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<p align="center"><a href="http://www.vanille.de/index3.htm">
<img src="../images/homeanim.gif" alt="Back to index" align="left" border="0" width="48" height="36"></a><img src="../images/unst001.gif" alt="germ001.gif (225 Byte)" align="right" border="0" width="61" height="32"><font face="Zurich BT" size="7"><strong><img border="0" src="../images/logoVanille1.gif" width="499" height="67"></strong></font><font size="7" face="PrimaSans BT"><br>
</font><font face="Zurich BT" color="#000000"><em><span lang="de">PROJECTS</span> :
<span lang="en-gb">BITSTREAM</span><span lang="de"> STATION I</span></em></font></p>

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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="607">
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    <td width="607"><p align="center"><font size="3"><strong><i><br>
    </i></strong><span lang="de"><strong style="font-weight: 400">This page is 
    dedicated to the great MIDI controller
    <a href="http://www.waveidea.com/english/products/bs_pro/overview.htm">
    BitStream Pro</a> created by the french company
    <a href="http://www.waveidea.com/">WaveIdea</a></strong></span></font></p>

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    <p align="center">
    <span lang="en-gb">
    <img border="0" src="BitStreamPro.jpg" align="left" width="413" height="200"></span></p>
    <p align="center"><i><span lang="de">CONTENT</span></i><p align="center">&nbsp;<p align="center">
    <span lang="de"><a href="#NEWS">NEWS</a><br>
    <a href="#MAILING LIST">MAILING LIST</a><br>
    <a href="#REVIEW SECTION">REVIEWS</a><br>
    <a href="lobotomy.htm">LOBOTOMY</a><br>
    <a href="#DOWNLOAD SECTION">DOWNLOADS</a><br>
    <a href="#LINKS">LINKS</a></span><p align="center">&nbsp;<p align="center">&nbsp;<hr width="80%" noshade size="1">

    <p align="center"><span lang="de">BitStream Station 1 <a name="NEWS">NEWS</a></span></p>
    <ul>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">12/09/01 - Received my OS1.3 and did the 
      upgrade - read my <a href="lobotomy.htm">detailed photo story</a></span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/22/01 - Uploaded the SoundDiver 
      adaption V0.6 - new layout &amp; better usability</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/19/01 - Got a mail from WaveIdea with 
      very good news concerning the next firmware</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/19/01 - Took some photos and added them 
      to the review</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/17/01 - The mailing list is up and 
      running - come and join us!</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/16/01 - The first BETA release of a 
      SoundDiver adaption for the BSPRO is online</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/16/01 - My review &quot;Hands on the 
      BitStream Pro&quot; is online - see below</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/14/01 - Created this page</span></li>
    </ul>

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    <p align="center"><span lang="de">BitStream Station 1 <a name="MAILING LIST">
    MAILING LIST</a></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">We have created a public mailing list for 
    people who have a BitStream Pro, are interested in the BitStream Pro or just 
    want to talk about the BitStreamPro. Here are the relevant e-mail addresses: </span></p>
    <div align="center">
      <center>
      <table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111">
        <tr>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Post message:</font></td>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">
          <a href="mailto:bitstream@yahoogroups.com">bitstream@yahoogroups.com</a><span lang="de">
          </span></font></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Subscribe: </font></td>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">
          <a href="mailto:bitstream-subscribe@yahoogroups.com">
          bitstream-subscribe@yahoogroups.com</a><span lang="de"> </span></font>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Unsubscribe: </font></td>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">
          <a href="mailto:bitstream-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com">
          bitstream-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com</a><span lang="de"> </span>
          </font></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">List owner: </font></td>
          <td><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">
          <a href="mailto:bitstream-owner@yahoogroups.com">
          bitstream-owner@yahoogroups.com</a><span lang="de"> </span></font>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      </center>
    </div>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">More information at the mailing list 
    site:
    <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bitstream">
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bitstream</a></span></p>

