[jBamParticipant]

Ah cool, nice one Keith… glad at least someone read that / understood it 🙂 Bome is such a great tool, hey… Bomebox is next level for live stuff.

I’m slowly working through daw integration ideas for the qu16… fun to come up with ideas and work them out. I have a few toggle layers in mind…

I’ll share useful new findings and scripts here on the forums at some point, and one day… that qu16 midi sequencer will live too lol 😆

[jBamParticipant]

Well – this is working REALLY nicely now :)… Better than I hoped to be honest.

I have used BOME MT to translate the Width knobs track up and down with fine control (+/-1) for general knob turns; and then faster control movements (+/-4) for faster knob turns… and it works really well 🙂

I’ll spell out the basics in case someone stumbles on this thread. I think it’s nice to find forum threads somewhat resolved :)…

So:

At the QU end, width knobs STOP low at 00 (or 05 – depending on the knob) and high at 7F, so to fake a continuous controller you need to (or I chose to):

1) Grab the QU value and send it back to the QU straight away at a fixed value… I chose 25 (for the LF and HF Width… the LM and HM are different); which is 19 HEX. The width on the QU is ALWAYS now stuck at this value on the actual unit.
2) Now when I turn a knob, it’s either higher than 25 or lower than 25… So i can work out if it’s up or down.
3) I then code in a command to tell BOME to send an ACTUAL value out…

Be aware with step 1 – anyone else diving in with bome needs to use the values that the QU unit actually uses – they jump values, so e.g. the next higher number from 25 is actually 30 (not 26) for width knobs; and the next lowest is actually 20 (not 24).

The code below is what I settled on, where pp is the value recieved from the QU knob movement, and hb is the actual value it sends to Cubase…

For Ch1 LF width:

Incoming:
B0 63 20
B0 62 03
B0 06 pp
B0 26 07

Rules:

// I set the hb value here that gets sent to cubase)

// increments (fine then coarse):
if pp==30 then hb=hb+1
if pp>=36 then hb=hb+4

// decrements (fine then coarse):
if pp==20 then hb=hb-1
if pp<=15 then hb=hb-4

//Limits:
if hb<=0 then hb=0
if hb>=127 then hb=127

//rr value to send back to QU (25)
rr=25

Outgoing: (I reset the controller to value 25)

B0 63 20
B0 62 03
B0 06 rr
B0 26 07

There’s a few other translators involved (one to recieve DAW–>QU data so on screen values set the value of hb correctly; and a spearate one that simply send the hb value to Cubase).

For the DAW-QU recieve data step, there’s also some other quirks to watch out for, at least with cubase… cubase seems to be sending back wierd NRPN messages, which also vary the data LSB, even though the QU doesn’t… so I had to set that as a local variable (unused) for BOME to actually recieve the data MSB:

Incoming:
B0 63 20
B0 62 03
B0 06 pp
B0 26 rr

(pp is the value; but set “rr” so BOME ignores the nonesense data LSB coming in from cubase…)

Outgoing:
hb=pp

(so we can get the pinged value back from cubase which stops parameter jumps in DAW)

[jBamParticipant]

Cool – that’s what I suspected. Really appreciate the reply though :)…

I love the QU16 – I’m a fan of working around “limitations” (or other intentions) rather than waiting for a specific-to-my-needs update (which I think would be an unfair expectation 😉 )… I’m diving into Bome MT at the moment – “should” be able to program in a workaround that registers a value change, and increments / decrements by 1 depending on which way a knob is turned. The “width” is a bit trickier as it stops at 00 and 7F, but I have an idea of how to fake the knob to think it’s still turning… so I should hopefully be fine to get them all up and running at full resolution!

If you could see some of the things I’ve been able to do with this unit in BOME, you might change your mind on midi implementation though (or like, want to give it a try yourself that is lol)…

e.g. I have an insane performance mixer using the custom layer in midi mode where each fader acts like a mod wheel for 16 different tracks on the QU… each modwheel style fader controls (up to) 16 internal and external parameters. So e.g. I might raise the ch 1 fader and it will simultaneously increase the internal HP filter cutoff, an FX send, another FX send and an external synthesier cutoff in one easy move. If I want to adjust how much moving the ch1 fader affects a given parameter, I can access this amount for each of the 16 parameters on any given channel using the PAFL button as a toggle (hit toggle for ch1; boom the faders snap to the 16 mod amounts for that channel for programming what the master fader does; hit it again, it’s back on the 16 master faders in performance mode). I have it set up for 8 mod destinations (not 16) – in pafl / programming mode I use one fader as an start value and another as an end value amount so the master fader isn’t always telling a parameter to start at zero… I can also hit Sel and it flips the selected indivdual fader to the actual QU ch volume for mixing. Hmm.. to be honest… after typing that out… lol… that all just sounds complicated nonsense…haha… But take my word for it – it’s very awesome for electronic music gigging, and easy peasy to use… 🙂

I also have a 32 step 16 track midi sequencer on the go, using only the QU (and a bome box)… there’s a bit to go on this one, but it’s looking good so far, with 4 rows of automated faders per ch for note, velocity and 2 x CC sequencing (the 4 layers are toggled via the soft keys). I’ve pasued this as Bome has an update pending which enables me to save values (otherwise each sequence is lost on power down)… some updates are worth waiting for 🙂

>>>

Anyway, back on topic – if I solve the fader increment issue in bome, I’ll post here for anyone else who sees this post.

