MASTERMIND PBC 3.0.1 Firmware & Editor

rjmmusic

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Here's the release version of the Mastermind PBC 3.0.1 firmware and editor. If you have the time and inclination, please give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

NEW FEATURES:
  • A frequently requested feature - auto tap! This allows you to automatically send taps to pedals with analog tap inputs, or to MIDI capable pedals that accept taps via CC, PC or note messages. It uses a macro to determine whether it uses a function switch, sends a MIDI message, etc.VIDEO HERE: Mastermind PBC 3.0 Auto Tap
  • A major reorganization of audio settings - all loops, buffers, etc. have global settings which can be overridden on a per-preset basis. There's also a global lock for each parameter that can temporarily disable the per-preset overrides.There is a new Audio page at the top level, and also an Audio tab on the Presets page. VIDEO HERE: Mastermind PBC 3.0 Audio Features
  • The Loop 7-10 screen indicators now show when the loop is parallel - two vertical lines are displayed, one on either side of the indicator.
  • Likewise, the Output B indicator adds two vertical lines when the output is inverted.
  • There is now a"D" indicator on the screen that shows whether the dry signal is being sent to the internal mixer.
  • When editing a button's hold function, you now have an option for an "On Color" and a "Both Color". The On color is displayed when the button's normal function is off and the hold function is on. The Both color is displayed when both the normal and hold functions are on. Either color can be set to "None" to prevent them from displaying.
  • You can turn on a bar graph display of the expression pedal position.
  • Groups can now have their own action list. The group needs to have "allow all buttons off" turned on. The action list is executed when switching from the "all buttons off" to "button on" state and vice-versa. One example of how this could be used is to have buttons that select presets on an effect device, and use the group actions to bypass the pedal. When any button in the group is on, the pedal's loop is turned on. When all of the buttons are turned off, the pedal's loop is turned off.
  • Some actions now allow special values. For example, the Page and Preset actions allow you to select special values of "Up", "Down" and "Previous" instead of selecting a specific preset or page number. This allows you to move up or down a page or preset. Also, the Previous setting lets you return to the previously selected page or preset. This is especially useful with pages - you can make a button that returns to the last page you were on. If you have multiple pages that can jump to the Loops page, for example, the Previous Page button will return you to whichever page you were on when you jumped to the Loops page.
  • The "Preset 2nd" parameter has a new option: Reload - this one makes the PBC reload the current preset, resetting all IAs and PC numbers to whatever was saved in the preset. This allows you to manually turn on loops, then return to the saved loop state with one button press. The "Preset" option has been renamed to "Same" - when set to "Same" a second button press on a preset keeps you on the same preset without reloading.
  • Direct Send setting for devices. Until now, the PBC would do a bunch of processing on outgoing messages - it would remove duplicate CC messages, and send CCs in numerical order. The intent was to reduce the amount of MIDI messages sent, but in some cases it caused a problem. Turning on Direct Send gets rid of all of the sorting and checking. MIDI messages are always sent in the order they're specified in action lists.
  • You can now have the PBC run a specific macro on startup.
  • The tuner now has a center frequency range of 432 to 445 Hz.
  • When editing the Preset Action list, "Off" values are no longer available to be edited - they didn't do anything anyway.
  • There is now a CC (CC75 by default) that allows you to externally select the current button page.
  • Added a setting to disable the display of tempo in the main display.
BUG FIXES:
  • Put LCD contrast setting in the PBC menu where it belongs.
  • Fixed button repeat on external switches.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the first preset to be overwritten with the global preset.
  • Fixed a bug that made the Mute function not turn off correctly if you switched presets when in Mute mode.
  • Fixed a bug that caused global buttons to not retain their state when switching to a local button page
  • Fixed a bug that caused the first Bank Down press to switch to Bank 1, even if the PBC powered up in a higher numbered bank.
NEW DEVICES SUPPORTED (these are untested!):
  • Mesa JP-2C
  • Chase Bliss pedals
UPDATE 8/30/2016 - Version 3.0.1
This update adds the following:
  • Fixes the handling of buttons with hold functions when one of the functions is disabled (for example, when the Axe-Fx or Kemper block it controls is not present in the current preset)
  • You can now specify tempos with one decimal place
  • A tempo value of "0.1" in a preset or song means "keep whatever preset we are already using". In a later release, this will be made more user friendly with a special value called "Same". A tempo value of "0.0" means no tempo - no tempo will be sent or displayed.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the expression pedal position switch from working correctly when you override the expression pedal settings in a preset.
TO UPDATE FIRMWARE:

PLEASE DON'T UPDATE TO THIS RELEASE RIGHT BEFORE YOUR BIG GIG!