<hr width="80%" noshade size="1">

    <p align="center"><span lang="de">BitStream Station 1 -
    <a name="REVIEW SECTION">REVIEW SECTION</a></span></p>
    <p align="center"><span lang="de">Review &quot;Hands on the BitStream Pro&quot; - by 
    Michael 'Mickey' Lauer</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>INTRODUCTION</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Hi!. My BitStream Pro just came along the 
    long way from France to Germany. After using it for some days, here is my 
    review:</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>WHAT IS IT?</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">The BitStream Pro is a MIDI controller - intented to 
    control various devices by sending MIDI messages to them. Useful especially 
    for the popularity gaining software synthesizers (VST instruments) but also 
    for hardware synthesizers without or with too few physical controllers. In 
    addition to the knobs, sliders and buttons, the BitStream features a 
    programmable LFO and basic MIDI merge/filtering capabilities. The BitStream 
    Pro comes with a windows software for programming the MIDI messages sent by 
    the controllers.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>HARDWARE</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">The BitStream Pro has quite a bunch of 
    controls on board of the nice greyish surface. In detail there are</span></p>
    <ul>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">35 rotary knobs, 32 of them which are 
      programmable</span><a href="BitStream_front.jpg"><img border="1" src="BitStream_front_tb.jpg" align="right" alt="BitStream Pro front view" width="100" height="75"></a></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">8 programmable 45mm fader</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">12 buttons, 8 of them which are 
      programmable</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">1 A/B switch, switching between controller 
      modes: user programmable / preset</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">2 A/B/C switches, one for the integrated 
      LFO and one for the three logical fader groups</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">2 leds</span></li>
    </ul>
    <p align="left" dir="ltr"><span lang="de"><a href="BitStream_back.jpg">
    <img border="1" src="BitStream_back_tb.jpg" alt="BitStream Pro rear view" align="right" width="100" height="75"></a>On the back side there is a MIDI 
    In/Out pair (neccessary), On/Off switch (good) and a plug for the wall-wart 
    (not good) power supply.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>OPERATING</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Operating the BitStream Pro is very easy: 
    Basically, the controls operate in two modes: user programmable and preset 
    mode. In the preset mode, all the controls send standard MIDI controller 
    numbers between 000 and 127. Because of only 48 physical controls, there is 
    an A/B/C switch which selects one of three logical fader groups. Choosing 
    group A lets the controls transmit MIDI controllers 000 - 047, group B 
    transmits MIDI controllers 048-083 and finally group C transmits MIDI 
    controllers 084-127. </span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">In the user programmable mode, each of the 
    48 controls can be assigned to a unique MIDI message. Apart from standard 
    MIDI controllers, you can use RPN, NRPN or even SysEx messages. Each message 
    can be programmed up to 24 bytes (see below).</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="BitStream_knobs.jpg">
    <img border="1" src="BitStream_knobs_tb.jpg" alt="BitStream Pro adjusting knobs" align="right" width="100" height="75"></a>The rotary knobs have a pretty good 
    resolution - it's possible to go exactly to each value from 000 to 127. 
    Although the space between the buttons is not very wide, medium-sized hands 
    can operate two adjacent knobs.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">The fader resolution is a bit low - 45 
    mm for 128 values makes 0.35 mm for one number, which is very tough to 
    position :-)</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="BitStream_display.jpg">
    <img border="1" src="BitStream_display_tb.jpg" alt="BitStream Pro display view" align="right" width="100" height="75"></a>Whenever you turn a knob, slide a fader or 
    touch a button, the display shows the current description string (up to 16 
    chars individually for each control!), the value, the fader group (A, B or 
    C) and the MIDI channel. So you always know what you're doing - very good.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="BitStream_lfo.jpg">
    <img border="1" src="BitStream_lfo_tb.jpg" alt="BitStream Pro LFO" align="right" width="100" height="75"></a>The integrated LFO can be adjusted from 
    0.01Hz to 10Hz. Unfortunately, in the display there are only abstract values 
    (000-127) shown. It would be better to see the real frequency here. The 
    amplitude can be adjusted in 64 steps (although the front panel reads 0-64) 
    and additionally an offset can be adjusted between 31 and 93 (although the 
    front panel reads 32-96). As far as I know this integrated LFO feature is 
    unique - I have not seen it on another MIDI controller device in the same 
    price region.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">To conclude this section with one thing 
    which should be seen as a minor drawback - but at least for me, it's a big 
    one: Though one can set the minimum and maximum value a physical controller 
    will send, there is no scaling over the whole physical range implemented. 
    This is crazy: Instead of using the really good resultion of the BitStream 
    knobs by scaling the logical range so that you can do really slow sweeps and 
    have smooth movement, they only transmit data, when the physical position is 
    within the range of the logical one. This should be taken care of. 
    Unfortunately though, the firmware is within an unflashable ROM. However, it 
    sits in a socket, so it could be exchanged manually, when an updated ROM 
    comes out.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>PROGRAMMING</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="BitStream_config_software.gif">
    <img border="1" src="BitStream_config_software_tb.gif" alt="BitStream configuration software" align="right" width="100" height="68"></a>The BitStream Pro comes with a Windows 
    software to program the controls. The Windows software is nothing to talk 
    about much, it's ok - it does its job. For people with a larger setup, there 
    is a free SoundDiver adaption in the works (created by me, your faithful 
    reviewer - see the screenshot at the end of this page :-)<a href="BitStream_configuration_software.gif"><img border="1" src="BitStream_configuration_software_tb.gif" alt="BitStream configuration software" align="right" width="100" height="82"></a></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Thankfully, a complete description of the 
    SysEx messages and dump structures is included in the online manual. When I 
    read this, I immediately noticed two quirks: At first, WaveIdea seemingly 
    didn't contact the MMA (Midi Manufacturers Association) to get their own 
    approved MIDI vendor ID. In the current implementation, WaveIdea uses the 
    approved vendor ID of Oberheim/Gibson Labs. This calls for some 
    problems! Second, the SysEx implementation is very minimal and somehow limited. 
    What I'm missing for instance is a SysEx request/dump pair to read the status of a programmed controller.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Using the Windows software is a breeze and I 
    must stress how fine it is to have a programmable 16 character ASCII 
    description for each of the 48 controllers. This is great and should 
    be followed by all competitors.</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">However, as they already included a 32 
    character display and enough sliders, knobs and switches, it should 
    be possible to program the BitStream Pro without additional software and 
    without hardware modifications - maybe in the next firmware revision?</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>COMPETITORS</b></span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">There is nothing really comparable to the 
    BitStream Pro. The <a href="http://www.doepfer.de/">Doepfer</a>
    <a href="http://www.doepfer.de/db_e.htm">Drehbank</a> comes nearest - it has 
    twice the amount of rotary knobs, but no switches, no sliders and no display 
    at all - 
    especially no user programmable strings(!) ;-)</span></p>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>CONCLUSION</b></span></p>

