[RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Features that have a good chance of being implemented in the future, and Firmware updates.
Topics ar marked as: [A]=Approved, [WIP]=Work in Progress, [F]=Finished
Post Reply
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

[RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

IMPORTANT: the new firmware will only work with the latest version of the Sim'n Tonic software, so make sure to download the latest version of U-SYNC/Firmware Update Tool/Config Tool on https://simntonic.com/support !


-----

STATUS: Released - update using the Sim'n Tonic Firmware Update tool.
Check the video about FW 5.0 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIVrW2fctM4

-----

New Major Features: New Minor Features:
  • Count off mode for tap tempo - tap one bar of the tempo to start/unmute everything automatically
  • Tempo Nudging to "push" the beat temporarily faster or slower in order to catch up a live beat - https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=32
Internal Improvements:
  • Firmware Updates & Config Tool now use a dedicated communication protocol instead of MIDI
  • Improvements of the general tap tempo handling (makes sense for the smart tap tempo feature):
    • Complete remaking of the button handling code, for more responsive and precise button tapping
    • Tap detection time is now much more accurate
    • Much better tap averaging, able to detect both regular taps (heavily averaged) and tempo changes (reacting quickly)
Milosdrummer
Posts: 63
Joined: 22 Apr 2023, 22:57

Re: ROADMAP for firmware 5.0

Post by Milosdrummer »

Looking forward to this, thank you Simon!
Dave
Posts: 57
Joined: 28 Feb 2022, 06:22

Re: ROADMAP for firmware 5.0

Post by Dave »

Not sure where to post this, but Microsoft has started released the MIDI updates (native ASIO coming at some point). Not sure if this impacts the Nome project, but hopefully it will help, not hurt!

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows- ... preview-1/

MIDI 1.0 benefits with this release:

Every MIDI device is now multi-client, even for existing applications and devices. You do not need vendor drivers to enable more than one application to use a MIDI device.

MIDI Port names are now better. We’ve surveyed many MIDI devices in market and come up with algorithms which provide better port and endpoint names for these devices. But there will always be exceptions. If you see those, please report them to us on GitHub (developers) or on our Discord Server (everyone else)

Devices using the new USB MIDI 2.0 Class driver have faster data transfer. The USB MIDI 2.0 class driver uses faster data transfer mechanisms even for MIDI 1.0 devices. (If your MIDI 1.0 device is not picked up by the new driver, and is class-compliant, you can manually assign usbmidi2.sys to the device. We’ll post instructions for this in the future)

The new features are backwards compatible with your existing apps and devices USB MIDI 2.0 devices and USB MIDI 1.0 devices are both usable from the WinMM (MME) APIs in a MIDI 1.0 capacity.

Everything here works on Intel/AMD x64 as well as Arm64 devices


When will we go into retail (mainstream) Windows releases?
Once we are happy with the compatibility with existing apps and devices, we’ll move Windows MIDI Services into the latest supported releases of Windows 11 as well as the supported Windows 10 release. We hope this will be soon, but this is a quality-driven decision and we need your feedback. We’ve tested dozens of apps and MIDI devices here, and involved partners testing with their newest offerings, but there are thousands of MIDI devices released in the wild over the past 40+ years and we don’t have every one of them. We don’t want to break your MIDI workflow.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: ROADMAP for firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Thanks Dave that is very useful info!

I'm not sure this has anything to do with ASIO (audio) though as it seems to be MIDI only? Though I also heard Microsoft plans on improving the audio layer of Windows (halleluia - it only took 15 years). In any case that is great news about the MIDI device names - that will definitely make things clearer for Windows users :D
w_iro
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Feb 2025, 21:46

Re: ROADMAP for firmware 5.0

Post by w_iro »

U-SYNC: control DAW tempo from Nome - viewtopic.php?t=117 - :o :D :) this is what I am looking forward to the most! Controlling the tempo through the DAW is not as cool as the big knob from Nome II <3
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Due to unexpected other work, this has been delayed to September.
armaster
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Nov 2023, 10:54

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by armaster »

Hi, Simon!

