Buying Questions

[Phil M]

I am considering buying a DM48x.   I have a few questions.

1. Is the battery user-replaceable?

2. What kind/brand is the battery, is it easily available?

3. I am thinking of playing it on a stand while I play keys.  Do you have to have a hand on it

to work the slide like a chromatic harmonica?

Thanks

[Jason Keene]

1.The battery is not replaceable. It's built in. 

2. See above

3. If you play it like a diatonic, you don't need hands, but securing it to a stand may be tricky.  If you want to play it like a chromatic, you need a hand to operate the slider. 

furthermore, with the MIDI capabilities built in you ideally should be using both hands to operate the top buttons.

[Phil M]

Thank you for your post.   I am a newbie to the harmonica but no stranger to midi stuff.    The fragile charging port that some owners seem to have issues with, non replaceable battery, and the slider to deal with would make me balk at investing in the DM48x at this point.   In the meantime, I've come across a harmonica player who uses a pitch to midi app with his diatonic harmonica and it seems to work quite well.    I also heard about the Seydel Nonslider.  That would serve my purpose very well with both hands on the keyboard.   When I get a little better at the harmonica, I might want to try it with a pitch to midi app.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfQDsZcYvcg&t=229s

[Jason Keene]

I get that, but in terms of durability I can attest to the DM48 being pretty indestructible. It’s a solid piece and worth every penny if you want to use a harmonica style breath controller to emulate any imaginable sound.  But playing piano and the DM48 at the same time with both hands on the piano does sounds tricky. The great jazz harmonica player Ron Kalina would hold his Chromatic in his right hand, and play some insane comping chords with his left hand. It was quite a sight, and he could shred on the Chrome like crazy. 

Cheers! 

If you haven’t seen any of my DM videos there are some explanations of peripherals I use and demos, etc.    www.youtube.com/bluesbop

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[fb bf]

Hi Phil, 

Erik, the builder of the harmonica, might confirm my battery assumptions below. So take this as just a guess of mine, based on my limited experience with microcontroller based electronics:
- as Jason has put, the batteries are not what people consider to be user replaceable. But I have the impression that the instrument was made with repairability in mind. The LiPo batteries should be replaceable by experienced technicians or even experienced tinkerers. 
- the battery should be readily available on online electronics stores, as I imagine that Erik has had to take one of the many available sizes of 3,7V LiPo batteries, due to the small batch sizes he had to design around. If this assumption holds true, then the battery will be one of the silver color batteries, with red and black leads ending in a white connector, 500mAh or less. Such batteries are available for 10 to 15 dollars online.

As for the slide button, I suspect it to be MIDI controllable. If this is the case, you should be able to use a midi button (maybe even bluetooth) to control it with your feet. The DM48X is possibly the only MIDI controller you can play without using your hands. 

One thing to consider is that you can use custom tunings on the DM48. So, if you are unable to use the slide button, you might be able to play songs without using it by using a modified tuning in a specific scale in the correct key. Not the same thing as having all notes available at all times, but might go a long way. If you are considering using a diatonic harmonica with pitch to Midi, I am sure the DM48 would excel in the same tasks

As for the connector, I haven't had issues with it and it is very well attached to the harmonica. And I usually play it over bluetooth anyway. So, for short gigs, when the battery power is enough, you can ditch the cables. 

Brendan Power, who plays the pitch to midi demo you linked to, is one of the biggest proponents of the DM48x.

I understand it is quite an investment, but I hope the information above helps you on your decision to take the DM48 on, or to ditch it. 

As you say you are starting with the harmonica, I could imagine that switching to the DM48 early on would be very beneficial, as you wouldn't need to learn around the physical limitations of the acoustic harmonicas and could take on learning all the features of the DM48 in a natural way.

Cheers,

Fernando

ᐧ

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[Phil M]

If the harmonica is my main ax,  I would have jumped on the DM48x.   Then I wouldn't mind replacing it every 5 years or so if the battery dies on me, a newer model or whatever.    It is good to know that the Slider can be possibly controlled by an external midi device via Bluetooth.   I read some owner talking about drilling and running a cable.  That sounds like too much risky work and the cable would defeat the wireless feature of the DM48x.  I don't remember the manual talking about the slider being controlled by an external device via Bluetooth.   I have tons of midi devices that could generate all kinds of midi data.   

