The Control Ranger 8 has both Async and BC-Pipe connectivity and can be looked upon as two Pipe modules internally connected via eight Control Rangers.
Dante: The ABS_Tester project shows us how the CR8 components can be used with the extended ABS14 to give us 64 possible control paths. Can you explain how it all hangs together?
Sharc: I've set up some control rangers to display the 0-16383 range in the Modular shell. You can use the mouse wheel on the controls in the ctrlr panel for fine adjustment and as you'll see they tie up perfectly. This version of the ABS14 module uses BC-Pipes for 32 controls from a 1u module and weighs in at roughly the same DSP usage as the previous ABS14 module which could only handle a single 14-bit CC assignment.
If you want to use it with a MIDI controller, it's basically using 2x CCs per control. MSB CCs are 0-31. LSB CCs 32-63 (MSB+32). Behringer controllers have an 'Absolute 14-bit' setting for CC assignments, but any controller which handles multi messages and NRPNs should be configurable to work this way.
You can set the MIDI channel on the ABS14 module so you could set up 16 of them to get up to 512x 14-bit CCs and then you've got regular CC assignment over and above that.
Obviously, with the assignment of the CC's on the ABS14 module being fixed at numbers 0-63, in some cases you might find issues with previously assigned CCs to these numbers causing some interference. Then there's the issue of CCs like 01:Modulation being spoken for. I'll be doing a couple of things to counter this. Firstly I'll be adding a dedicated CC module which can be assigned a CC and MIDI channel. This way you can set it to 01:Modulation and control multiple parameters from your mod wheel independent of the 14-bit CCs. Also I'll be adding a second MIDI to pair to the BC Modular shell which will be completely isolated from the general shell MIDI.
about 14 bit CC
Dante: So JHulk tell us about the 14-bit CC protocol. How did it originate?
JHulk: BC Modular was made by Sharc for easy control with external controller(s). It uses CC but he also added 14-bit CC as this gives 256 control range compared to the 8-bit having only 128. EMU were the ones who implemented it first followed by Roland. Between them they set the standard for the 14-bit CC control. It was brought about because the 0-127 range was a little steppy (commonly known as 'zipper') so to get better and smoother control EMU and Roland refined the protocol of the 14-bit MIDI CC.
The 14-bit protocol sends 2 x 8-bit MIDI system exclusive streams. Two bytes are used up for the activation part and the other 2 x 7 bit parts are for control. You can tell the EMU has a very smooth filter responses as it works from -128 to 0 to 127. By Sharc implementing the full 14-bit CC in BC modular it is the same as the Behringer controller where it's essentially outputting a combined pair of CCs giving 128 x 128 = 16384 steps (0-16383).
This it makes smooth control of the knobs on the Modular and almost any controller can be used to send 14-bit CC. So BC Modular is not just for Behringer.
Dante: Do you have any other favorite 14-bit controllers ?
JHulk: The ideal controllers are the DOEPFER DIY controllers as you can cascade them with many controls and joysticks or a MIDI box controller.
What I like about the BC modular is that you can change the colors of the modules. This is great for setting out sections of a synth.
But you don't need any controller at all if you don't have one for real-time editing as for synth patch creation for setting so the envelopes and LFO control the synth you can use a mouse and set it up that way. But having an external controller for live situations makes the Modular just like a hardware synth as its editable from the controller without having to see the screen (apart from loading of samples). But if you are doing it live you can create all your patches and then use your controller to change patches and then tweak them live for a live performance.
Sharc also has some great utility modules that help you do things that the Scope Modular does not have. He also has his own shell which is great as all the control signals are there in the shell and easy to connect to your modules for external control.
Control Ranger 8
Description
The Control Ranger 8 has both Async and BC-Pipe connectivity and can be looked upon as two Pipe modules internally connected via eight Control Rangers.Type
CONTROLModule
Popup
Module Connections
Module Controls
Popup Controls
Screen
CR8 [Example with ABS-14]
Source » Hitfoundry » Scope BC ModularDante: The ABS_Tester project shows us how the CR8 components can be used with the extended ABS14 to give us 64 possible control paths. Can you explain how it all hangs together?
Sharc: I've set up some control rangers to display the 0-16383 range in the Modular shell. You can use the mouse wheel on the controls in the ctrlr panel for fine adjustment and as you'll see they tie up perfectly. This version of the ABS14 module uses BC-Pipes for 32 controls from a 1u module and weighs in at roughly the same DSP usage as the previous ABS14 module which could only handle a single 14-bit CC assignment.
If you want to use it with a MIDI controller, it's basically using 2x CCs per control. MSB CCs are 0-31. LSB CCs 32-63 (MSB+32). Behringer controllers have an 'Absolute 14-bit' setting for CC assignments, but any controller which handles multi messages and NRPNs should be configurable to work this way.
You can set the MIDI channel on the ABS14 module so you could set up 16 of them to get up to 512x 14-bit CCs and then you've got regular CC assignment over and above that.
Obviously, with the assignment of the CC's on the ABS14 module being fixed at numbers 0-63, in some cases you might find issues with previously assigned CCs to these numbers causing some interference. Then there's the issue of CCs like 01:Modulation being spoken for. I'll be doing a couple of things to counter this. Firstly I'll be adding a dedicated CC module which can be assigned a CC and MIDI channel. This way you can set it to 01:Modulation and control multiple parameters from your mod wheel independent of the 14-bit CCs. Also I'll be adding a second MIDI to pair to the BC Modular shell which will be completely isolated from the general shell MIDI.
about 14 bit CC
Dante: So JHulk tell us about the 14-bit CC protocol. How did it originate?JHulk: BC Modular was made by Sharc for easy control with external controller(s). It uses CC but he also added 14-bit CC as this gives 256 control range compared to the 8-bit having only 128. EMU were the ones who implemented it first followed by Roland. Between them they set the standard for the 14-bit CC control. It was brought about because the 0-127 range was a little steppy (commonly known as 'zipper') so to get better and smoother control EMU and Roland refined the protocol of the 14-bit MIDI CC.
The 14-bit protocol sends 2 x 8-bit MIDI system exclusive streams. Two bytes are used up for the activation part and the other 2 x 7 bit parts are for control. You can tell the EMU has a very smooth filter responses as it works from -128 to 0 to 127. By Sharc implementing the full 14-bit CC in BC modular it is the same as the Behringer controller where it's essentially outputting a combined pair of CCs giving 128 x 128 = 16384 steps (0-16383).
This it makes smooth control of the knobs on the Modular and almost any controller can be used to send 14-bit CC. So BC Modular is not just for Behringer.
Dante: Do you have any other favorite 14-bit controllers ?
JHulk: The ideal controllers are the DOEPFER DIY controllers as you can cascade them with many controls and joysticks or a MIDI box controller.
What I like about the BC modular is that you can change the colors of the modules. This is great for setting out sections of a synth.
But you don't need any controller at all if you don't have one for real-time editing as for synth patch creation for setting so the envelopes and LFO control the synth you can use a mouse and set it up that way. But having an external controller for live situations makes the Modular just like a hardware synth as its editable from the controller without having to see the screen (apart from loading of samples). But if you are doing it live you can create all your patches and then use your controller to change patches and then tweak them live for a live performance.
Sharc also has some great utility modules that help you do things that the Scope Modular does not have. He also has his own shell which is great as all the control signals are there in the shell and easy to connect to your modules for external control.