Hi, All.

I'm stumped...

Here's what I have so far (see "TiGR-Resurrected-20160709.zip" below, requires Mobmuplat development environment):

a (19 page) Mobmuplat (MMP) frontend, that I use as the GUI, which I run on my laptop thru the MMP editor (which someone sort of suggested, since my handheld can Not handle the load of the app on its own-Note: I have tried OSC and it does not work as well as this setup);

the first page is the Main Page;

the subsequent 18 pages each have one unique pedal/effect on them with all of its respective controls;

the Main Page has 7 (18 slot) vsliders with each value representing one of the pedals represented by one of the mmp pedal pages;

the Main Page also has a (currently not implemented, but I will probably put it to use once I figure out this issue first) a 7-slot multislider which will be used to change the preset of any pedal in its respective slot;

all pages, including the Main Page, have a preset control abstraction (mine) which saves and loads the page's primary control values;

the Main Page is a "stack" so the guitarist can build a rack of >1 pedal and up to 7 effects (triggering no pedals is just a bypass);

different Main Page slots may be filled with the Same effect, in which case, the most recently applied parameters for a pedal are applied to all of its chosen slots.

GOAL:

While I am playing, be able to smoothly change the "voice", i.e. slot arrangements and pedal parameters (via their presets) of my guitar without taking my hands off the strings/neck.

Work so far:

I used a "Logitect Dual Action (usb game) Controller" and hid library to change the effects (left joystick slots and right joystick pedals). But because I had not setup presets, yet I had it randomizing parameters and while interesting the volume spiking and chances the multiplied gains would be too low was Awful!!!

Needed help:

How would I go about making a (what I am thinking of as a 2-d) stompbox that would let me rearrange the pedals in each slot AND/OR change any given slot's pedal parameters.

I'm not going to have a problem with the logic of it, as I can see clearly how that can be accomplished. But I am unclear how to build or use Or buy a piece of hardware that will allow me to do this.

My first Bad guess, or at least place to start, is it is an array of stompboxes. I can intuitively tell this is way wrong, But I can not, for the life of me, visualize/feel the better or possibly even optimal solution for this.

Little help, please.

So your suggestions, advise, insight, encouragement would all be very, very, very welcome.

Peace and thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
svanya

TiGR-Resurrected-20160709.zip

Oh!!! Forgot to say, re: the presets:

The small white knob next to the three white buttons is the preset control.

You select a save slot with the knob and the three buttons are in this (reading left to right) order: "Activate" (which you click to tell the app which preset file to read/write to, "Save" and "Load".

Let me know if you need more instructions.

I think an external keyboard might do the trick!!!

As I have since refined the requirements (just writing them out helped a LOT! and thinking maybe someoneanyone understand what I was talking about, as noone else I know is into PD).

A much simpler set of requirements is:

be able to:

1 Change the overall/Main Page/Slot Arrangements presets > 1-10
2 Select one of the 7 slots and the pedal therein
3 Change the selected pedal (in 2) to one of its 10 presets.

10>7>10!!!

Much simpler.

So after going around and around with a flight stick (which Would work, but require enormous amounts of setup), to possibly shelling out a bunch of cash for a 3-pedal game controller (which also would have worked but required not only cash but a lot of programming) I have since landed on the (what is clear to me now, DOH!!!) The Obvious Choice: an external/usb keyboard with a mount-face/overlay on it to select keys, 1-10. 1-7, and 1-10 keys.

1-0 > Main Page Slots
and then some selected keys for the 1-7 and another set of selected keys for the 1-10.

Thank you'll for listening. Just thinking I had you'll in my corner was what I needed to "set my mind free".

Peace, goodwill, and endless streams of Music.

Sincerely,
svanya

p.s. I am still enthusiastic hear Any and All other ideas, as I will now have to spend so time creating a keyboard overlay. :---)))

UPDATE:

WOW!!! Things have really kicked into high gear, including but not limited to the following:

I built the container for the keyboard:

out of an old board-game box ("Guess Who" game);

made the pedals from (borrowing from Pierre at Guitar Extended) some old Lego Duplo blocks I had;

secured/made a ballast/elevated the backend for the box using wooden blocks I had from when my kids were younger;

secured the whole thing using wood-glue and duct tape.

