MIDI "Chocolate" šŸ« controller with the Mod Dwarf, an introduction

Hi @SrMouraSilva,

Thank you for creating the useful manual that the M-VAVE company doesnā€™t provide. It looks like most of the images now have dead links, which is a shame for such a complete and helpful post.

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Itā€™s true. A sad moment here :confused:

I will try to find them, but Iā€™m not sure if I yet have them

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So nice to read about the chocolate controller here. Using many of them for loopy pro :-). This reads as if this is the right controller for my freshly received Dwarf :-).

B.t.w. in loopy pro I am able to use single & double triggers & hold to have 3 Midi funtions on ONE Midi button. Iā€™m completely new to the dwarfā€¦ is it possible to use a hold on the footswitch to lets say delete a Looper Track? But hitting it once shortly records the track? And maybe doubleclick would jump to next trackā€¦

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Hi @MCCY,

In the advanced custom mode, you can set different MIDI messages for a short and a long pressure. The big problem with this mode is that the message is sent only when you release the switch, which makes it almost unusable for a looper as you want it to react when you hit the switch for precision.

In the custom control mode, you can solve this last problem by activating ā€œvisual behaviorā€. But this mode doesnā€™t allow to send different MIDI messages with a short and a long pressure.

So you have to choose between precision or having two functions per switch. I donā€™t know about the double trigger possibility. It might depend on the plugin. I know the Looperlative LP3 allows it with the Dwarf switches but I have to try with the Chocolate.

I wouldnā€™t say this device is ideal with the Dwarf for two reasons :

  • the one I mentioned above
  • the lack of visual feedback

But I donā€™t think you can find anything cheaper to have 4 additional switches and the possibility to connect a basic TRS expression pedal. I also like the size and apparent sturdiness. As you already own one, it would be a shame not to use it because it sure enhances the possibilities of you Dwarf.

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Oh, wow, that would be perfect. Didnā€™t get that so farā€¦ Will have to try it out, how that worksā€¦ I assume, I should go slowly as I find that there is so much more to discoverā€¦ and that maybe wont have an end :wink:

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This is a big problem to me. Sometimes I donā€™t know what is the current state an I prefer turn off and re turn on the Dwarf to try to avoid play something with the wrong effect LOL
(in my case Iā€™m using it with Looper)

But in 1.12 the mod API allows display shows a custom information temporarily. So I thought develop a Gossiper plugin, to shows if a specific Midi message was received or something like this. But now I donā€™t know how can I use text atom. @falkTX, do you have some material or a simple plugin that I can look for inspiration?

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@MCCY
Good news. The minimized looper controls on the LP3 have long press and double tap functions that work with the Chocolate if you disable ā€œvisual behaviorā€. Be careful, thereā€™s a bug in the CubeSuite app that makes ā€œvisual behaviorā€ appear ā€œoffā€ when you start the app, even when itā€™s actually ā€œonā€. In this case, you have to turn it on and off.

@SrMouraSilva
Youā€™re right, itā€™s something I hadnā€™t well anticipated before buying the Chocolate. Good luck with your plugin. Otherwise, maybe someday, the MOD OS will allow us to assign 2 different controls to the same parameter and the action of an external control will activate the Dwarf controls feedback. That could be a feature request.

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Thank you so much!

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Hello !
Who has already disassembled the m-vave chocolate ? I would like to know what is inside, in particular if the main component is an arduino (like uno or Leonardo for example as they are MIDI class compliant), the idea is to try to hack the m-vave ro add functionalities such as a second expression pedal input jack.
I also wonder how I will continue to configure it if one day the app CubeSuite is removed from the AppStore

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I recently got one of these, my plan was to try it out and if it did not do what I wanted to strip the innards and replace with a self-build microcontroller system (which I have done in the past) ā€¦ the Chocolate was quite cheap and less than getting the separate elements individually ā€¦ however as it seems sufficient at present Iā€™ve not done this nor opened it up.

Fair point about the app tho ā€¦ might have to do some snooping on the bluetooth connection to see if I can figure out the protocol.

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Hello,
Thanks for the feedback.
Do you know if it can be configured with the app 's version Pc or Mac with usb wired connection instead of Bluetooth ?

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Yes, itā€™s ok via USB.

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Hi @SrMouraSilva,
I was using the Chocolate to control the LP3 with the limits you pointed out (lack of feedback in the custom modes). I just tried the Program Change A mode to navigate through snapshots and realized the Chocolate is actually a pretty good option for that purpose.

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Ordered me one of these to connect via usb for live usage switching pedalsboards and/or snapshots in live situations. Canā€™t wait!

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@SrMouraSilva
If Iā€™m not wrong you said that Chocolate can be connected to the Dwarf via Usb.
Is this correct?
If Yes, it would be connecting Dwarf Usb A to Chocolate Usb C?
Iā€™ve just ordered it, it will be at home at the end of this month.
Did you tested the expression pedal input?

Thanks

Yes the Chocolate bar can be connected to the host Usb A of the Dwarf.

In this case, you can then use the jack socket to connect an external switch to the Chocolate that gives you extra controls.

Mine arrived yesterday and step was was a success:
connect with the supplied cable USB to the Dwarf (host A); have the midi control (beta) plugin show me that the Dwarf receives data.

Next steps

  • trying to get a chain switching plugin to be alternating between channel 1 and 2 when pressing a button on the Chocolate
  • Trying to browse snapshots with the Chocolate
  • Trying to change boards with the Chocolate

@SrMouraSilva Thanks again for your documentation! I managed to scan a QR on the webpage that pointed me to an app in the apple appstore.

I noticed som of the screenshots are missing in the section where I try to map a press of a button to the behaviour of a plugin. If you have the time, could you chech this because I was a bit stuck. Iā€™m pretty new to MIDI etc so it isnā€™t all that intuitive for me at the moment

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Chocolate has a good performance for itā€™s price, but just to mention - keith mcmillen softstep 2 was a huge upgrade for me.

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Ooohh, yes beautifull butā€¦ 350 euro (in Italy) is reallyā€¦really expensive!

This is actually very easy using Program Change A though this mode doesnā€™t allow to choose channels so you canā€™t browse pedalboards and snapshots at the same time. If you have to do both, you may find a way using the Advanced Custom Mode but you will loose visual feedback. So I would advise that you choose between pedalboards and snapshots and use Program Change A which is the best and easiest one for this kind of use.

Anyway, switching pedalboards in the middle of a song is very inconvenient because of the latency. So my preference would be to use only one pedalboard in a song and switch pedalboards between songs by pressing buttons B and C of the Dwarf. So the Chocolate would only browse snapshots and benefit from the visual feedback of Program Change A.

The setup on the Dwarf is explained here :
Device Settings - MOD Wiki

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