Multifaceted MIDI Transformer

Multifaceted MIDI Transformer

is a MIDI effect with a very simple mission: to take anything and turn it into anything else as long as it is a MIDI message.

At its heart it consists of two formulas containing basic mathematical expressions which have the numerical components of MIDI messages as their variables. To facilitate editing, these formulas are not presented as editable text, but in a kind a of "questionnaire" format. This "questionnaire" is arranged in two rows, each having its own purpose. The first row always describes what kind of MIDI data should be subjected to transformation and the second always describes what this transformation would look like. E.g. the first row might determine that only NOTE events are to be regarded and the second that the pitch of each note is to be raised one fifth. This would constitute a simple harmonizer.

Treated properly, the Multifaceted MIDI Transformer can be used for a lot of meaningful purposes - as e.g.

• the creation of keyboard and velocity layers for multi-timbral setups,
• the translation of MIDI controllers into other controller types or for
• mapping them to different ranges, e.g. to derive different curves out of one modulation wheel,
• for fabricating drum-triggers of all kinds, e.g. having a trigger emitted or a NOTE event send when a certain controller reaches a certain level and finally
• to randomize quite everything MIDI-related beyond recognition.

How to use it

To edit any element of any of the formulas press the button beneath and and watch it light up. Now turning the knob below will change the content of exactly this element.

The little fourfold monitor at the bottom shows the numerical components of the last MIDI message that has entered the module.

Also intended for observational purposes is the red LED at the top of the module. It will flare up when an event meets the requirements of the first formula and every such flare will be accompanied by a trigger signal via the output jack beneath.

The two switches located at the top of the module set the four different modes in which the module can operate:

• The Transform Replace mode is to transform incoming events and to replace the originals with the transformations.
• In Transform Add mode transformed events are instead added to the originals.
• In Filter Pass mode matching events are promoted to the output without being transformed, but non-matching ones are discarded.
• In Filter Notch mode it is the other way around.

As one might have guessed already, such a module might be useful for a lot of different tasks, but it can equally do a myriad of completely nonsensical things. This depends on the handling. For this reason there are two large green buttons that will help in cleaning up any MIDI mess the module might have caused due to improper use:

• MIDI Panic sends a request to turn off all "hanging" notes to the receiving plug-ins (and hopefully they will do so).
• All Notes Off does quite the same but it turns off the notes by itself and it turns off only those which it has produced itself. For this purpose there is also an input jack awaiting trigger signals. It becomes useful in case the user decides to convert arbitrary messages into NOTE ON events (yes, that's possible). For these NOTE ON events no corresponding NOTE OFF events would be send and the notes would go on droning forever - unless a clock signal or a similar triggering device connected to this input stops them.

An example

The expressions in the sample image above would read as follows:

"Take all CHANNEL PRESSURE events, no matter on what channel they were received and what value they have, and convert them into NOTE ON events. These have to be put on channel 16, while the old pressure values should be mapped to a note range between C4 and C7. Velocity values should be random values between 29 and 116."

Two exceptions from the rule

In most possible configurations the data flow within the module will be quite self-evident. The transformation "add 2" e.g. adds to the first data element of the MIDI event when it appears in the Data1 box and to the second when it is found in the Data2 box.

But there are two exceptions from this rule:

• When an event that has only one data element is transformed into an event with two elements, both Data transformations will apply to the (one and only) Data1 element of the original.
• When a CONTROL CHANGE event is transformed into something other than another CONTROL CHANGE, both Data transformations will apply to the Data2 element of the original event (i.e. the controller value). Since the original Data1 contained the type of the controller, it would be of no use to events of another class.