Easel MIDI – Model cardEM

Turn all pots fully counter clockwise.

To enter SETUP more hold PSW and DOWN down for 1 sec
The display changes to MI(di) and POT 1 selects between 4 setup modes

MI(di) – To chose and select the UNITS and their presets
LI(ve) – To setup the live mode
CA(libration) – To calibrate foot pedal on the 2EM and EVENMIDI standalone
GE(nerics) – To alter the presets and program your own

Set the POT 1 to MI and press ACT to enter Midi setup

In here you have 10 options that are mapped to the 10 pots

1. Midi Input channel
2. Preset limitation
3. UNIT 1 Midi channel or OFF
4. UNIT 2 Midi channel or OFF
5. UNIT 3 Midi channel or OFF
6. UNIT 4 Midi channel or OFF
7. UNIT 1 preset selection 01H9 ,02-Volante G1-RedoX G2-TimeLine/BigSky G3-H9 with Clock G4-Volante with Clock
8. UNIT 2 preset selection 01-02-G1-G2-G3-G4
9. UNIT 3 preset selection 01-02-G1-G2-G3-G4
10. UNIT 4 preset selection 01-02-G1-G2-G3-G4

Let’s say you want to configure your cardEM to have no midi input you dial POT 1 counter clockwise
Then you want to limit the presets list to 10 and do that with POT2
If you want to use only two UNITS set POT 5 and POT 6 to OFF
Then select the presets for UNIT 1 and 2 with POT 7 and 8
Chose G1-Redox for POT 8 as we will change that in the next tutorial

Once you made your choices long press ACT and the display with show STORED
If you change your mind just do it all over again

OR…hold UP for 10 second while in MI setup to do a factory reset.
Be aware , that will overwrite all your advanced programming if you have done any

Please find the CC definitions for the Volante , Redox and BigSky/Timeline here or in your stomp box manuals

Volante

RedoX

The cardEM is capable of sending all sorts of midi data to the host.
We will show how to make your own tailored set of midi data in this tutorial.
However, we suggest that you first check if your host does not have midi learn as that is way more convenient and flexible.

But let’s say you are using a fixed CC unit like the OTO BIM
The first thing is you would load up the manual of your effect engine and check out what midi CC is for which parameter.
As you have only 10 on the cardEM you either have to filter the most important ones out or make two units and flick between U1 and U2 for example.

This is the CC sheet we are looking at

We can see that we have 20 CCs to map, but the last 10 of them correspond to the Evenmidi H9 one to one.
I would not map those but load the 01-H9 preset into U2 as described in the SETUP manual.

For the first 10 CC parameters we need to make our own preset.
So let’s begin :

Enter SETUP mode by holding down PSW and DOWN for 1 sec.
Then dial POT 1 all the way clockwise to show GE(neric)
Press ACT to enter programming mode.
The display might show C7 as that is the position of POT1…dial it all the way to zero and do the same for all other pots to make sure you are not editing unwanted parameters.
Then start pressing UP and/or down to see that one of them changes the G and one the F indicator.
Think of it like a spreadsheet like this

We want to use G1 for our new preset…right now it holds the parameters for the Kilpatrick RedoX so if you own that pedal, chose another G

We set UP to G1 and DOWN to F1
Now we dial POT 1 until the display shows 12 as that is our first parameter on the BIM controlling delay
Press ACT to record the change you just did.
You do not need to do this every time you change a parameter.
Switching to another pot on the same pane will keep the other values in memory.
If you switch to another G or F you will not save anything though.
Ok, lets set all 10 pots to the values given in the list of the BIM so CC12 on POT1 to CC21 on POT10
Once that is done, pres ACT and the display shows STORED.
The BIM does not seem to have limits in the CC like the Strymon Pedals.
But one might want to limit a certain parameter to a minimum or maximum value.
Navigate to F3 and make sure you are still on G1.
Here you can set the lowest CC value for each parameter.
Try setting POT 1 to 20 and POT 2 to 50
Press ACT to store this setting
GO to F4 and set POT 3 to 60 and POT 4 to 90
Another setting is the midi channel which can also be set per input.
Go to F5 and set POT 5 to 5…dial the others fully counter clockwise to make sure they are set to GE(neric) which means they take the Midi channel set in SETUP earlier.
We will ignore F2 and F6 for now as they correspond with the H9 software only and are not needed for other effects…mostly.
When programming, make sure your pots are not hovering in the middle of two values. You can easily spot that on the flickering MIDI led or the display changing quickly..
Best practice is to zero the pots you do not want to change.
If you can connect your cardEM to a midi monitor while programming.

