MIDI Goblin

Upgraded hardware, potential pre-order store.
4 months ago – Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 09:21:38 AM

Hi everyone, good news! Since the day the campaign was funded I've been hard at work exploring options for potential upgrades to the MIDI Goblin's hardware. There's been a lot of experimentation over the last month, using various components and pin layouts for the esp32. 

Here's a small list of changes and upgrades...

1 - screen upgrade! 
Previously MIDI Goblin was using a .98", i2c, oled display - this has been changed to a 1.3 inch SPI oled display. Although .98", i2c displays are great because they occupy few esp32 pins and are very cheap - they are quite slow and teeny tiny. 

The new 1.3", SPI, display is quite large and much, much, much faster. Although the new displays are more expensive and modifying the case will also cost a chunk of change - it's easier to read makes projects that require faster refresh rates viable, so its well worth the investment in my eyes. Although the new screen occupies more pins on the esp32, I've evened that out with the next upgrade 

2 - multiplexer! 
The buttons are all now being read through a multiplexer. This little component has 16 channels and frees up a lot of i/o pins on the esp32 previously occupied by individual buttons. And since it has 16 channels and MIDI Goblin only had 15 buttons... 

3 - everyone's getting an extra button! 
The encoder (knob) of the MIDI Goblin has been upgraded to an encoder with a built-in button. It turns out they're pretty affordable and widely available components. Having an extra channel available on the multiplexer worked out perfectly. 

4 - arp button replaced with user defined button
Although I liked the idea of being able to turn off and on the arpeggiator using the ARP button, MIDI Goblin does waaay more than just arpeggiate, so this button will now be labelled as "user 2"...the old "user 2" button will be changed to user 3. So now there are 3 user defined buttons. It just makes more sense and you can always defined it as the on/off button for the arpeggiator if you like.  

5 - new encoder - easier makes life easier
The new encoder can be turned in either direction endlessly and has a button as well so I'm currently modifying the navigation and value editing logic to take advantage of this. You can use the encoder to scroll through menus and press its button to select options but you'll still be able to use the up/down/left/right and yes buttons to achieve the same results..its really satisfyingly to scroll through menus with. 

6 - new PCB(circuit board) and available i/o
Of course making all of these hardware changes has required creating a new PCB for the MIDI Goblin itself. There are a lot of things to take into consideration when choosing the pin layout of an esp32 project. Each pin does different things. If you're familiar with an arduino pinout diagram then you'll understand what I mean. A full diagram of the MIDI Goblins esp32 pin assignments will be made available on https://www.midigoblin.com in the future. 

To be clear - MIDI Goblin will only have 5 pin midi in and out connections, an encoder, 16 buttons, a nice 1.3inch oled display and the usb c connection of the esp32 itself.....but if users want to modify their case and add things like....audio in and out jacks, touch sensors, buttons, devices that require analog input/output - ill be making all of the un-used pins from the esp32 available on the PCB(along with extra grounds and 3v pads) clearly labelled so users can modify their midi goblins...hopefully people take advantage of this and create their own devices...esp32's are quite powerful so I wouldn't be surprised if someone manages to turn a midi goblin into a full blown synth. 

7 - pre-orders
Quite a few people who missed the kickstarter have messaged me asking if they could pre-order a MIDI Goblin - I'm considering this. I might actually make this possible soon through a service like backerkit. 

Right now my focus is on ensuring the Kickstarter backers receive their units on time (shipping in October) and that the MIDI Goblins that ship are above all expectations . Once I'm confident the kickstarter backers will be getting the best possible product without any delays - I'll open a pre-order store...this will be sooner rather than later.

-Andrew

Surveys have been sent
5 months ago – Tue, Jun 04, 2024 at 06:52:18 AM

Hi everyone! The backer surveys have been sent for all reward tiers as of today (I was under the impression that they would be automatically sent but it turns out it needed to be done manually)

The surveys are straight forward, you just need to enter your address information and if you've chosen a tier that includes a t-shirt - you'll need to specify a shirt size. 

Although rewards are expected to ship in October, please make sure to fill out the survey asap. If you move and need to change your address - no worries - I have included the option to do so and will do everything possible to make sure you receive your reward.

I'll be posting updates regarding the production of MIDI Goblin over the coming months here and on social media so feel free to follow or subscribe to the @MIDIGOBLIN youtube or instagram  

If you've missed the kickstarter campaign and want to pre-order a MIDI Goblin please do make sure to follow @MIDIGOBLIN on social media as I'll be making an announcement regarding pre-orders in the near future. 

 

updates to the sequencer
5 months ago – Sat, May 25, 2024 at 09:15:00 AM

Hi everyone, I just want to let you know that there have been some new updates made to the sequencer!

Notes are now being displayed as the note letter and octave (capital letters for natural notes and lower case letters for sharp notes)

Two new playback modes have also been added!

• Tie mode: ties together notes of the same value if they occur one after another in the sequence
• Ringout mode: prevents note off messages from being sent during playback - surprisingly useful for mono synths. 

The sequencer is now sort of polyphonic! You can enter and playback chords into your sequences as well. 

And multitasking has been introduced! I've been working on this for a while and I guess the cat is out of the bag - you can run the sequencer at the same time as arp-note, the arpeggiator, autochord or midi lfo. Syncing the note playback between each of the apps has not been added yet and midi clock sync has not been incorporated into anything at this point, but there's potential for these things down the road. At the very least, if you want to run the sequencer at the same time as one of the other apps - you can - hooray!

Here's a video showing some of the new features in action

Funded on DAY ONE!
6 months ago – Wed, May 01, 2024 at 07:37:49 AM

Hi everyone, just a quick update here to say thank you!

Thanks to you, MIDI Goblin was able to reach its funding goal in just ONE DAY! This is very good news and with the funding goal reached this early on it will allow a little more time to focus on making improvements. 

You can expect MIDI Goblin to begin shipping in October this year. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of adding a stretch goal but will ultimately only create the goal if it doesn't impact the planned shipping date. 

Between now and then please follow us on social media. Ill be posting updates regarding new features, the production process and videos putting MIDI Goblin to the test with any synthesizer I can get my paws on. 

With that being said, please do share info about MIDI Goblin with family, friends, acquaintances..... enemies....arch-enemies or on social media! Surpassing the goal by a wider margin will ultimately help bring down the cost of bulk ordering components and I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who will find it pretty darn useful. 

I think it's also worth mentioning that right now - with all the features currently included - only about %30 of MIDI Goblin's program memory is being consumed, it's only running on 1 of 2 available CPU cores - and the existing code could still be optimized quite a bit. There is a LOT of headroom for it to grow and plenty of talented programmers out there who might be interested in helping add features or just using the existing code or hardware for their own projects, so spread the word!

-Andrew