WallyG

drewfx1
....It's not a big deal at all and completely safe if you know - or know someone - with some basic electronics knowledge.

I'm very lucky since I know someone very close to me with some basic electronics knowledge.
Me! I earned a living as an Analog Integrated Circuit Design Engineer! I have a full complement of electronic test equipment (i.e LeCroy 4 channel Color oscilloscope, etc.) in my lab so I'm covered.

 
Well now I feel a little stupid, especially since I was probably being overly cautious to begin with.  
 

I appreciate your help in locating a possible candidate for my application. I also found a kit available from PAIA, but I called their sales and customer support numbers since I had some questions and nobody answered the phones.

 
Not knowing that you were a DIY guy, I didn't mention but there are lots of DIY kits and/or PCB's, etc. in the modular world if you want to investigate that route.
 
Forum where you might better search/ask:
https://www.muffwiggler.c..orum/viewforum.php?f=17
 
List of modules that may or may not be available:
https://www.modulargrid.n...ow1u=&order=newest

Something else that occurred to me that you might want to consider with this is the possibility of zipper noise.

b rock
Killer keyboard.  I wish I hadn't seen that ...
 
One possible solution might be to convert Sysex to CC with a MIDI Solutions Event Processor.  There's a companion Programming Tools app that generates a custom conversion, which gets stored within the inline MIDI device itself.  Power for the EPP is (usually) derived from the DIN input.  But, for around the same price ...
 
I think a better solution would be the EHX 8 Step Program.  You can have an expression 'thru' pedal at the input, a versatile eight step sequencer in the middle, and MIDI-to-CV (or expression) at the output.  The MIDI In implementation over individual parameter control is second to none.  And if your destination has a range requirement less than 0-5 VDC (like my Eventide pedals do, at 0-3.3VDC), the maximum Depth can be adjusted over a range of 0 to 10.
 
I use the 8 Step Program to control most anything I have with an expression pedal (or CV) input ... from my guitar pedalboards to hardware synths.  To satisfy that inner Wakeman, I'll occasionally rely on an AKAI Max 49 to achieve similar results (MIDI-to-CV conversion, with MIDI Note or CC sequencing as the bonus).

Thanks for your input. I'll check it out when I return to AZ.

Walt

drewfx1
Something else that occurred to me that you might want to consider with this is the possibility of zipper noise.

I'm afraid to ask what zipper noise is,,,

Walt

drewfx1
 
Well now I feel a little stupid, especially since I was probably being overly cautious to begin with.  
 

You were just trying to be helpful and I truly appreciate your effort! How could you possibly know that I hold 48 US Patents for Electronic Circuit Design? Okay now I'm bragging, but at my age....I can...

drewfx1
 
Not knowing that you were a DIY guy, I didn't mention but there are lots of DIY kits and/or PCB's, etc. in the modular world if you want to investigate that route.
 
Forum where you might better search/ask:
https://www.muffwiggler.c..orum/viewforum.php?f=17
 
List of modules that may or may not be available:
https://www.modulargrid.n...ow1u=&order=newest

Very helpful! Thanks, I'll check it out.

Walt

WallyG

drewfx1
Something else that occurred to me that you might want to consider with this is the possibility of zipper noise.

I'm afraid to ask what zipper noise is,,,

Walt

You have 48 patents and don't know what zipper noise is? 
 
Basically it's the sound you get from rapidly modulating with a stepped modulation source or destination(s) like a 7 bit CC. 7 bits (absent interpolation or other smoothing) isn't always enough for some things, hence things like 14 bit midi Pitch Bend and/or the somewhat rarely used MSB/LSB 14 bit midi CC pairs. 
 
If the sysex control is using more than 1 byte for the parameter in question, it might explain why they didn't bother to implement CC control.

drewfx1
You have 48 patents and don't know what zipper noise is? 
 

Most of my patents deal with Analog Circuit Design not Digital, so I'm not up on all the Digital terms. I only worked on Digital circuits under duress. :-) But I did learn something new, so thanks!

If I can change the position of the Super Knob with a MIDI controlled voltage, than it should be no different than changing it with your hand or the foot pedal, all things being equal.

Walt

WallyG

If I can change the position of the Super Knob with a MIDI controlled voltage, than it should be no different than changing it with your hand or the foot pedal, all things being equal.

Walt

Not quite. A 0-5V CV generated directly from a 7 bit midi CC would be divided into ~.04V steps unless there is filtering on the CV out to slew the stepping at an appropriate rate.

drewfx1

WallyG

If I can change the position of the Super Knob with a MIDI controlled voltage, than it should be no different than changing it with your hand or the foot pedal, all things being equal.

Walt

Not quite. A 0-5V CV generated directly from a 7 bit midi CC would be divided into ~.04V steps unless there is filtering on the CV out to slew the stepping at an appropriate rate.

I understand what your saying, but if you're recording/playing back notes with MIDI and Super Knob positions with Sysex messages isn't' that the same thing? Or are saying that I would need more that 7 bit resolution? I didn't think there were 128 discrete steps of the Super Knob. I'm about 2,500 miles from my Montage (I'm in Webster, Mass), but looking at a photo of the SK on the Web there appears to be 20 discrete positions.

Walt

WallyG

drewfx1

WallyG

If I can change the position of the Super Knob with a MIDI controlled voltage, than it should be no different than changing it with your hand or the foot pedal, all things being equal.

Walt

Not quite. A 0-5V CV generated directly from a 7 bit midi CC would be divided into ~.04V steps unless there is filtering on the CV out to slew the stepping at an appropriate rate.

I understand what your saying, but if you're recording/playing back notes with MIDI and Super Knob positions with Sysex messages isn't' that the same thing? Or are saying that I would need more that 7 bit resolution? I didn't think there were 128 discrete steps of the Super Knob. I'm about 2,500 miles from my Montage (I'm in Webster, Mass), but looking at a photo of the SK on the Web there appears to be 20 discrete positions.

Walt

Sysex can have whatever resolution is required based on the number of bytes assigned to the parameter in the sysex implementation. But out of curiosity I just looked at the midi sysex implementation in the Data List manual and I found that the Super Knob position is indeed only 7 bit in this case.
 
So you are correct. The stepping/zipper noise is only a potential problem if the knob input has greater than 7 bit resolution. Or if they're applying smoothing/interpolation when the knob is changed but did something dumb and didn't apply that smoothing for everything that could control the knob parameter. 
 
It's indeed very odd that it doesn't receive CC as it looks from the manual like it can be set to send CC.