MIDI Goblin

Progress report! Goblin Wizard, website construction, features, debugging, the future! Profit?
12 days ago – Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 10:45:50 AM

Hi everyone, just a quick update on the progress of state of the project right now - Things are looking pretty good!

• I recently did a little demonstration of MIDI Goblin in Toronto at the Tranzac. It was a fun night of weird instruments and although I didn't get to show most of MIDI Goblins features (and accidentally loaded a buggy sequence file) it was a great night!

Regarding Production of the Goblins:

• A small program for PC, MAC and LINUX called "Goblin Wizard" is also in the works. 
  Goblin Wizard is a very simple program that can be used to add synthesizers to the MIDI Goblin. I'll have a video on it in the future but right now its in the development phase. Quite useful though. 
• The vast majority of MIDI Goblin components have arrived including the PCB, OLED screens, MIDI Din connectors, Microcontrollers (esp32) and replacement optocouplers. Buttons are also currently being 3d printed as I write this update...thousands of em! This current stock of components will allow me to create approximately 300 Goblins before having to re-order components. 
• The company manufacturing the enclosures (Polycase) has informed me that they have completed production and that they're currently in transit.  Other components are still in transit - sd card reader modules, micro sd cards and encoders. Thankfully these are easy to find and easy to install components, so their delay isn't a major issue. 
• A quality control Arduino sketch has also been created that can automatically test the MIDI Goblin's after they've been assembled to ensure that they're functioning properly. I'll host this on midigoblin.com in the future as well - Could be useful for troubleshooting and learning about how the Goblin's hardware works. 
• MIDIGOBLIN.com is also under construction as well(though you can still visit it in its old form)
• I'm working on a lot of content for MIDIGOBLIN.COM, mostly written tutorials, video tutorials and documentation - its a lot of work but kind of fun. I hate video editing but video tutorials are quite helpful. 
• When it comes to the Midi Goblin features - bad news! I wont be personally adding any new apps....for the time being. There will certainly be new firmware down the road after shipping that may include bug fixes(hopefully not many) and possibly new features created by me, but for the time being I'll personally only be focusing on debugging and optimizing MIDI Goblins current features..I want the MIDI Goblin you receive to be rock solid and bug free - this will require a lot of time and effort, my hands are quite full at the moment so adding new apps is unfortunately not an option. 

As for the future of MIDI Goblin (rough start, bright future)

 A pretty big system is now in place that allows for MIDI Goblins to be created, but in order to continue this as an ongoing work effort rather than a simple project I'll have to work harder on trying to actually....profit from selling MIDI Goblins.

Despite raising over $20,000 on Kickstarter - I definitely priced the Kickstarter units too low ....In fact, I will end up losing a pretty good chunk of change on the initial 193 units sold through Kickstarter - DARNIT!

Not to say the Kickstarter run was a total loss, or that I'll be in financial peril as a result of the Kickstarter campaign - quite the opposite - that initial amount raised covered vast majority of the start-up costs. There were a lot of unexpected costs though that are un-avoidable and I will personally lose a bit of money to get those first units out the door - it'll be worth it though. 

Thankfully the Backerkit sales are quickly evening things out. The Backerkit prices are a bit higher than the Kickstarter prices were and selling a couple dozen more units through Backerkit should actually put the project as a whole into profit territory so a huge thank you to both the Kickstarter and Backerkit backers - also please spread the word if you can. Even a simple share on social media can go a long way. I'm doing my best to keep the prices of MIDI Goblin down so everyone can afford them and the best way to do that, is to sell a whole lot of em'

As for shipping - I am still estimating late November - early December for when shipping will begin. There's a ton of work to be done still and Its hard to anticipate delays with a project like this. I will try to keep everyone updated a bit more consistently here and on my instagram - especially if I can foresee some sort of delay - but rest assured I'm working hard to create the Goblins, the ball is rolling and they're going to be pretty dang cool!

-Andrew

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Using midi goblin as an arpeggiator for Juno 106 and DX-7...also sequencer for DMX midi
28 days ago – Sun, Sep 29, 2024 at 03:52:31 PM

Hi everyone. This isn't a full demonstration but just a tiny little preview. I hope 106 and DX-7 users find this useful...

