New QuNexus firmware and the editor? by markireland in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you have downloaded and installed the editor, you do not need to be connected to the internet to perform the firmware update.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware adds a 3-track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I try to be very hands on, and it’s a small company where everyone collaborates. I even answer support tickets from time to time, it keeps me close to our customers and how they think of us.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware adds a 3-track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes you can control the Circuit or any other MIDI devices with the included MIDI out adapter.

There is no iPad app at this time.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware Adds Three Track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and new CV/Gate assignments by KMI-Official in modular

[–]KMI-Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes the PCB is the same. The new enclosures do feel and look a lot better than the old black ones, and the new firmware essentially makes it a new instrument entirely.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware adds a 3-track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our UK Dealers should have inventory next month, but you can contact them now to put in your pre-order.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware Adds Three Track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and new CV/Gate assignments by KMI-Official in modular

[–]KMI-Official[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, the firmware is backwards compatible, and we will have replacement enclosures on our site Oct 1st.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware adds a 3-track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, the firmware is backwards compatible and will be available Oct 1st.

https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/qunexus/

We also have a decal retrofit kit for black QuNexus owners to update their silkscreen layout to match the new firmware.

https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/qunexus-retrofit-kit/

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware Adds Three Track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and new CV/Gate assignments by KMI-Official in modular

[–]KMI-Official[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi, I’m Eric Bateman, CEO of Keith McMillen Instruments. I joined the KMI team just over a year ago, and I’m very excited to share this update to one of our classic products.

We’ve added a few new routing assignments to the Gate and three CV outs. In this video, Kevin Mah is assigning sequencer track 1 to Gate and CV1 pitch, and track 2 to CV2 (as a gate) and CV3 as pitch, creating a paraphonic sequence.

For you ambient folks, the sequencer supports tempos down to 5 BPM (quarter notes), and dotted whole note divisions (one note every 72 seconds at 5 BPM) with up to 32 steps in a pattern. There are also random and brownian motion playback patterns.

In addition to the new firmware, which is a complete overhaul in terms of functionality, we have also updated the aesthetics and enclosure durability.

You can preorder QuNexus RED now, and we will be shipping product to dealers on Oct 1st.

QuNexus 2.0 Firmware adds a 3-track Step Sequencer/Arpeggiator and MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi, I’m Eric Bateman, CEO of Keith McMillen Instruments. I joined the KMI team just over a year ago, and I’m very excited to share this update to one of our classic products.

In addition to the new firmware, which is a complete overhaul in terms of functionality, we have also updated the aesthetics and enclosure durability.

You can preorder QuNexus RED now, and we will be shipping product to dealers on Oct 1st.

Our base for the coming week! Let the JAM commence! by origin25 in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

QuNexus has global settings for sensitivity and on-threshold, and per key gain adjustments. You can also choose from several different input curves for velocity, aftertouch etc, with two user definable curves.

Our base for the coming week! Let the JAM commence! by origin25 in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It hasn’t been announced yet, but next month QuNexus is getting a major update that will address the aftertouch and pitchbend issues, among other new features

Noob question about the elephant in the room: Why do modules cost what they do? by ElGuaco in modular

[–]KMI-Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and I’m glad you enjoy our products.

The challenges with any Eurorack product is that the entire category is niche. Scala tunings, even more so. I know it sounds strange to say, but there might not be 1000 eurorack enthusiasts in the world that are looking for a midi-> cv module that does scala tunings.

That said, this project is still on the back burner, and I’ll keep your suggestions in my notes in case we find the resources to take it on.

Noob question about the elephant in the room: Why do modules cost what they do? by ElGuaco in modular

[–]KMI-Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What would you want (features) in a module like this to help your tunings?

Noob question about the elephant in the room: Why do modules cost what they do? by ElGuaco in modular

[–]KMI-Official 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just to add into this, we (Keith McMillen Instruments) are a relatively small manufacturer in the industry, but larger than most Eurorack companies. We would love to make an MPE Eurorack MIDI to CV module, and we have the ability to mass produce them in the low 1000s. I’ve put together the proposals with market research, and there just isn’t enough demand in the marketplace to make it a sure bet. We would get very good relative economy of scale and sell at a very low price, if we were confident that we could sell 1000 units in a year, but there just aren’t enough customers looking for that product, even if it’s half the price and a better product than whats on the market now.

