ElevenHack Rig Manager V1

Hi all!

ElevenHack, the Rig Manager software has been released!

For the moment it is very simple. Select a rig on the user bank on the device and load a TFX rig file to this location.

It is not a full Rig Editor for the moment, just a simple software to load TFX rigs. It should work on Linux, Mac and Windows.
It is a first version, it has been tested on 3 platforms but there are some requirements on the mac concerning the Java runtime and libs to install.

I dont claim this software is bullet proof, I will enhance it, It may crash or have bugs. If is it the case, I will do my best to fix them.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum, and everyone that uploaded those truely amazing rigs on elevenrackpresets. Now I can enjoy them, and it was my first motivation to write this app, it has been tough, but worth every minute I spent on hacking the file format and the USB protocol
As I promised, I release this for free.

I made a simple web site to publish the software, there are release notes and a small faq that I will enhance with you feedback.

http://sites.google.com/site/elevenhack/

Enjoy!

Bzerk the Berzerk

Dude, awesome!

Downloaded and I'm gonna start playing with it right away.

Thank you Bzer, will try it this week end

How appropiate to release this on Thanksgiving! I certainly appreciate your efforts to put this together man. It is going to be a long night...

Thanks!

Just to know in case of problem : how do you uninstall the app ?
Thxs

To remove the app: delete the jar file.

you will be remembered as the guy who gave the eleven rack a second life. great work.

Anyone that works this hard to create something to help others & gives it away for FREE is ok by me!!!!! Your passion & commitment to this are very much noted!!!!!

X

Everybody grab this before somebody at Avid tries to shut it down...

Not that I have a penny to spare at the moment but, guys, keep in mind he has a PayPal link on the page for a donation. Throw in whatever you can afford. You can always throw in something from time to time if you find you keep using it. If I use this unit I will give even if it's just a couple of bucks when I get the chance.

Great point, I too will be donating something after the 1st when I get my retirement check and I agree that we should help in a monetary way with any size donation and just to make this clear in case Avid tries to involve their attorneys:

This is being GIVEN away FREE to anyone - He has NOT asked a PENNY for giving this to us - If you want to make a freewill DONATION for his kindness there is a donation button on his page that MANY of US ASKED him to place on there.

THANK YOU BZERK FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Youre da man. Well done.

Great work, worth at least 10 (also dollars)

Matti

*** Edit : I was running V6 of Java in Win 7 so the midi menu wasn't displaying any options. Updating to the latest JRE resolved it.


*******************

Just so I'm clear, this doesn't work over USB, you require a midi interface to transfer the TFX files? Or am I just not able to figure it out?

I'd love to be able to use this!

Next question : Any plans on adding the ability to save rigs from the device? I'd really like to be able to back up my rigs in case my rack ever blows a gasket.

Bzer - YOU are the man of the moment - taking the time out to build and work on this.

Gentlemen, this is a GIANT leap for 11R kind. Maybe, one day in the future we too can load our own custom IR's....

Who knows. The point is, the device Avid seem to have laid the Eleven to rest in a shallow grave - but at last can we can start to relinquish it's death grip on Pro Tools.

This is the start of the road to freedom!

Seriously, this is damn genius work. Once my current house move plans are sorted - I'm donating.

Thanks everybody, I am glad that the software works for you.

To answer the question, next feature is saving rigs on your computer. So all the guys who don't have or use Pro Tools will be able to share their rigs!

I should be able to write TFX files from the rig data sent by the 11R. I understood the last part of the file that was still mysterious for me. I still have to test things.

Then probably full backup at once in version +2.
Then batch load for version +3.
Well, a lot of work to do

This way, we will have a full rig collection management software.

GREAT !!!

It is great!
Most of the time it works perfect, I just wanted to mention a small issue I had this morning: I was trying to load presets from singtall (I have a zip file with 255 singtall rigs, that I unzipped). When I choose a particular preset and click ok, it loads a completely different preset on to the 11R. For example, I click on Blues Saraceno preset and a preset called PleXTC (which is also in the same folder) gets loaded.
It is the same for most items in this folder, but some work right away. This folder is the only one that had this issue so far.

I will try to copy the presets I'd like into another folder and load from there, will keep in touch

Amazing tool

Have you verified that exact same rig loads successfully into Avid's Rig Editor? That would rule out that there is an issue with that specific rig(s) that you're trying to load.

