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Hmmm… Yes, that sort of behavior us usually associated with instability in the cap. touch keyboard. Sometimes, here in the Lab, a synth will sound just because it’s humid. Does this happen consistently, all the time, or is it pretty erratic? Try placing a finger on the edge of the PCB, on the blue border but beyond the printed keys. Does that stabilize performance? How about when it is plugged in to a power supply vs a battery? How about when you’ve got earbuds or something else plugged into the line out? All these things affect the grounding of the PCB and stability of the keyboard.
If the random-note behavior is unaffected by any of these factors, then there’s something goofy with the circuit. Each key has an associated resistor; if any of them are damaged or loose it could create this behavior.
Macchiato inventor Brach may have other suggestions when he is back from holiday.
Howard, that’s good to hear. Yeah, we had to learn the same lesson the same way. Merry Christmas everyone!!
Howard, sorry for the delayed response; too much pumpkin pie this weekend.
It sounds like you did some good troubleshooting. Here are a couple more things to check, to help us narrow this down.- First, be sure the Altura is NOT in X-Y mode during testing; it’s a little trickier to set up. Leave it in Function 2 so the left hand controls the mod wheel and right hand sends notes. Also set DATA NEAR and FAR to 0 and 127; set OCTAVE NEAR and FAR to 5 and 6 or so. This assures you will send easily=perceived effects.
- Please connect the Altura directly to one of your keyboards, using just a standard MIDI cable. Make sure the Altura transmit channel (Function 7) is set the same as the keyboard RECEIVE channel, or that the keyboard is in OMNI mode. Can you make the MIDI light blink on the keyboard? Can you hear stuff?
Let us know what you get.
Glen
Holy Hotsauce, Nate! That unit’s serial number is right smack in the middle of the others in this thread! I guess all those problematic units were NOT “accounted for”!! Guess where your kit spent a year, laying low while we were sorting out these other units? In an English customs house. I am refunding your purchase price of the USB-Tiny right now.
Incidentally, we just updated the Macchiato software today, to add the ability to set its MIDI receive channel. If you are using the Macchiato with an external keyboard controller, you may find that useful. It’s version 1.2.2. Follow the instructions in the ZDL Updater Help to “run as administrator”, and it will fetch the latest update for you.
I again apologize for the hassle.
Glen van Alkemade
Nate, I am very sorry to hear this! I know all to well the pain of frustration. Do I understand that you successfully re-flashed the synth? Did this work? Please respond with your synth serial number. This is super-important for us to figure out what may have happened to your synth. The three units described in this (pretty old) thread were result of an isolated incident, and all affected units are accounted for. It is therefore unlikely the problem with your unit was that it shipped with no software at all; there are a few other possibilities with DIY kits.
Again, so sorry.For testing, leave Function = 2. This causes the left sensor to send modulation messages (CC#1). Set the DATA NEAR to 0 and DATA FAR to 127. Now look for a screen in Ableton that monitors incoming MIDI data. You should see streams of NOTE ON/NOTE OFF messages when you wave your right hand, and streams of MOD data when you wave the left. Can you do this? This will prove out what data is making it to Ableton. If the data is arriving, then you should be able to hear modulation of a vst with that left hand: notes with the right, modulation (usually vibrato) with the left. Can you make this happen?
Mike Hermans demo video. Mike really captures the beauty, scope, sweep and range of possibilities the Quaverato offers.
Marco, thanks for writing. First, have you succeeded in getting the Altura to communicate with Ableton at all? You should be able to easily play some patch or synth or SOMETHING: notes with right hand and, for example, modulation with left (Function = 2).
If no, then make sure Ableton is listening on the same channel on which the Altura is transmitting. Set the transmit channel with Function = 7.
Once you establish communication, you need to MAP one of the Altura’s left-side functions to have the desired effect in Ableton. You need to sacrifice one of Modulation, Note On Velocity, or Channel Volume (Functions 2-3-4). Pick one, then follow the guidance in this Ableton article, Creating MIDI Mappings, to map the Altura to your VST.
Please let us know how this goes!Congrats! We always believed in you. Moral of the story: check your solder joints veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery carefully.
Hmmm, sneaky. Your KEY pot behaves like it is not connected somewhere. The microcontroller polls the eight knobs and reads their voltage, so many times per second. It maps the voltage onto a table to decide what value is desired. If it reads 0 volts, as when a pot is disconected, it will always display the first value in the table, in this case C. So since the pot seems completely unresponsive, we think there is a broken connection somewhere. Here’s how to check.
1. With the unit off, measure the resistance between the two outer pins of the pot. If it IS properly connected into the circuit, you should read 1.9kOhms. If the pot is NOT properly connected, you will read something higher.
2. If that’s the case, check all the solder connections associated with this pot, including its corresponding pin on the multiplexer.
3. Look also for solder bridges. This is an unintended connection causing a short. A bridge can consist of even a tiny whisp of solder touching two pads together that are not meant to touch. Tiny bridges can be popped off with a little gentle scraping. Larger bridges may require melting and removing the excess solder.Aha! You do have an extraordinary unit! That pot is probably bad, or the microcontroller may be poorly seated.
1. Re-seat the microcontroller. Carefully pop it out and seat it back into the socket.
2. Turn on the unit. Gently but firmly press down on the shaft of that fussy pot, and sweep it through its full range. You should see the numbers 1-8 appear smoothly. Your video reveals that the pot does not seem to behave as it should. Another way to verify is this: set Function to 6, X-Y mode. Now the last pot is used to set the MIDI value, 1-127, transmitted when the right sensor senses your hand at the far limit of its range. Turn the knob smoothly without pressing. Do you get a jumble of jerky 1274numbers? Do you get something other than at full left and 127 at full right? Try again while pressing down. The numbers should scroll smoothly across the range.
If these tests are positive, then the pot is bad and must be replaced and we will send you a new one.
Please run the test and let us know!
The spinning numbers indicate you are in Play mode, not Articulation mode. The “1. 8” indicates the positron of the last two knobs, Octave Near and Octave Far. The 8 tells us that the last knob, Octave Far, is turned to the right, not the left. All knobs must be full left when powered on to enter Articulation Mode.
If you tell me “But the last knob IS full left!”, then I will say “Extraordinary! It is behaving backwards! Turn it until the display shows ‘1. 1’, then power of then on. Now at last you should be in Articulation Mode. “
Are you following the “Easter Egg” instruction? Turn unit off, turn all knobs full left, turn back on. First you should see three digits: what are they? After a few seconds the display should change to a number divisible by 15: what is it?
JustNickMusic demo video: “May I just say, this thing is sexy as hell. This is the sexiest pedal I have had the pleasure to mess with in a long time, and I mess with a lot of sexy pedals.”
ShnobelTone demo video: “Very great sounding tremolo pedal…”
CoolGuitarGear, aka Brian Johnston, demo video. I really dig the zeppelin footage.
