From Livid Wiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Getting Started 3 Functions 3.1 Inspector 3.2 Lock 3.3 MIDI Spy 3.4 Quick Assign 3.5 Presets 3.6 Save/Open Settings to File 3.7 Save To Ohm/block 3.8 Show Assignments 3.9 LED Control 3.10 More... 3.10.1 Backlight 3.10.2 Logo 3.10.3 Local Control 3.10.4 Omni 3.10.5 All Notes Off 3.10.6 All Lights On 3.10.7 Fetch Settings 3.10.8 Factory Reset 3.10.9 Snapshot 3.10.10 MIDI Merge 3.10.11 Safe Assign 3.10.12 Channel 3.11 MMC, Pitch Bend, and MSB/LSB 3.12 Updates

Introduction

For the sake of our sanity, this manual explains how to use both the blockEditor and BlockEditor applications. They are so incredibly similar, that is not worth maintaining two separate documents! Instead, there will be references to “the device” and, when there’s a need to explain a difference, there will be explanations for both.

The Editor provides an interface for changing the MIDI assignments of the device’s buttons, knobs, and sliders. Sliders and knobs can send out a variety of combinations of control and pitchbend data

Buttons send out note or controller messages. The lights behind all buttons except the F1-6. buttons respond to note messages to turn them on and off. Additionally, the block’s BPM light does not respond to notes but will respond to a specific controller number (see the section about the “More” control panel)

The Editor provides an interface for changing the MIDI assignments of the device’s buttons, knobs, and sliders. Sliders and knobs can send out a variety of combinations of control and pitchbend data.

Buttons send out note or controller messages. The lights behind all buttons except the F1-6. buttons respond to note messages to turn them on and off. Additionally, the block’s BPM light does not respond to notes but will respond to a specific controller number (see the section about the “More” control panel)



Getting Started

1. Make sure computer is connected to the device with a USB cable.
2. Open the Editor application. The port menu in the lower left corner should read "Block" or “block” (Windows XP will only show “USB Audio Device” and, for the Block’s MIDI jack on the back panel, “USB Audio Device[2]”). If a device is not found, you will get a very obvious message at the base of the grid:

Once properly connected, the Editor retreives the device’s current settings from the hardware. You can then click or use the device itself to select a knob, slider, or buton, and use the Inspector to change the values and types of messages.

Functions

There are a number of features to the Editor application. All are described below.

Inspector

The Inspector displays some fields to change values and types of controls an element will send/receive, and also displays the name and ID of the element.The IDs of buttons range from 0-80, and from 128-153 for sliders/knobs. For example, to change the MIDI message the second slider on the left to send on controller 25, click on the slider, then click on the value number box. Enter "25". Then, make sure the type menu is selected as "controller". To send these values to the device, press update, or just click on another control element. If you are warned that the note or cc number you chose is already assigned to something else, then chose a different value.

Lock

When the Lock button is set in the inspector (buttons only),this ensures that MIDI going to the device to control LEDs is the same value that the button sends out. This is mostly for convenience, rather than necessity. If you press the Lock button, the inspector will expand to reveal settings for the LEDs, independent of the output messages.

MIDI Spy

You can confirm the device, or any other device, is sending the proper MIDI by clicking the MIDI Spy button to open a panel that displays incoming MIDI messages.


Quick Assign

Quick Assign is a quick way to assign values to all the controls, just by typing in a few values.

For example, you can make a list of numbers that will, in order of the ID number, assign notes to the buttons or slider/knobs. A list such as

32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

when entered into the buttons field, would assign those notes to the top row of the grid (ID 0-7).

You can also enter ranges of numbers such as

1-81 

or even

10-17, 20-27, 30-37, 40-47, 50-57, 60-67, 70-77, 80-87, 100-109, 110-106
which would assign the eight rows of the grid, the slider and crossfade buttons (with 100-109), and the F1-F6 and BPM buttons with the notes defined by the ranges. There is also the option for assigning a chord or scale to the button matrix, providing 8 octaves of a scale for harmonic experimentation. Simply select a scale, and all buttons will be assigned the appropriate note numbers for that scale.

Presets

Presets are a convenient way of storing a variety of device MIDI mappings on your computer, which can be quickly loaded onto the device. You can select presets with the arrow buttons, or by choosing from the menu. Presets can be renamed by clicking on the name, then entering in a new name. Press Store to save the current settings to a file on your computer. If you want to store to a preset that is not currently selected, hold down the option key on your keyboard, click Store, (the button will turn grey) then select a preset from the menu.





