News of the MidyAX2 - Pilot the AXE-FX with MIDI controllers (X-Touch, BCR2000, Guitar Wing, ...)

Thanks DLC86 for the positive feedback:)

I've updated the links, here they are :
- MidyAX 2 for Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
- MidyAX 2 for Mac OS
- MidyAX 2 for LINUX/X86

Answers to your question
- Does this new software version permits to use the 16 buttons on the bcr2000 (the ones under the first row of encoders) to select the block to edit like in your first hardware midyax?
NO not for now, sorry :(

For the MidyAX 2, I first wanted to make it easy to map any param of any block onto a BCR2000/BCF2000 encoder or other MIDI control surface and be able to connect 2,3,4 .. MIDI controllers. Next step I wanted to do is to change the mapping by clicking on a BCR2000 (or other) button to change page (or effect block). Hopefully I will get time to do that in the coming months.

- If the answer is yes is it possible to do the same on the smaller x-touch mini?
If yes, it would work since these can be made to send specific CCs. I have a X-touch Mini which I have be using fine with the MidyAX.

I have done a few inprovements since the last version (top encoder row on the BCF2000 available, ...). I should publish it ... fairly soon.

Which environnement do you have MAC, LINUX, Raspberry PI ?
 
First of all big thanks for the new links!

Then, I think the next step you want to do is another great idea! If what you want to do is to recall different mappings with say a program change even the x-touch mini would be able to pontetially control at least 128x8x2(layers)=2048 parameters (not considering the fader and that it's possible to scroll through PCs with just 2 buttons and other 14 buttons could be freely assigned)!!
This would be a huge improvement and probably would let me lean towards buying the mini instead of the bcr2000.

For now I'm going to try your software on Ubuntu but if it works fine (and I'm sure it does) I'm going to get soon a raspberry pi and the x-touch and glue them to my rack case, this would be a nice alternative to the Rac12 for less than 100€.

Thanks again for sharing your wonderful work ;-)
 
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DLC86 said:
Then, I think the next step you want to do is another great idea! If what you want to do is to recall different mappings with say a program change even the x-touch mini would be able to pontetially control at least 128x8x2(layers)=2048 parameters (not considering the fader and that it's possible to scroll through PCs with just 2 buttons and other 14 buttons could be freely assigned)!!
This would be a huge improvement and probably would let me lean towards buying the mini instead of the bcr2000.
Click to expand...

Good idea for the X-Touch Mini implementation, indeed 2 buttons could be used to scrool though the different mappings, or the bottom row with 8 buttons could be used to access 8 (x2 layers) mappings of the 8 encoders (that quite a lot of parameters already). That would be quite efficient.

If you get the MidyAX 2 to run in your Ubuntu machine, you might be the first to use the soft (apart from me). Did not get many feedbacks on the usage of the program. Please let me know (here or PM) how it runs or if you run in any difficulties.
 
PALYGAP said:
Good idea for the X-Touch Mini implementation, indeed 2 buttons could be used to scrool though the different mappings, or the bottom row with 8 buttons could be used to access 8 (x2 layers) mappings of the 8 encoders (that quite a lot of parameters already). That would be quite efficient.

If you get the MidyAX 2 to run in your Ubuntu machine, you might be the first to use the soft (apart from me). Did not get many feedbacks on the usage of the program. Please let me know (here or PM) how it runs or if you run in any difficulties.
Click to expand...
I think I'll try tomorrow as I get home and I'll let you know, anyway for the moment I don't have a knob midi controller so I'll just try to send some CCs from my liquid foot to my axe fx, I hope they'll be both recognized as midi devices by Ubuntu, I've never used it for audio applications.
Also, I've already downloaded the file on my smartphone but it looks like it doesn't have an extension. Is it an archive or a bin file? Do I have to compile it to make it work on Linux?
Thanks again
 
Sending CC with Liquid Foot would work. Maybe map a swith to say an AXE-FX switch param like CUT, FAT, BRIGHT or SAT. If you can plug a pedal into the Liquid Foot that you should be able to control the continous AXE-FX param.