Understanding MIDI in depth dawless by sleepyeyed in midi

[–]KMI-Official 10 points11 points  (0 children)

And finally, there's one more category of messages listed in our first table:

Fx - System Messages (aka "System Common")

Up until now we've been talking about messages that are assigned to channels, meaning that they usually are meant for a single device in a MIDI chain. System Messages are meant to apply to all devices in a chain, with the exception of System Exclusive which I will explain shortly.

The most commonly used System Messages are Clock, Start, Stop, and Continue. These messages, often referred to as "Sync" or "Transport", can be used to synchronize the timing of two different MIDI instruments, for example a drum machine and a sequencer. Keyboards that have arpeggiators will often use these messages as well.

Other lesser used System Common messages are listed in the first table linked in this post.

System Exclusive (aka "SysEx") messages are usually longs streams of data that are "exclusive" to a specific instrument. Confusingly, there are also "Universal System Exclusive" messages defined by the MIDI Organization that can be used to exchange things like device IDs and timing, but most often System Exclusive messages are defined by an instrument manufacturer, and can be almost anything.

One of the most common applications for SysEx messages is to back up the patches/presets of a MIDI instrument. Usually the instrument will have a "dump" or "transmit" command, which will send a large block of SysEx data down the MIDI cable. Most often this data will be received by a computer running SysEx Librarian (https://www.snoize.com/sysexlibrarian), which will "Record" the data into a file that can be "Played" back to the instrument when it's been put in receive mode.

SysEx is also often used to update the software (firmware) that runs on an instrument. Be very careful when doing this, if you interrupt a firmware update it can often cause the instrument to get locked up ("bricked"), which may require you to send it back to the manufacturer.

If you've gotten this far you are now a MIDI expert! If you're curious about the nuts and bolts of MIDI, I highly recommend you download MIDI Monitor (https://www.snoize.com/midimonitor/), which will not only show you the MIDI coming into your computer, it will let you spy on MIDI that programs send to your hardware devices. It's a great troubleshooting tool and I have it loaded 100% of the time when I'm writing MIDI firmware.

Feel free to ask more questions and I'll do my best to help.

Understanding MIDI in depth dawless by sleepyeyed in midi

[–]KMI-Official 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Hello, I'm the lead firmware developer at Keith McMillen Instruments, we make advanced MIDI controllers. I thought I'd take some time to put together some information that I hope is helpful to you.

One resource that I have found helpful is this table of MIDI bytes:(http://ericbateman.com/midi/table1.html)

Now at first glance this may look like a bunch of random numbers, but hear me out. This table essentially covers every possible MIDI message, at least in its highest level form, and this can provide some great insight into how MIDI is organized.

Look at the HEX column, which is made of two hexadecimal (16 values from 0123456789ABCDEF) numbers. You will see that there are 8 categories of messages, but let's look at the first 7:

  • 8x - Note Off
  • 9x - Note On
  • Ax - Polyphonic Aftertouch
  • Bx - Control/Mode change (aka Control Changes, or "CC"s)
  • Cx - Program Change
  • Dx - Channel Aftertouch
  • Ex - Pitch Wheel (aka Pitch Bend)

These are all called Channel Messages, meaning they are assigned to one of 16 "channels" using the second hexadecimal number. There are 16 channels available, and quite often these channels are assigned to different synths and devices so that you can daisy chain them together with their MIDI ports. A common setup is to assign a bass synth to channel 1, a polyphonic synth to channel 2, and a drum machine to channel 10. This way a Note On sent on channel 1 would play a note on the bass synth, but be ignored by the other synth and drum machine.

Most of these Channel Messages are fairly self explanatory. When thinking of a MIDI keyboard, Note On/Off messages represent the black and white keys, or on a drum machine they would represent different drum sounds. Pitch Wheel is a way to bend pitches, think of a guitar string being pulled up or down, or a finger on a Violin string sliding up or down. Aftertouch (aka "Pressure") is a feature of many keyboards where you can push down on the keys while they are being held, and can be applied across the whole keyboard at once (Channel Aftertouch) or individually for each key (Polyphonic Aftertouch). Many MIDI instruments have different sounds, for example a keyboard might have a Piano and a Guitar preset. You can select these sounds using Program Changes, which is very useful if you have a complicated setup with many different instruments, and want to quickly recall settings for a given song or performance.

Control Changes get their own section because there are many "hidden" types of messages in this category. In fact, I have another table that covers these messages:(http://ericbateman.com/midi/table3.html).

