Friday, July 1, 2016

New firmware 0.96 for rev k, l boards


Summary:
In this update I tried to experiment a bit more with some new features in mode 1. Mode 3 also has some new questionable features. Visual feedback was added to help selecting Q modes. Some minor bugs were fixed.

Only the changes below are implemented. If it is not in the list then it is not in the firmware update. This file will only work on rev k or l boards.

Relevant links:
Firmware release 0.96 for rev k,l 
Installation Instructions
Quick 1 page reference card for firmware 0.96k

Detail:
All modes: changing Q mode will cause the LED to blink white for a short period. When the Q mode selected is the non-quantized setting, the LED will blink for a longer period. This way you can know where in the list of Q modes you are more easily. In total there are 6 Q modes so you should have 5 short blinks and one long blink every 6 taps of the Q switch.

Mode 1:
Holding the soft footswitch no longer allows you to adjust the low pass filter. Instead hold Q down and turn DIR 1 to access this feature. Holding the soft switch down for a long period currently has no effect in mode 1.

With Q down you can also now activate a sinusoidal LFO to modulate DIR 1. The frequency can be adjusted by turning LEN B and the depth can be adjusted with FBK. To disable the LFO simply turn FBK fully CCW with Q held down (depth of zero = no effect). The LFO is relatively slow and subtle, this is the range I prefer. It may be tweaked in future firms.

With Q up you can adjust 2 parameters of a trigger which causes the read head to move a certain distance away from the write head when the amplitude of the input signal breaks a certain threshold. DIR 1 adjusts the sensitivity/threshold level of the trigger, CCW makes it more sensitive (lower amplitude required to break the threshold). Fully CW turns off the trigger. LEN B will adjust the relative distance the read head is placed after a trigger event (in the positive direction). When a trigger event occurs the LED will flash white briefly, this should help you adjust the sensitivity level. The LED will stay white while input is above threshold. The trigger is generated at the moment the LED turns white. No further triggers are generated while the LED is white. At power up the trigger is disabled, the distance is one half LEN B.

Regardless of Q position or sensitivity level, tapping the soft footswitch can also be used to generate a trigger and move the read head the specified distance away. This way you do not actually have to play to cause a trigger or if you want to trigger on a softer note than the trigger level requires, you can tap and play at the same moment.

The expression pedal can only be used to adjust the 3 default parameters (Q in middle position). To adjust the parameters which require Q to be pushed up or down, you must use the physical knob on the pedal, regardless of E position or whether or not an expression pedal is plugged in.

Mode 2:
No changes.

Mode 3:
With Q up you can now step modulate DIR 1, 2, 3. The steps are random, but are also affected by the quantizer, so for example if you are in the whole tone quantization then you will get only  random whole tone settings.  DIR 1 will control the tempo, DIR 2 the variance and DIR 3 sets how many of the playback heads are affected by the step sequencer. From fully CCW to ~1/4 of the range no heads are affected (sequencer is off), from 1/4 to noon only DIR 3 is affected, noon to 3/4 DIR 2 and 3, and past 3/4 DIR 1, 2, 3 are stepped. At power up the sequencer is disabled. To enable it hold Q up and rotate FBK CW.

The loops are not reset when a step occurs so this tends to make things somewhat rhythmically incoherent, but can be interesting with more droney or vocal loops. For best results try to play something in a key similar to the quantization style.

Other bug fixes:
Bug: when flipping from Mode 2 to Mode 1 with no loop playing and transcendence on, the buffer lengths in Mode 1 would be incorrect. This has been fixed and now seems to work as expected.

Bug: DIR 1 does not achieve exactly 2x forward speed in non-quantized mode. This has been adjusted.



22 comments:

Unknown said...

Got my first CT5 this week and I'm loving it!

Stoked about the Q switch visual identification update.

Question about adjusting the low pass filter. What does this feature do? Does it take away some of the brightness of the pedal?

Apologies for not understanding - I'm still learning the technical details!

Thanks,

Nate

Scott said...

yes in mode 1 it will add a lowpass filter to the repeats. It does not affect the clean sound though, just the repeats/wet side.

Unknown said...

Excellent, thanks!

Does this wiped when the pedal is powered off, and thus has to be reset when activating the pedal?

Unknown said...

Any of this coming for older J boards?

Scott said...

@Nathan,

yes unfortunately the settings are not saved when you power down at the moment.

