At long last, here it is! Mastermind GT 2.0 beta 3, which includes:
- Expansion to 640 presets - on all GT hardware, no hardware upgrade required!
- Expansion to 20 actions per button
- Hold a button for a 2nd function
- IA Cycle buttons (pressing a button can cycle through up to 4 states)
- The ability to have a different button page for each preset
- Sysex messages
- The ability to adjust the button repeat rate
- External switches are now stored like expression pedals - there are global settings, and each preset can override them. They are no longer tied to specific button pages
- (Untested) Axe-Fx II XL support
- Major changes to Kemper support - "Auto Names" mode allows you to display the performance and performance slot names in real time without doing a separate "Get Preset Names" step. Also added IA buttons for delay w/tails and reverb w/tails.
- Preset Number button type allows you to select a preset by typing in a number
- Better synchronization between GTs in remote mode
- Various bug fixes
The editor has the changes required to support the above features, and improvements to the UI that hopefully make it easier to use. It also has a new feature: "Send changes to device". When in an editing session, it will only send the settings that you've changed since the last time you sent or received the settings to/from the device. The first time you transfer in an editing session, it will send everything, but subsequent sends will be much quicker.
Update Instructions:
1). BACK UP YOUR SETTINGS!!! Very important - if you need to go back to version 1.4 for any reason, the GT will factory reset, wiping your settings. If you keep a backup of your 1.4 settings, you won't have to start over
2). Download and unzip the firmware file below, then copy it to a USB flash drive. Be sure to select the "Eject" option on your PC to make sure that the drive is in the right state before pulling it from your computer.
3). Power up the GT while holding the two black buttons under the screen. Wait until the "Mastermind GT Bootloader" screen shows up, then plug in the flash drive. It should run the update at that point, which takes less than a minute.
4). The GT will reboot, then go through a process where the internal settings are updated (takes a couple of minutes). Then it updates the display boards. After all that, it should start up with your settings intact (with one exception below)
5). Back up your settings frequently! This is a beta version, so there's still a possibility that something will go awry. Creating a new backup before each editing session is highly recommended.
Here are the files:
Firmware: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/MMGT20B3.rjf
Mac Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/MMGTEditor-2.0b3.dmg
PC Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/MMGTEditor-2.0b3.zip
The manual has not been updated yet (that's next on the list), but here are some quick notes on some features:
Hold Buttons:
There is a setting for each button called "Button Mode". This can be set to Normal or Hold. Setting it to Hold reveals a setting that says "Editing Normal" or "Editing Hold". Pressing this button toggles whether you're editing the button's normal settings or hold settings. The hold function is activated by holding a button for about 2 seconds, and can do almost anything a normal button can do.
In the editor, setting Button Mode to Hold will reveal two tabs above the button edit screen: "Button Settings" and "Hold Settings'. This is how you switch between editing the normal or hold functions.
IA Cycle Buttons:
If you're editing an IA button, there will be an "IA Cycle" setting. Turning this on reveals settings that allow you to edit each of the 4 steps of the cycle. You can set the name and the color of each step. On the GT itself, the step settings are toward the end of the parameter list. On the editor, the area where you edit a button's actions now has two tabs: "IA Actions" and "IA Cycle Steps" so you can switch between editing both.
In the button's action list, there's a new button "Add Step". You place these in between your actions where you want one step to end and the next to begin. So, if you want a CC to increase value through four steps, you could do:
CC7 off:0 on:0
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:42
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:84
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:127
Pressing the button repeatedly will send the values 0, 42, 84 and 127, going back to 0 after the 4th press.
The "off" values are ignored when you have an IA Cycle button. You can define less than 4 steps if you like. Steps above #4 will be ignored. Each step can have multiple actions in it, for a total of 20 actions in the list (including the steps themselves).
Page per Preset:
When editing a preset, you can turn on "Local Buttons", which reveals an option that says "Edit Buttons" You can edit the preset's button page like you would any other button page. In the editor, check "Edit Local Buttons" when editing a preset. This will allow you to double click on the buttons to edit them or right click to bring up the context menu (just like you would edit a button on the global button pages). Using the context menu, you can copy button pages from one of the global pages or from another preset.
