Noob Questions

[alexbarbed]

After a few days having a LOT of fun with the Zynthian, I have a few questions which I don’t think have been asked before. Please forgive me if they have…

1. When using the button to click through the parameters menu, it always goes down. Is there a way to go up? Or make it scroll round a list? When there are a lot of parameters, it can be annoying to be at the bottom of the list and I can’t figure out how to get back to the top once it’s out of view.

2. When you have a pedalboard saved, is there a way to select which parameters appear on the screen (rather than just having all of them)?

3. ZynAddSubFX appears in the pedalboard items, but there are no presets and the GUI won’t open. Does that mean it won’t work in MOD?

4. Does anyone know if Pianoteq will install on the Zynthian? My understanding is that it won’t due to the architecture, but maybe someone else has found a way?

5. I read that any user changes will prevent automatic updates from working properly, but I can also see a separate ‘my plugins’ folder. Is that folder safe to use? And if I put my own samples (etc.) on there, will that create any problems with auto-updating?

Many thanks in advance

[jofemodo]

Hi @alexbarbed!

Thanks for your questions

1. When using the button to click through the parameters menu, it always goes down. Is there a way to go up? Or make it scroll round a list? When there are a lot of parameters, it can be annoying to be at the bottom of the list and I can’t figure out how to get back to the top once it’s out of view.

If you bold click the select switch (bold click => click > 0.3 seconds and < 2 seconds ) you can scroll the list with the select rotary. It’s in the user’s guide, but perhaps it’s not very clear:

Zynthian Users Guide - ZynthianWiki

2.) When you have a pedalboard saved, is there a way to select which parameters appear on the screen (rather than just having all of them)?

Not currently, but it’s in the TODO list

3. ZynAddSubFX appears in the pedalboard items, but there are no presets and the GUI won’t open. Does that mean it won’t work in MOD?

This is a problem with your SD image. When i ship your zynthian, the image wasn’t completely finished. Sorry.
The simpler way to solve the problem is opening your zynthian and re-burn your image with the official release.

4. Does anyone know if Pianoteq will install on the Zynthian? My understanding is that it won’t due to the architecture, but maybe someone else has found a way?

No. Pianoteq doesn’t distribute their plugins compiled for Raspberry Pi. Please, send an email to Pianoteq requesting it. If enougth people do that, perhaps they consider to release Raspberry Pi version

5. I read that any user changes will prevent automatic updates from working properly, but I can also see a separate ‘my plugins’ folder. Is that folder safe to use? And if I put my own samples (etc.) on there, will that create any problems with auto-updating?

You can add whatever you want to the “my-data” and “my-plugins” directories. This directories are excluded from updating.

Kind Regards!

[alexbarbed]

That’s all my questions answered. I’ve updated it all and everything works just as you said. Thanks!

I have one more question. I can see that a long press on 4 turns it off, but is there a way to turn it back on without unplugging it?

I’m running out of questions, I promise.

[jofemodo]

Hi @alexbarbed!
Currently there is no way of rebooting the Zynthian without unplugging and plugging again the micro-usb power connector.
There is an open topic in the forum about this subject, and some users have modified the cannonical version to overcome this limitation.
I hope to solve this problem in the next hw revision …

Kind Regards

[yogi]

Ran across these Power switch pages

Adding a Switch » Raspberry Pi Geek

It’s a relay control circuit that uses a GPIO output (and simple script) to hold Power on after booting/ and release after a software shutdown. Uses a RC time constant delay circuit to hold power for 2 min after shutdown, and can be adjusted for more or less time from the default 2 min. There is also a soft shutdown switch (GPIO in) but this function is already included in Zynthian so not really needed. Last, there is a hard shutdown (kill) switch for an unresponsive Pi but risks SD corruption.

If there isn’t a free GPIO to use, could configure one of the MCP pins as an output (?).

Will build this and report

Yogi
EDIT: After reading the WHOLE article The relay hold pin #8 is the Tx which by default is an output and idles at high. So there are no code needed to ‘set it up’. If there is no need of the soft Off switch, Zyn 4 bold, this circuit should ‘just work’ without any code

[jofemodo]

Great @yogi!
There is a open topic for this subject:

Improving Power Supply Input

The new Zynthian case is wonderful but the project is slightly disadvantaged by the poor power input method for the Raspberry Pi. In my view, micro USB connectors are not reliable enough for long-term use and are prone to slipping out. I know that many music hardware manufacturers are now using this connection type to save space, but if it can be avoided or improved upon, then this should be a goal. I have 4 possible suggestions for discussion:- add a cable clamp next to the power input conn…

Regards!

