MASTERMIND LT FIRMWARE 4.1.3 / EDITOR 4.1.0

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rjmmusic

rjmmusic

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At long last, here's the 4.1 firmware! Sorry, it took so long, the Axe-Fx III support took much longer than expected to stabilize.

FEATURES
  • Axe-Fx III support!!!
    • Full support for Axe-Fx III including presets, scenes, channels, looper, tuner and more.
    • Requires Axe-Fx III firmware 1.18 or later
    • Requires two MIDI cables between Mastermind and Axe-Fx, or use a phantom power box (part number PPA-DIN7F-2) to combine the Axe-Fx's two MIDI connections and power connection into a single 7-pin MIDI connection to the Mastermind.
    • "PC Messages" section of the Presets tab allows you to specify both preset and scene, if desired
    • Each preset in the Mastermind can keep track of the names of the scenes that are part of the preset.
    • New "Poll State" option in Devices allows the Mastermind to follow and reflect changes made from the Axe-Fx front panel or Axe-Edit
    • The "Get Preset Names" feature allows you to get preset names and optionally scene names from the Axe-Fx III.
    • There is also a "Create Songs" option in "Get Preset Names" that will create Mastermind songs out of Axe-Fx presets, and Mastermind presets out of Axe-Fx III scenes. This is useful if you're controlling other devices in addition to the Axe-Fx - you can use Mastermind presets to select presets on other devices as you select scenes on the Axe-Fx.
  • New button options for hold functions: "IA Mode Only" makes the hold function only work when IA mode is active. It will also only be displayed when IA Mode is active. "Show Name" allows to you turn on or off the display of the hold function's name in the button display.
  • Preliminary support for volume pedals (log taper correction) "Taper X" and "Taper Y" parameters are in the expression pedal global parameters.
  • Support for Ramble FX Kismet pedal
  • Support for Strymon Riverside and Sunset pedals
  • Support for Chase Bliss Condor and Thermae pedals
  • Editor now has "Show Tool Tips" option so you can turn them off when they start annoying you
FIXES IN 4.1.1:
  • Fixed Preset 2nd Press "Prev" option to highlight correct preset
  • Fixed Axe-Fx III support, no longer causes problems with IA buttons that send PCs and other non-CC messages
  • Fixed scene buttons on Axe-Fx III when Poll State on and Ignore Incoming PC on
FIXES IN 4.1.2:
  • Fixes display problems when using Auto Names
  • Fixes song selection via MIDI bank messages
  • Fixes some setup menu options that were showing up incorrectly
FIXES IN 4.1.3:
  • Fix a crash involving tempo flashing on an external switch
  • Fix some odd tuner and/or tempo behavior on startup
NOTES / KNOWN ISSUES
  • If your Mastermind presets are selecting both presets and scenes on the Axe-Fx (such as when using Get Preset Names / Create Songs), you will see it switch to scene 1, then to the desired scene every time you move to a new Axe-Fx preset. This is something I'm trying to work on with Fractal.
TO UPDATE FIRMWARE:

PLEASE DON'T DO A MAJOR FIRMWARE UPDATE RIGHT BEFORE YOUR BIG GIG!

- First, back up your settings to a flash drive or computer! If you go back to 4.0 or earlier, your Mastermind will factory reset.
- Download and unzip the firmware file.
- Copy the file to a USB flash drive, and remove any other .rjf files from the flash drive.
- Eject the drive from your computer.
- Power on the Mastermind while holding the 1 and 3 buttons.
- Keep holding until you see "Mastermind Bootloader" appear on the screen.
- Now plug the flash drive into your Mastermind. The update should begin and will take a few minutes to complete.

Firmware: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/PBC/MM413.zip

Mac Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/PBC/MastermindEditor-4.1.0.dmg
PC Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/PBC/MastermindEditor-4.1.0.zip

Manual: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/MMLT/Mastermind LT Manual-4.1.pdf

Editor Manual: http://www.rjmmusic.com/wiki
 
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Updated the firmware last night and got it talking with my Axe III! I have my second page set as IAs for drive1, delay1, delay2, reverb2, plex delay, and tap tempo. Only issues I’ve found is that the tempo isn’t flashing, despite being selected in the editor, and I can’t add a hold function on the tap tempo button to access the tuner (although I suspect this is user error, which I will check tonight or tomorrow night), but even when selecting the tuner on the Axe, the LT’s display did not show the tuner. All other buttons function as I expected, showing the status of my effects blocks when on that page. It can replace my Ground Control Pro quite easily now for my (simple) use.
 
Occam's razor would suggest that enabling the send realtime sysex would fix both of my problems (after figuring out how to adapt the hold button). Tap Tempo works great! I still can't get the tuner to display on the LT's screen, whether activating it from the LT or the Axe's front panel. The LT does activate the tuner on the Axe, and it displays normally there, and the LT updates which IA buttons should be active per scene when switched from the Axe's front panel (meaning the return MIDI line is connected and functioning as expected). Is there some secret setting to enable the LT to receive the tuner data?
 
The tuner button needs 2 actions:

Axe-Fx III / CC Toggle Tuner off:0 on:127
System / Tuner

The first one turns on the tuner on the Axe-Fx, the second one turns on the tuner display on the LT.
 
Fantastic! It’s all working now!

Are there any specific functions you would like checked out by users? My uses are pretty simple, but I’m more than happy to guinea pig other parts.
 