[Erik L]

Hi,

Occasionally we hear concerns about the battery. The battery is rated for hundreds of cycles and in most normal use scenarios, it will take a very long time to reach noticeably degraded performance. As correctly guessed below, the instrument uses a standard 3.7V LiPo cell, indeed with red/black leads and a white connector. It’s not trivial and great care needs to be taken to not harm anything, but a handy person can replace it (on his/her own risk) without soldering. We have yet to hear of a battery getting bad (although I believe a single instrument was once shipped with a faulty battery).

The slider button is NOT midi-controllable, but a few users have added a connector to their instrument allowing a foot pedal to be connected. The slider button is just an electrical switch connected via a cable and micro connector (same as for the battery). Again some basic skills and handiness is needed, and depending how it’s done, the procedure may not be reversible.

Charging connector: with correct use it should last essentially forever, but we would still caution to treat it with care. Obviously, tripping over a long USB lead while playing live, or similar, could put enormous strain on the connector and it could get permanently damaged. It IS essentially impossible to replace. As a safeguard, some users have connected a small extension lead. There is hole in the chassis allowing an extension lead to be fasted using a cable tie. It is there specifically for this reason. That way, the extension connector will take the hit of any accidental force applied to the lead. Additional, the extension will flex and the force may be applied in a more favorable angle. All this being said, with normal careful use, there should not be much reason for concern. The DM48X is in this respect similar to all the other USB-connected devices you have at home. Same goes for the battery - LiPo cells are everywhere these days and it’s rare to experience one being “used up” (the exception being perhaps laptops and cell phones that see very heavy use).

Finally, regarding the sensors, I can add to Jasons anecdotal evidence (and he is indeed an extreme user): we have shipped well over 7000 sensors and have not yet heard of a single one failing in any instrument. They are very high quality industrial components and seem to be wonders of reliability (the sensors alone constitute a considerable fraction of the manufacturing cost). 

Erik

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[John Wolfe]

Phil,
I use the DMX48 in a harmonica neck rack while playing the guitar. I too had the "slider switch problem" with the DMX48.  (6)

Here's what I did to solve it.  I hope it helps you solve your problem.

I carefully opened up the DMX48 and located the momentary contact switch which is what the "slider" actually is.

I soldered fine insulated wires to both terminals on the switch and soldered a 1/8" earphone-type phone jack to the other ends of the wires. (1)

I drilled a tiny hole in the back of the case to accommodate the jack and installed it, tightening the retaining ring of the jack snugly.

I carefully reassembled the DMX48. (2)

I located a "normal-off" momentary contact footswitch pedal such as might be used for sustain on a keyboard.

I opened the footswitch and replaced the footswitch's original cable with a much lighter one with a built-in 1/8" right-angle plug, soldering all connections. (3)(4)

Now when the footswitch is pressed, it's the same as touching the slicer switch on the DMX48.

NOTES:

1. Since I put the new jack in parallel with the internal slider switch, the internal switch works as original.
   
2. The tiny jack on the back of the DMX48 is unobtrusive, and almost invisible when no cable is plugged in.
   
3.  I used a cable intended as an earphone extension with a right-angle plug.  It has a 1/8" plug on one end and a 1/8" jack socket on the other.  
4. I cut off the jack socket and bared and tinned the wires to solder into the pedal.
5. The right-angle 1/8" plug allows the cable to the footswitch to drop away so as not to detracting in any way.
6. I tried other options before settling on the above.  The next-most promising was a tiny mercury switch I installed inside the DMX48 in parallel with the slider switch.  I worked when I'd tip my head up.  However, I decided there were too many false triggers while I moved performing, so I opted for what you see above.

Johnny "Big-Bad" Wolfe

www.facebook.com/johnnybigbadwolfe

 

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From: dm48-digital-chr...@googlegroups.com <dm48-digital-chr...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Phil M <hggh...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 12:19 AM
To: DM48/DM48X Digital Chromatic Harmonica User Forum <dm48-digital-chr...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [dm48-users] Re: Buying Questions

 

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[fb bf]

Erik's and John's answers are a great trove of information on the instrument, glad to have learned all of this!

Phil, of course we cheer you on to take on the dm48x, but we also understand that the modifications proposed might be too much trouble for your own intentions.

Have fun making music however you like best! 

Cheers, Fernando 

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