Re: OT: Building a Midi Breakout Box

[Ricky Graham <rickygrahammusic@gmail.com>]

I may add that myself and a technician have put together our own "break-out" kits which will be available shortly at an affordable price. If you're interested, please contact me off list.

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Ricky Graham <rickygrahammusic@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kevin,

I have a guide at the bottom of this page: http://rickygraham.com/pages/research

Ricky

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Andy Owens <andy@1800dialword.com> wrote:

If I just wanted to record or amplify certain strings, like sending bass strings on guitar into a Pog or other octaver for bass sounds, do these pickups work that way or just for guitar synth?

Andy Owens
1-800-AndyOwens
Sent from my iPhone
So the typing might not be my best!

On Jan 26, 2011, at 9:54 AM, "Dean, Hal" <HDean@wcupa.edu> wrote:

> Kevin,
>
> I've been dreaming of the separate strings thing for years and have been in regular contact with Richard McLish about his fanout. Last promise was a new batch in October 2010 - didn't happen, and I don't think it ever will. Meanwhile, I've been following Bill Baxendale's work and, although his web site is awful, his posts on guitar forums made it clear he really knows what he is doing and that people who had his stuff liked it. So, I took the plunge and bought his breakout box.
>
> I have other projects from which I can't divert too much attention to this right now, but I've started to fool with it for an hour at a time a few nights. It is really well made and works perfectly right out of the box. I have a by now antique setup using a GI-10 and a variety of MIDI-equipped guitars; so far all I've tried with this is the PRS I bought from Kris H. and had Graphtech hex pickups installed on.
>
> Not wanting to dedicate my RME 800 to this, I  routed 4 strings into open inputs on it and sent the other two into a Boss VF-1. From there I've been experimenting in a most unscientific manner, just setting up templates in Cubase and Reaper and adding effects to each input.  Given that the signal is weak I've put Voxengo Boogex on each channel.  The recordings have low signal level for each individual string but when you listen to them together it is robust. I also did a bit of mangling each track independently, normalizing, reversing, chopping and the like. The sound quality remained excellent.
>
> I'm sure there is a more sophisticated way to boost the signals, but I'm just learning Reaper and hadn't gotten there yet. I suspect Ableton Live will eventually prove the best program for use with this setup.
>
> Then there is looping. I have a laptop dedicated to that (Mobius in Bidule), with a soundcard that does not have 6 inputs. I haven't gotten into Mobius 1.43. Sometime this spring I imagine I will devote some time to learning 1.43, taking advantage of some of the amazing script development that is happening, and do all that on the desktop that I have the RME 800 on.... at which point the 6 strings into Mobius would be a truly sick puppy.  I'll report on all this from time to time.
>
> Bill Baxendale is a real craftsman and great engineer and provided fabulous service. No, it is not cheap, but the breakout box is VERY cool.
>
> As for the Unfretted project, I too was intimidated by the skill level required to make it. I joined mfg.com with an eye towards "managing" production, perhaps soliciting interest from others on this list and elsewhere, but I never pursued it. You could consider taking that on.
>
> Hal
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Cheli-Colando [mailto:billowhead@gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 4:49 PM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: OT: Building a Midi Breakout Box
>
> Yeah I've been in contact with him but he's quoting something like 60 pounds in freight (almost $100 in shipping) so it winds up just a little bit under the price of the RMC Fanout box.
>
> I'm thinking I'll be shelving this thought for a while.
>
> Kevin
>
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Gareth Whittock <buddhamachine@live.co.uk> wrote:
>> Have a look at this Kevin:
>>
>> http://billbax.110mb.com/
>>
>> G
>>
>>> Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:21:51 -0800
>>> Subject: OT: Building a Midi Breakout Box
>>> From: billowhead@gmail.com
>>> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>>>
>>> Hello soldier fiends,
>>>
>>> Having looked into the basic Midi breakout boxes available for the VG
>>> 8, etc, I realized, I don't have $400 to buy one of these. So looking
>>> around I found this
>>> http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=/profs/breakout
>>>
>>> Any of you technically inclined people have any advice on how to do
>>> this (for a basic novice who has soldered a thing or two but never
>>> built a functioning device)? I'm wondering a couple of things a), how
>>> feasible is this b) about how much a home brew would cost c) anyone
>>> with the skills willing to build one (for a fee of course).
>>>
>>> I'm at the level where I'm not sure I could actually do anything with
>>> these plans but I could probably put it together if I had the parts.
>>>
>>> Feel free to tell me I'm better off without the dream of processing
>>> six strings separately. I think I might be better off that way.
>>> Unless one of you out there......
>>>
>>> Kevin
>>>
>>> --
>>> Till now you seriously considered yourself to be the body and to have
>>> a form. That is the primal ignorance which is the root cause of all trouble.
>>>
>>> - Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)
>>>
>>> Sound and Vision:  http://www.minds-eye.org Video
>>> http://www.vimeo.com/user877640/videos
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Till now you seriously considered yourself to be the body and to have a form. That is the primal ignorance which is the root cause of all trouble.
>
> - Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)
>
> Sound and Vision:  http://www.minds-eye.org Video http://www.vimeo.com/user877640/videos
>