[Keeze101]

I build a soft-power on and off with a mosfet. It is described here: http://www.vanhoekelen.nl/kees/?p=652 (although Dutch, so some google translate is perhaps usefull )

[yogi]

@jofemodo the question are slightly different but if you like, feel free to move my post there. The other thread is relevant to me as I would like to combine this Pow Ctrl circuit with GPIO Pow input.

[yogi]

That’s an interesting setup much smaller than the relay circuit.

[Keeze101]

I use it on a squeezebox player and it work for some years now flawless

[jofemodo]

Ohhh! Don’t worry @yogui! I was only suggesting the other topic because is closely related and it’s desirable an integrated solution for zynthian’s power control & supply.
Please, feel free to move the discussion or continue here. Both options are valid

[yogi]

Oh very good Once I got it wired and tested will switch to the other thread.
Thank you, Yes the other topic is very useful to me!! Right now building up a 2-in1 ‘plus’ board ( simular to Another wiring), and will intergrate Pow Ctrl/GPIOin on to it also. Trying to adhere to Eurorack standards a little for the casing, so have to rethink mounting and cabling.
Yogi

[alexbarbed]

That is all very good info, thanks a lot. I am a bit inept when it comes to electricity, but have solved the problem by using an extension cable with a swtich on it. I don’t know how I didn’t think of that before.

[mheidt]

Hello,

Today I found this amazing project because I found this Steinway sound and was searching for a webfrontend over fluidsynth on a raspberry.

I have a Raspi2 and tested the soundfont with timidity. I got it working but with a terrible sound. But I used a vanilla jessy and did not tweak anything into the direction of lowlatency kernel or the like. Didn’t test fluidsynth with that soundfont. Only on a desktop mint machine. Which worked great.

Instead I tested Gorgona on the raspi. Without display and DAC. Unfortunately I learned, that this is not possible.
My TV showed the “Loading New” screen, but without knobs, the experiment is ending here.
And aplay -l doesn’t give me any hardware devices. The internal chip is disabled?
I am not able to test if Zynthian can handle this high end soundfonts.

Could anybody download the Steinway soundfont (at least the 200MB one, 33MB is low quality) and test if it can be played with a decent latency value (aka none)?

Does anybody use the Dac+ Pro version? And experienced that the sound is not as good as the standard version, if you let the card do the clocking?

Is it worth getting a Raspi3, if you own a Raspi2 already, especially as long as the 3 has this WIFI problem?

Kind regards,
Markus

[jofemodo]

Hi @mheidt!

@mheidt

I am not able to test if Zynthian can handle this high end soundfonts.

The 700MB soundfont should work, althought it will take a while to load. I recommend to split the sound font in individual instruments. Fluidsynth engine load the full soundfont file in memory and you can run out of memory, specially if you plan to use Zynthian’s multitimbric features.

FYI, Gorgona image includes the Salamander Piano soundfont in SFZ format. It’s >1 GB! You can use SFZ and GIG font with the LinuxSampler engine, that reads the samples directly from the SD card, preloading only a small part of the file and using an advanced caching system. In that way you can use a soundfont bigger than the available amount of RAM.

Linuxsampler can also load SF2 soundfonts, but currently is not implemented in zynthian. I hope to implement this very soon.[quote=“mheidt, post:14, topic:348”]
Does anybody use the Dac+ Pro version? And experienced that the sound is not as good as the standard version, if you let the card do the clocking?
[/quote]

I have a Zynthian with the DAC+pro, using the internal clock, and it works perfectly. The sound is clean and charm. It’s my favorite Zynthian Box

@mheidt

Is it worth getting a Raspi3, if you own a Raspi2 already, especially as long as the 3 has this WIFI problem?

It depends what do you want to do with your Zynthian. If you want to play with your keyboard, the RBPi2 will work perfectly. If you want to use the multitimbric capabilities, then a little bit more of CPU power could be nice.

Kind Regards!

[mheidt]

Hello Jofemodo,

I am interested in joining your club.
Could you make an offer for a bundle, that doesn’t contain the raspi
and a Dax+ Pro instead of the standard version?

Kind Regards,
Markus

[mheidt]

@alexbarbed

Does anyone know if Pianoteq will install on the Zynthian? My understanding is that it won’t due to the architecture, but maybe someone else has found a way?

A year later:

New Engine: Pianoteq

Hi Zynthianiacs, some very good news for all Piano/E-Piano-Fans: The company Modartt has developed for some years an excellent piano simulation (yes, it’s really more a simulation than a sampler - massive mathematics inside!). The best thing of all: They released their version 6 binaries not only for PC (amd64, i386) but also for Raspberry Pi (armhf) - and they also released a nice demo version of their software (try before buy)! @jofemodo, @mheidt and @C0d3man proudly present: P…