As you can see I set the controls to 12-16 and Input 5 outputs on midi channel 5  It makes finding mistakes much easier than listening to the effect and hoping you did it right .

Happy programming…
And remember, a factory reset can be executed by holding down UP for 10 in SETUP and will erase all your hard work…or your mistakes 🙂

Since the last official firmware called 1.4 which runs on the original EVENMIDI stompbox we added lots of features…
Some of them are well implemented and some are rather specific and unpredictable.

For example extraction of note data from and LFO or touch controller and turning that into midi.

The nature of analog to digital conversion is always a game of rounding numbers from float to integers.
And practice that means a note might shift from E2 to E#2 if the voltage drifts a little bit.
Also, to produce midi notes one needs minimum 3 different informations

1. the note value (C0 to C8)
2. the moment it turns on and off (Trigger)
3. the intensity (velocity)
4. + what happens while its pressed (aftertouch)

Let’s program a practical example of how that can be realised using the 208 modulation outputs

Chose a GE programm you want to alter and make sure it is active on a UNIT.
If you do not how , go back to the earlier tutorials and read up on it.

Ok, we need to set 4 parameters as listed above and we will use
POT 10 for NOTE (nt)
POT   9 for TRIGGER (tr)
POT   2 for VELOCITY (vt)
POT   3 for AFTERTOUCH (At)

Navigate to G1 / F1 and set the 4 parameters using the pots to the midi definitions before CC…nt , tr, vt and AT…
Once you are done save the configuration with pressing ACT until it reads STORED.

Now press PSW twice until you are back at playback mode.

I suggest using a VST like Pigments or any other syth you know and can assign aftertouch to a meaningful destination.
If you have Pigments please find the preset I am using here

Pigments – Preset

Of course you still need to set your Midi IO accordingly.

Start your 208 , set the Pulser to 60% and dial POT 10 to 30%.
You should start hearing the sequence..
Add animation using the attenuverters at POT 2 and POT 3 with the switches set to the upper position.

And thats it…you can even program a second and third note by using three more input and omitting aftertouch .

But again, this is rather experimental due to the analog timing.
Sometimes the note is changed at the same time when Note ON is still present and you will hear a glissando.
Another time the note change happens before a Note OFF can be send and the note might hang around.
Be quick with your Midi PANIC button is that case.

One last glance at the midi monitor which should look like this when you are playing a sequence,

Clock generation :

The same way you set up CC or notes in F1 you can select on Input to read a pulse and turn it into a clock signal.
We suggest to use Input 9 and patch the output of the Pulser into it.
The calculation takes a few milliseconds, and it needs minimum 3 clock pulses to calculate the vector

Pitch Bend :

The last parameter we did not look at is (pb) and it is the first in the F1 list
This parameter is special as it is not limited to 128 steps but indeed 1024.
If you are looking for a very fine modulation use this output.
Just remember it might flood your midi bus.

How to update the cardEM

1. Turn off the Easel and remove the card.
2. Carefully remove the jumper from the module (otherwise the program will not transfer) and note which way the USB port was pointing
3. Plug in a flat or extra long plug Mini-B USB cable, Windows will install the CH340 driver automatically or install the provided driver
4. Install the EvenMidi XLoader software.
5. Download the latest version of the EvenMidi firmware.
6. Launch the software, choose Duemilanove / Nano (ATmega328). Load the .hex (firmware), choose the newly assigned USB port
7. Upload and wait for the update confirmation message.
8. Now that your MCU is up to date, you can put the jumper back.

Be aware that your custom user presets might get lost in the process.