The file is an EXE file with no extension. It needs to have the right permission : chmod +x MidyAX2 ( after renaming the file 2016-05-06 - MidyAX 2 for LINUX_X86 - v0.02b to MidyAX2 for simplicity)

I actually checked the X-Touch MINI use with the MidyAX 2 and there is currently the issue that the MINI does not seem to receive the CC values to set the value of the encoders. I have found a discussion that seem to provide a solution to that : http://forum.music-group.com/showthread.php?8350-MIDI-Receive-Capability. I will try it out tonight.
 
PALYGAP said:
Sending CC with Liquid Foot would work. Maybe map a swith to say an AXE-FX switch param like CUT, FAT, BRIGHT or SAT. If you can plug a pedal into the Liquid Foot that you should be able to control the continous AXE-FX param.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I'm going to do tonight ;-)

PALYGAP said:
The file is an EXE file with no extension. It needs to have the right permission : chmod +x MidyAX2 ( after renaming the file 2016-05-06 - MidyAX 2 for LINUX_X86 - v0.02b to MidyAX2 for simplicity)
Click to expand...
Thanks!
PALYGAP said:
I actually checked the X-Touch MINI use with the MidyAX 2 and there is currently the issue that the MINI does not seem to receive the CC values to set the value of the encoders. I have found a discussion that seem to provide a solution to that : http://forum.music-group.com/showthread.php?8350-MIDI-Receive-Capability. I will try it out tonight.
Click to expand...
It seems that the issue is the global midi channel setting on the x-touch if I got it right, let me know if it works eventually.
 
After checking the code, I found a bug that could explain that the MidyAX "Control 2 " MIDI controller does not receive the CC messages. I'll check that tonight.

In the latest version (v0.03), I have updated the BCF200 and BCR2000 dialogue. I still have to put the program behinds the buttons ...

2016-10-05%20-%20BCF2000.png



2016-10-05%20-%20BCR2000.png


I shall publish it .... soonish.
 
PALYGAP said:
Sending CC with Liquid Foot would work. Maybe map a swith to say an AXE-FX switch param like CUT, FAT, BRIGHT or SAT. If you can plug a pedal into the Liquid Foot that you should be able to control the continous AXE-FX param.

The file is an EXE file with no extension. It needs to have the right permission : chmod +x MidyAX2 ( after renaming the file 2016-05-06 - MidyAX 2 for LINUX_X86 - v0.02b to MidyAX2 for simplicity)

I actually checked the X-Touch MINI use with the MidyAX 2 and there is currently the issue that the MINI does not seem to receive the CC values to set the value of the encoders. I have found a discussion that seem to provide a solution to that : http://forum.music-group.com/showthread.php?8350-MIDI-Receive-Capability. I will try it out tonight.
Click to expand...
Funny... that's my thread over on the Behringer forum. :)

The problem is that by default the global channel is set to CH1. The global channel is the channel you can use to set various interface elements in the fashion documented in the manual -- everything else (such as incoming MIDI for each matching encoder/button) is ignored. To get the Mini to respond "normally" to incoming MIDI, you need to set the Global Channel to OFF.
 
Global channel set to OFF + fixing the bug did it. Thanks benvigil for the tip.
benvigil said:
The problem is that by default the global channel is set to CH1. The global channel is the channel you can use to set various interface elements in the fashion documented in the manual
Click to expand...
Which manual and where ? Are SYSEX used to set these interface elements ?

On the Arduino version of the MidyAX (v1) I used SYSEX to fully customize the behavior of the BCR2000/BCF2000 button/encoder/... Maybe it can be done for the X-Touch MINI.
 
After using the X-Touch MINI with the MidyAX 2, it looks like there is a "bug" in the MINI firmware. Sending CC to set the value of the encoders works only on the active layer (either A or B) to get the Encoder on the other layer (say B) to receive CC value it has to be the active layer. I'll post a report in the Behringer forum on that.