 

Bad news - shipping delay. But also some good news
about 1 month ago – Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 03:08:36 PM

Dear Kickstarter backers - I have some bad news. The expected MIDI Goblin shipping date will (likely) be pushed back until late November/early December - but - this update isn't just going to be bad news. 

First - the bad news: Despite my best efforts, there have been a couple significant setbacks this week which seem like they're going to impact the shipping date of MIDI Goblin.

1. Out of stock component: The manufacturer of the MIDI Goblin's PCB (printed circuit board) is out of a vital, surface mount component....rather than waiting multiple months for them to have the part back in stock, ill be attempting to source the part from a different supplier and installing each one by hand. 

This will likely distract me from being able to perform other important tasks such creating thorough documentation the the device itself, overhauling and preparing the Midi Goblin firmware for its release, updating the website and creating high-quality demonstration/instructional videos of midi goblin's various apps..I do intend to continue to work on these things - in fact, I have more things I intend to add - but this missing-component issue is a pretty big setback. 

2. Unexpected fees - this was a bit of a team effort as I did not predict the correct amount of the enclosure import fees, and a representative at the enclosure manufacturer was under the impression there would be no import fee at all - We were both wrong! 

There were also many unexpected fees associated with prototyping the MIDI Goblin PCB and enclosure. Ordering new screens, modifying the enclosure, redesigning the PCB and basically rewriting all of the code to work with the new hardware ate up a lot of resources but the result is a better device so it was worth it. I will likely have to personally take on some contract work to offset these unexpected costs which will also cut into MIDI Goblin production time.  


Typically electronic devices like MIDI Goblin take a long time to develop. Many electronics projects on Kickstarter give themselves generous timelines for their expected release date. Its not uncommon for it to take up to a year before backers receive the thing they backed. 

Had I priced MIDI Goblin higher, made no improvements and set the expected shipping date for next July - there would be no missing component issue, the screen would be smaller, I'd probably have made a hefty profit and I think everyone would be kind of disappointed in MIDI Goblin. I do greatly apologize for setting expectations incorrectly with the shipping date but it was exactly that - an expected shipping date. I will try to have midi goblins ship as close to it as possible but - more time is needed to ensure you receive a finished product. 



Now for some good news - Sysex commands. I've added the ability to send individual sysex commands. Ill have to go into more detail on this in the future but, this is a pretty major update. Having the ability to send a sysex command to certain synths allows you to do things you can't normally do with standard midi messages...it could potentially allow vintage analog synths like the juno 106 to use the midi goblin's arpeggiator...I will experiment with this more as I wait for the missing components to arrive. In theory this could lead to sysex patch storage capabilities and remapping sysex parameter value messages to cc or vice versa - quite useful...but for now, you can send individual sysex messages - cool!

You can now also save settings for each individual synth you have added to midi goblin. A separate settings file is created for each device you add to your Goblin now, so if you have one synth that uses certain channels, you don't have to worry about manually setting them when you restart your Goblin. App parameters like the arpeggiators tempo, arp notes length, the default sequence length are also saved in this settings file too so if you like the way you have things set up for your synth - you can save it now without effecting other devices added to MIDI Goblin. 

Also a small arpeggiator improvement: you can now control the velocity of notes that are being arpeggiated - sweet! 

 

A more in-depth look at the new Morph feature.
about 1 month ago – Thu, Sep 19, 2024 at 02:31:20 PM

Huge update! New features added, pre-orders now available through Backerkit
about 1 month ago – Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 08:36:52 AM

Good news everyone! I've added a bunch of new features to MIDI Goblin and it is now available for pre-order through Backerkit (backerkit orders expected to ship in late November)
Now I should mention - the Kickstarter backers are getting the new screen and as a free upgrade and if you missed the Kickstarter campaign the new price for MIDI Goblin is $125 Canadian - still affordable but a bit higher than the kickstarter prices (this will help me cover taxes, import fees and whatnot)