Transcript
What’s this? MIDI Ant is an advanced compact MIDI controller, generating all types of short MIDI messages. It can drive every MIDI recipient device, like: synthesizers, sequencers, digital effects processors, contemporary combo-amplifiers and etc.
MIDI Ant has a lot of amazing features like:
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Up to 256 freely configurable program items*: any PC** message + optional leading LSB and MSB CC** bank select messages with any value. Address every preset in every possible bank, in every device!!! Displayed program numbers are completely independent from transmitted PC messages. Gather your favorite presets in one sequential list! Fully customizable view of the program number. Completely emulate the screen of your favorite MIDI device! Program number can be changed also by external PC message. You can use MIDI Ant also as program visualizer! Highly precise generation of MIDI Clock period (tap/tempo control) for your favorite delay pedal 3 types of tempo control: ‘hard-coded’, manual or external (by expression pedal) Individually assignable ‘hard-coded’ tempo to each program item Generated MIDI Clock period between 20 and 300 ВРМ with 1 ВРМ increments Software swappable left and right buttons Ultra-bright 3-digit red LED display 2 high-quality Neutrik® ¼” jacks for external expression pedals, freely assignable to CC messages or tempo control An ‘Auto-range’ feature for both expression pedals: always giving full-range values, regardless of the end positions of the internal potentiometers Phantom-powered from spare pins on the MIDI Out socket Intelligent switching 2.5mm DC power jack with center negative pin, permitting either power supply or phantom power at a time. Reverse polarity protection Sturdy metal case Soft-action (click-less) footswitches Easily configurable by a free Microsoft Windows® application
* Program items – sequentially ordered pairs of program number and PC message (see **). Program number is shown on MIDI Ant’s display and the PC message is transmitted by MIDI. ** PC = ‘Program change’ MIDI message ** CC = ‘Control change’ MIDI message. MSB ‘bank select’ message is a CC message with first data byte = 0, LSB ‘bank select’ message is a CC message with first data byte = 32 (decimal).
www.kae-systems.com
-1-
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
Layout and connection diagram
Note: DC power supply and expression pedals are not part of MIDI Ant’s shipping package.
Operation In brief – you select a program number by “UP” or “DOWN” buttons and transmit it in ‘Program change’ MIDI message a) by pressing “ACT” button or b) simultaneously while pressing “UP” or “DOWN” buttons (see work modes for details). It’s really that simple. However, MIDI Ant follows quite more flexible approach: displayed program number and actually transmitted ‘Program Change’ message are completely independent from each other. This means the display may show “2”, but the transmitted message could be, for example, PC#34 (or anything else). In this way you can address consecutively your favorite presets from your favorite delay pedal, which are otherwise scattered throughout delay pedal’s internal memory. In addition, MIDI Ant can transmit leading LSB and MSB bank select messages, so you can address every program in every possible preset bank! For the sake of simplicity, in the next lines we’ll assume displayed program and transmitted PC message have same values. So, there are 2 major operating modes: ‘Programs’ and ‘Custom Mode buttons’ and their sub-modes, as shown on the diagram on the right.
-
www.kae-systems.com
-2-
Search
Normal
Search
Buttons “UP” and “DOWN”: Basic Tap-tempo • When in ‘normal’ sub-mode: change the displayed program. On each change, the currently selected program is sent by MIDI. • When in ‘search’ sub-mode: change the displayed program. Hold buttons for fast increment/decrement. Button „ACT”: • in ‘normal’ sub-mode: enter ‘search’ sub-mode. Display starts to blink. • in ‘search’ sub-mode: exit ‘search’ sub-mode and transmit currently selected program by MIDI. Display stops blinking. Normal
-
Custom buttons
Programs
Mode > Programs > Basic
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
Mode > Programs > Tap-tempo -
-
-
Buttons “UP” and “DOWN”: • When pressed - enter ‘search’ mode (display starts to blink) and change the displayed program. Hold buttons for fast increment/decrement. Button „ACT” when pressed: • if in ‘search’ sub-mode: exit ‘search’ sub-mode and transmit currently selected program by MIDI. • If in ‘normal’ sub-mode: -> 2 taps start transmission of MIDI clock stream with ‘hard-coded’ BPM (only if configured) or with currently selected BPM by external expression pedal (only if plugged). -> 3 or more taps will start transmission of MIDI clock stream with tapped BPM (only if the stream is stopped), otherwise taps will adjust the tempo to the interval between the last 2 taps. Maximum tap interval = 3 seconds (20 BPM) Minimum tap interval = 0.2 seconds (300 BPM) After first 24 MIDI Clocks (that is one quarter note), a MIDI Start command is sent. Button „ACT” when hold for 2.3 sec: only if MIDI clock stream is running, stops it and transmits MIDI Stop command. Mode > Custom buttons
In this mode, whenever a button is pressed or released, up to 3 MIDI messages can be sent at once. Almost every short message type can be transmitted (all types, except SysEx, and MIDI clock; see the MIDI implementation chart at the end). The configuration of message types and data can be done only by ‘MIDI Ant configurator’ (see chapter ‘Settings’). The idle state of ‘Custom buttons’ mode is indicated by “…” (three dots) on MIDI Ant’s display. Every ‘pressed’ event is indicated by “A.pr”, “U.pr” or “d.pr” and every ‘released’ event – by “A.rL”, “U.rL” or “d.rL”, depending on the currently activated button. Expression pedals Up to 2 external expression pedals can be connected to MIDI Ant. Pedals should be passive (no battery powered) and should provide 6.3 mm ( ¼” ) TRS male jacks. Maximum allowed resistance of their internal linear potentiometer should be 30 kΩ (kilo ohms). Virtually all commercially available pedals meet this requirement. Each of the pedals can be assigned to specific MIDI ‘Control Change’ message or one of them can be assigned to tempo controller. On each change of a pedal position, a ‘Control change’ message will be sent, or BPM value will be changed. Both pedal inputs have an ‘auto-range’ feature: this means the internal potentiometer of your pedal may not swing from end-to-end position and yet will give full-range values. If your pedal has an ‘offset’ knob, it is recommended to set it to minimum. The ‘auto-range’ feature is always on, regardless of pedal assignment. When a pedal is assigned to a MIDI CC message, it is possible to apply a transformation of the input value before to be output to the message. In this way you can emulate logarithmic or inverse-logarithmic (exponential) potentiometers, but as oppose to hardware ones, you have real, theoretically correct, potentiometer. Transformation will not be applied to a pedal, when it is assigned to tempo controller. Following charts illustrate the available transformation types:
www.kae-systems.com
-3-
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
* Range of values for both axes: [0..127] * The charts represent actual values.
