[HN Gopher] Three hundred synths, 3 hardware projects, and one app
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Three hundred synths, 3 hardware projects, and one app
Author : ductionist
Score : 114 points
Date : 2026-04-07 05:12 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (midi.guide)
(TXT) w3m dump (midi.guide)
| import wrote:
| Very cool project. I am impressed by the ability of the different
| format downloads like Hapax. Kudos!
| ductionist wrote:
| This is my pet feature :) There are so many cool sequencers and
| controllers, all with their own idiosyncratic plaintext
| instrument definition formats. Making little exporters for each
| of them is fun.
| Lio wrote:
| This looks like a really great project.
|
| I naively thought that with 300ish synths covered they'd have
| everything I own but I can see that's not the case.
|
| I've got Alesis, Casio and Yamaha equipment that's missing. Time
| to dig out the manuals and get a PR ready.
|
| It's easy to forget how successful the MIDI standard is. It might
| be the most stable and still relevant digital standard of all
| time.
|
| My oldest bit of kit is a Casio CZ-5000 from, I think, 1985. That
| I can plug it into the latest equipment without drivers and it
| still works is amazing. 5 pin DIN for the win!
| ductionist wrote:
| Hey thanks. I love the MIDI standard for exactly this reason
| too. Blows my mind that you can hook a forty year old synth up
| to a computer or iPad without drivers.
| rigonkulous wrote:
| Synth nerds got it right: open specs, and a general industry-
| wide desire to make things play well together. After all, its
| music, this is why music works in the first place..
| ductionist wrote:
| Totally, and I think the need for MIDI Guide - the fact
| that MIDI CC/NRPN is pretty much a free-for-all - is also
| why the spec has such staying power. It's so unopinionated
| that it imposes essentially zero constraints beyond message
| size. I love it.
| jamesjolliffe wrote:
| OK, call me too synth nerdy, but have you guys ever longed for a
| project that allowed you too match stuff like envelope times and
| between synths?
|
| E.g. (totally made up values in this example) if you want to
| approximate the amplitude envelope from SH-101 to Bass Station 2,
| if the attack knob is at 5/10 position on 101, that's 500ms,
| which means you need to set attack knob to 6/10 on Bass Station 2
| to get same attack time?
|
| I hope this gets made one day, but I'm too poor and stupid to
| make it.
|
| Anyways, this sort of system would make it much easier to create
| "universal" patches that would work between synths.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| > OK, call me too synth nerdy, but have you guys ever longed
| for a project that allowed you too match stuff like envelope
| times and between synths?
|
| Yes actually. I thought about doing something like this to
| convert Juno 106 patches to Novation Xiosynth patches, because
| I have a 106 and a Xiosynth 49 sitting beside me, and a pretty
| viable Juno 106 emulation.
|
| Getting the times for the Juno is easy because the lookup
| tables and code for the envelope is a known quantity but I'd
| need to actually just measure the envelopes in the Xio. They
| might also not have quite the same response "shape" but they'd
| be pretty close.
| bzzzt wrote:
| I'm not sure there's much to be gained by mapping values. Maybe
| envelope time is comparable since seconds are seconds, but not
| every synth interpolates ADSR values in the same way (some use
| just linear or logarithmic interpolation, some high end synths
| are heavily configurable). Also, other values like filter
| cutoff impact the sound in dramatically different ways
| depending on the kind of filter...
| jamesjolliffe wrote:
| Good point - again for this, filter cutoff knob position or
| MIDI CC value percentage of 0/max value # would be mapped to
| cutoff frequency Hz #.
|
| And yes, envelope times have different transition formulas
| between points, like linear vs logarithmic, as you stated.
| But again, having a direct map for of just A,D,S,R ms times
| would give you a rough approximation of amp env, save you a
| ton of time, and honestly, just serve as a sanity check
| sometimes, when trying to recreate similar "classic"
| subtractive patches between synths.
| ductionist wrote:
| That's an interesting idea. We've had a couple of requests to
| expand the format to include a mapping function between the
| CC/NRPN values and the 'display' values, e.g. [0, 127] -> [-10,
| 10], for cases where the relationship is nonlinear. This
| wouldn't guarantee normalization of meaning (it wouldn't encode
| the difference between the SH-101's attack and the Bass Station
| 2's attack), but it would make it easier to pull everything
| together in an app.
| pgwalsh wrote:
| Thanks! I have never heard of it. Need to buy my son a new ipad
| so I can use this with his old one.
| ductionist wrote:
| Hah! I hope it's worth the expense. Check out the Condukt
| discord when you get it going, lots happening in there.
| big_toast wrote:
| Demo from the post - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8B4DuDFt2w
|
| Wow. This post covers a lot! As a non-synth/midi person I kinda
| bounced off and thought it wasn't for me but there's really so
| much cool stuff in here. The video was what caused me to scroll
| back and read more closely.
|
| It seems like two apps if you include penbook
| (https://condukt.app/ being the main app). The title really
| describes the content but somehow undersold it for me.
|
| Is there a midi device novices start with like a recorder for
| gradeschool students? The HiChord always looks so enticingly
| simple but I don't even know if that is the same type of device?
| ductionist wrote:
| If you're curious about synths, I'd actually say it's better to
| start with an instrument that's standalone (that is, doesn't
| need a MIDI controller). The HiChord is a good choice. I've
| personally had lots of fun with Orchid by Telepathic
| Instruments. And anything with a keyboard by KORG (including
| the VERY affordable volca line) is also a great starting point.
|
| Once your first synth starts making sense, you'll get the itch
| to buy a second, and it'll be time to delve into MIDI :)
| big_toast wrote:
| Ha. The Orchid was the first instrument I clicked on (in the
| Jamuary section) when I was trying to answer my own question.
|
| Thank you for the recommendations. You're half way to a
| logicalincrements.com (I assume there's natural pairings
| between all these devices? it always looks like an array of
| devices cabled together.)
| marpstar wrote:
| Glad to see this on here. I've been using an iPad as the "brain"
| in my music setup and found this project not long ago. I've since
| opened PRs for a couple of Line 6 pedals I've got. I've also got
| a Novation Launch Control XL 3, for which Ben (the creator) has
| made an editor available to make targeting specific devices much
| easier. I've had a few email correspondence with him regarding
| the idea of open-sourcing that editor and he's a super nice dude.
|
| Thanks again, Ben! (if you're reading this)
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