minichord advanced firmware 96: hover per plate

The minichord advanced firmware 96: hover that knows which harp plate is fitted, and a looper that keeps going through a preset change. It adds no new settings.

Hover per plate

Each Key & Cable harp plate is its own antenna for hover (249–251), and they don't all feel a hand the same way. The Piano Keys plate's wide keys pull far harder than the stock strip close up, so hover used to freeze short of full. Firmware 96 gives the Keymaster, Piano Keys and Framed Strings their own hover curves, and the reading starts again cleanly when a plate's charge is fitted, which brings back Twin Rows' hover. Twin Rows keeps the stock strip's curve for now.

Set harp plate (243) in minicontrol to the plate you have fitted, and hover follows it. These curves are first measurements and may be refined in a later release.

The looper through a preset change

A loop you start with the double tap now keeps playing when you change preset, in the new preset's sounds. Until it stops, the double tap stays the looper's, even in a preset that uses the double tap for something else, so you can always stop the loop where you are. Once it stops, the double tap does the preset's own job again.

It's built from the advanced branch, so it has everything else in the advanced firmware as well, including firmware 95's harp plate settings. It's unofficial and experimental, and it isn't made or endorsed by Ben Poilve.

Installing

1. In minicontrol, back up all banks to a file.
2. Download minichord-advanced-firmware-96.hex below and install it the way Ben describes in Updating the firmware: Teensy Loader, drop the file on it, then press the button through the hole in the back with a pin.
3. In minicontrol, check harp plate is set to the plate you have fitted.

If your presets sound odd afterwards, restore from backup or reset all banks in minicontrol. To go back to the classic firmware, install Ben's firmware.hex the same way.

minichord advanced firmware 95: harp plates

The minichord advanced firmware: my fork of Ben Poilve's firmware, now with a setting for each Key & Cable harp plate, calibrated on the real boards.

Every plate also plays on Ben's classic firmware, as a twelve-string harp. The advanced firmware makes each one play the way it was designed to.

Harp plates

Choose yours with harp plate (243) in minicontrol:

• 0: the stock strip, or any plate of twelve separate zones
• 1: the Keymaster
• 2: Piano Keys. Where the black keys sit, each key is narrower than a fingertip, so a finger reaching for one lands on its neighbours too. The neighbour guard (416) keeps them silent.
• 3: Twin Rows. Its pads are three times the size of a stock pad and read about 2.4 times as strongly, so touch velocity and pressure are scaled to match.
• 4: Framed Strings. Its own touch calibration, plus the strip guard (417): a fingertip across two strings plays one.

Each plate brings its own calibration, so choosing it is all a plate swap needs. Harp touch scale (418) trims on top, and goes back to 100 when you choose another plate. The stock strip gets the strip guard too, on by default; set 417 to 0 for the old behaviour.

It's built from the advanced branch (formerly test-allFeatures), so it has everything else in the advanced firmware as well. It's unofficial and experimental, and it isn't made or endorsed by Ben Poilve.

Installing

1. In minicontrol, back up all banks to a file.
2. Download minichord-advanced-firmware-95.hex below and install it the way Ben describes in Updating the firmware: Teensy Loader, drop the file on it, then press the button through the hole in the back with a pin.
3. In minicontrol, set harp plate to the plate you have fitted.

If your presets sound odd afterwards, restore from backup or reset all banks in minicontrol. To go back to the classic firmware, install Ben's firmware.hex the same way.