New Firmware v3.1 for Slim Phatty, LP Stage and Tribute

[joe_moog]

The short answer is that this is all very interesting stuff and I plan to look into it more closely.
For the v3.1 official release, I am going to settle for a simple note-stealing mode where if you run out of notes, the most-recent note gets stolen to play any additional notes. This covers the case where you are playing fast and happen to overlap a couple notes. You will always hear any new note you play at the expense of the immediate prior note, and if you have extra voices you can hold tonic notes and they will not be stolen. It's the happiest compromise I've found so far.

Cool, Amos. Yeah, I think this sounds like a good compromise. I'm glad to see the poly capabilities being fleshed out, though. Until then, I suppose I'll just fiddle with the individual patches I intend on playing in poly so that they sound more natural.

Final Q: Will the final release address the issue where a voice will "defect" to another's slot in the round-robin? By this I mean that if I have three Phattys going, I will suddenly get a "hole" where one of the voices had been, but is no longer sounding a note. If you fiddle with the LFO speed and depth on the other voices, you can hear that the AWOL note is actually being played in unison with one of the other voices. When you slow the LFO down enough, you can hear the two distinct sweeps when holding only one key down... This happens extremely frequently (like every 2 or 3 minutes of playing for me... ) and I would be happy to document it if you'd like.

Thanks!

[jeepo]

Thanks for the update Amos!

When I first tried installing this on for a pc the fist step for the usb never worked. The program said the information was sent, but the phatty never indicated that the usb was upgraded. I then tried using a mac and now everything is working great. I really like the leggato glide, it's way more useful than the normal glide function.

[Amos]

Will the final release address the issue where a voice will "defect" to another's slot in the round-robin? By this I mean that if I have three Phattys going, I will suddenly get a "hole" where one of the voices had been, but is no longer sounding a note.

YES! This drove me nuts. It's fixed now in most cases... last thing is to track down a case where it can still do that in poly arpeggiator mode. For normal playing it seems to be solid now.

In the meanwhile, you can always reset the poly note order by doing an ALL NOTES OFF, or going to MIDI setup and adjusting the Poly "X of Y" number... (or by sending any MIDI CC # 123 or above).

[cliffman]

Amos, I am upgrading a LP Stage II from v2.21S to (hopefully) the latest build #660 -
Do I have to uprev to the 3.0? version that is with the phatty loader, or do I just install the
bootloader and the upgrade directly to #660 in the second step?

thanks

[Amos]

Once the bootloader is on there, you can load any version hex code you like.

Here, in fact, is a new version, 662

NOTE: This is an interim update, I know that the arpeggiator in Poly mode is still a bit buggy. Seems to work fine in Mono mode, so if you have only one Phatty this version should be fine. Really working on the poly stuff at the moment.

NEW FEATURE: MIDI HOLD function using a pedal plugged into the Gate Input jack on the Phatty.
You can use this as a regular CV Gate, and/or you can generate MIDI CC 64 (hold) on/off messages and sustain the MIDI notes generated by the LP keyboard. This is super fun, especially in poly modes. Look for GATE IN: (CV, CV/HOLD, HOLD) on the MIDI SETUP menu.

Folks with LP and Slim: Please test poly playing. It should be much better now. If you encounter bugs, please let me know about them. Thanks!

OK, the links:

OS 3.1 build 662 for TRIBUTE EDITION
OS 3.1 build 662 for STAGE/STAGE II EDITIONS
OS 3.1 build 662 for SLIM PHATTY


(best way to use the arpeggiator in Poly mode is now as follows:
- set Poly 1 of x, 2 of x, etc.
- on LP keyboard, Arp Setup: SEND MIDI: ARP
- on SP/ other LP (not the one sending the arp MIDI notes) turn arp OFF and just play as regular poly voices using the arp MIDI from the keyboard. Seems to work great. Only problem is the arp On/OFF control turning on the arp on the Slims... I have been un/replugging MIDI when turning on the arp so as not to have this problem, or turning off arp manually on the SP... not ideal tho)

[tagirov]

Amos, I am upgrading a LP Stage II from v2.21S to (hopefully) the latest build #660 -
Do I have to uprev to the 3.0? version that is with the phatty loader, or do I just install the
bootloader and the upgrade directly to #660 in the second step?

thanks

You can upgrade boot loader an then upload the latest hex file with PhattyLoader app.
Everything works fine.
In my case I had to set 500 ms timing and 128 bytes packet size to upload OS without any errors.

[geoscience]

Amos,

I have the Stage / Slim setup and I have loaded up the newest build 662 for both. Seems like it takes a bit more effort for it to play duo-phonic than before ( build 660). Like I have to hit the keys harder and a few more times before polyphony kicks in. I also had some notes hang which I didn't have before.

-Geoscience

[tagirov]

After upgrade to 662:
I had some notes hang, than checked the MIDI Setup menu option Gate In and set it to HOLD.
Now it works fine.

The only thing i didn't check is Tuning Scales.
I've uploaded some scales to my LPSEII using SlimPhatty's editor from Moog website, but it seems when I change the scale in the menu, nothing changes.

[Amos]

about the tuning scales:

first, some of them are very subtle, almost impossible to hear the difference with only one note at a time. The different tunings are most obvious when you can hear the interval between two notes played together. From the tunings in the PhattyTuner app, Ceylon and Husseini are pretty obvious.

second, I made some more tuning scales for the Phatty, here:
http://seamslikereality.com/moog/Phatty_Tunings.zip

You can load them into PhattyTuner and send them to your synth.

To change scales on multiple Phatty synths at the same time, you must go to Advanced Preset: Tuning Scale and adjust the number there. This is the "per preset" tuning scale parameter, and like all preset parameters, it has a MIDI CC. So, when you change this on one unit, it will send the corresponding MIDI CC to all other units and they will update to the selected scale.

Arp clock divisions is another parameter which has both "global" and "per preset" settings. Here also, if you are using multiple Phatty synths chained together via MIDI, if you want to change Arp clock divisions on all units, do so by adjusting the Advanced Preset parameter.

It's not perfect, but there was already the convention that preset parameters have MIDI CC assignments and most global settings do not... plus, there are only so many MIDI CCs available...

[tagirov]

Yes, I've just tried different tuning scales, sounds unusual, interesting.
Thanx

[geoscience]

Amos,

I have the Stage / Slim setup and I have loaded up the newest build 662 for both. Seems like it takes a bit more effort for it to play duo-phonic than before ( build 660). Like I have to hit the keys harder and a few more times before polyphony kicks in. I also had some notes hang which I didn't have before.

-Geoscience

Amos, I have reverted to build 660 to not experience what I mentioned above. If I upgrade to 662 again and change the Gate settings to HOLD will this work for my problem as well? Or is there something else going on?

[kamilof]

WOW ! With 662 OS the POLYPHONY (slim + stage) is woking so much better! Awesome work Amos!

[christopher1966]

WOW ! With 662 OS the POLYPHONY (slim + stage) is woking so much better! Awesome work Amos!

can we do it with Voyager and LP II?
thanks

[dave500]

662 OS hangs up keys on my Tribute

[kamilof]

662 OS hangs up keys on my Tribute

As noted by tagirog, to fix hanging notes go to MIDI Setup -> Gate In ->set to HOLD.
It fixed hanging notes when I was playing on POLY mode...