- First, back up your settings to a flash drive or computer! If you go back to 2.x, your PBC 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 PBC while holding the 1 and 3 buttons.
- Keep holding until you see "PBC Bootloader" appear on the screen.
- Now plug the flash drive into your Mastermind PBC. The update should begin and will take a few minutes to complete.

Firmware: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/PBC301.zip

Mac Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/PBCEditor-3.0.1.dmg
PC Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/PBCEditor-3.0.1.zip

Manual: http://www.rjmmusic.com/manuals/PBC Manual-3.0.pdf
 
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Just looking through the editor... WOW, this looks like a stellar update! I'll download the beta on Sunday afternoon and play with it then.
 
YES!!!!!! Very stoked to dive into this and help test out the BETA! That is a load of great changes! Well done Ron!
 
Is there a quick instruction on how to set up the function switch to send the analog tap signal?
 
Is there a quick instruction on how to set up the function switch to send the analog tap signal?

I hope to do a short video this weekend, but the summary is:

Edit a macro, add one action to the macro: Audio / Fn Switch 1 Off:OFF on:ON

Then, on the global page, set Taps to 4, and set Macro to the number of the macro you edited in the previous step.

Set the tempo in your presets and/or songs. Connect Fn Switch 1/2 to the pedal's function switch jack. That should do it! If the tempo is off by a factor of two, turn on the Momentary switch for Fn Switch 1.
 
I hope to do a short video this weekend, but the summary is:

Edit a macro, add one action to the macro: Audio / Fn Switch 1 Off:OFF on:ON

Then, on the global page, set Taps to 4, and set Macro to the number of the macro you edited in the previous step.

Set the tempo in your presets and/or songs. Connect Fn Switch 1/2 to the pedal's function switch jack. That should do it! If the tempo is off by a factor of two, turn on the Momentary switch for Fn Switch 1.

Nice, I was able to make that work. Only thing I'm still missing is how to program my tap button to manually send taps when I tap out with PBC. Currently, PBC is only making tempo changes with a new preset or song tempo. But not manually with my tap button.
 
Set the button to IA, turn off Send on Preset Change and Update on Preset Change, and program it with the same action that you put in the macro, and also turn on the "Flash w/tempo" setting. That should do it.
 
Ron,
Updated to the beta firmware this afternoon and as soon as I did, my decay times on the BigSky went to maximum and got "stuck" there. No matter how I tried to change the decay time (decay knob, expression pedal, etc...) nothing worked. I had this problem one other time, and it was fixed with "Send CCs on Preset Change" turned off. That setting is currently off, so that's not it... in fact just tried it with it turned on and no joy either way.
 
In 3.0, it appears that there's something going on with the expression pedal settings. Edit exp pedals 2 and 3 and set their CCs to None. That should fix the BigSky issue for the time being. I'll have a more permanent fix in the first bug fix release.

As for the other issue you reported in email, turn off "Send off messages" for group 2. Without that turned off, both the 4 button and the 5 button will both be sending conflicting program changes, resulting in the wrong program being selected.
 
Set the button to IA, turn off Send on Preset Change and Update on Preset Change, and program it with the same action that you put in the macro, and also turn on the "Flash w/tempo" setting. That should do it.

This did not seem to work for me. First off, when I uncheck the "Update State On Preset Change" button, my tap feature doesn't work at all, even with my Midi devices. That has to be checked for the tap to work in any capacity.... and has been that way since I got the PBC in June 2015. Next, when I did add the Macro Action to my TAP IA button, every time I manually tap the button, the PBC makes 2 super rapid click noises per step. This is making my DMMTT think the BPM is 2 times faster than I am actually tapping. I have to select "Momentary" inside the IA settings to get this at all. If thats not selected, no tap signal is sent at all from the function switch during the manual taps. So, I'm kind of confused!
 
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Ok, you're right, Update on Preset Change needs to be on for sure. Also, it looks like the flash w/ tempo setting is interfering with the sending of taps. I'll look into it.
 
This update looks great so far! Is there any way you could add tap subdivisions per preset for the tap out? I'm wanting to get rid of my smartclock, but I'm using the subdivision function on almost every preset. Thanks a ton!
 
This update looks great so far! Is there any way you could add tap subdivisions per preset for the tap out? I'm wanting to get rid of my smartclock, but I'm using the subdivision function on almost every preset. Thanks a ton!

Hmm - I'll look into it. It's too complex of a feature to add to 3.0 this late in the game, but shouldn't be too hard to add to 3.1.
 
So far, with the CC's deleted for Exp 2 everything works great. I'm using it live tomorrow morning and will let you know if I run into any issues.
 
In the preset page when i set the PC messages to my devices, how i need to set the bank? 0 or 1?
 
In the preset page when i set the PC messages to my devices, how i need to set the bank? 0 or 1?
EDIT: Bank 0 will always be the first bank in the device, even if your device says that the first bank is called "bank 1"
 
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