[jBamParticipant]

ACtually – as a secondary note to the comment above, it looks like many knobs send non-sequential values… again, I assume it’s because of the internal resolution they need to send… but it would be ideal if they sent sequentially.

Most other knobs seem to send 00-02 (skipping 01). 00-01-02 would be ideal.

Thanks for any input – hopefully I’m missing something

[jBamParticipant]

Hi Alex – great … thanks for the confirmation and info there… It seems I’ll need to work with that whole data dump arrangement… which should be fine actually… and I can probably use that for a few extra tricks to be honest!! :)…

[jBamParticipant]

I do appreciate the discussion, but I’m still not sure how that’s too different from the current workflow when selecting an aux send on the mix layer where various faders are not active as sends in that layer (e.g. “FX1 Send” is not an active fader for FX2 send as FX1 send cannot also send to FX2; it’s the FX return that can). So a static fader (i.e. one that doesn’t change) on a custom layer is the current workflow. I’d imagine the easiest / most consistent approach would be to do the same, and just leave a custom layer channel send fader at a real-world value when selecting a mix layer.

Either way, it’s just a feature suggestion that I see some very good uses for (for me, and probably others in the broader market), and I find it a little odd/limiting that the custom layer is limited to the extremely-easy-to-access faders. I get that the QU16 is a church/small-installation hit, with excellent sales; but there’s a (big) side market in electronic music that’s screaming out for something like what I describe (just a little less “band; conference; church”; and a little more “do what you want with this diverse feature set”… far from open source, but still with a do-what-you-want-how-you-want approach). The only thing missing to me that would allow the Qu16(24/32) to be that unit is the depth of accessibility on the custom layer… and maybe some more midi input/accessiblity (e.g. ultimate would be to control FX parameters via faders on custom layer too… I won’t go too far down that discussion though haha)… In honesty, hey, I think you’ve solved all of that for me with the BomeBox suggestion… 🙂 *cudos*

I’m not one to ask for features usually – but the current situation seems to be only a tiny step away from allowing at least the “any fader on a custom layer” aspect…. and, midi… if more detailed midi messaging is not possible within the current unit (e.g. hardware limitations), then I have no doubt that if they made a QU_V2 for a comparable ball-park price with more detailed midi mapping + automated faders (e.g. with midi feedback to current values) and connectivity, it would be on every electronic producers wish list hey… I know many producers who wouldn’t think twice before buying that unit, and they’re just local mates of mine… I have a feeling that production forums around the web would explode if that feature set was available ;)… Heck, even the church crew would be happy with the QU series custom layer also controlling lighting (via Midi) wouldn’t they?

All of that said, I’m very used to workarounds, so I’m just trying to find a BomeBox in Australia that won’t take months to ship – thanks again for the tip! I contacted Bome, and they’ve confirmed that it can do all the weird and wonderful things I’d hoped (well beyond the scope of my initial intent in this thread), so that’s very fun.

Actually, as a closing thought: A&H… any thoughts of teaming up with Bome for a QU_V2 ;)… then everybody wins :)…

[jBamParticipant]

holy heck… yes, bome box suggests direct support to qu devices!

Well, despite my thoughts on how this would be great to build into the unit, it seems I’m probably able to get what I want(!), so that’s rad…

Thanks for the tip 🙂

[jBamParticipant]

Hmmm… not sure that I fully agree with the workflow concept point. The custom layer seems to be currently geared to fixed installation users only, which seems slightly like a missed opportunity (custom layer “could” be really handy to use as I mention too). The way I see it, giving access to custom layout for only those controls which are available on two standard layers is a slight shame… it’s the “verb send on channel 2” that’s tricky to access quickly, not the 32 easy-access channels… and it would be very handy if the depth of customisation extended to “anything that can be on a fader can be assigned”.

Some other examples beyond how I would use it:

changing a lead singers reverb level during a chorus;
guitar delay during a solo;
custom layer as an easy access multi monitor mix layer; etc

Personally, I would really be aiming to change e.g. four different effects at once, so the mix/fx button swap doesnt work for me.

Bome box is a solid call though… I was thinking of midi message converters, but thought I’d need a computer connected. so this can be used alone without a computer?! Time to do some more reading, you may have just made my day 😉

would be great if a&h saw the use of what I’m talking about too though. “If you can access it on a faded, you can pop it on a custom layer”… then let users decide how they would like to config their board.

Don’t want to sound too whiny though… it’s an awesome board for what I’m wanting. That would just take it a level (“layer”) deeper…

J

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