There is a possible explanation.
The file name is probably not the same as the rig name.
Inside the TFX file, the rig name is stored.
If, for instance, you choose on the 11R a rig named A.
You tweak it, so it sound really differently, then with PT, you save it with an other name B, the internal name stored in the file should be A.
So the file name and the real rig name are different.

I can check that, could you provide your rig tfx file so I look at the internal name ?

Ok, thanks for the leads.
I will try to load the same files with PT (need to use another computer, the 11hack is so much easier!)
Of course I can send you the files, need your email.
I have a couple things to try!

Alright, I performed a few checkpoints:
- On a PC, even when isolated to another folder the presets are still confused with other presets when saved to 11R (Blues Saraceno becomes PleXTC, Nuno Bettencourt becomes Marco Sfogli)
- I opened the same presets, same folder with PT (mac) and 11R loads the correct preset (same name, and amp models are different from PleXTC or Sfogli presets, so I gather the presets themselves are different, not just the name)

don't if anyone else got the issue, my PC is Vista Home 32bits (desperately wanna upgrade to 7).
But this issue only occured in one folder (despite rebooting 11hack), all other attempts were perfect.

Please, send me the files at bzerkATfreeDOTcom.
I will look at them and try to understand.

You've got mail

I've just sent an email entitled "11R presets files wrongfully loaded" to bzerkATfreeDOTfr

I answered, here is a copy of the reply, it might interest some other having the same question.

I analyzed the files, the internal name of the rig is exactly "PleXTC" for Blues saraceno and "Marco Sfogli" for the other one. Those are the names stored by ProTools inside the rig.
I think that in certain circumstances we have to discover ProTools does not uses the internal name of the rig. For instance, if the rig is part of a project, or a library of rigs...
I saw that PT issues some rename command when it loads a rig. Most part of the time, it re-uses the names from the rig itself, but there must be a PT feature that rename the rig without modifying the internal rig.

Of course, the only information I have is the internal rig name (and the file name). So I use it.

An option would be to use the file name and force it on the device after the rig loaded. I don't know if it is a good idea and if it will not introduce some other confusion, as a file name might have some weird characters or be too long...

What would be cool is to discover when PT alters the rig name this way to document it. I would add it to the FAQ.

many times when i make a new preset, i start by using a preset that is already in the right neighborhood; Blues Saraceno started out from PleXTC....then i tweaked until i got the sound a wanted, then i saved it. Protools does some weird crap in naming the presets it appears.

you can load PleXTC and try it, then load the Blues Saraceno preset and verify that even though the preset name loaded is the same, tonally they are not the same. from there you can manually rename the preset in your eleven rack if you want to.

I could implement a rename feature, that's a cool idea!

WOW!!! This is really cool Bzer!

Heaps of good karma are coming your way

Excellent I'm learning a lot of interesting stuff

Well I was totally happy until I find out that there's a problem with OSX 10.6.8...

The last Oracle Java is OSX Lion ONLY and couldn't find anything for Snow Leopard !

There's no available Java 6 for OSX, only Win, Linux and a few weird things.

Is there a way to make it work with Snow Leopard ?

This is driving me crazy...

Thank you very much !


Ps : I tried this : "To make mmj available to all Java applications simply drop both mmj.jar and libmmj.jnilib into /Library/Java/Extensions."

But here, I don't know what application they're talking about... : "To use the library exclusively copy mmj.jar & libmmj.jnilib to your application's contents/resources/java directory."

Hi!
Even with Lion and latest Java from oracle, it does not work natively. So the mmj trick might work for you, it has been designed for previous versions of Java.
What I did was the first step, copy mmj.jar and libmmj.jnilib in /Library/Java/Extensions. The other step is to modify the application directly with the lib. But if I do this, It would not work for other platforms or I would have to write some specific library loading code.
I don't have a Mac, I just borrowed one to make some tests so I cannot help much.
I will try to keep the application working with Java 6, avoiding Java7 specific features... But at some point, Java7 might be required in future versions.

Maybe some Mac guru could help you here...

Yeah thanks ! I'm not at all into those programming things but if you need me to try a few things on Snow Leopard feel free to send me some stuff (julianleemartinAThotmailDOTfr)

If it can help other Snow Leopard users, I found this : http://openjdk.java.net/

You have to download the DMG here : http://openjdk-osx-build.en.softonic.com/mac/download

It will install a different Java, you will find both Apple and this one in Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences, and you have to deactivate Apple's Java

Then I run ElevenHack, choose Input 2 and Out 6, it worked perfect the first time (It scanned all presets etc... It was cool) but now it's really buggy...
But that's a real good start !

