered if Slew Rate Limiter - MOD Devices could help you achieve the same effect but in a different way?

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If itā€™s not oscillating, then itā€™s not an LFO :wink:

:grinning: Yeah! This is right! But LFO can be stopped, right?

Yes, danmh, I tried it once. It did not work. But may be I did it wrong, I tested it only for some minutes. I will try this again. Many thanks for the tip.

The problem has been the stopping. In my eyes you can rise and fall the speed of CV. But to stop it is not included. But let me test once again.

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No? Iā€™ve never seen an LFO that would stop oscillating.

I think you maybe mean an Envelope? :stuck_out_tongue:

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ok, you won! :joy:

Hi Danmh,
Your tip with the ā€œSlew Rate Limiterā€ was excellent! I was actually able to solve my ā€œproblemā€ with it. It didnā€™t work right away, because I had to realise that the ā€œControl to CVā€ has a value range from 0 to 10, whereas the ā€œSlew R. L.ā€ has a value range from -5 to 5, but I stuck a ā€œCV attenuatorā€ in between, which adjusts the value ranges. Now I press the footswitch of the midi controller and the mix control of my reverb effect slowly turns up. It works! I am thrilled!


Now the Mix-Knob is turning slowly and smoothly!

Many Thanks again danmh!

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I love the Mod platform! Everything is possible in my opinion. You just have to rethink, it works completely different than on real pedalboards.

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Glad it worked. Iā€™ve never used a real MOD device yet so just a good guess :sweat_smile:

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I think this deserves a shared pedalboard with an audio sample :wink:

yes, Iā€™m on it! This evening it will be uploaded.

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It still has some smaller issues but i guess it is good enough to be shared. The Pedalboard: Kitschy Ambient can be checked here.

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