[RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

[Simon]

IMPORTANT: the new firmware will only work with the latest version of the Sim'n Tonic software, so make sure to download the latest version of U-SYNC/Firmware Update Tool/Config Tool on https://simntonic.com/support !


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STATUS: Released - update using the Sim'n Tonic Firmware Update tool.
Check the video about FW 5.0 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIVrW2fctM4

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New Major Features:

• Smart tap tempo - https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=268
• Sync to 1-12ppq signal - https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=268
• Tempo Decimals - BPM in XXX.YY (i.e. decimals from .00 to .99) - https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=209

New Minor Features:

• Count off mode for tap tempo - tap one bar of the tempo to start/unmute everything automatically
• Tempo Nudging to "push" the beat temporarily faster or slower in order to catch up a live beat - https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=32

Internal Improvements:

• Firmware Updates & Config Tool now use a dedicated communication protocol instead of MIDI
• Improvements of the general tap tempo handling (makes sense for the smart tap tempo feature):
  • Complete remaking of the button handling code, for more responsive and precise button tapping
  • Tap detection time is now much more accurate
  • Much better tap averaging, able to detect both regular taps (heavily averaged) and tempo changes (reacting quickly)

[Milosdrummer]

Looking forward to this, thank you Simon!

[Dave]

Not sure where to post this, but Microsoft has started released the MIDI updates (native ASIO coming at some point). Not sure if this impacts the Nome project, but hopefully it will help, not hurt!

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows- ... preview-1/

MIDI 1.0 benefits with this release:

Every MIDI device is now multi-client, even for existing applications and devices. You do not need vendor drivers to enable more than one application to use a MIDI device.

MIDI Port names are now better. We’ve surveyed many MIDI devices in market and come up with algorithms which provide better port and endpoint names for these devices. But there will always be exceptions. If you see those, please report them to us on GitHub (developers) or on our Discord Server (everyone else)

Devices using the new USB MIDI 2.0 Class driver have faster data transfer. The USB MIDI 2.0 class driver uses faster data transfer mechanisms even for MIDI 1.0 devices. (If your MIDI 1.0 device is not picked up by the new driver, and is class-compliant, you can manually assign usbmidi2.sys to the device. We’ll post instructions for this in the future)

The new features are backwards compatible with your existing apps and devices USB MIDI 2.0 devices and USB MIDI 1.0 devices are both usable from the WinMM (MME) APIs in a MIDI 1.0 capacity.

Everything here works on Intel/AMD x64 as well as Arm64 devices


When will we go into retail (mainstream) Windows releases?
Once we are happy with the compatibility with existing apps and devices, we’ll move Windows MIDI Services into the latest supported releases of Windows 11 as well as the supported Windows 10 release. We hope this will be soon, but this is a quality-driven decision and we need your feedback. We’ve tested dozens of apps and MIDI devices here, and involved partners testing with their newest offerings, but there are thousands of MIDI devices released in the wild over the past 40+ years and we don’t have every one of them. We don’t want to break your MIDI workflow.

[Simon]

Thanks Dave that is very useful info!

I'm not sure this has anything to do with ASIO (audio) though as it seems to be MIDI only? Though I also heard Microsoft plans on improving the audio layer of Windows (halleluia - it only took 15 years). In any case that is great news about the MIDI device names - that will definitely make things clearer for Windows users

[w_iro]

U-SYNC: control DAW tempo from Nome - viewtopic.php?t=117 - this is what I am looking forward to the most! Controlling the tempo through the DAW is not as cool as the big knob from Nome II <3

[Simon]

Due to unexpected other work, this has been delayed to September.

[armaster]

Hi, Simon!

Many thanks for a new features in FW 4.96.
I'v installed FW 4.96 on Nome II. What is the difference between Smart tap tempo and Tempo Following?
These are two separate chapters in manual but Tempo Following is not described yet.

Thanks.

[Simon]

For now there is no difference, as written in the manual the Tempo Following is not implemented yet.
It's actually the only feature missing for FW 5.0

[armaster]

What will be the diffference, and when it wil be implemented?

Thanks.

[Simon]

Hopefully within 1-2 weeks - the 5.0 release was planned for end of September, which will unfortunately now be postponed a bit.

The difference will be that Smart Tap Tempo expect you to tap regularly, while Tempo Following could be a drummer playing different rhythms, like 4th notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, etc. (support for triplets is not guaranteed)

[armaster]

Hi, is there any chance to turn off/on smart tap tempo funcionality? It takes some time before new tempo is applied.

Thanks.

[Simon]

Interesting suggestion, and thanks for trying out the alpha!
The smart tap tempo algorithm is still evolving - please try the new 4.97-alpha firmware

I'll suggestion you read section 7.4 of the alpha manual on https://download.simntonic.com/docs/
The idea is to make the algorithm reactive but stable at the same time: the algorithm has a "threshold" where it changes quite drastically, that way if your tapping is very different from the current timing (15% or more), it will adjust quickly. If not, it will consider those tapping differences are just "jitter" in your tapping (perfectly normal), and average them a lot so the tempo stays stable.

Try it out and let me know what you think

[Simon]

All done and released today! As written Tempo Following feature has been postponed. But the smart tap tempo is pretty awesome, works amazingly well, and even works with U-SYNC on Ableton and Bitwig!
(make sure to update U-SYNC to 1.4 as well)

Working on making videos to show it all off next week - so stay tuned

[Dave]

Thanks!

Upgraded my Midronome to v5.0 (using 3-button power on to get recognized). Now, with the beta tool, it just connects without me having to put it into bootloader mode. Nice!

[Simon]

Thanks!

Upgraded my Midronome to v5.0 (using 3-button power on to get recognized). Now, with the beta tool, it just connects without me having to put it into bootloader mode. Nice!

Nice to know! That's the improvement "Firmware Updates & Config Tool now use a dedicated communication protocol instead of MIDI", I think this made a difference particularly on Windows where using MIDI was particularly buggy
The firmware update as well should work much better, no more need for the 3 buttons restart for future updates Make sure to udpdate the tools though as well.

[bbrito]

Simon, congratulations. It couldn't have been simpler to update. The Time Nudging option has always been crucial to me when making minor adjustments in real time. This device keeps becoming more and more incredible.

[MPrinsen]

Great work Simon!

The only thing that bugs me is the BPM display is flickering between 139 and 140 when synced over audio pulses from my DAW @ 140 BPM.

I know, you told me this is because it goes very fast from 139.99 to 140,00 (or something like that) and when it is at 139.99, it will display 139 (as the decimals are shown in the “decimals-page”).

I would like to suggest to round the numbers of the shown tempo to whole numbers when it is synced externally. Currently, I can’t even read what tempo it at, rendering the display pretty much obsolete for that task.

[Simon]

Thanks for the feedback Maarten, I actually thought this was solved (there is quite a lot of averaging already) but I agree it looks like it is not.

I've created a bug for it: https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=603

[MPrinsen]

Very clear explanation in your video!

The smart tap tempo algo is really well thought out and works great!