I guess it's a huge work to make all this so thank you very much for that, I will donate as soon as I can !

Thank you very much !

Go here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
I'm not seeing them state any OS restrictions for it.
Java SE 7u9 is the one you're interested in. Once installed proceed to install the mmj stuff. Follow the instructions that are supplied with it. Hope that helps.

I tried this out last night but I didnt have any luck on my Windows 7 64bit system. I dont think the midi part was setup correctly. The 11r options it gave me for midi said that it wasnt connected. So can your file run via usb midi, or do I have to actually connect a midi cable to another box then to my computer?

Sorry if i am complicating this, I was actually waiting for someone else to try this first...but I guess no one else is having troubles.

No other connections are necessary. It all takes place through the normal USB cable from the 11R to your computer.

I tried it last night and after installing the Java 7 the midi devices were recognised but it crashed 6 rigs into filling the banks and was extremely slow filling those banks. Windows.

Hi Bzer,

I just tried the app and it works partialy, but I'm sure you are close to the solution.

So here are the problems :

- you said the app "remembers" the midi channels selected. When I close and reopen the app, it works, but the device /select midi device indicates in : 0 gervill midi sofwre synthesizer , out : 0 gervill midi software synthesizer, which are not the one I selected before closing the app ( in : 3 eleven rack no details available, out : 9 eleven rack external midi port ) Is it normal ?

- I have a naming problem with some files : these rigs are variations of the same original one, but they are loaded under the same name. I have a JC 120 2 and a JC 120 3, both are loaded under JC 120 2. I tried to rename them but it doesn't change anything. They are still loaded and saved on the 11r under JC 120 2.
Do you want me to send you the 2 tfx files so you can have a look at it ?

It's also worth to note that the app stores the files on the 11r, PT doesn't when you load a rig. It doesn't bother me but for those who will try, better save all you rigs first.

Thank you

The channels should be remembered upon correct connection only.
I could not reproduce the problem you mention.
The connection can fail if you have an other instance of ElevenHack running somewhere, or PT running because it has already opened the midi ports.
I will try to put a user friendly message when the connection fail.

Please, see the many other posts on this thread concerning the rig naming. There are explanations, I use internal rig name, not file name, and not the name PT has somewhere stored in it's database.

Yes, you are correct, when you load a rig it saves it on the device and replace the current rig. I could make it an option such as "Save rig on load". That's a good idea.

I understand that my software works differently from PT and that it might be confusing. I am sorry about that, I dont know PT, I don't use it, it does not work on my system. That's the reason why I wrote ElevenHack.

Thank you for your feedback.

Bzerk

Thank you very much again.
Olivier.

I'm completely blown away by how cool this program is. I would buy you all many many fine women if you lived near me ;-)

Is it me or do preset changes seem instant with the hack?

I think Avid should be ashamed that they let there complete lack of interest and involvement with the 11R community, result in the end users developing there own tools to make the unit even better.

I think I speak for the entire 11R community when I say we are all more than willing to relocate.....

Mine changes faster than it did before.

I agree! For over 2 yrs many 11R users have BEGGED them to do this and they didn't even care enough about us as customers to REPLY back to us...... very sad indeed, and I USED to be a supporter of Avid, but I can't say that anymore.....

If someone was "Theoretically" having a problem with getting this to work? Can someone tell me explain how to setup the midi to get this to work?

Well, as long as it is just in "theory"

Make sure you have your 11R turned on (I found that whispering to it gently works the best) and that the usb cord is connected BEFORE you start the 11-Hack.

What worked for me (I use a Windows PC running XP), was to click on "Device" and then click on "Midi" and that gave me a drop-down list and for input I chose "Eleven Rack No details available" and then for output I choose Eleven Rack External MIDI Port and then I clicked on "OK" and the names of my patches showed up in the list.

Here's a pix that may be helpful:

Str@man you are the 11r Whisperer! I sometimes get lost with words...but pictures, now your talking my language!

I appreciate the help brother!

Hi !

Thanks for the reply, I tried to download it of course but you can't install it. It clearly says "Snow Leopard is not supported. You can't install blah blah blah" and the installer closes.

From what I understand, until Lion, Apple was in charge of his own Java for OSX development.

Since Lion they allow other dev (Or Oracle only) to create, or to be in charge of a more "universal" version of Java for OSX.

So as long as you stay with SL you're screwed with Oracle... But would it works better with the Orcale version ? Who knows...

