solderspongebob
Well-known member
Hi all,
I'm looking into creating a MIDI Patchbay/Processor device that can handle upto 32-MIDI Ins and 32-MIDI Outs. There are legacy units out there on auction sites, but no-one seems to make them anymore. Also, a hardware unit coupled with a USB MIDI interface is a lot more flexible and offers both realtime and playback possibilities that a computer and sequencer don't easily provide.
Initially, I was thinking along the lines of a PIC controller for a simple hardware interface (LCD + buttons) and an FPGA for the routing matrix.
But I realised that with the capability of FPGA's these days, that maybe I could realise the whole project (bar some I/O buffering) on a single FPGA, along with maybe some MIDI Merging and processing/filtering.
In fact, if that is the case and I design the hardware right from day one, then it could be an open-source project whereby anyone out there who wants to develop and expand the capabilities of the device can do so if they have the knowledge.
So to those of you with uP and FPGA experience, what do you think would be the right way to approach this project?
I'm looking into creating a MIDI Patchbay/Processor device that can handle upto 32-MIDI Ins and 32-MIDI Outs. There are legacy units out there on auction sites, but no-one seems to make them anymore. Also, a hardware unit coupled with a USB MIDI interface is a lot more flexible and offers both realtime and playback possibilities that a computer and sequencer don't easily provide.
Initially, I was thinking along the lines of a PIC controller for a simple hardware interface (LCD + buttons) and an FPGA for the routing matrix.
But I realised that with the capability of FPGA's these days, that maybe I could realise the whole project (bar some I/O buffering) on a single FPGA, along with maybe some MIDI Merging and processing/filtering.
In fact, if that is the case and I design the hardware right from day one, then it could be an open-source project whereby anyone out there who wants to develop and expand the capabilities of the device can do so if they have the knowledge.
So to those of you with uP and FPGA experience, what do you think would be the right way to approach this project?