Zynth club. .. There's just one rule in Zynth club

pac_71 · July 20, 2023, 7:47pm

Zynth Club covered both ML piano models and cheesy manga music games … I didn’t release we were on the same topic until now :>

Aethermind · July 20, 2023, 8:52pm

Oh, yes!

By the way, if you ever fancied what a patrol of civilised Daleks would sound like, should they suddenly decide to have a go at a motet by Byrd or Palestrina, you could try Harmony Assistant+Virtual Singer (that wouldn’t be out of place in a manga/anime soundtrack purview ).

I actually used it for a few years, for mock-ups of vocal ensemble rehearsals, and in this specific capacity it can be quite effective, if you manage to forget the dreadful timbre and ridiculous phrasing of the virtual cantors!

MrBroccoli · July 21, 2023, 11:24pm

Freedom for Palestrina 'm/

Aethermind · July 22, 2023, 7:30am

pac_71 · August 13, 2023, 6:56pm

Tuesday 15 Aug 19:00UTC ? Australia v England World Cup edition of Zynthian Club ;>

tunagenes · August 13, 2023, 10:55pm

Sounds good to me.

pac_71 · August 15, 2023, 9:00am

Quorum met. Cya there.

riban · August 16, 2023, 8:41am

A lovely night talking with friends in three nations / continents. A bit too much politics but let’s allow it to slide this time…

We chatted about:

RISC-V5 and how quickly it is progressing and needs to progress to catch up with ARM.
There is an audio DSP on the VisionFive 2 board - can this be utilised to improve performance on an audio based system like Zynia?
Will Raspberry Pi release a version 5 within the next year - we doubt it but when it arrives it is likely to be a step change which other SBCs (including those with RISC V5 processors) will need to catch up with.
Quite aside from all the politics, a politically motivated tune was composed by one of our more sarcastic members which garnered more interest than expected. Enjoy its twenty two minutes and nineteen seconds of ironic whining. (Or should that be whinging?)
Some ideas of what to do with a faulty 88-note weighted keyboard taking up space in my study included:
- A cat organ
- An Internet radio tuner
- Dexed
- Fluidsynth
- setBfree
- Something that a Pi 1 might muster - not much…
- Some rather daft ideas that soon fell out of my head
- Feel free to contribute - it does have a keyboard matrix scanner to MIDI interface and a few buttons are connected to that so a simple button / LED interface may be implemented - or maybe I need to remove that panel and put something else in its place but… the key action isn’t great and I don’t want to spend any more money on it so it needs to attract interest from someone at zero (extra) cost to me.
Web assembly, huh! What is it good for? Is it just another attempt at rich web content / application and is it doomed to succeed as well as its predecessors? Well, you can play at driving a brum brum apparently.
ASM Hydrasynth was mentioned but I can’t remember why so I just took a look and it is a nice looking device at about £1100.

That will do for now. Most of the other stuff we discussed was either embargoed or prohibited under the rules of Zynth Club so will remain within the minds of those present. Luckily most of us are ageing so it probably won’t remember much of last night’s discussions, at least not for another twenty years!

Now for the (soccer) football…

tunagenes · August 16, 2023, 1:21pm

One other item discussed that was not prohibited was a so-called ‘headless Zynthian’ - a DIY Zynthian would not have to have encoders directly connected to the GPIO pins of the Pi, but instead could issue MIDI messages to control the four ‘encoder functions’ of Zynthian. This is not available presently, and not expected in the next version to support V5, but expected in the version after that.

Is it available now in a ‘Test Version’?

riban · August 16, 2023, 1:47pm

The chain manager dev branch has this but I strongly advise users to avoid this branch as it is bleeding edge development that is likely to break you or something you are attached to!

jofemodo · August 16, 2023, 3:04pm

Current testing branch (and also current stable) includes an improved list of CUIAs that would allow controlling each encoder and push button of zynthian.

You can see the updated list of CUIAs in the webconf tool:

ACTION_MIDI_UNLEARN
ALL_NOTES_OFF
ALL_SOUNDS_OFF
ARROW_DOWN
ARROW_LEFT
ARROW_NEXT
ARROW_PREV
ARROW_RIGHT
ARROW_UP
AUDIO_FILE_LIST
BACK
BANK_PRESET
CHAIN_CONTROL
CHAIN_OPTIONS
CLEAN_ALL
ENTER_MIDI_LEARN
EXIT_MIDI_LEARN
EXIT_UI
HIDE_BUTTONBAR
HIDE_SIDEBAR
HIDE_TOPBAR
LAST_STATE_ACTION
LAYER_CONTROL
LAYER_OPTIONS
MENU
MIDI_LEARN_CONTROL
MIDI_LEARN_CONTROL_OPTIONS
MIDI_UNLEARN_CHAIN
MIDI_UNLEARN_CONTROL
MIDI_UNLEARN_MIXER
MIDI_UNLEARN_NODE
POWER_OFF
PRESET
PRESET_FAV
PROGRAM_CHANGE
REBOOT
RELOAD_KEY_BINDING
RELOAD_MIDI_CONFIG
RELOAD_WIRING_LAYOUT
RESTART_UI
SCREEN_ADMIN
SCREEN_ALSA_MIXER
SCREEN_ARRANGER
SCREEN_AUDIO_MIXER
SCREEN_BANK
SCREEN_CALIBRATE
SCREEN_CONTROL
SCREEN_MAIN_MENU
SCREEN_MIDI_RECORDER
SCREEN_PATTERN_EDITOR
SCREEN_PRESET
SCREEN_SNAPSHOT
SCREEN_ZS3
SCREEN_ZYNPAD
SELECT
SET_TEMPO
SHOW_BUTTONBAR
SHOW_SCREEN
SHOW_SIDEBAR
SHOW_TOPBAR
START_AUDIO_PLAY
START_AUDIO_RECORD
START_MIDI_PLAY
START_MIDI_RECORD
STOP
STOP_AUDIO_PLAY
STOP_AUDIO_RECORD
STOP_MIDI_PLAY
STOP_MIDI_RECORD
TAP_TEMPO
TEMPO
TEMPO_DOWN
TEMPO_UP
TEST_MODE
TOGGLE_ALT_MODE
TOGGLE_AUDIO_PLAY
TOGGLE_AUDIO_RECORD
TOGGLE_MIDI_LEARN
TOGGLE_MIDI_PLAY
TOGGLE_MIDI_RECORD
TOGGLE_PLAY
TOGGLE_RECORD
TOGGLE_SCREEN
V5_ZYNPOT_SWITCH
Z2_ZYNPOT_TOUCH
ZYNAPTIK_CVIN_SET_NOTE0
ZYNAPTIK_CVIN_SET_VOLTS_OCTAVE
ZYNAPTIK_CVOUT_SET_NOTE0
ZYNAPTIK_CVOUT_SET_VOLTS_OCTAVE
ZYNPOT
ZYNSWITCH

Some of these CUIAs take 1 or 2 parameters. Currently, the best documentation source code:

github.com

zynthian/zynthian-ui/blob/3ce8a5e0f22d4007a5460f61869678b5c78d6f69/zyngui/zynthian_gui.py#L1132


      
          	def init_midi_learn_zctrl(self, zctrl):
          		self.midi_learn_zctrl = zctrl
          		lib_zyncore.set_midi_learning_mode(1)
          
          
          	def refresh_midi_learn_zctrl(self):
          		self.screens['control'].refresh_midi_bind()
          		self.screens['control'].set_select_path()
          
          	# -------------------------------------------------------------------
          	# Callable UI Actions
          	# -------------------------------------------------------------------
          
          	@classmethod
          	def get_cuia_list(cls):
          		return [method[5:].upper() for method in dir(cls) if method.startswith('cuia_') is True]
          
          	def callable_ui_action(self, cuia, params=None):
          		logging.debug("CUIA '{}' => {}".format(cuia, params))
          		cuia_func = getattr(self, "cuia_" + cuia.lower(), None)
          		if callable(cuia_func):

The best!

jofemodo · August 16, 2023, 3:53pm

OK! I just updated the CUIA list in the wiki:

https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Accessing_Zynthian_from_your_computer#CUIA:_Callable_User_Interface_Actions

Regards,

tunagenes · August 16, 2023, 6:11pm

Thanks @riban and @jofemodo that answers the questions very well, both now and for future plans.

pac_71 · August 16, 2023, 8:34pm

I mentioned ASM, Arturia and Korg and most current gen synths as not being as open as older synths and missing critical documentation like sysex and preset formats to enable similar longevity experienced with the legacy synths from the early digitial age. The developer of Edisyn (a multi synth editor) is an academic (Sean Luke) who published a ~~self declared rant~~ paper on weird and wonderful (not) issues he has encountered with sysex.

ASM Hydrasynth comes in a few flavours in a mini 37 key Explorer and Desktop both with poly aftertouch controls and a bigger bi timbral Deluxe version. I think you can chain the normal versions together to make your own bi timbral frankensynth.

The only thing I have to say about the soccer game last night … Go Spain!

PSA: There is a King of Canada and it is not Justin.

Aethermind · August 17, 2023, 12:17am

That would make for a quite attractive revamped studio relic!

Aethermind · August 17, 2023, 12:31am

True: I can personally confirm that two normal-sized Hydras deliver 8+8 bitimbral voices (or 16 monotimbral voices - which happens to be often required by some complex patches) when chained together, much better if controlled by the specific polyAT keyboard of the keyboard version, hooked to its desktop sibling.

(Mind that the setting of the chaining feature, called Overflow, requires a bit of menu diving).

pac_71 · August 17, 2023, 1:21am

I came across this post of a guy doing a soundtrack for a sci-fi movie featuring the Hydrasynth. His other work and the movie producers’ previous work. Amazing what they produce on YouTube these days. Better than a lot of crap I have seen coming from the streaming services this year.

I think there definitely is such a thing as bad content is worse than no content.

Definitely made me appreciate the subtleties of good writing, the right level of exposition and pace, acting, cinematography and score! I guess everything that makes a movie not just good but great :>

pac_71 · September 1, 2023, 7:40pm

Must be about time for a Zynth Club catchup. What suits? Starting bid Tue 5 Sept 2023. 19:00 UTC ?

MrBroccoli · September 5, 2023, 6:15pm

pac_71 · September 5, 2023, 6:51pm

It appears jitsi have changed their requirements and now need a login. Authentication on meet.jit.si - Jitsi

I can’t see how to register … gone from frictionless to WALL!

I guess we can pick another community server. Any thoughts? Community-run instances | Jitsi Meet