The "pedals" include in the following arrangement (will include pics prob tomorrow after the final gluing dries):

across the top:

dsp(on|off) (2 small wooden blocks), (the following are from stacks of 3 2x4 legos) bender- (red), benderselect (yellow), bender+ (blue);

bottom section (each made from 6 (in a brick) 2x4 legos): typeselector (red), select- (yellow), select (green), select+ (blue), bypass (black).

Am working on the logic currently to include:

dsp (obvious) (is also going act as a fail-safe in case anything gets out of control);

the benders will: take a single parameter on an effect and incr- or decr-ment it, with the middle button to set the parameter;

the bottom section, will do the same as the bender except

the left-most (red) pedal will

if held (hid key_val=2) longer than x time, set the selectors to adjust the overall sound (i.e. which effects go into which of the 7 slots) by setting a value to between 1 and 10 then selecting that preset;

if held (hid key_val=2) longer than y time, set the selectors to
1 select which slot I want to adjust, meaning the effect in that slot;
2 select a preset (between 1 and 10) for the above slot.

the black-bypass will

depending on the current value of CurrType (Arrangment or Slot), bypass either the whole setup or the Current Slot.

Total Cost for the Whole setup: <10$ and lots of blood and sweat.

note:
Though no tears! (Well, except maybe that 45 minutes I spent in my bathtub with all the lights out, wondering what in the hell point there was to my "work" after I had seen MMB's "gui.eq7.mmb~" (which I very quickly dubbed "The God Filter"). (2 weeks later I had learned enough to implement it

afterward:

When I first (now coming up on nine months ago) saw Pierre's website, I knew, just KNEW, a guitar effects pedal/rack had been put in the reach of not only me, but ANYbody who had little-to-no money if they were just willing to put in the effort.

-peace.
svanya

as promised: pics.

note: have found: since hid captures (and can be VERY quickly depending on how you set the polling) keyboard entries quickly and since the lego blocks (which were used because I knew they would ride on the keys without depressing them) lay flat on the board (and so pretty much trigger them all at once) it has been necessary to make elevating-pads for the keys so the key I want, or at least the one that fires best, goes off when I want it to.

The first pic is what it took to make the box and second is once it is assembled.

Update:

Turns out "pads" are Not necessary.

Instead, what you can do is capture the sum of multiple fields/keys so that when the sum=3 (by sending a bang back into the other numbers to keep the total 'fresh'), for a tap (across the entire Lego block) for instance, THEN it triggers.

Have begun testing it with my feet (bare) and the changes are nice and fluid.

Was stumped by the thought that I might have created a monster with the number of possible permutations but cut it down from multiples (large) to only 1 by using only a single set of presets per arrangement.

Meaning for each configuration of sliders, the accompanying effects have their own preset set ☺.

I then pack and unpack them to a text file with my preset control.

So by having the Arrangement preset control include 24 entries instead of only 7 it (Viola!) sets and loads the entire arrangement.

p.s. Am having Sooo much fun with this. VERY much looking fw to the day I can share "Output".

-peace
svanya

Merry Pd-ing!

Follow-up:

This technique of turning old keyboards into midi-tools is sooo easy (and fun!) the other night for kicks I made another one.

This time as a looper controller:

6 "pads" with just cardboard as the pedal (as the keyboard was very flat and low-lying") and duct-tape securing the cardboard over the keys;

risers to select keys so they would trigger first and it wouldn't freeze (as it does if you push multiple keys at once) with chunks of sticky notes (the gummy side) stacked on top of one another,

6 pedals for record, select (which parameter to shift), down, stop, up, and play

the parameters shifted automatically on a tap to start--tap stop to end basis

put a metro slider in place to control the rate of shift.

Worked great! (but apparently I am less adept at using my feet than I thought as I have already moved on to producing a front-facing smartphone MobMuPlat adapter for it to mount directly on the body of my guitar as I play...to be continued)

Since it was really just a proof of concept, the code (1 patch) is pretty messy.

Will post it later when I'm closer to it with a few pics.

Ciao! And rem: all those old keyboards you have lying around Can be out to good use.

Make merry.
-svanya