Glad to hear it's working! I pretty much ran through all of the Axe-Fx III stuff in great detail (it's practically all I've done for the past 2 months), but I just wanted to make sure that nothing else broke in the process. Just using it like you normally would is fine - make sure it's all working like it was pre-4.1
 
The beta has gone really well, so I'm promoting it to 4.1.0. The only change is that I added Chase Bliss Condor and Thermae to device support.
 
Hi Ron, glad to read this new firmware now allows to manage log taper expression pedals :)
I'll plan an update before the next rehearsal and will let you know how it comes out with my trusty old EB pedal.
 
Ron, I did the upgrade to 4.1.1 and tried to adjust the "X" and "Y" parameters for my EB Log pedal (VP Jr) following your guideline in the manual, but I didn't find those to have a significant effect on the pedal taper; still feels like most of it is happening at the very end.

Could you please explain more into details what those "X" and "Y" parameters are doing? I find it difficult to understand what's happening when you change those, as I can't hear significant effect in the recommended intervals.

Thanks
 
Each audio taper potentiometer has two zones in its travel, one where the resistance increases more gradually, and one where the resistance increases much more dramatically. There literally is more change at one end of the pedal's travel. This works fine for volume pedals, because that's how our ears work - volume changes need to be exponential.

The attached chart I found shows the taper of different pots in Ernie Ball volume pedals. This shows what I'm talking about - look at the red, green and blue lines, they have a shallow slope until about 60% to 80% way to the right, then they start going up more dramatically. This point where they change from shallow to steep is the point that you specify to the LT. (Ignore the orange and yellow lines, pedals may have worked like that in the past, but none I know of work like that now).

For example, for the red curve, the point is about 65% across the X (left to right) axis, and it's about 19% up the Y (bottom to top) axis.

If the numbers don't seem to be doing anything for you, make sure your cable is wired correctly, per the LT manual. If you have reversed the two leads that connect to the volume pedal, you'll definitely have a problem - it'll kinda work, but the response will be incorrect and the taper compensation will not be able to correct for it.

ernie-ball-volume-curves.jpg
 
Thanks Ron for your illustrated answer.
I'll check the polarity of my wiring, forgot to verify that (I just re-used my cabling as I've been using on my old Axess FX1).

Do I understand correctly that your "X" and "Y" parameters are meant to specify "where" (the coordinates) the inflection point is in the pot taper curve?
If yes, then could you explain a little more into details how the Mastermind is using those 2 parameters to adapt the pot value? I would guess there is some kind of formula / transfer function using those 2 parameters in order to make the curve as linear as possible?
I'm asking to make sure I understand how adjusting the X & Y parameters + or - should affect the final perceived result, and what should be expected if the X & Y values are "wrong" or too much on one "side" VS the actual real taper curve (and to make sure the 0 and 100% values are unaffected whatever the X & Y values).

Being curious, wasn't doing a "simple" Log type function whatever the actual pot simpler and as effective on average?
(the FX1 only has Lin/Log settings without more tweaking and works great).
 
Ron, I've just checked the polarity of the cabling, I have the Tip of the TRS cabled to the Input Tip of the EB VP Jr, so that looks right per your cabling instruction in the manual.

Edit: I've just done another test, this time with the LT commanding my Switchblade GL; I assigned the Exp pedal of the LT to one of the 2 continuous controller of the GL, updated the X & Y parameter to the 65/20 values you suggested: BINGO it looks to work fine this time, with a nice linear behavior.
I did say "looks" as the GL has the nice feature to display the real time value of the CC, which enables to easily "see" how the pedal taper behaves as seen from the Switchblade.
The difference is clear between X&Y=0, and after the adjustment.

Looks like everything is fine I must have done something wrong when I did the initial test :)

I would please still be interested in the technical details behind per my previous post Ron if you have the time, especially to confirm that the Min and Max values are not affected whatever the X & Y values set.

Thanks!
 
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The LT just scales the pot value so that the resultant line is flat (slope=1, a straight line from 0 to 100%). So, it applies a multiplier to the point's Y value based on where it is on the curve to raise that point up to the 0 to 100 line. Min and max values are never affected, it always assumes that the first region of the curve is from (0,0) to (X,Y) and the second region is from (X,Y) to (100,100). As long as the pedal is calibrated, you should always get the full range of values.

I used this method because it best matches how pots work. A typical audio pot has only an approximation of a log curve, with two different regions of linear resistance. When you buy a pot, its data sheet will specify the curve with a similar graph. And, as you can see from the diagram, there are many different curves. This was the best way to compensate for all pedals, even if it's a bit complicated for the user. I'm hoping we can come up with recommended numbers for different volume pedals so that we can provide them to users.
 
Billy said:
If we havent experienced any of the errors listed in the release notes, is there still a reason to do the update?
Click to expand...

Not really, no. It was specifically fixing those few issues, no new features were added.
 
rjmmusic said:
4.1.3 is now available, fixed a couple of bugs, including one crash.
Click to expand...
Hi Ron,

I see there is a "firmware update..." submenu in the "Transfer" menu of the Mastermind Editor 4.1.0, which is great because updating via a USB key forces me to take my LT out of the board (in my setup, it is too tight to plug the USB key if I leave the LT on the board). Anyway, great feature, but I couldn't make it work, and get "starting bootloader", then "Time out waiting for device". Is it a bug? Or maybe this function is not yet implemented in the LT firmware? Thanks a lot!
 
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