›

LXR Mainboard As Standalone Drum Synth?

RowanRowan
edited December 2014 in Technical details and features
Hi All,

This is my first post here... Happy New Year!

I'm very close to buying a LXR Kit and it dawned on me last night that the LXR/Sonic Potions Main board should make a pretty fine/cheap standalone drum synth as most of the necessary electronics are on it, not the front panel PCB. 

What I have in mind is integrating the LXR Main board into a MIDIBox SEQ V4 (http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq.html), initially have the two talking to each other via MIDI but I think with firmware enhancements on both devices it should be possible to have the LXR integrated directly into the MB SEQ V4 firmware.

@ Juilan, I'm aware that you have experience with the MIDIbox platform. Is there any reason why this shouldn't be possible?



Comments

  • julianjulian
    No reason I can think of why it should not work.
    In the end the frontpanel of the LXR works just like a midi controller for the mainboard.
    The prototcol used is a little bit different but is using UART as well. (since not all functions are accessible via MIDI, but that is sequencer stuff for the most parts)

    sound engine and midi handling is only running on the mainboard.
  • windspiritwindspirit
    Eurorack module anyone?
  • julianjulian
    give me a good interface idea...
    I've been thinking about this but found no acceptable solution so far.
    If I only want to implement the synth engine I still need hands on control.

    A eurorack module with just 4 pots + encoder is no fun imho.
    A single voice is no fun as well.
    More than 1 voice need either more knobs (nogo since we already have not enough) or encoders with LED rings since each knob controls each voice.

    I think a slightly reduced version could be made around 32HP with some kind of 1 knob per function interface. But then the panel could only control 1 voice and with LED rings it gets horrible expensive.
  • windspiritwindspirit
    What about something like 4 voices with one knob ver function?  You wouldn't need the internal LFOs anymore if you had CV inputs for several functions.
  • RowanRowan
    No reason I can think of why it should not work.
    In the end the frontpanel of the LXR works just like a midi controller for the mainboard.
    The prototcol used is a little bit different but is using UART as well. (since not all functions are accessible via MIDI, but that is sequencer stuff for the most parts)

    sound engine and midi handling is only running on the mainboard.



    Ok, so this idea is worth exploring further.

    Is there any documentation for the communication protocol used between the panel and mainboard?
  • djversus01djversus01
    edited February 2015
    No reason I can think of why it should not work.
    In the end the frontpanel of the LXR works just like a midi controller for the mainboard.
    The prototcol used is a little bit different but is using UART as well. (since not all functions are accessible via MIDI, but that is sequencer stuff for the most parts)

    sound engine and midi handling is only running on the mainboard.



    Ok, so this idea is worth exploring further.

    Is there any documentation for the communication protocol used between the panel and mainboard?

    Not sure if this will help but peep the readme on the github repo. Breaks down the various parts of the firmware and whats doing what

    I'm sort of interesting in designing a custom control board as an educational project, so will be looking into this as well, but I'm still learning a bunch of stuff so will be slow going. Fun tho!
  • berniebernie
    Hello,
     
    had an lxr some time ago and liked the sound engine a lot this idea come to my mind also !!
    now as using an octatrack and would stick with only one sequencer something a la nord drum 2 sounds cool !
    someone had done something in this direction ?
    would have a look to the boards scheme but don't find it someone can point it to me ?

    thanks 









Sign In or Register to comment.