* Input values are on horizontal axes
This behavior applies to all operating modes.
Settings All parameters can be edited by a special free Windows® application, named ‘MIDI Ant Configurator’. It offers very intuitive and self-explanatory interface, but yet has its own manual. The application and the manual can be downloaded freely from www.kae-systems.com.
Settings > ‘On-site’ edit mode You can edit some of most important parameters in any place and without PC. To get into ‘on-site’ edit mode, power MIDI Ant off. Press and hold simultaneously „UP” and „DOWN” buttons and holding them that way, reconnect the power to MIDI Ant. Now release the buttons to continue. Here are the available parameters and their possible values in exact order. Change each parameter’s value by pressing buttons “UP” or “DOWN”, then move to next parameter by pressing button “ACT”. After adjusting the last parameter, you’ll enter the last operating mode you’ve selected. 1. Operating mode: • “F.bA” – mode ‘Programs’, sub-mode ‘Basic’ • “F.tt” – mode ‘Programs’, sub-mode ‘Tap-tempo’ • “F.cb” – mode ‘Custom buttons’ 2. MIDI channel for program change and CC MSB and LSB messages; in hexadecimal format. • “cP.0” .. “cP.F” 3. Assignment of Pedal A. • “A.no” – not assigned • “A.tt” – assigned to tempo control (change BPM) • “A. 0”.. “A.7F” – assigned to specific CC message. The controller is shown after dot in hexadecimal format. 4. Transformation type for values from Pedal A. Valid only when Pedal A is assigned to CC message. • “At.-” – no transformation • “At.L” – logarithmic transformation • “At.E” – exponential transformation • “At.G” – Gaussian transformation (a.k.a ‘S’-curve) 5. MIDI channel for CC messages, emitted by pedal A: • “Ac.0” .. “Ac.F” 6. Reset calibration of Pedal A *
www.kae-systems.com
-4-
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
• “Ar.n” - No • “Ar.Y” – Yes 7. Assignment of Pedal B. • “b.no” – not assigned • “b.tt” – assigned to tempo control (change BPM) • “b. 0”.. “b.7F” – assigned to specific CC message. The controller is shown after dot in hexadecimal format. 8. Transformation type for values from Pedal B: • “bt.-” – no transformation • “bt.L” – logarithmic transformation • “bt.E” – exponential transformation • “bt.G” – Gaussian transformation (a.k.a ‘S’-curve) 9. MIDI channel for CC messages, emitted by pedal B. The value is shown after dot. In hexadecimal format. • “bc.0” .. “bc.F”. 10. Reset calibration of Pedal B * • ”br.n” - No • “br.Y” - Yes * Reset a pedal’s calibration when you’re changing the manufacturer or the model of the pedal.
Settings > Default settings
-
MIDI Ant ships with following default settings: Operating mode = ‘Programs’, sub-mode = ‘Tap-Tempo’ 64 program items Linear representation of programs, starting from 1. Linear program mapping: N.0 -> PC#0, N.1 -> PC#1 and so on. No custom messages defined Both expression pedals not assigned. Both expression pedals not calibrated.
Technical parameters Parameter Overall dimensions Net weight
Supply voltage (DC) Current consumption
www.kae-systems.com
Value Mechanical 146 х 83 х 57 416 Electrical Min Typ 6 9 Min Typ
-5-
Unit mm grams Max 12 Max 40
V mA
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
Supplying phantom power via ‘MIDI Out’ socket
Front view of the MIDI Out socket. Ground pins (blue) are connected internally.
MIDI implementation chart Message type
Can transmit
Note off (8x)
Yes
Note on (9x)
Yes
Polyphonic key pressure (Ax)
Yes
Control change (Bx)
Yes
Note
0 = Bank select LSB 32 = Bank select MSB
Program change (Cx)
Yes
Channel pressure (Dx)
Yes
Pitch bend (Ex)
Yes
MIDI timing code (F1)
Yes
Song position pointer (F2)
Yes
Song select (F3)
Yes
Tune request (F6)
Yes
Timing clock (F8)
Yes
Start sequence (FA)
Yes
Continue sequence (FB)
Yes
Stop sequence (FC)
Yes
Active sensing (FE)
Yes
System reset (FF)
Yes
www.kae-systems.com
-6-
Sent only in ‘Tap/Tempo’ mode
MIDI Ant user’s manual v1.0