Anyway I keep the faith, I'm pretty sure our Bzer will make a lot of improvements and it will work perfectly one day or another !

hmmm....I quickly looked to see if it stated any prereq's but didn't see any.

LOL, I hope it helps man and thanks for the kind words

Hi all!
I just noticed that I forgot a link to the faq on the web site.
I added it on the main page.
Feel free to make suggestions to new faqs!
For those who could make it work. Could you post your working configs? I will add those information on the web site.

Small update: I am focusing on tfx writing, I have some bugs for now but I know where to put my efforts.
I took note on all feedback I received. There are very good ideas. I will focus on most useful ans simple stuff. I start to have many ideas on the todo list
I need also to finish documenting all the values of the tfx file format.

Thanks again for all the cool feedback and encouragements!

Thank you Bzer !

Unfortunately it doesn't work for me right now, because of the naming problem, but I hope you will find a solution.

Cheers

let be know what values in TFX you need and I can help you out with effect ID's and param values. Also there is a sysex command that renames a rig on th 11R. You need to use the filename when loading and saving a preset.

I almost finished mapping the values.
I will probably implement a quick preview similar to what's available on the device itself with effect overview for a given rig when you select a rig on the device or load it.

Using the file name can pose more problems that it solves.
There can be some strange characters (accents, for instance) or some oddities in some languages that cannot be stored in the device. Some file systems are case insensitive, some other are not... I already considered this potential solution but it might bring more problems and ambiguities than it solves.
I already can rename rigs, I wrote a kind of command interpreter to crack the usb protocol. I can do it in command line, but I have to integrate it elegantly in the software in a way it does not create the same kind of problems than Pro Tools with it's multiple names.

For the moment, I still have a bug in rig saving, but it should be fixed in an evening. I am getting closer!
Then I will work on integrating the rename.

It baffles me why the programmers didnt use a simple ID based system from the start. there was a change Pre/Post exp pack in the way the Ids for amps, mics, cabs etc were numbered.

Should be easy to filter out unwanted filname chars

Hey guys, I was just using ElevenHack 1.0 today while I was playing guitar. It's soooo much easier and convenient to click through and audition rigs using my mouse than having to get up and reach over to the 11R and use the knob.

I did run into one thing while I was playing though. I realized that I was really missing a tuner on/off button in the software.

I can't remember if you said you discovered that function yet, or how it was controlled. Is it among the same type of control as, for example, the master volume?

Obviously, keep working at your own pace -- you are doing fantastic work. I just noticed that a tuner on/off would be a nice little addition once I used the software for an extended amount of time.

The other thing -- I haven't had the rig name changing problem again since I found those 3-4 of my personal rigs that have that problem. No other rigs since then have had any issues at all!

Yes, but could lead to more names collisions.
Why use a 2 steps naming while the original rig name is in the file? It should be used as a reference, and shoudl be modifiable on the 11R and the user should be able to save the tfx with the new rig name.
Form the moment, it is the way I will try to solve the problem.

About the effect IDs, I did not thought that they would change the names with the new firmware.
If you have those corresponding mapping between old and new, I am interested!

To set Volume to 0.0 to 5.0 send sysex
F0 13 0B 0F 00 36 00 [40..7F] 00 00 00 00 F7

To set Volume to 5.1 to 10.0 send sysex
F0 13 0B 0F 00 36 00 [00..3F] 00 00 00 00 F7

To activate tuner send sysex
F0 13 0B 0F 00 40 [01] F7
To deactivate tuner send sysex
F0 13 0B 0F 00 40 [00] F7

or

Activate
send midi command 80 45 40
Deactivate
send midi command 80 45 3F

Hi all,
Just to be clearer with the naming problem I have :
one could think : why is it such a problem ? just rename your patch and save it...
Well it doesn't work of course.
In practice : I have hundreds of rigs saved on the pc, some of them (don't know how much) seem to have a different rig/file name. Why these and not the others, I don't know...
When I load the app, as the rig list progress on the app window all these "problem" rig names change on the eleven rack and are stored. So if I have (had) 10 different bassman on the 11R that are a modification from a "bassman clean" and had different names, now I have 10 "bassman clean" on the 11R and don't know anymore which one is which. More or less funny...
Why did they (Avid) choose to have different rig /file names, I wonder too.

I just fixed the bug I had on saving during lunch time. At least, my unit test works. I will test it this evening on the device.
If it works, I will try the sequence Load/Rename/Save with my command line tools. I should be able to tell you soon if it solves the problem.
If it does it will be on next release.