Many thanks for a new features in FW 4.96.
I'v installed FW 4.96 on Nome II. What is the difference between Smart tap tempo and Tempo Following?
These are two separate chapters in manual but Tempo Following is not described yet.

Thanks.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

For now there is no difference, as written in the manual the Tempo Following is not implemented yet.
It's actually the only feature missing for FW 5.0 :)
armaster
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Nov 2023, 10:54

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by armaster »

What will be the diffference, and when it wil be implemented?

Thanks.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Hopefully within 1-2 weeks - the 5.0 release was planned for end of September, which will unfortunately now be postponed a bit.

The difference will be that Smart Tap Tempo expect you to tap regularly, while Tempo Following could be a drummer playing different rhythms, like 4th notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, etc. (support for triplets is not guaranteed)
armaster
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Nov 2023, 10:54

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by armaster »

Hi, is there any chance to turn off/on smart tap tempo funcionality? It takes some time before new tempo is applied.

Thanks.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: ROADMAP for Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Interesting suggestion, and thanks for trying out the alpha!
The smart tap tempo algorithm is still evolving - please try the new 4.97-alpha firmware ;)

I'll suggestion you read section 7.4 of the alpha manual on https://download.simntonic.com/docs/
The idea is to make the algorithm reactive but stable at the same time: the algorithm has a "threshold" where it changes quite drastically, that way if your tapping is very different from the current timing (15% or more), it will adjust quickly. If not, it will consider those tapping differences are just "jitter" in your tapping (perfectly normal), and average them a lot so the tempo stays stable.

Try it out and let me know what you think :)
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

All done and released today! As written Tempo Following feature has been postponed. But the smart tap tempo is pretty awesome, works amazingly well, and even works with U-SYNC on Ableton and Bitwig!
(make sure to update U-SYNC to 1.4 as well)

Working on making videos to show it all off next week - so stay tuned ;)
Dave
Posts: 57
Joined: 28 Feb 2022, 06:22

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Dave »

Thanks!

Upgraded my Midronome to v5.0 (using 3-button power on to get recognized). Now, with the beta tool, it just connects without me having to put it into bootloader mode. Nice!
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Dave wrote: 01 Nov 2025, 01:13 Thanks!

Upgraded my Midronome to v5.0 (using 3-button power on to get recognized). Now, with the beta tool, it just connects without me having to put it into bootloader mode. Nice!
Nice to know! That's the improvement "Firmware Updates & Config Tool now use a dedicated communication protocol instead of MIDI", I think this made a difference particularly on Windows where using MIDI was particularly buggy :roll:
The firmware update as well should work much better, no more need for the 3 buttons restart for future updates ;) Make sure to udpdate the tools though as well.
bbrito
Posts: 7
Joined: 25 Oct 2022, 16:30

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by bbrito »

Simon, congratulations. It couldn't have been simpler to update. The Time Nudging option has always been crucial to me when making minor adjustments in real time. This device keeps becoming more and more incredible.
MPrinsen
Posts: 98
Joined: 01 May 2023, 13:42

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by MPrinsen »

Great work Simon!

The only thing that bugs me is the BPM display is flickering between 139 and 140 when synced over audio pulses from my DAW @ 140 BPM.

I know, you told me this is because it goes very fast from 139.99 to 140,00 (or something like that) and when it is at 139.99, it will display 139 (as the decimals are shown in the “decimals-page”).

I would like to suggest to round the numbers of the shown tempo to whole numbers when it is synced externally. Currently, I can’t even read what tempo it at, rendering the display pretty much obsolete for that task.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Thanks for the feedback Maarten, I actually thought this was solved (there is quite a lot of averaging already) but I agree it looks like it is not.

I've created a bug for it: https://forum.simntonic.com/viewtopic.php?t=603
MPrinsen
Posts: 98
Joined: 01 May 2023, 13:42

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by MPrinsen »

Very clear explanation in your video!

The smart tap tempo algo is really well thought out and works great!
RadekPilich
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 Jan 2026, 23:00

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by RadekPilich »

Finally, this update brings many of the features I've requested and possibly originally formulated sometime somewhere back in the day.
So I have my Nome II in my Thomann basket already and will most likely order in January, heeey :D

I still have to study and pay attention to how everything works, but I can't restraint myself from coming up with extensions for the FW5 features already.