    <p align="left"><span lang="de">The BitStream Pro is a very attractive MIDI 
    controller with a good price/performance ratio which can bring your 
    softsynths to live:</span></p>

    <blockquote>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>PROS:</b></span></p>

      <ul>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>lots of controls, including push buttons 
    and switch buttons</b></span></p>

        </li>
        <li>
        <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>16 character description string for 
        each control</b></span></li>
        <li>
        <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>integrated LFO</b></span></li>
        <li>
        <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>price</b></span></li>
      </ul>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>CONS: </b></span></p>

      <ul>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>no scaling implemented</b></span></p>

        </li>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>wall-wart power supply</b></span></p>

        </li>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>some SysEx quirks</b></span></p>

        </li>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>low fader resolution</b></span></p>

        </li>
        <li>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>not programmable without computer</b></span></p>

        </li>
      </ul>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de"><b>RATING: 9 out of 10 ( * * * * * * * * * X 
    )</b></span></p>

    </blockquote>
    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Feel free to comment either on the mailing 
    list or via private e-mail.</span></p>

    <p align="left"><span lang="de">Yours, <a href="mailto:mickey@Vanille.de">Michael 
    'Mickey' Lauer</a></span></p>

    <ul>
      <li>

    <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/16/01 - created</span></p>

      </li>
      <li>

    <p align="left"><span lang="de">09/18/01 - added a bunch of pictures &amp; 
    screenshots</span></p>

      </li>
    </ul>

<hr width="80%" noshade size="1">

    <p align="center"><span lang="de">BitStream Station 1 -
    <a name="DOWNLOAD SECTION">DOWNLOAD SECTION</a></span></p>
    <ul>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">BitStream Pro
      <a href="http://www.emagic.de/english/products/studiotools/sd.html">
      SoundDiver 3</a> Adaption BETA V0.6:
      <a href="http://www.vanille.de/bitstream/bitstream_pro_sd_adaption.zip">
      bitstream_pro_sd_adaption.zip</a></span></li>
    </ul>
      <p align="center">
      <img border="0" src="sounddiver_adaption.jpg" alt="BitStream PRO adaption for EMAGIC SoundDiver 3.x - created by Michael 'Mickey' Lauer" width="668" height="534"><hr width="80%" noshade size="1">

    <p align="center"><span lang="de">BitStream Station 1 <a name="LINK SECTION">
    LINK SECTION</a></span></p>
    <ul>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="http://www.waveidea.com">WaveIdea</a> 
      - corporate site of the BitStream Pro manufacturer</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">
      <a href="http://www.waveidea.com/wwwboard-vf/wwwboard-vf.html">WaveIdea 
      Forum</a> - official web based discussion forum</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de">
      <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bitstream">BitStream Station 1 
      mailing list</a> - unofficial mailing list</span></li>
      <li>
      <p align="left"><span lang="de"><a href="http://www.Vanille.de/bitstream">
      BitStream Station 1</a> - user supported site</span></li>
    </ul>

    <p align="center">&nbsp;</td>
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</table>
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