Volca FM with pajen 109rc firmware controlled by RemoteSL

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:30 pm

anyone interested in controlling Volca FM from a Novation RemoteSL?

since pajen's v109rc firmware, it receives single parameter sysex as well as patch dumps, so i finally got round to trying a TX802 mapping for the Remote, and ended up rebuilding the templates, which i'm testing for the 1st time now. this is the 1st draft, i'm going to rearrange it a bit. but i can confirm that it works (one issue to resolve though), and that it means having a bank of knobs for controlling 6op FM.
doesn't look like i can attach anything here. (zip = 8.5kb)

one weird thing, that i've sent pajen a PM about: the operator level parameters don't seem to progress in regular increments and are all over the place. apart from that, the rest is all working fine. it can also control Dexed.

don't s'pose he's released any subsequent firmware version i don't know about?

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:49 am

turns out that there was a more recent version of the pajen FM firmware:
it's called v.109RC2, and fixes the OP Level bug. apparently it also now transmits MIDI notes from the onboard keyboard if you have it modded for MIDI out.

this should now be the version to be found on Ranzee's site:

https://ranzee.com/

can confirm that OP Levels are all received correctly now - they were jumping around before, not following 0-99 range correctly.
going to solder a MIDI out and see if it can transmit the arpeggiator.

easy and fast editing with the RemoteSL (mk1, should be ok with mk2).
knocking up a revised version now, with a few extra pages presenting operators together in groups of 3, for tuning, envelopes, and keyboard response. will post link when done.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:54 am

realised the other day reading through pajen's notes on reddit that VolcaFM *also* now receives NRPN for all parameters 0-155 -meaning that these are MIDI CCs rather than sysex messages, and should be better for MIDI timing 'traffic' - as they are lower priority than essential clock and note messages, unlike sysex.

the RemoteSL is supposed to be capable of this. have to give it a try.
not sure how it will work out. the FM still doesn't receive CC# 121 Reset Controllers, don't know if that matters much in this case; Yamaha gear usually receives sysex as direct changes to preset memory in the project, with CCs received as temporary changes that are reset when the project is refreshed.

vFM also now receives Program Change messages, for Patch and for Pattern. these go in steps of ?5? with 0-63/64-127 value ranges for both.

this all gives more possibilities for mapping it up to the RemoteSL.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 5:09 am

said i'd post the current state of the templates, here it is:
RemoteSL 6op FM
https://app.box.com/s/squkql2fw8m5k6958wucppkkgdg1j78d

note that this is essentially for 6op Yamaha FM (DX7), and still includes the MIDI CCs for that, which don't exist on the VolcaFM. it is also a bit large, at 13 pages, split into 6 indiv operator pages, 2 'common' pages, and 5 more, grouping parameters together (more..) - did this to see which works best. i quite like having eg: all Coarse/Fine together, all OP Level together, seems to work quite well.

have now knocked that out in 4 versions (not in the zip) so it can be used on 4 midi channels; it's only one digit to change for the MIDI channel; doesn't take long to set up for any other channel. - did this because there's a plan to have a dual channel setup, to address 2 volcaFMs simultaneously, which could be good for making layered patches.

btw this current mapping will work with Dexed VST plugin.

nb: obviously not *ideal* but once you get used to navigating the template series, it's quite liberating not to have to delve in the parameter menu.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:08 am

hammering same theme again - considering further extension to this, specifically for VolcaFM, with the MIDI CCs - #40 - #50, as per original Korg spec', and more specifically for the pajen v109RC2 firmware, with the new MIDI CCs added:

* CC 1 : (Mod wheel) assignable via CC 91, defaults to Pitch Mod Depth
* CC 85: Chorus on/off. value <64>= 64 on.
* CC 86: Chorus stereo width, 64 is default
* CC 87: Chorus speed, 64 is default
* CC 88: Load patch, value 0-4: patch 1, 5-8: patch 2 etc up to 127
* CC 89: Load pattern, value 0-8: pattern 1, 9-16: pattern 2 etc up to 127
* CC 90: Tempo divisor, value 0-31: 1/1, 32-63: 1/2, 64-95: 1/4, 96-127: 1/8 (!)
* CC 91: Mod wheel mapping: decides what MIDI CC mod wheel should map to. Example: value 42 sent on CC 91 -> Mod wheel now controls Modulator Attack

it's starting to get quite big. adding some of these usefully means having some assigned to several buttons eg: arp Off, arp Up, arp Down, -or buttons for each pattern or patch. whereas i'm looking for ways to condense it instead, and make it possible to have 2 channels.
(it takes time to craft a decent RemoteSL mapping..)

not getting much/any interest in this

haha - but it's making patch programming really quick and easy. getting good stuff out of it. would be good to kick around a few ideas about layout and preferences. the RemoteSL probably isn't the ideal medium for doing something like this -but it's one of the only standalone hardware units capable of doing it, got it cheap 2nd hand, and it does the job ok, running keyboard and remote zero into a midimerge box before the volca midi input. trying to avoid a software alternative involving a computer, which would offer more flexibility, and a graphic UI.