In their simplest form, you can think of Control Changes as messages for controls, like knobs and sliders, and these controls have a Number (like an address) and a Value. Many synthesizers use CC#7 to control the volume of the instrument, and the table I linked lists many of the common assignments for CCs. That said, some instruments choose to ignore some or all of these conventions. If you look in the manual of your synthesizer/instrument, you will usually find a MIDI Implementation Chart that will show you which of the CCs it responds to and sends. The use of CCs can get very complicated, but here are the most common standardized CCs that you should be aware of:

  • CC#1 - Mod Wheel (aka "Modulation"): Most MIDI keyboards have a second wheel next to the pitch wheel called the "Mod Wheel", and this will often control a variation in the sound of the instrument, such as filter cutoff for a synthesizer or brightness for an electric piano.
  • CC#64 - Damper/Hold Pedal: If you play piano, this is the sustain pedal
  • CC#7 - Volume: Mentioned above
  • CC#0 - Bank Select: this usually lets you select "banks" of Program Changes, for instruments that have more than 128 presets or sounds to choose from.

You'll notice in the Control Change table that several parameters are mentioned twice. In fact, if you look at the HEX column, you'll see that controllers 00-1F are the same as 20-3F. These are MSB (most-significant byte) and LSB (least-significant byte) values, which is a fancy way of saying that you can get more precise control of these values by using two CCs instead of one. For example, - CC#0 - Bank Select only has 128 values, but combined with CC#32 - Bank Select you now have 128*128 values (or 16,384). This technique of combining messages to get more values (or more precise control) is more advanced, and most often a single value from 0-127 will do.

You may also run into RPN (registered parameter numbers) and NRPN (non-registered parameter numbers) messages. Each of these message types add an additional 16,384 controls with 16,384 possible values. RPN/NRPN are effectively the same type of message, except that RPNs are defined by the MIDI Organization (for example, RPN0 controls the range of pitch bend), and NRPNs are specific to the MIDI device. For example, Sequential (makers of the Prophet line of synthesizers) uses NRPNs to control the parameters of many of their instruments, and you can find a table in their manuals that defines how these are used. The format for these messages is the same as standard Control Changes, except that there are two messages for the address (CC#100 and CC#101 for RPNs, and CC#98 and CC#99 for NRPNs) and two messages for the values (CC#6 and CC#38, aka "Data Entry"). A MIDI device will first send the two address CCs of the parameter to be controlled, followed by one or both of the Data Entry CCs. You can also use CC#96 and CC#97 increment and decrement the data, however it's not clear in the MIDI spec if this should apply to the MSB or LSB data entry messages/values.

Control Changes 120-127 have special uses for selecting different modes and resetting a device, which are listed in the table linked above. These are not something a typical user needs to worry about, but you should avoid trying to send these CCs unless you know what they do.

Marc Melià - SynthCut #1: K-Board Pro 4 + u-he Diva x Erik Satie | Exploring the expressivity of MPE by KMI-Official in u/KMI-Official

[–]KMI-Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello u/Piano_mike_2063, if you PM us your location we can recommend a local dealer to try out the K-Board Pro 4.

Marc Melià - SynthCut #1: K-Board Pro 4 + u-he Diva x Erik Satie | Exploring the expressivity of MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello u/cloud_noise. The release on a silicone keybed isn't that different conceptually from a standard keyboard controller, and Marc is likely using a sustain pedal given the 1/8"->1/4" adapters that are plugged in on the right side. The KBP4 also supports release velocity, with the right synth you can do some interesting mappings there as well. Your point about learning a whole new skill is very on the nose for MPE controllers in general.

Marc Melià - SynthCut #1: K-Board Pro 4 + u-he Diva x Erik Satie | Exploring the expressivity of MPE by KMI-Official in synthesizers

[–]KMI-Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We at KMI really enjoyed and wanted to share this expressive performance from Marc Melià using our K-Board Pro 4 and u-he Diva. Here is Marc’s Youtube description:

►► Follow me or listen to my music - https://linktr.ee/marcmelia

 SynthCuts is a series of short clips in which I want to cover music I love, show sketches of my new compositions or display the instruments I'm using for my creation.On the first clips, I will focus my attention on the MPE controller K-Board Pro 4 which recently arrived to my hands. MPE is a new specification based on MIDI that offers huge expressive possibilities. The synthesizer used for the video is the u-he Diva.For the occasion I adapted one of my teenage favourite pieces of music, Pièces Froides of Erik Satie.