MOTM

>From: Cary Roberts <Cary.Roberts@...>
>
>Ask Tony Karavidas about displays and bezels. The one in his
>Expressionist is top notch.

Does it use LCD or VFD?

> What is the sequencer based around?
>8051? 6811? Z80? Enquiring minds want to know. And hey, why
>not throw in MIDI to CV while you're at it. That's what the
>serial port on the 8051 is for.......

Dallas Semi 80C320 (super-fast 4-cycle 8051) running at 24Mhz is what
I'm thinking about as a CPU.

There is MIDI _IN for running at MIDI clock. I suppose the "platform" does
exist to
"turn it into" a killer MIDI to CV.

After all, "it's just software!" :)

Paul S.

> Even if it is in C, it
> would be unethical for Paul to share his compiler and assembler
> with us, and they ain't cheap.
>

GCC/EGCS is cheap, like free. While it supports tons of different processors,
most are 32 bit processors. It sure would be nice to be able to use this tool
chain. One could use C or C++, AND have a source debugger (GDB).

Thomas

> >Ask Tony Karavidas about displays and bezels. The one in his
> >Expressionist is top notch.
>
>
> Does it use LCD or VFD?

It's a conventional backlit LCD.

> > What is the sequencer based around?
> >8051? 6811? Z80? Enquiring minds want to know. And hey, why
> >not throw in MIDI to CV while you're at it. That's what the
> >serial port on the 8051 is for.......
>
> Dallas Semi 80C320 (super-fast 4-cycle 8051) running at 24Mhz is what
> I'm thinking about as a CPU.
>
> There is MIDI _IN for running at MIDI clock. I suppose the "platform" does
> exist to
> "turn it into" a killer MIDI to CV.
>
> After all, "it's just software!" :)

Be careful that you avoid 'bloatware'. Personally, I've already paid $600
for a Midi/CV module, and would not want to see the price of the seqencer
soar past $500 because this feature was included. Also increases time to
market and potential bugs. I think it would be a good candidate for
'alternate software personality', available later perhaps at an extra cost
to cover the development time expenses.

Moe

>Be careful that you avoid 'bloatware'. Personally, I've already paid $600
>for a Midi/CV module, and would not want to see the price of the seqencer
>soar past $500 because this feature was included. Also increases time to
>market and potential bugs. I think it would be a good candidate for
>'alternate software personality', available later perhaps at an extra cost
>to cover the development time expenses.

Assuming Paul documents his code he could share it with the list
and I or another could add the extra features.

-Cary

> >I think it would be a good candidate for
> >'alternate software personality', available later perhaps at an
> extra cost
> >to cover the development time expenses.
>
> Assuming Paul documents his code he could share it with the list
> and I or another could add the extra features.
>
> -Cary

Yes, this is my hope as well. In earlier days on this list, when talking
about MOAS, Paul mentioned wishing to be able to change sequencer
personalities via software, and to publish source code in a mid level
language like C for other coders to customize.

Now that we are talking about "Daughter of MOAS", we should revisit this
issue. The question is, can the proposed DoMOAS system be customized by
outside software developers? Will the code be in low level assembler, C, or
what? Does it require an expensive hardware or software emulation
development system?

Paul, what's the scoop?

Dave Bradley
Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Animation, Inc.
daveb@...

> From: Cary Roberts <Cary.Roberts@...>
>
> >Be careful that you avoid 'bloatware'. Personally, I've already paid $600
> >for a Midi/CV module, and would not want to see the price of the seqencer
> >soar past $500 because this feature was included. Also increases time to
> >market and potential bugs.

>Yes, this is my hope as well. In earlier days on this list, when talking
>about MOAS, Paul mentioned wishing to be able to change sequencer
>personalities via software, and to publish source code in a mid level
>language like C for other coders to customize.

I was planning on building a MIDI retrofit for my SCI Pro-1 and
was discouraged from coding in C by someone "in the know". I
know the C compilers weren't that great back in college but I
had hoped with Pentium performance they were better at optimizing.
It looks like I'll be doing all my coding in assembly, or at least
all the MIDI I/O, DAC updates, and keyscanning. Now that's on
a stock 8051. If Paul is using a souped up variant with enough power
you might be able to get away with C. Even if it is in C, it
would be unethical for Paul to share his compiler and assembler
with us, and they ain't cheap.

>Now that we are talking about "Daughter of MOAS", we should revisit this
>issue. The question is, can the proposed DoMOAS system be customized by
>outside software developers? Will the code be in low level assembler, C, or
>what? Does it require an expensive hardware or software emulation
>development system?

You can code 8051 assembly with a cheap $100 development board.
However, if you want to do MIDI I/O on the 8051's internal serial
I/O you're SOL, 'cause that's what the development board is talking
to the host PC on. (Is it just me or is that a lot of anograms?)
I went with a Dataman S4 handheld EPROM programmer and emulator.
It has a serial port for direct connection to a PC. So the process
is assemble code, download to the S4, hit the EMULATE button, and
see if it works. That's not quite as handy as the development
systems, but if you need the serial I/O....... The S4 has enough
memory for storing several EPROMs, so it's great for copying multiple
ROMs out of synths without a PC nearby. Great way to upgrade
the software in SCI P2000s, Prophet VSes, Jupiter-6s, H3000s,
etc, etc.

-Cary

Here's a free C compiler for the 8051:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/1353/

Thomas

> From: "Dave Bradley" <daveb@...>
> > There is MIDI _IN for running at MIDI clock. I suppose the "platform"

does

> > exist to "turn it into" a killer MIDI to CV.
> >
> > After all, "it's just software!" :)
>
> Be careful that you avoid 'bloatware'. Personally, I've already paid $600
> for a Midi/CV module, and would not want to see the price of the seqencer
> soar past $500 because this feature was included. Also increases time to
> market and potential bugs. I think it would be a good candidate for
> 'alternate software personality', available later perhaps at an extra

cost

> to cover the development time expenses.
>
> Moe

I agree with Moe.
Larry

Note that unless the compiler has "hooks" for Dual Data Pointers, the most
"cool" aspect of the C320 is wasted. Also, it needs to use the Microsoft
Object
Linker spec so the Keil debugger can read it in.

Paul S.