Bzer, I'm having a bit of trouble with Eleven Hack. I was able to load several rigs without trouble then out of nowhere, your app began hanging up. I've rebooted my PC and my 11R, but now EH still acts strange. It even take quite a while just to shut down after I click the "X".

I'm running Java7 on my Windows 8 machine. I'm not using PT at all.

One of the Rigs I loaded was Slowhand Blues.tfx but on my 11R it shows up as Default. IS this the naming issue that you mentioned in an earlier post?

Thanks for what looks like it will be a great tool.
Mike

No, the slowdown should not be related to the naming problem.
Somebody on the forum already mentioned a very slow interaction with the device once.
I never could reproduce it. It should not happen the way the software is written but it is probably not bulletproof. So it might be a bug.
If I have a scenario that reproduces the bug systematically on windows, I might be able to do something about it, I kept a hard drive with a windows somewhere for testing.
On next version, I implement better error handling, but I am not sure it will have any incidence on a transmit/receive problem.

Hi!
Good news, I could save a rig and modify it's name on the device from ElevenHack!
It should solve to inconsistencies in rig names due to strange Pro Tools behavior.
No need for dirty tricks such as maintaining an external list of rig names.

That is very good news.
Dont hold your breath for the release, I still have a lot of work to make it work properly in ElevenHack.
But there should be no showstoppers now from those features!

I also implemented user interface for tuner and main volume. It is not functioning for the moment, but next version takes shape.

Thumbs up !

Adding Volume and Tuner....that is starting to sound like an Editor!

Brother, all I can say is you are BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the TIME and HARD WORK you have put into this man.

Drag and drop!

I'm referring to the idea that sometimes I want to rearrange the patches within the 11R and hate having to go through the hassle of saving them. I want to be really lazy and just drag and drop them where I want them. Default behavior would of course be to overwrite when dropped into a location.

It's just an idea, you're doing an awesome job Bzer

Got around to check this out last night. Simply put AMAZING! I don't have Pro Tools so this application is THE thing for me to audition presets. Did try out some of singtall's presets, great job. Didn't have time to try out any of the ones X-mann sent but I'll get around to that tonite!

Great job Bzer!

It would be great if you could implement an easy way to rearrange your rigs too. I'd like to have them in the order that I plan to use them in a live show, and since set lists change all the time, it would be great if it was easy to do. It's a real pain to do it in Pro Tools 10.

Could you ad a "Snow-Cone Maker" & or a "Coke Zero" dispencer too?

THAT would ROCK!!!!!

I'd like to see it have a built-in GPS device that would only locate milk-cows and sheep above the age of 18....

Slight trouble running this program, until I fixed my settings - now it works great.

LMFAO......U R 1 SICK PUPPY!

The only feature I would really like to implement now is coffee making

Jokes aside, a new version should be out shortly. I hope before Christmas.

i have included the elevenhack loader with my Singtall superpack. hope you don't mind.

No, of course!
I was very pleased when I saw it. I thought about a new feature when looking at the pack content. I am working on it.
I will not be in the soon to be released version, but will be ready for the next one.

...check your private messages...

Berzk

You know, I hear that a LOT!!!!! I don't get it tho......

Can you explain how this Rig Manager works?

Would it allow me to load user created presets in a different DAW (I use a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 as my interface and Eleven Rack via SPDIF).

Hi!

There are information about how it works and a FAQ on the ElevenHack website (on my signature).
It only manage rig presets, not sound recording. The 11R must be connected via USB to operate properly.
If you have some specific question not answered on the FAQ or release notes, don't hesitate to post them. I will add them to the FAQ.

Bzerk.

same here everything was working great but now it just hangs and takes forever to do anything as well as the presets wont save now. I did not have issues with naming at all. I'm on Win 7 machine with Java 7 (10) I did notice if I run the program without the 11r on it would run smooth as far as being able to select presets and actually close and whatnot.

Well, there is a problem with connection to the 11R in certain circumstances. It should be (hopefully) fixed in the upcoming release.
There will be also a rename option to change the rig name on the device.

As a reminder:
The tfx file encodes a rig name, it is completely unrelated to the file name and it is the one used by the device. Renaming a file does not change the rig name displayed on the device.

For unknown (to me) reason, PT does some tricks to change the rig name once it has loaded on the device and keeps a database of rig and rig name. That is why you can have some rigs that have a different name under PT than ElevenHack. ElevenHack does only uses the internal name of the TFX, there is no way around this.
You will soon be able to rename the rig and save it as tfx with the new name.

Bzerk.