The toggle button Send on Change will send all the settings to the device when the preset is selected. If it's off, then you will need to press the Send button to put a preset’s settings data onto the Ohm.
The MIDI ctl button opens a panel where you can specify MIDI controls to change the settings and LED presets. For example, you may want the F1 and F2 buttons to do this, so just enter in the MIDI note assignements that F1 and F2 are assigned. These presets are saved with the software, not the device hardware, so they are only accessible if the Editor software is running. 


Save/Open Settings to File

Using the File menu, you can save the current settings to a file. This would be useful, for example, if you want to share your settings (including the current LED pattern) with another user. Just select "Save" or "Save As...", enter a name, and save to a file. Similarly, "Open" will open a file from a saved settings and dump the settings to the Ohm64 or block. Of course, if you want these settings to save to the Ohm64 or block, you will need to press the "Save To..." button.

Save To Ohm/block

Save to Ohm or Save to block is very important. When the device is connected to power, it will load its settings from Flash memory. If you want the current settings to load when powered up, then you will have to press Save to Ohm (block).

Show Assignments

Show Assignments provides a spreadsheet-style overview for all the assignments for the controls. It is a convenient display for when you want a quick look at everything. The block controller shows this in a popup window, rather than on the main interface, however, the information is the same.

LED Control

LEDs reveals a panel that gives control over lighting the Block LEDs in patterns. These patterns are instantly displayed on the attached Block, and saved with the preset. Additionally, you can load still images (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc.) or QuickTime movies which will be reduced to a resolution of 8x8 pixels. There are controls that determine how the image is scaled and reduced to a 64 pixel, 1 bit image. The setups are saved with the current preset, and can be controlled separately with MIDI notes or cc’s. These patterns are saved with the software, not the device hardware, so they are only accessible if the Editor software is running.


More...

The More button shows a panel with some other controls. Because of hardware differences, there are slight differences between the BlockEditor’s and blockEditor’s More panel.

Backlight


The Backlight dial gives control over the lights behind the knobs and F-buttons on the Block. The block has no backlighting like this, so there is no control for it.

Logo

The Logo brightness controls the light behind the OHM logo on the Block, and the BPM light on the block. These dials are merely sending CC values: refer to the MIDI documentation for more information.

Local Control

When Local Control is off, the device’s LEDs will only blink in response to incoming MIDI messages. When Local Control is on, the LED's will blink under the buttons that are pressed, and will ignore any incoming MIDI.

Omni

Omni Mode determines if the device will listen for control data on all channels (Omni on) or just the specified channel (Omni off).

All Notes Off

All Notes Off is a standard MIDI message that will turn off all LEDs (excepting the backlights). It is necessary to have Omni Mode off for this to work.

All Lights On

All Lights On will send a sysex command to turn all LEDs on.

Fetch Settings

Fetch Settings will request all settings data from the device and populate the Editor with those settings.

Factory Reset

Factory Reset will reset the device to the standard settings it shipped with, as well as fetch the settings to populate the Editor.

Snapshot

Snapshot sends out all the button and knob values over MIDI, in the event you want your software values to match up with the hardware.


MIDI Merge

MIDI Merge, when on, will send MIDI data from the controls out the MIDI Out jack on the back panel, merging it with any data coming into the MIDI Input jack. This button is not in the blockEditor because there are no MIDI output jacks on the block.
The send/receive channel can be changed with the channel number box. True to MIDI specification, the Block also respects Omni Mode. When on, the Block will respond to messages on ANY channel for LED control, when off, it will listen only on the specified channel. Omni mode does not affect outgoing MIDI, so the Block will send only on the specified channel.

Safe Assign

Safe Assign is on by default. This protects you from making assigning the same midi note or cc to multiple controls. For example, if you have button 64 assigned to note 96, and you try to assign button 0 note 96, you will get a warning and you will need to reassign button 0. However, this protection can be annoying when making a large number of changes to the MIDI assignments, in which case, you will want to turn off Safe Assign.

Channel

Channel displays and sets the current MIDI channel the Ohm64 or block will send data on.

MMC, Pitch Bend, and MSB/LSB

There’s a few more things to know about the Inspector that are not entirely obvious. Buttons can be programmed for notes and controllers, but they can also be programmed to send

MIDI Machine Control (MMC) messages “Start,” “Continue,” and “Stop.” To do this, select “control” as the type, and set the number to: 122 = Start 123 = Continue 124 = Stop (Buttons can only send controller numbers 0-120, so we used higher numbers to squeeze in MMC) Sliders can be programmed to send Pitch Bend data, too. Select “cc/bend” as the type, and used values 96-111 to send Pitch Bend on channels 1-16. Values 1-31 will set the slider to send 14-bit style cc messages with MSB and LSB, however, it is important to note the data is really only 7 bit.

Updates

The Updates button takes you to our website to keep you informed of all the new projects, software, and examples for Livid hardware. These will mostly be open-source programs so you will be free to modify them as desired.