@Lee

Yes eventually we will have some update for h,i,j boards.

S

Unknown said...

Would you be able to maybe dumb down an explanation for the trigger mode? I think I get what it's supposed to do but I don't get it, and can't hear much of a difference while using it.

Scott said...

@Lily

The point is just to make it so you can insure similarly spaced echoes at each trigger. It is actually a subtle change. If it is not something that bothered you before about mode 1, you may not really notice what is the difference. I will try to make a video later today showing what the point of the trigger is.

S

Unknown said...

Does 0.96K also contain the Volume Control (Mode 3) of the 0.95k update?
Thanks!

Scott said...

@Lily, here is a simple illustration of the trigger https://youtu.be/dvK8d3wvI-A

@Bibabibliobeeboop

Yes, if anything is taken out it/changed is described in the above post.

Unknown said...

I just wanted to express my appreciation for your work on existing pedals, looking to improve the existing customer experience while working on new pedals. Also, (and it doesn't sound like much but means a lot) you create preorders and are very organized. It leaves few surprises and keeps potential customers informed on updates. Very few people/companies deliver that. Thanks bud.

Unknown said...

Hey Scott, I've sent you an e-mail about picking up the CT5 I preordered from Montreal. I'm commenting here just in case it's in your junk folder or something..

Scott said...

@Mark
Thanks for your kind words

@Unknown
Can you resend the email to me? I will send you my phone number and we can arrange pick up. The address can be found on this page if you want to look it up. The closest Metro is Rosemont or Laurier. http://mtlasm.blogspot.ca/p/return.html

Andrew said...

Is there anyway to make this firmware available for a Mac? I have no access to a PC and really want this new firmware. Thanks!

Scott said...

@Andrew

You can do it with dfu-util. There is some discussion here on ILF between people who were able to do it.

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=206&t=43246&start=1575#p1114835

Here is the dfu-util home page as well

http://dfu-util.sourceforge.net/

kaiviti said...

I can comfirm flashing the ct5 with dfu-util works perfectly. I used Linux but that shouldn't matter. I posted the command on the instakkation instructions page, linked to at the top of this page.

Békevári J. Gábor írásai said...

Hey All,

just tried to update my CT5 rev. K, no success yet. I got to the 'allow Win to automatically find the driver online.... may take several minutes' part, when, after like 25-30 mins. of Windows trying to locate the driver, I had to give back the borrowed WIN laptop. Is waiting this long normal in this case? The internet connection was OK. Also, is finding the driver automatically the only option or can the driver be downloaded, then be located manually on the PC? I have a Macbook but I'm a total noob when it comes to 'under the hood' stuff, so working with D-util and Terminal and the like is way beyond my skills. I certainly don't want to brick the pedal. I'll have this Windows laptop with me for the coming weekend and would love to successfully update the CT5. Any advice on this will be welcome.

Cheers, Gabor

Scott said...

@one male

the drivers are in the default directory that dfuse installed into, or the directory you specified. For example on my computer it is

C:\Program Files (x86)\STMicroelectronics\Software\DfuSe v3.0.4\Bin\Driver

In Driver you have subfolders for different versions of windows, and then further sub folders for 32 or 64 bit architectures. Select the one that applies to you.

s

Békevári J. Gábor írásai said...

@Scott, thanks a lot, this explains it all. Looks like I'm noob in Win as well. :) Thanks again.

Scott said...

@one male
no problem. im not sure why sometimes windows finds it and sometimes not, presumably they all connect to the same driver resources online... at least there is still a manual way. :)

Békevári J. Gábor írásai said...

@Scott I've just run the update twice, everything went all right and exactly as described in the instructions, but nothing seems to have changed in my CT5, no new features, no white led flashing when setting Q, the filter still works with the soft switch pushed and dir 1 turned, etc. Holding down Q and turning the knobs doesn't do anything either, I mean the knobs work as before and pushing Q has no effect. My unit is nr. 1073, got it this past April or May, so it's supposed to be rev. K and fw 0.96 should work. Am I doing something wrong here? I'm glad the pedal works but would love to have the features as well. Cheers, Gabor

Unknown said...

Hey there, Ryan here.

In my own experimentation, the trigger is most noticeable with the LFO on. Not sure if that was clear in the documentation, or if I just missed it. Anyway, it's really cool.

Unknown said...

Then again, you can get it to groove w/o LFO...