EDIT / Actually benvigil already reported it in the thread http://forum.music-group.com/showthread.php?8431-Encoders-only-updating-the-current-Layer but right now it seems it's a "feature" not a bug :rolleyes:
 
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HI Palygap, I just tried the Linux version and it works great! Initially I couldn't understand why I wasn't able open the app, then I realized I had the Ubuntu x64 installed. So I decided to install the 32bit version as a virtual machine in Windows and there it started and worked at first try. Both axe fx and LF+ automatically recognized as midi devices. I just tried to tweak a few parameters and a few switches so I can't say if everything works ok for now. Just noticed a bit of latency in the value displayed on screeb when moving a knob on the axe.
Now it's time to search for a nice deal on a controller ;-)

Thanks again for your work
 
Great news !!! You made my day.

I will update the link and the name of the Linux program to make it clear it is 32 bits program. Could that it work first time cause I was wandering if the ALSA lib were going to be in your DEBIAN ( I had to install them on RASPBIAN on the RPi)

The latency you notice is due to the AXE-FX not sending CC messages has a KNOB is being turned and the value chenged on the AXE. It only send a message at the end of the changes (say after 1 or 2 sec) the just says "something has changed" so the MidyAX has to reload all the param value that are mapped.

I have started to make a specific X-Touch MINI display dialog. I'll should be able to get the 12 buttons to change "virtual" layer, so 8x12 param could be controlled from the MINI.
 
PALYGAP said:
Great news !!! You made my day.

I will update the link and the name of the Linux program to make it clear it is 32 bits program. Could that it work first time cause I was wandering if the ALSA lib were going to be in your DEBIAN ( I had to install them on RASPBIAN on the RPi)

The latency you notice is due to the AXE-FX not sending CC messages has a KNOB is being turned and the value chenged on the AXE. It only send a message at the end of the changes (say after 1 or 2 sec) the just says "something has changed" so the MidyAX has to reload all the param value that are mapped.
Click to expand...
It was clear to me that the program is 32 bit, it has x32 in the name, I just didn't remember that my OS is 64 bit. XD
Ubuntu (at least the latest version) has the ALSA libs already installed by default so no need to include them in the Debian.

No problem fot the latency since the main use of this app is in the opposite direction, I tried that just to see if the bidirectional communication was working

PALYGAP said:
I have started to make a specific X-Touch MINI display dialog. I'll should be able to get the 12 buttons to change "virtual" layer, so 8x12 param could be controlled from the MINI.
Click to expand...
This is great news! Just a little suggestion: add in the various dialog windows the buttons on the encoders too, those are the ones that require a visual feedback the most since they have no LED on the device itself. ;-)
 
Here a first take at the X-Touch MINI dialog :
2016-10-06%20-%20X-Touxh%20Mini.png

Buttons A to H represent the switchs on the Encoder.
Buttons 1 to 16 represent the actual buttons. I might add the side slider but the problem is that it is not contollable by CC (not motorized).

I'll try to release a new version of MidyAX 2 by next week (at least the Linux version)


DLC86 said:
add in the various dialog windows the buttons on the encoders too, those are the ones that require a visual feedback the most since they have no LED on the device itself. ;-)
Click to expand...
Sorry, not so sure what you mean here. Could you detail ?
 
I do have to add that the new X-Touch controllers have been extremely stable: my company sold/sells both these and the older BCF/BCR units.

Until we stopped selling them, the BCF-2000 units had a 35-40% DOA rate. That means we tested and returned (to the factory) almost 40% of the BCF units before the customer ever saw them. The new X-Touch units are a different story: we're approaching 1,000 units and we haven't seen a single bad controller from the factory.

@DLC86 let me know if you need a hookup on a Mini.
 
PALYGAP said:
Sorry, not so sure what you mean here. Could you detail ?
Click to expand...
I meant what you've just added to the x-touch mini dialog, buttons A-H. LOL!
And also a way to see in the dialog if they're on or off.
I think they're also present in the top row of bcr-bcf but are currently not displayed in the dialogs
benvigil said:
@DLC86 let me know if you need a hookup on a Mini.
Click to expand...
Sure, if you're not too far from Italy PM me, thanks ;-)
 
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