Connect hardware potentiometers to software triggers

#1

Hi, I have a semi-complex axoloti hardware device with 15 potentiometers and I am struggling to find info in @janvantomme great book or otherwise on how to match the hardware with patch triggers. I accidentally updated the firmware and lost whatever patches the original owner had made, so I am learning from scratch. It is a device mean to make droney, generative ambient layers. Any advice is super appreciated!

#2

Are you able to contact the original owner, patches can easily be uploaded here or via email.

Having said that the true joy with Axo is to roll your own.

In regard to your question You need to be more specific about what you are trying to achieve, but, to get you started watch this video by Matthew Tyas about patching a hardware synth in Axoloti and look at the help examples under Help/Library/factory/gpio in the axoloti patcher software.

Best of Luck

#3

The first thing you'll need to do is find out which potentiometer is connected to which GPIO pin. The following patch scans all analog inputs and displays their signal on a chart.

potentiometer-scanner.png963x534 19.7 KB

potentiometer-scanner.axp (7.7 KB)

As for ambient drones, the following patch might be a starting point. The potentiometers are used to control the pitch of the oscillators, the speed of the LFO and the amount of reverb. This one uses only 4 potentiometers so there's a lot more you can do.

ambient-drone.png886x379 36.9 KB

ambient-drone.axp (5.4 KB)

#4

Thanks! It's designed with a left and right setup of potentiometers, so I am assuming I can design patches that contain something like two osc running simultaneously and affect them in tandem? Not entirely sure yet as I am just getting started! I appreciate your help!

#5

Thanks @janvantomme...this is incredibly helpful. I just started out with your book as well and it helped me a ton. I'm also wondering about the gpio on my hardware, it looks like it has a plug that would fit a cable somewhere between an 1/8 and 1/4 " and I am entirely unsure if that does anything. The specs for the hardware didn't explain that. Any guesses? Thanks again! :slight_smile:

#6

Do you have pictures of the instrument? Might be easier to analyse how it works if we know how it's built.

#7

20210309_225928.jpg2138x2851 1.44 MB

#8

I'm just starting out so I apologize in advance for any rudimentary inquiries, just asking any and all in order to get some head start experimenting. The ambient patch helped me begin to grasp some of the pot connections but it's still a big learning curve without having any fully wired patches yet.

#9

see the discussion and patches in the thread below. they seem to have been made for your device:

#10

Yeah I managed to find these just exploring and uploaded last night. Pretty neat, now it's a matter of taking it all apart to put it back together again. Thanks for your help!