Shreditor is a software editor for the Shruthi-1 DIY hardware synthesizer. An awesome little hybrid mono synth developed by Mutable Instruments, which combines 8-bit oscillators with various analog filter boards.
The editor application is built with Max, but the core of the software is a custom Max object written in C++ called vx.shruthi. The object takes care of all the MIDI logic and data management.
The patches and externals should work with both Max v6 and v7
- Control every parameter and setting including matrix, sequencer and settings
- Bidirectional communication updates the software when you tweak the hardware
- Edit up to 8 devices simultaneously
- Copy and paste patches and sequences between devices
- Quick patch browsing and naming
- Import and export of eeprom data
- Support for different filter boards
There are also some things you can not do on a Shruthi device without the Shreditor:
- Load/browse a sequence of one patch while keeping the sound of the current one (xt)
- Copy-paste patches and sequences between slots and different devices
- Scramble sequence notes (keeping the pitch and velocity but randomize its position)
- Rotate sequence notes within the loop
Shruthi-1 with firmware >= v1.0. The firmware update instructions are found below.
Additionally, if you want to build the Shreditor application from source you also need Max version 6 or higher.
The documentation on how to use the application can be found in docs/user-manual.md. Build instructions for OSX and Windows are listed below.
- Firmware version, for example 1.02, is wrongly reported as 1.00 in the interface.
- Eeprom transfer progress is reporting nibbles as bytes (double the amount).
On switching device presets the Shreditor will send out some sysex commands to validate the device firmware and the number of memory banks it has (this can vary based on the built hardware).
If you get this message, make sure your device has the required firmware, and check that the physical connections of the MIDI ports are correct. You can use a tool like Midi Monitor on OSX to check your MIDI i/o.
The MIDI channel on which the Shruthi is listening can be found in the bottom right corner, above the sequencer. When you switch device presets in the Shreditor, it gets its data from the previously stored eeprom copy. If you use the software to mirror the same device on two different device slots, the MIDI channel setting could be different from the actual hardware setting, and the software could send data on the wrong channel. Tweak the channel setting to correct it and save the device preset (shift-click on the slot). Note that this settings uses sysex, which is channel independent, so it will
Don't connect multiple Shruthi devices on the same physical MIDI port. The Shreditor uses sysex to communicate and because this is channel independent having more than one device on the same port will cause conflicts.
.
├── c74support : Max object SDK, copied from Cycling '74
├── docs : User manual
├── firmware : Device firmware
├── notes : Some development related notes
├── objects : XCode & Visual Studio projects for building the vx.shruthi object
└── shreditor : Max Shreditor project files
The prebuilt Shreditor binaries for OSX and Windows can be found here. If you want to build it from source, read on.
In order to build the application from source you will need to install Max on your system. For Windows you need the 32bit edition of Max.
- First build the vx.shruthi object using the project at
objects/Shreditor.xcodeproj(XCode) orobjects/Shreditor.sln(Visual Studio). Start the build process from the menu or cmd+b / F7. When successful this outputs thevx.shruthi.mxo(OSX) orvx.shruthi.mxe(Windows) binaries atobjects/bin.
You can enable debugging output to the Max console by switching the build to development mode. This will enable all DPOST macros to output their message to the Max console.
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Copy the vx.shruthi.mxo/mxe binary file to shreditor/externals. This makes it available in the Max project
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Open shreditor/Shreditor.maxproj (requires Max 6 or 7). Hit cmd + m to open the Max console. It should not display any errors.
At this point you are already able to use the Shreditor, but if you want to build a standalone application proceed to the next step.
- Export the standalone application by going to
File > Build Collective / Application. In the next window selectApplicationfrom the "File Format" menu at the bottom. Save the application somewhere on your system.
On OSX, the resulting file should be an .app bundle containing an export of all the files plus the runtime core of Max to form a standalone application.
Addionally you can strip the app bundle of some unneccesary files to make it smaller. Right-click -> Show package content, and then remove:
- resources/c74/extensions/max/clang (36Mb)
- resources/c74/externals/msp
- resources/c74/externals/jitter
- resources/c74/media
The patch (and all of its abstractions) opens in presentation mode. Hit cmd + alt + e to switch to patching mode.
In order to prevent window resizing by the user, the maximum window dimensions are limited to 980x830 to neatly contain just the UI and fit it on a 12" laptop screen. You can increase the maximum size by clicking on the message in the top right corner saying window constrain 200 200 1500 1500, window exec which sets the maximum dimensions to 1500x1500.
The most up to date official firmware (v1.02) can be found in the firmware folder. To transfer the firmware, hold the rightmost switch on the device while powering on. Use a sysex tool like Elektron's C6 to transfer the firmware.
In the C6 settings you'll have to set the "delay ticks" to something like 15, otherwise the transfer goes too fast and the last few leds on the Shruthi-1 won't get to blinking.
Some additional notes regarding development can be found here.