First thing that comes to mind is the integration of the pedal, because I believe it would be slightly cumbersome to do the "turntable style DJ sync" without it.

So for the tempo nudge, I imagine either:
- using hands on the Nome to nudge the tempo while tapping the dual pedal on the ground with feet in a way where each tap increases / decreases the tempo by set decimal, i.e. 0.02 BPM
- or more likely the other way around - use dual pedal for nudging and adjust the tempo with the nicely implemented decimal tempo adjustment on Nome

For the tap tempo, I imagine some sort of dual mode toggle, that switches between two sync rates. The standard tap tempo with 1/4 rate is good enough for short cycles - i.e. delay pedals etc, where you need good enough tempo quickly. However if there is enough time and precise tempo is more important - i.e. for syncing slow LFO doing long filter sweeps or generally for precise tempo syncing of two tracks, I much prefer to tap at 1/1 rate (or possibly at 1/2) rate, which results in much better almost precisely correct tempo that might need only slight adjustment with nudge and tempo correction later on. So what I would like to have access to, ideally without menu diving, is a simple mode switch I can hit before I start tapping the tempo to inform the Nome whether I will be doing 1/4 tapping or 1/1 tapping.
Last edited by RadekPilich on 03 Jan 2026, 16:48, edited 1 time in total.
RadekPilich
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 Jan 2026, 23:00

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by RadekPilich »

Alright, from the manual it seems that combining nudging and tempo adjustment just with hands on the Nome should be pretty doable.
One thing I would suggest though / wish for is a general system setting, that would allow to configure the nudge function in such a way, that while we are the decimal tempo adjustment page, it is not necessary to press settings + play buttons to nudge, but simply press the play buttons without the settings button to nudge. And settings + play on the decimal page would do the standard transport action. Basically add a system setting option to invert the keys logic on the decimal tempo page. And maybe blink the settings button on the decimal tempo page in this alternate mode to make it more obvious and less error prone.

EDIT: Actually (continuing reading the manual), as a part of the inversion above or possibly as other separate inversion, I would suggest to have an option to invert the tempo and tempo decimals control behavior - i.e. - turn the knob itself to move only decimals, turn the knob while pressing to set the tempo. I understand this is not ideal choice for the default setting, nevertheless I bet most of us who need to manually live sync will switch to this inverted setting once they find it. Once the knob is moved, the decimal display would appear and stay for a couple of seconds after the knob is not being moved anymore. Then the screen would return to showing the main tempo. In other words, decimals would show only while moving the knob, overall tempo would appear when not moving the knob and when press moving the knob.

EDIT2: Oh wow, the pedal inputs can differentiate between short and long press, therefore 2x2 possible actions from pedals? Awesome!
RadekPilich
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 Jan 2026, 23:00

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by RadekPilich »

Nome II in da house....

I will keep posting here regarding the topic of "DJ sync".

I've previously edited my previous post, so it might be worth reading "again", as you've probably only read the first version.
EDIT: actually, I need to rewrite those to reflect how things are in practice.

Anyways, forgetting whatever I've written before, here are my comments based on the actual user experience with current FW.

1. First of all, the manual doesn't explain (at all?) what exactly does "re-sync" mean and do. It should be added in my opinion.

2a. Tempo decimals view - could we please get an option disable the standard short (settings) and long (power off) functions of the settings buttons in the decimals view? So that it is safe and easy to do the tempo nudging without the risk of adverse consequences? I understand it is smartly not doing those once we nudge once and keep holding the settings button, but it still gets in the way and I believe it will always get in the way a little.

2b. Tempo decimals view - following from above, also disable metronome volume adjustment from decimals view plus more importantly, make it possible to adjust the tempo decimals with the knob once the nudge adjustment is ongoing and the settings button is being held (without releasing the settings button). Also before the nudging is started while the settings button is held (currently the metronome volume). Being able to adjust decimals with settings button held alone would greatly reduce the issues of settings button getting in the way as described in 2a., because it won't be necessary to release and re-engage it around every decimal adjustment.

