Befaco VCMC voltage controlled MIDI controller

[Endosine]

Hi All, I just picked up one of these fancy beasts and I'm having some troubles building a map for my TR-909. I was thinking / expecting that I could have 8 channels of the faders and CV assigned to velocities and the gates assigned to specific note numbers to trigger the sounds on the TR-909. I'm basically aiming to have Euclidean style sequencers drive the note triggers and some lfos make some cool ghost note patterns via velocity.

It seems that velocity is mapped per midi channel instead of per gate note. With 2 fader / CV channels set to velocity, it seems both faders are changing velocity for both channels, acting as one parameter as opposed to effecting each separate note assigned to the gate. Is that expected?

Am I missing something? Is there a way to set it up the way I'm hoping? Thanks!

This is doable in latest firmwares. In 1.0 velocity does not apply to gate notes.

Hi Befaco!

Thanks for the reply! I have the latest firmware, and with two faders set to velocity they seem to be changing velocity for all gates, not just for their numbered gate. I was expecting fader 1 & CV 1 would set velocity for the note assigned to gate 1 and fader 2 & CV 2 would set velocity for the note assigned to gate 2, but both faders are changing the velocity for all notes. Do I need to link them somehow?

Also it seems when using the web configurator to set the midi note number, it just sets the module to note number 0. Not sure if I am doing something wrong, It seems to be transmitting the (fader, CV or gate) type and it is sending names, but the not numbers seem to always be 0.

Thanks for your help!

[Thedoge]

Hi Im new here, I've received one of this today in the morning so I'm spending the afternoon testing it, I would ask if it's me or it is possible that the vcmc don't get it well with fast gates, is it true? I'm trying to send brst as well as very fast gate outs from my euro lfo to the machinedrum and the vcmc is avoiding them, Am I missing something?

edit: okkk tried with batumi and it's working like a clock sooo I need to study this deeply

[Befacosynth]

Thanks for the reply! I have the latest firmware, and with two faders set to velocity they seem to be changing velocity for all gates, not just for their numbered gate. I was expecting fader 1 & CV 1 would set velocity for the note assigned to gate 1 and fader 2 & CV 2 would set velocity for the note assigned to gate 2, but both faders are changing the velocity for all notes. Do I need to link them somehow?

Are you configuring the faders to separate MIDI channels?
Cos unfortuantely Velocity here is a general parameter for the MIDI channel.

Hi Im new here, I've received one of this today in the morning so I'm spending the afternoon testing it, I would ask if it's me or it is possible that the vcmc don't get it well with fast gates, is it true? I'm trying to send brst as well as very fast gate outs from my euro lfo to the machinedrum and the vcmc is avoiding them, Am I missing something?

edit: okkk tried with batumi and it's working like a clock sooo I need to study this deeply

Yes it is. Minimum trigger length is 2-3 ms.

also, if you tweak CV delay, this will also be the minimum gate lenght you get.

[Thedoge]

Yes it is. Minimum trigger length is 2-3 ms.

also, if you tweak CV delay, this will also be the minimum gate lenght you get.

Cool, will check it tomorrow

Thanks for your answer

[Befacosynth]

DIYers! VCMC docu has been updated to make Standalone conversion a breeze!
Also, we have a 3D printed case available for it (files to print it yourself are coming!)

[Electro Something]

DIYers! VCMC docu has been updated to make Standalone conversion a breeze!
Also, we have a 3D printed case available for it (files to print it yourself are coming!)

Oh wow this is very cool! So all you need is the module and kit? Is the power coming from USB?

How easy is this kit for a n00b who never does DIY?

[Befacosynth]

Not suitable for beginners!!

If you have an assembled module, you need to remove power connector and a couple of regulators.

Then solder a fuse and a DC/DC regulator!

[SlagRalden]

I just updated to firmware 1.2.3 but the screen says 1.2.2.... it was on 1.0

[SlagRalden]

I'm also having an issue where when I turn the VCMC off and then back on fader 3 (and sometimes fader 5 also) stops working.... if i then reinstall the firmware (again only showing 1.2.2 even though i install 1.2.3) it works again.... until i shut the power off and then turn it back on... then its not working again.... anyone else had either of these issues?

[SlagRalden]

seems like its only happening on the new firmware

[Befacosynth]

I just updated to firmware 1.2.3 but the screen says 1.2.2.... it was on 1.0

This was a typo when we created the Bin files. Now its fixed, try again!

