Synthesizer Patch Editor (Version 3)
By Sean Luke (sean@cs.gmu.edu)
Edisyn is a synthesizer patch editor library written in pure Java. It comes with one completed patch editor for the Waldorf Blofeld, but will ultimately have some more written for it as well as I get time. Edisyn has no graphical interface editor system like Ctrlr, but it's designed to make the GUI pretty easy to write.
At present Edisyn only runs on OS X (well, I've only tried it on OS X, that's its target). If you try running it elsewhere, you're on your own.
This is Edisyn version 3, a very early prerelease which doesn't feel very MacOS like yet, and which has lots of wires sticking out. But it works! Try it out on your Blofeld.
There is also part of an editor for the Waldorf II/XT/Xtk, but it's not done yet.
For the time being, to install Edisyn you need to do the following three things.
- Install the Java JDK.
- Place the file
libraries/coremidi4j-1.0.jarin the directory/Library/Java/Extensions - Put file
jar/edisyn.3.jarwhere you like (it's Edisyn's executable).
Double click on the file edisyn.3.jar
Edisyn should launch and either present you with a window asking what MIDI interface you want to use, or tell you that there are no available MIDI interfaces, and that you'll need to work offline.
The editor pane should be self-explanatory. There are four tabs which together cover all of the parameters of the synthesizer. The first tab, Oscillators and Filters, also contains an area called Waldorf Blofeld which lets you set the patch name and category, bank, number, and Blofeld ID. The bank, number, and ID are mostly for saving out to sysex files: whenever you upload or download patch to/from the Blofeld, you'll be prompted to revise those if necessary.
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New creates a new editor pane, set to the default (the Blofeld's Init patch setting). Note that only the frontmost editor pane will receive MIDI. So if you for some reason set up both editor panes with the same interface, then request MIDI from one pane, then quickly switch to the other pane, you could in theory get the MIDI sent to the other pane. So don't do that.
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Load... loads a sysex file into the existing editor pane. It's called Load instead of Open because it doesn't open a new window.
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Close Window closes, well, you know, it closes, um, the window.
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Save and Save As... save to a sysex file.
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Reset to Default resets the window to display the Blofeld's Init patch setting.
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Export Diff to Text... saves out to a text file a line-by-line description of every parameter which is different from the default Init patch setting, plus the current value it's set to. The patch value is either a string (in the case of the Patch name) or a number from 0...127: this may not be that useful to you, but the parameter names might be useful if you want to publish your patch on a sebsite and need to know which parameter settings to mention.
Note that you can send a patch to the synthesizer and you can write a patch to the synthesizer. The former just temporarily updates the synth's current patch memory so you can play it. The latter actually writes the patch to an address in the synth, replacing whatever is there.
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Request Current Patch asks the synthesizer to load the current patch memory into the editor. Note that on some machines (like the Waldorf Blofeld) when the patch is loaded, the bank and patch number are invalid and will be reset to some defaults, which might be confusing!
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Request Patch... asks the synthesizer to load a specific patch into the editor. If the synthesizer complies, once the patch is loaded, Edisyn will then send the patch to the synthesizer.
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Request Merge asks the synthesizer to load a specific patch into the editor. If the synthesizer complies, then the patch is merged with the existing patch, meaning that some percentage of parameters in the existing patch are replaced with the old patch. Then Edisyn will then send the patch to the synthesizer.
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Randomize randomizes the editor's current patch, then sends it to the synthesizer.
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Send Patch sends the current patch to the synthesizer. This isn't actually used much since other commands send the patch automatically.
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Write Patch... writes the patch to a given location in the synthesizer.
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Change MIDI sets or updates the MIDI interface.
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Disconnect MIDI disconnects the MIDI interface.
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Send All Sounds Off sends the All Sounds Off message to all channels.
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Send Test Note sends a 1/2 second test note to the primary channel.
Edisyn makes up to three MIDI device connections. The Receiving Device is the MIDI device from which we will accept patches. This is usually your synthesizer. The Sending Device is the MIDI device to which we will send patches and parameter changes. We'll also need a channel for the Sending Device so we can send test notes.
Optionally you can route your controller keyboard through Edisyn to play the sounds directly if you wish. To do this, the Keyboard Device is the MIDI Device of your controller keyboard. You'll also specify an incoming keyboard channel of course. This can be set to "Any" for any channel (Omni).
If you change a widget in the editor, Edisyn will send the appropriate sysex command to the synthesizer to change it on the synth as well. Additionally, if you change a parameter on the synthesizer and it forwards a sysex command to Edisyn, then Edisyn will update the appropriate widget in the editor. At present Edisyn does't support CC commands from the synthesizer (maybe later). So (for example) on the Blofeld you'll need to change the machine to send sysex -- not CC only -- when changing parameters on the synth.
To work around some bugs in OS X Midi and CoreMIDI4J, Edisyn's architecture at present does not let you plug in new devices (or remove them) after Edisyn has been launched. If you need to do so, restart Edisyn (for now).
Randomize and Send isn't very useful right now. I'm working on it.
Everything has to be sent via sysex for the moment: I don't have code written to make it easy to send CC or NRPN if you wanted to build a patch which did that.
Popping up a new panel is slow. Profiling suggests that the primary reason for this is that JComboBox construction is slow. So I can't get around it.