It was hard to start XP and get into making this... but it was worth it....
Tetra CC is a Midi CC controller for DSI Tetra.
It was made because it is free of the issues that you may have with other hardware/software controllers, which create artefacts and make the DSI tetra go wild and unuseable. So it is my best Tetra CC editor for the moment
- useful only if you have the DSI TEtra synth.
- Don't look at the graphics (no time for this now)
- Don't forget to get the Tempo preset list (seperate link on the download page)
Thanks a lot for this device, i just got a DSI Tetra a few weeks ago and i love it! I did not tried your version yet but I will. What are the benefits of using this over the Soundtower editor? Their latest version seems pretty stable...
The offcial editors don't work fine for me. I don't know if it is because I haven't the paid version yet, but after a few minutes of editing, the sound goes wild. I would hear high frequency artefacts, like if the oscillator tuning and some parameters went out of range and cannot go back to the original state (obliged to reboot tetra hardware or change the current preset). It is possible that it is a limitation of the free version but I think it could be due to the NRPN which are 4 CC together with extra info: something does not seem to be working fine in the editors that I have tried).
Also, Tetra CC is the only way I can use midi CC for hardware controllers (as you said), because if I directly control the Tetra with with my Zero SL, then I also have the sound go crazy and no possibility to reset without rebooting the Tetra. The Tetra CC was made because of that, and allowed me to get rid of all the above problems and to integrate midi control more easily in my DAW.
I have not yet fully tested it with hardware controller: there will be no problem of mapping, but I still have to see what happens when moving several parameters at once. I also think this is due to the implementation of the NRPN and a bug of the Tetra (editor?) that sometimes makes conflicts between "single CC" and "NRPN". At some point, and pretty quickly, the Tetra will go wild.
Tetra CC has proved completely free of those erratic behaviors (at leats for the moment, it has been working great). May be because it acts like a "bridge and filter" that outputs "clean" midi CC that will not conflict with DSI TEtra NRPN functions/implementation.
With Tetra CC, you can record CC movements in your DAW, something that I haven't been able to do with anything else (the Tetra does not output CC, and neither does the editors).
In Studio One V2, you cannot record NRPN, and I doubt it is possible in Cubase too. So Tetra CC is the only way if you intend to record Midi CC for DSI Tetra.
Finally, another advantage of the Tetra CC is that it has tempo presets (available for download too so you don't have to make them (I didn't put all the tempos, but a lot of them, as they must be created one by one), and when you browse the tetra sounds, it becomes easier to send a tempo value by clicking on the desired tempo preset. I must do the same for the "PAN only", because I generally like to deactivate the auto panning on many tetra sounds. With that, you don't need to assign Tempo to one of the controller (and you save a lot of time like that, not a few seconds, but minutes by day, and probably hours by month or year: this is crucial to me: speed and time/stress saving to do other stuff).
Finally (2); click on a parameter of the Tetra CC like Oscillator Tuning, Tempo, and other, and use arrow up/down to increment values by 1 semi tone / BPM/other. Very useful !!!
The other presets can also be used to randomly try to modify a sound by modifying only the controls with Midi CC. This is not a crucial function, but it can be fun. This (the main preset list or other preset list) also have program changes, so a preset can be modified progressively at different moments of the song.
The only control I do really miss is the LFO rates, but those are not available as midi CC in Tetra.... :-/
The tetra CC is to be used in "Program mode" (all 4 layers together or in "layer combo mode" on some sounds where the "edit/B" button actually allows to edit a 2nd layer almost independantly from the 1st layer, but this seems to depend on the tetra sound: some of them allow this, some other don't... a mistery of the architecture of the Tetra).
The midi CC are not available in "Multitimbral mode (that is why i decided for the tetra, but I realize I don't use multitimbral at all, mainly because it is very difficult to edit in the curent DSI Tetra architecture).
Thanks for the detailed overview, it is indeed a very useful device! I had some problems with their editor, Tetra behaving strange with an older version, but now it works fine for me (also after a clean Windows install, so I'm not sure what is the problem really). Soundtower is known for a lot of bugs, also the (paid) Evolver editor behaves strangely after years of updates, but i guess it's not an easy job for the old 5 pin midi port to handle that much information. The USB on Tetra is a great addition...
I think recording smooth CC movements in your DAW is crucial, so I thank you again for this device, I will post here my experiences with it when i will be able to use it properly.
Nice, I want build one for my Yamaha TX7!!!
Do you know where I can find some tutorials about SDK for MIDI sysex duty?
I don't have really any idea about how to build a midi controller in scope...
4PC + Scope 5.0 + no more Xite + 2xScope Pro + 6xPulsarII + 2xLunaII + SDK + a lot of devices (Flexor III & Solaris 4.1 etc.) + Plugiator.
erminardi wrote:Nice, I want build one for my Yamaha TX7!!!
Do you know where I can find some tutorials about SDK for MIDI sysex duty?
I don't have really any idea about how to build a midi controller in scope...
MIDI control change is easy enough to implement. You can assign a fixed MIDI CC number for each control on your panel within SDK.
System Exclusive messages are another story entirely. Sending them is possible - My LOOP device is capable of sending short strings and could be modified to suit the task. Receiving messages back from your TX7 could be a problem though.
Maybe better to look at Max/MSP for a Sysex editor. Or if you have the new SDK in mind then maybe take a look at JUICE.
NB: you can't use the Tetra CC with a controller, if it receives, it doesn't send, and vice versa. I completely forgot why i did the CC2 series of device and how scope works .
So for the moment it is useable with a mouse in scope and you can record the pot mouse movement into the daw, and then send directly to the tetra if that's possible.
Multiple controllers at once works well though. Presets from the TetraCC are well restored on the DSI Tetr4 .
this is cool but just for information there exists a free ctrlr framework for only making panels and cc / sysex handling
i guess there also a tetra panel existing
at www.ctrlr.org
lg widy
I've never heard of that interface before sharc mentionned it a few posts above ...
I have the impression that there have been recent bug fixes on the Tetra Editor (the "official" one) with vst version.
Did anyone tried the VST version yet ? does it still have the "tetra go crazy" bug ? http://www.soundtower.com/tetra/