I'm also having an issue where when I turn the VCMC off and then back on fader 3 (and sometimes fader 5 also) stops working.... if i then reinstall the firmware (again only showing 1.2.2 even though i install 1.2.3) it works again.... until i shut the power off and then turn it back on... then its not working again.... anyone else had either of these issues?

Some users had this issue in the past, but we could not spot the source, as it is not happening in our test rigs!!
Ther is a slight differnece here, as it seems to start happening to you after power off. Have you tried saving the configuration first?
also, try the latest binaries uploaded.
If its happening to you, can you test older versions and let us know if its happening in those ones?

v 1.2.2
v 1.2.1

so sorry for any inconvenience!! These tests will help us BIG TIME spot a quite annoying intermitent issue.

[SlagRalden]

I just updated to firmware 1.2.3 but the screen says 1.2.2.... it was on 1.0

This was a typo when we created the Bin files. Now its fixed, try again!

I'm also having an issue where when I turn the VCMC off and then back on fader 3 (and sometimes fader 5 also) stops working.... if i then reinstall the firmware (again only showing 1.2.2 even though i install 1.2.3) it works again.... until i shut the power off and then turn it back on... then its not working again.... anyone else had either of these issues?

Some users had this issue in the past, but we could not spot the source, as it is not happening in our test rigs!!
Ther is a slight differnece here, as it seems to start happening to you after power off. Have you tried saving the configuration first?
also, try the latest binaries uploaded.
If its happening to you, can you test older versions and let us know if its happening in those ones?

v 1.2.2
v 1.2.1

so sorry for any inconvenience!! These tests will help us BIG TIME spot a quite annoying intermitent issue.

I’ll try this and report back

[SlagRalden]

I'm also having an issue where when I turn the VCMC off and then back on fader 3 (and sometimes fader 5 also) stops working.... if i then reinstall the firmware (again only showing 1.2.2 even though i install 1.2.3) it works again.... until i shut the power off and then turn it back on... then its not working again.... anyone else had either of these issues?

Some users had this issue in the past, but we could not spot the source, as it is not happening in our test rigs!!
Ther is a slight differnece here, as it seems to start happening to you after power off. Have you tried saving the configuration first?
also, try the latest binaries uploaded.
If its happening to you, can you test older versions and let us know if its happening in those ones?

v 1.2.2
v 1.2.1

so sorry for any inconvenience!! These tests will help us BIG TIME spot a quite annoying intermitent issue.

The screen now says 1.2.3 but I'm still having the same issue with fader 3 not working after cycling the power, it does the same thing with 1.2.2

Saving to 'user 1' slot before reboot doesn't change anything, I even tried 'mem_wipe.hex' before loading the firmwares but that didn't seem to help either

With 1.2.1 it does the same thing except CV4 doesn't work after reboot instead of fader 3 (fader 3 works fine)

any other ideas?
is it possible to send it out to you for diagnosis/repair/replacment?

Couple of firmware updates i thought of while doing this:
it would be nice if the screen said "Saved" when you save a config, it makes the user feel warm inside
It would also be nice to be able to name the 4 user save slots

[SlagRalden]

P.s. this is one of my favorite modules besides this one issue! Thanks!

[SlagRalden]

also for reference.... The file that works best for my screen offset is 'VCMC_1_2_3_Off_FF.hex'

[Befacosynth]

The screen now says 1.2.3 but I'm still having the same issue with fader 3 not working after cycling the power, it does the same thing with 1.2.2

Saving to 'user 1' slot before reboot doesn't change anything, I even tried 'mem_wipe.hex' before loading the firmwares but that didn't seem to help either

With 1.2.1 it does the same thing except CV4 doesn't work after reboot instead of fader 3 (fader 3 works fine)

any other ideas?
is it possible to send it out to you for diagnosis/repair/replacment?

Couple of firmware updates i thought of while doing this:
it would be nice if the screen said "Saved" when you save a config, it makes the user feel warm inside
It would also be nice to be able to name the 4 user save slots

Sure we can. Send a mail to support@befaco.org with yur address and a reference to this thread and we will send u a new Teensy (that is the source of the issue here).

[SlagRalden]

Just emailed, thanks for being so responsive!

[djthopa]

DIYers! VCMC docu has been updated to make Standalone conversion a breeze!
Also, we have a 3D printed case available for it (files to print it yourself are coming!)

Hola Befaco, tengo el kit para convertir el vcmc en standalone, donde esta el manual de instruciones para realizar las modificaciones?

