If you have found this blog searching for the Oberheim Matrix-6/1000 synthesizer, you may already know that I still haven’t given up on breathing new life into and of this wonderful machine, and that I have made. A controller, mind you, not a true editor – but a tool to control each parameter in a sound preset via a dedicated touch control, and pretty much without alternative. No longer – there is a true Matrix editor app How does it compare? Is it worth the 15 30 Dollars or Euros? Chadwick, the guy behind Coffeeshopped, was so kind as to send me a download code for his app, and to comment on an early draft of my observations, so you’ll find my remarks updated with his comments here. True editing, but no patch management yet Now 15 30 Euros is quite some money.
Not that much, really, considered that the market for an iPad editor of a 30-year old machine is rather limited, and that a couple of hundred sales still won’t pay the programmer’s time. Yet for a music app, it is not cheap; TBMS, the base for my controller, costs a third. But there is good reason to spend the extra money: Patch Touch is a true editor. With TBMS, you can write parameters to the synth, but there is no way to find out how pulse width is set, or how the modulations are programmed. With Patch Touch, you click on „Fetch Patch“, and the controls show the actual settings.
Which really makes all the difference in tweaking sounds on stage. Unfortunately, there is no way to export or import sounds from the editor – yet. Chadwick has announced that there will be a local library of files and a possibility to import sounds. He is also working on a sysex patch manager app. (Update:!) But at the time being, there are no functions for patch and bank management, and I miss them.
You still have to click on that „Fetch patch“ button when it would be easy to automate that process, and if you forget to save a patch to the synth, it’s lost. Good for tweaking, not so good for sound management yet. Ready for tweaking Tweaking sound is eased by a very neat feature of Matrix Touch: It does not overtax the synth. The Matrixes‘ ancient 8-bit-brain does not have enough power to recalculate a sound fast enough, meaning that it freezes when you send too many continuous changes by turning a controller, and takes a moment to catch up.
That, basically, limits the number of parameter changes, but you’ll need to burn an EPROM chip for that. Coffeeshopped’s Patch Touch fixes the problem by only sending the parameter value as soon as you release the control. Not suitable for real-time filter sweeps, but a real treat in shaping a sound. And you should do that sweep by programming the mod matrix and using Midi CC anyway. You may (or may not) like this: All on one page My TBMS pad is made up of two panels – one for all the generators, one for modulation. Using what I felt to be reasonably-sized controllers, I found that there was no way I could fit them all on one page.
Patch Touch manages that feat, and found an ingenious way to keep controls precise: When you touch a control, the whole screen becomes one big slider for that one parameter, and it is easy to control it precisely. It aims well for that sweet spot between precision and overview. Thanks for your posts now, as I got my white Matrix-1000 equipped with 1.16 firmware and I’m seeking „the best“ editor for it, what would you actually recommend? I mean: I got an iPad, as well as a MacBook Pro. On the latter I installed Obie Editor, didn’t yet have time to play around with it.
To be honest, iPad would give me more „physical“ control (touch) over the Matrix-1000. This is why I’m asking for a recommendation on iPad software for Matrix-1000. Ah, BTW: did you ever experience BCR-2000 for Matrix-1000 editing? Thanks and regards, F.
Oberheim Matrix 6 Editor Mac
Hi Flavio, to start with the last point: no, I have not tried the BCR-2000 yet but I do own a Novation X-Station which is my real-life tactile faderbox for the Matrix. I do love the immediacy of „Turn a knob, get a response“, especially with filters and envelopes, but I hate editing sounds when it comes to things like setting a wave form. And editing the mod matrix is out of the question. And I do need to look at how sounds are built from time to time – so a faderbox, or TB Midi Stuff for the matter, is not the best solution for me. Actually, I have come to prefer the Touch Pad editor for its All-in-one-page-approach, and its immediacy in using controls. Next favourite would be ObieEditor, which is not as handy and needs you to grab the mouse, but it DOES feature a patch manager – which Touch Patch still doesn’t.
So I do recommend Touch Patch, hoping that the programmer will fix (a) the weird way that thing writes patches to memory, basically guaranteeing that you’ll overwrite good patches, (b) add patch management, (c) thinks of disabling his neat little sysex traffic limitation hack for people like you and me, i.e. Owners of V1.16 or above.
(Stay tuned on the latter.;). You’ve got quite a good combination going with the BCR-2000 as a controller, and Obie Editor as a librarian and for more sophisticated stuff with the modulation matrix. I guess you know about the BCR-2000 template? Happy you like the TBMS template! Let me spill the beans on the „Stay tuned“ stuff: I am beta-testing a new firmware that is actually a partial rewrite. It does most of the processing much faster, and to me, it feels very natural and responsive, and smoother than v116, although it is too early to be definite. Not a dumb question at all.
I usually use the iPad with the Camera Connection Kit (use Apple‘s new version with a charger port) and a class-compatible MIDI interface, like Alesis‘ ancient IO2, or a MIDI controller like Novation‘s SL Mk II. A more elegant solution is using a Bluetooth MIDI interface – Quicco’s mi.1 or Yamaha’s MD-BT01 come to mind, although pairing is a bit more complicated. Don‘t use the Focusrite Dock btw – it blocks the USB hubs you will absolutely need when using the iPad for music.