ContinuuMini trickling out

Haken Audio Continuum
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I basically have it working now. I found this very useful page: https://neuma.studio/rpi-as-midi-host.html that I’ve been following. They provide a preconfigured SD card image for an RPi 3B or 3B+ that should be pretty much plug and play. I’ve been using their detailed configuration steps, partly because I have an RPi 2 around that should suffice, and partly because I wanted to understand what’s under the hood.

It’s configured so that every USB device detected forwards its output to the input of every other device. This is what I have working (Linnstrument hooked up to a Parva). The final steps are to set up things so that the SD card is read-only, so you can just turn the power off when you’re done. (If the OS happens to be writing to the card when power goes down, the card could be corrupted.)

The other potential issue is whether the RPi 2 can provide enough power through USB for the two devices. It can supply a total of up to 600 mA to all USB ports by default. The Linnstrument requires about 230, and the 'Mini is spec’d as “500 mA (250 typical)”. The RPi 2 can be configured for 1200mA max, and that’s the standard or RPi 3, so there shouldn’t be a problem even with the 2.

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blokas have something called amidiauto that will automatically interconnect (also) midi devices on linux (so rpi) , it also includes filtering rules to say when not to do it which can be useful.

comes as part of (and is running as default on) patchbox, but you can get the source on GitHub to use on other distros

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Great, didn’t know! Now my RPi with patchbox still has to patiently wait for the ConitnuuMini to arrive. Will take a little longer for me, have backed for the bundle with the Onde. So everybody will be playing with this soonish - but me. Aaahh :slight_smile: (it’s ok)

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Sorry to hear the Onde is taking longer. Makes sense, though.

I really wish there were private viewings somehow at NAMM. I couldn’t get a sense for it’s sound in that crowded hall, with so much amplified music all around.

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If it is any comfort, I am in the same boat. :slight_smile:

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Welcome! I take the left paddle, let’s aim for the last side arm before the waterfall!

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Mine just arrived. It came with a printed letter, which is nice.
That letter included three YouTube URLs for us to manually type, which is less nice.

I threw them into a playlist, added one more which looked like it should have been included, then ran that through a URL shortener:

http://bit.ly/cmini-vids

Hope that’s useful.

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Thanks >0, that really was useful!

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There’s also a cumbersome URL to the editor beta, but I don’t think Haken meant for that one be widely available, so I won’t be shortening that.

They did post a link for it in a Kickstarter update, viewable only to backers.
I can link to the kickstarter update – just be logged in to see it.

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Actually, that same link is on their Support: Editor and Firmware page, so you can just click through from there. (I happened to find it a couple of nights ago.)

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So, I was planning to ignore the editor for a while and just immerse myself in the default presets, but I tried running MIDI in and out of it, and found that to be a bit crazy.

Roli’s controllers default to a bend range of +/- 48 semitones, but can go higher or lower as needed.

Linnstrument maxes out at +/- 24, I believe, but can go lower.
(edit: turns out this maximum is extendable. see below – we’re learning things!)

Pretty sure the Integra-7 synth module also maxes out at +/- 24. Might be +/- 12. I’d have to check.

Whatever the lowest common denominator is, that’s pretty much where I try to set everything. That way, I can plug anything into anything else, and not have to go back to a laptop based editor to reconfigure things.

Anyway… Continuumini defaults to +/-96 semitones, presumably to match the full sized Continuum.

That’s not gonna fly here.

Ideally, you want to use the smallest range that supports the widest motion you expect to ever do. Because even at 14 bit pitch bend, there’s a finite number of values to divide across that range. Too wide, and you’re going to get audible stepping.

That’s not at all an issue for Continuumini playing its own sounds. Because it’s not using MIDI to communicate with itself. But controlling outside synths, or being controlled externally?

I’m downloading the editor…

EDIT:
I should probably watch this before I go making needless assumptions.


…and/or RTFM.

I just like documenting my initial difficulties with a product, while I’m still having them.

EDIT AGAIN:
I should also acknowledge that I made this much harder on myself by just diving into the raw data (in max/msp) without even looking at what mechanisms are already built for exactly this purpose.

And more importantly, that this isn’t normal behavior to expect from a user.

So really, the only value in documenting this is in keeping myself humble. But that’s still worthwhile, right?

THIRD EDIT:
Hot damn, that video just showed me how to extend beyond +/-36 on Linnstrument. Why didn’t anyone else? Hell, I didn’t think 36 was even an option…

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For Linnstrument, if you press the +/- 24 range button for a few seconds you can choose (almost) arbitrary ranges, +/-48 semitones is of course possible (just not optimal as you loose a little bit of precision compared to +/- 24 semitones).

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Just discovered that and added a third edit.
(Seriously, this should be mentioned more often.)

“a little bit” = HALF.

Could be worse. Imagine using +/- 96!

You know, the more I think about this, the more counterintuitive it is. Why not add more range buttons? Why not make holding any range button bring up that control?

Grr.

Ah well. I’ll never forget that control, now that I’ve finally learned of it.

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Quite a few of them do. Check out this LS forum post: Hidden settings overview.

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LS goes up +/- 96; just match up both to your likings.

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Yes, yes. Discovered yesterday and acknowledged twice.

Still, I’m hoping to discover a way to set the range globally in EaganMatrix instead of editing thousands of patches. Because, kinda why I mentioned it:
whether or not we can set Linnstrument to 96, that’s just not desirable.

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Pragmatic proposal: Set it to +/- 96 semitones, play an unaltered preset, then alter it and go to +/- 24 semitones. Can you feel a difference? If not - lucky you, less work :slight_smile: (It is still 4096/570mm/2 ~ 3.6 values per mm at +/-96 semitones) (edit: +/-, so half as many…)

Edit: another idea: The presets seem to be plain midi files. You can download e.g. midicsv and csvmidi from here: https://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/midicsv/#Download which convert midi to plaintext csv and back (if the csv is not changed the output of csvmidi is identical to the original midi file). Then load a preset in the editor and set the pitch bend range to +/-24 semitones as the only change. Now convert that and the original midi file to csv and compare the csvs. My guess would be that it is pretty simple to spot how the pitch bend range is encoded and to create a script that automates the replacement process.
That way I assume you can patch thousands of presets pretty easily.
Or test them with +/- 96 semitones and convert the handfull you actually gonna use manually :stuck_out_tongue:

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Has anyone managed to use this with Kontakt?

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ContinuuMini+Kontakt? you have dedicated presets (of course you can create yours) besides; its duotactic so… works, what else @Kondar ?

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I had not seen them. Thank you!