Gracias!

[djthopa]

Found it second page of the assembly manual.

[migrations]

Does anyone else have an extremely hard time calibrating this module? I'm trying to get it to calibrate correctly to pitch data from my intellijel scales and it doesnt come close to tracking properly regardless of what I do. This is not a problem with any other module that I use in conjunction with scales. for some reason I cant get these to play nice. just to test, I'll set scales to only output a c note, and when I read the VCMC screen its sending out all kinds of random notes, even though it should just be reading/sending C's at different octaves. Is my board busted or is this the case everywhere? Once again, I've tried every possible calibration technique I can think to try. Am I missing something, or does this module just not work with this quantizer?

[revoltcrews]

Does anyone else have an extremely hard time calibrating this module? I'm trying to get it to calibrate correctly to pitch data from my intellijel scales and it doesnt come close to tracking properly regardless of what I do. This is not a problem with any other module that I use in conjunction with scales. for some reason I cant get these to play nice. just to test, I'll set scales to only output a c note, and when I read the VCMC screen its sending out all kinds of random notes, even though it should just be reading/sending C's at different octaves. Is my board busted or is this the case everywhere? Once again, I've tried every possible calibration technique I can think to try. Am I missing something, or does this module just not work with this quantizer?

Yep, been there, here's my notes from my initial post last summer, from which I've simply moved on and haven't tried calibrating since, module still behaves the same way, almost unusable, but kinda is, maybe one day I'll have a successful calibration procedure, Befaco even sent me a new Teensy, which was so awesome and I'm super grateful for that, turns out, still can't be calibrated for some ungodly reason:
--getting serious ghost trigs: with each channel's block fully programmed and set to its own output from 1-8, and having only channels 1 & 2 with gate/cv patched, practically every other channel is ghost triggering.
--perhaps this is a bug, or not: my channels only function if both Gate & CV are patched.
I noticed, if I only patch a Gate in to each channel, even with the midi channels set from 1-8, they only trigger Channel 1, until I patch a CV in, then they output to each channel.

[migrations]

Does anyone else have an extremely hard time calibrating this module? I'm trying to get it to calibrate correctly to pitch data from my intellijel scales and it doesnt come close to tracking properly regardless of what I do. This is not a problem with any other module that I use in conjunction with scales. for some reason I cant get these to play nice. just to test, I'll set scales to only output a c note, and when I read the VCMC screen its sending out all kinds of random notes, even though it should just be reading/sending C's at different octaves. Is my board busted or is this the case everywhere? Once again, I've tried every possible calibration technique I can think to try. Am I missing something, or does this module just not work with this quantizer?

Yep, been there, here's my notes from my initial post last summer, from which I've simply moved on and haven't tried calibrating since, module still behaves the same way, almost unusable, but kinda is, maybe one day I'll have a successful calibration procedure, Befaco even sent me a new Teensy, which was so awesome and I'm super grateful for that, turns out, still can't be calibrated for some ungodly reason:
--getting serious ghost trigs: with each channel's block fully programmed and set to its own output from 1-8, and having only channels 1 & 2 with gate/cv patched, practically every other channel is ghost triggering.
--perhaps this is a bug, or not: my channels only function if both Gate & CV are patched.
I noticed, if I only patch a Gate in to each channel, even with the midi channels set from 1-8, they only trigger Channel 1, until I patch a CV in, then they output to each channel.

hey thanks for the response. Maybe I'm misreading but it doesnt seem like we're having the same issue?
I dont have any problem with ghost trigs, in fact that aspect of it works perfectly. My issue seems to be that I cant get it to output the correct midi notes. The calibration of the cv to midi notes is way off. Everything fires in time properly, its just that the notes are all wrong.
Were you having this problem as well?

[revoltcrews]

The calibration of the cv to midi notes is way off.

Yes, that's also happening here. the cv to midi note data is off as well. mainly it's your 1st sentence that I'm agreeing with, that my module doesn't seem to want to calibrate at all. no matter how many times I try. no matter what sources I use. I tried again yesterday. same results. somethings off. maybe its me.

[Sweetfiltersweep]

VCMC on fire:

[Paranormal Patroler]

I love that they say "essentially we control the DAW with analog gear" when essentially they are controlling the DAW with digital gear, by sending the DAW a digital signal, and since the chromaphone is just sending gates, even that signal could just as easily be digital instead of analog. Still cool, but why the analog fetish?