Mosaik Mini is slowly coming to life. Here you can see the pre-assembled version. The touch-device in the background is a Lenovo Yoga 2 PC. It will run Linux with the Mosaik Software (which is a mock-up at the moment). The Mosaik hardware will be both a specialized MIDI controller and an audio interface.

The second picture shows the assembled PCBs which are almost fully tested:

Here you can see all the PCBs on one panel as it will be sent to the PCB-manufactur. The PCB design was done with Altium.

On the second picture you can see some more details of the panel:

 Overview

This article is an overview of the technical details, functions, and the user interface of the MOSAIK mini. Detailed descriptions of the single sections will follow in the future.

Technical Details

1. menu section – navigation and selection
   • 1 encoder
   • 8 navigation buttons with 3-state LEDs
2. parameter section – manipulation of parameters and settings
   • 5 endless potentiometers
3. pad section – sample prelistening and browsing
   • 4 drum pads
4. crossfader section – pre/live
   • 1 crossfader
   • 4 buttons with 3-state LEDs
5. function section – function depending on the display state
   • 32 function buttons with 3-state LEDs
6. step sequecer section – step programming
   • 64 RGB LEDs

• 3 independent stereo audio channels
  • main out
  • headphones
  • in (line, mic, phono)
• headphones control
  • volume potentiometer
  • mix potentiometer
  • split/mix switch

Display Pages

1. single subchannel
2. sample browsing
   • adjusting and manipulation of samples
   • envelope optimized for samples
3. 64 subchannels with different layers
   • hierachical group-selection for simultaneous manipulation of parameters of multiple subchannels
   • 1 subchannel consists of the step pattern, a sample, and the envelope
   • 4 subchannels are grouped into 1 channel
   • 4 channels are grouped into 1 multichannel
4. web browser
   • for playing audio from online sources
   • specalized YouTube interface
5. audio recorder
   • for instant sampling from the web or line-in with prerecording function
   • basic wav editor
     • start, stop
     • fade in, fade out
     • normalize, volume – slice

Audio Parameters

• envelope
  • start, fade in, fade out, end
• sample accurate start offset in positive and negative direction
  • time grid (in milliseconds)
  • note grid
• forwards/backwards sample playing
• pitch
• single voice and multivoice triggering
• effects
  • delay
  • reverb
  • distortion
  • filter
  • equalizer
• all parameters can be controlled by foot pedals and in groups over different subchannels

Step Programming

• edit
  • cut, copy, paste, clear
• step programming wizard for quickly making repetitive motifs with only 3 parameters
  • gap length
  • gap between set steps
  • offset
• triplet programming mode

Prelistening

• prelistening via headphones through the separate audio channel to
  • samples
  • preprogrammed step patterns
  • mute/solo selections
• prelisten possibilities are
  • split -> main output on one headphone side and prelisten on the other
  • mix of both
• crossfader for fading in preprogrammed step patterns
• buttons for applying prelisten-only pattern to main mix out

Mute/Solo

• mute/solo selections:
  • ALL – selects all channels
  • NONE – deselects all channels
  • TEMP – selection will last until a button is released
  • PRE – selection will be applied when button is pressed
  • INV – inverts selection (audio)
  • M-S – visually inverts selection (non-muted become solo’d or non-solo’d become muted)
• mute functions
  • step mute: mutes audio -> gating effect
  • trigger mute: no triggering

Snapshots

• save and recall instantly while playing
  • drum patterns
  • parameters
  • drum patterns + parameters

This sketch shows some details of the Subchannel Page. Imagine it on a touch device. You can (de)select the channels of the MOSAIK simply with your finger.

The first row shows a draft how the tiles could look like.

In the second row I outlined a small user story. Let’s take the second one from the left: You can see six of these bars – they are called VU meter. Basically they show how the VU meter in one of the tiles from the upper row would look like when a sample is played.

Sample browsing and manipulation page:

Youtube Webbrowser Page for instant audio recording:

This Blog is a development log for Mosaik Mini Drumcomputer. The idea is based on the Mosaik Drumcomputer http://www.stekgreif.com/mosaik:main.

More information will follow.