More questions

[howard]

Good morning!
Time for todays questions:

The Coyote doesn't seem to store my settings upon reboot. This is a bit annoying when I have found a sweet spot on a patch.

A couple of features that would be nice: To be able to preset values on effects when combining several modules, say delay, chorus and distortion. There aren't enough knobs to go around so one would need to tweak it in the editor instead until it is good for gig. I guess some of this can be tweaked by modding the module code directly, but that's a bit cumbersome for daily use.

A way to wire a button to switch between two preset knob values would allow for things like emulating a leslie, where you would have a slow and fast setting, or just to make wild noises.

I also have a few ideas for an extended model of the box, possible a whole new version. One thing that springs to mind is an additional button, possibly a pushbutton potmeter that allows for a secondary set of control pot's, to give more tweakability on the box. As in: the patch has 8 potmeters, but you have to switch between two banks to access them.

Oh, and the Workbench does crash on OS X. It usually crashes if I load a module from disk into it. On restart the module is there and everything i fine. And sometimes on upload to the box. It finishes the upload, but crashes in the process.

Still having fun!

Howard

[eric_admin]

The Coyote doesn't seem to store my settings upon reboot. This is a bit annoying when I have found a sweet spot on a patch.

I agree. That would be a nice feature to add. It was planned for the original production release but never made it in (it turns out that it's a little bit complicated; but I'll work on it).

A couple of features that would be nice: To be able to preset values on effects when combining several modules, say delay, chorus and distortion. There aren't enough knobs to go around so one would need to tweak it in the editor instead until it is good for gig. I guess some of this can be tweaked by modding the module code directly, but that's a bit cumbersome for daily use.

That feature already exists (see "Modifying Static Assignments" in the manual). Sockets not connected to something (i.e. not connected to a knob or driven by some other socket output) always have a default static assignment which can be changed in workbench. The knobs have "Init" values which can be set using static assignments. In the image below shows the configuration of the Chorus Delay patch in Workbench. All four knobs are in use, so the Depth socket on the Chorus Effect Module is set to 100% using a static assignment (it can be changed to any value using Workbench). The Inital value for the Chorus's Rate in this example is controlled by the the static assignment of the "Init" socket on Knob 0 (40%) which is wired to Rate.

Chorus Delay.jpg (338.03 KiB) Viewed 881 times

A way to wire a button to switch between two preset knob values would allow for things like emulating a leslie, where you would have a slow and fast setting, or just to make wild noises.

HAHA! That already exists as well. In fact, that is really the whole POINT of the Coyote-1, though few people have figured it out yet or realized its power. Actually, it's one of two main points, the second (more obvious) one being that effect modules can be authored by anyone to do just about anything.

ANY output control socket can be connected to ANY input control socket. Want to sweep the depth of the chorus back and forth? Connect LFO the output of the LFO module (http://www.openstomp.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=76 ) to the Depth socket of the Chorus module. Want to create an echo which only engages when you play loudly? How about connecting the "+Gate Open" output of the Noise Gate module to the +Bypass of the Delay module (ok, so you'll find that one actually does the opposite of want (i.e. echos when you play softly), so write an INVERTER module to flip a control socket vaule around OR you can use any existing effect as an inverter by running a control signal into its "+Bypass" conduit, and treating "+On" as the inverted value). There is room for a whole lot of creativity there.

I also have a few ideas for an extended model of the box, possible a whole new version. One thing that springs to mind is an additional button, possibly a pushbutton potmeter that allows for a secondary set of control pot's, to give more tweakability on the box. As in: the patch has 8 potmeters, but you have to switch between two banks to access them.

It is not too hard to design an extended pedal board using the expansion port which would have more knobs and more buttons. Nobody has played in that space yet, but there are lots of expansion possibilities.

Oh, and the Workbench does crash on OS X. It usually crashes if I load a module from disk into it. On restart the module is there and everything i fine. And sometimes on upload to the box. It finishes the upload, but crashes in the process.

Please quote the version when reporting bugs so that historical forum data will be easy for users to make sense of. You are running OSX Workbench 2.00 (Beta). I'll take a look into the crash and see if I can replicate/fix it. If you ever get completely stuck with something that doesn't work at all in the OSX beta, you can try running the windows version instead. Also, we should get your box up to the latest OS. I will publish 2.01.02 very shortly, which contains a fix that will allow you to compile it using BST (the Mac OSX version of the Propeller Tool).

Still having fun!

I'm very glad to hear it!

[howard]

Cool!
I actually read that I could modify static assignments in the manual, but kind of forgot it. Tried it now and it worked.
I also figured that remembering settings are slightly more complex than they may seem, as it has to store the value you put in at any given time, but it is quite crucial for "road work".

Hadn't thought of that way of wiring it, but of course, it's the whole point of total control! And I had that one sort of figured out, as that was one of the main reasons I bought it, after all. Still, I'm not sure how I'd make it flip between two values? Is it possible in present modules or would it need a utility module? I'm hoping to get the presets tweaked enough for a jam at a friends studio soon, to show it off a bit. And I made a patch with 2 distortion modules in series. That gave me some more gain and blurred the "parallel sound" feel a bit. Will post it when I'm done with it.

Sorry about not posting software version. I should know better! I have fired it up on windows too, just to see how it worked there. Will try to make a more coherent report for you.

[howard]

Ok, haven't figured out way to do this yet: Can I make one of the leds pulse with the Rate setting on the tremolo? Or delay for that matter. In a live setting that can be usefull in regards to timing, plus very cool!

Setting static values all over the place, and it works very well! I am getting closer to a usefull set of pathces.

Haven't tried running my (too hot) guitar through the secondary input yet, just thought I'd let you know that it overloads even on very low gain settings, and it does not show up on the box, the overload indicator does not flash. At least not on low gain settings. I'm running at about 30% gain(but I've tried lower), and as long as I don't hit the strings too hard it's ok.
I'm thinking of adding a pot on the input circuit somewhere to have a physical input gain reduction available.

I've had to switch to Windows(in a Virtual Machine) to edit patches now, as the workbench is too prone to crashing on communication with the box, even had a corrupt patch upload today. I'll try to extract the relevant info from the the logs and post it. It might be a good idea to enable separate logging on it for debugging.
It should be said that my system is very much NOT a standard system. While I do have a Macbook Pro I tend to do this stuff on a PeeCee loaded with OS X Leopard. This is a Core Quad machine with 4 gigs of ram, very stable in every aspect, but not a vanilla mac. Workbench is fine in Windows XP under VMware, though, so I guess it's not a hardware(usb controller) issue.

I'm putting my beloved old Ensoniq DP/4+ up for sale now, as The Coyote1 will eventually replace most of it's functionality(the DP/4+ is a mean beast, though). And that's a real compliment to the Coyote!


Howard

(Edit: I need to learn Spin/asm! Your LFO has a lot of stuff that would be nice in other places, like Rate blink and different waveforms. I'd love to put this stuff into the chorus and tremolo to expand their palettes)