The preset's button page takes the place of button page 16. You can still use a page select button to cycle through the other 15 global pages if you like.
Sysex Messages:
There's an Edit Sysex option on the GT now (and a Sysex tab in the editor). You can define 127 Sysex messages, each up to 16 bytes in length. The message is specified in hexadecimal numbers, which is pretty typical for sysex.
To use one of the messages you've defined, there's a new action you can assign to IA buttons: Sysex (appropriately enough). With this action you can define which Sysex message from the list is sent when the button is turned on and which is sent when the button is turned off.
Kemper Auto Names:
The KPA device now has a setting "Auto Names". If this is turned on, and the KPA is in performance mode, the preset buttons' names will be loaded from the KPA automatically. Pressing bank up or bank down will cycle through the 125 performances on the KPA, and will display the five performance slot names from that performance bank.
To use this feature, make sure that your KPA is in Performance Mode, and that you have exactly 5 preset buttons defined per page! Having a different number will cause some weird things to happen when selecting presets.
There are two new CCs for the KPA: Delay w/ Tail and Reverb w/Tail. These are alternate versions of the delay and reverb effects that allow spillover of their tails when switching presets.
Axe-Fx II XL:
We don't have an Axe-Fx II XL in the shop yet, but I've spoken to Fractal and I have high hopes that this version will communicate correctly with the Axe-Fx II XL. Remember to change your device type in the GT settings to "Axe Fx II XL" - there's a setting specifically for that model now.
External Switches:
There is now an External Switch option next to the option to edit Expression Pedals - in the global settings, and in each preset. External Switches are the only things that will not be carried over from your 1.4 settings - you'll have to reassign them. Apologies for that, but it would have been a tricky thing to implement due to some technical reasons.
Please post your questions and bug reports here. I'll get to them as soon as I can. Thanks in advance for any testing you do - it's much appreciated and will help us make the GT better!
In closing, thanks for your patience while I got this done. I expected to have this version ready months ago, but some of these features were a lot more tricky to get right than I would have expected. Let's hope you all find the wait worth it!
- Expansion to 640 presets - on all GT hardware, no hardware upgrade required!
- Expansion to 20 actions per button
- Hold a button for a 2nd function
- IA Cycle buttons (pressing a button can cycle through up to 4 states)
- The ability to have a different button page for each preset
- Sysex messages
- The ability to adjust the button repeat rate
- External switches are now stored like expression pedals - there are global settings, and each preset can override them. They are no longer tied to specific button pages
- (Untested) Axe-Fx II XL support
- Major changes to Kemper support - "Auto Names" mode allows you to display the performance and performance slot names in real time without doing a separate "Get Preset Names" step. Also added IA buttons for delay w/tails and reverb w/tails.
- Preset Number button type allows you to select a preset by typing in a number
- Better synchronization between GTs in remote mode
- Various bug fixes
The editor has the changes required to support the above features, and improvements to the UI that hopefully make it easier to use. It also has a new feature: "Send changes to device". When in an editing session, it will only send the settings that you've changed since the last time you sent or received the settings to/from the device. The first time you transfer in an editing session, it will send everything, but subsequent sends will be much quicker.
Update Instructions:
1). BACK UP YOUR SETTINGS!!! Very important - if you need to go back to version 1.4 for any reason, the GT will factory reset, wiping your settings. If you keep a backup of your 1.4 settings, you won't have to start over
2). Download and unzip the firmware file below, then copy it to a USB flash drive. Be sure to select the "Eject" option on your PC to make sure that the drive is in the right state before pulling it from your computer.
3). Power up the GT while holding the two black buttons under the screen. Wait until the "Mastermind GT Bootloader" screen shows up, then plug in the flash drive. It should run the update at that point, which takes less than a minute.
4). The GT will reboot, then go through a process where the internal settings are updated (takes a couple of minutes). Then it updates the display boards. After all that, it should start up with your settings intact (with one exception below)
5). Back up your settings frequently! This is a beta version, so there's still a possibility that something will go awry. Creating a new backup before each editing session is highly recommended.
Here are the files:
Firmware: http://www.rjmmusic.com/downloads/MMGT20B3.rjf
Mac Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/MMGTEditor-2.0b3.dmg
PC Editor: http://www.rjmmusic.com/software/MMGTEditor-2.0b3.zip
The manual has not been updated yet (that's next on the list), but here are some quick notes on some features:
Hold Buttons:
There is a setting for each button called "Button Mode". This can be set to Normal or Hold. Setting it to Hold reveals a setting that says "Editing Normal" or "Editing Hold". Pressing this button toggles whether you're editing the button's normal settings or hold settings. The hold function is activated by holding a button for about 2 seconds, and can do almost anything a normal button can do.
In the editor, setting Button Mode to Hold will reveal two tabs above the button edit screen: "Button Settings" and "Hold Settings'. This is how you switch between editing the normal or hold functions.
IA Cycle Buttons:
If you're editing an IA button, there will be an "IA Cycle" setting. Turning this on reveals settings that allow you to edit each of the 4 steps of the cycle. You can set the name and the color of each step. On the GT itself, the step settings are toward the end of the parameter list. On the editor, the area where you edit a button's actions now has two tabs: "IA Actions" and "IA Cycle Steps" so you can switch between editing both.
In the button's action list, there's a new button "Add Step". You place these in between your actions where you want one step to end and the next to begin. So, if you want a CC to increase value through four steps, you could do:
CC7 off:0 on:0
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:42
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:84
System / Step
CC7 off:0 on:127
Pressing the button repeatedly will send the values 0, 42, 84 and 127, going back to 0 after the 4th press.
The "off" values are ignored when you have an IA Cycle button. You can define less than 4 steps if you like. Steps above #4 will be ignored. Each step can have multiple actions in it, for a total of 20 actions in the list (including the steps themselves).
Page per Preset:
When editing a preset, you can turn on "Local Buttons", which reveals an option that says "Edit Buttons" You can edit the preset's button page like you would any other button page. In the editor, check "Edit Local Buttons" when editing a preset. This will allow you to double click on the buttons to edit them or right click to bring up the context menu (just like you would edit a button on the global button pages). Using the context menu, you can copy button pages from one of the global pages or from another preset.
The preset's button page takes the place of button page 16. You can still use a page select button to cycle through the other 15 global pages if you like.
Sysex Messages:
There's an Edit Sysex option on the GT now (and a Sysex tab in the editor). You can define 127 Sysex messages, each up to 16 bytes in length. The message is specified in hexadecimal numbers, which is pretty typical for sysex.
To use one of the messages you've defined, there's a new action you can assign to IA buttons: Sysex (appropriately enough). With this action you can define which Sysex message from the list is sent when the button is turned on and which is sent when the button is turned off.
Kemper Auto Names:
The KPA device now has a setting "Auto Names". If this is turned on, and the KPA is in performance mode, the preset buttons' names will be loaded from the KPA automatically. Pressing bank up or bank down will cycle through the 125 performances on the KPA, and will display the five performance slot names from that performance bank.
To use this feature, make sure that your KPA is in Performance Mode, and that you have exactly 5 preset buttons defined per page! Having a different number will cause some weird things to happen when selecting presets.
There are two new CCs for the KPA: Delay w/ Tail and Reverb w/Tail. These are alternate versions of the delay and reverb effects that allow spillover of their tails when switching presets.
Axe-Fx II XL:
We don't have an Axe-Fx II XL in the shop yet, but I've spoken to Fractal and I have high hopes that this version will communicate correctly with the Axe-Fx II XL. Remember to change your device type in the GT settings to "Axe Fx II XL" - there's a setting specifically for that model now.
External Switches:
There is now an External Switch option next to the option to edit Expression Pedals - in the global settings, and in each preset. External Switches are the only things that will not be carried over from your 1.4 settings - you'll have to reassign them. Apologies for that, but it would have been a tricky thing to implement due to some technical reasons.
Please post your questions and bug reports here. I'll get to them as soon as I can. Thanks in advance for any testing you do - it's much appreciated and will help us make the GT better!
In closing, thanks for your patience while I got this done. I expected to have this version ready months ago, but some of these features were a lot more tricky to get right than I would have expected. Let's hope you all find the wait worth it!