3a. Tempo decimals view - this might be controversial, but really really helpful at the same time - could we please get the use of the first display digit on the decimals view to show the last digit of the tempo? It will greatly improve awareness of the current tempo, especially when taping, crossing the 99-00 boundary etc. Also would be helpful when syncing to external tempo with actual BPM visibly displayed somewhere. So display 2.28 for 132.28... as well as for 32.28, 42.28 etc. Possibly, if we wanna be fancy and less ambiguous, what about sequentially and cyclically displaying all the digits of the tempo via the first digit? So it would go 1 for 1 second, 4 for 1 second and then 0 for 5 seconds or so for 140 BPM. And then repeat again and again. Or maybe alternative approach - flash the tempo on all the display digits two times every 10 seconds or so when in decimals view.

3b. Tempo decimals view - following from above, it's worth considering if it wouldn't be better if the display showed the whole number tempo while tapping and only displayed the decimals once tapping has stopped.

4. Count-in - the 1-bar count-in is nice. Consider if adding setting for changing it to 2-bar (3,4?) is worth it. I feel like I would prefer 2-bar.

5a. Nudging sensitivity - I feel that "pulse nudging" is too slow. I feel that each quick press of nudge could nudge at least twice the current amount.

5b. Nudging sensitivity - I feel that long press nudging curve is asymmetrical in a wrong way? I.e. pressing nudge back for 1500 ms and then nudge forward for 1500 ms won't get you back in sync, but instead will overcompensate forward? I think ideally, it should match and if not match then be asymmetrical the other way around - slowing down reacting faster then speeding up. That would probably seem more intuitive / turntable like to me.

5c. Nudging sensitivity - what is the overall curve of the acceleration? I feel like it's too slow in the beginning and too fast at the end. I.e. if I want to shift the clock by 1 beat back at 120 BPM, it takes something around 2 bars of constant nudge. This would be fine time wise, but it's exactly at this point where the nudge speed is "getting off the rails" and it's pretty difficult to land the nudge back on beat. It will probably be better if I add click 3 to have more than 4 clicks per 4/4, I will have to test that and possibly get a better feel for the nudging curves that way.

6. Tempo sensitivity - the two orders of magnitude jump between encoder clicks in whole numbers tempo and decimals is a quite impractical. It would be easier to sync if we got some middle level of sensitivity in between, where each click would be 0.1 or 0.05 to first sync the tempo into a close range and then switch to the final fine tuning at the 0.01 sensitivity. Right now the encoder is either too sensitive or too insensitive, so it's not practically possible to nudge the clock via tempo changes alone, which would be possible to do with 0.1 or 0.05 sensitivity, so we could first roughly sync the tempo with tapping and and simple tempo knob adjustment alone and then switch to the decimals view and fine tune via buttons nudging and 0.01 adjustments. What would probably work for me personally would be - home screen encoder turning - medium sensitivity (0.1 or 0.05), pressed encoder turning - high sensitivity (1), encoder click to enter decimals view for low sensitivity (0.01) adjustment.

-----------------
EDIT: I see the that setting long press power off is 5.2 addition. It seems a bit odd idea considering the button combos are already a thing. Why not switch it off with long press of settings + tap + encoder? Or long press of all four transparent button? Just settings button alone seems too risky, especially in the context of having to hold settings button for nudging.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Hi Radek

You make some great points - all noted. I'd love to hear what others think about that as well.

Overall I would say we have already reached the limit of what the simple 3-digits display and a few buttons can. The UI is limited and will always be, many people are already quite confused with the settings' letters for example ;)

Good point about the new turn-off feature from 5.2, this we can change to require more buttons.

About the nudging sensitivity, yes we can look into improving that. The plan is to move the nudging from Settings+buttons to settings+wheel anyways, similar to how it is done on a DJ turntable.
RadekPilich wrote: 03 Jan 2026, 00:25 EDIT: Actually (continuing reading the manual), as a part of the inversion above or possibly as other separate inversion, I would suggest to have an option to invert the tempo and tempo decimals control behavior - i.e. - turn the knob itself to move only decimals, turn the knob while pressing to set the tempo.
I know this is not what you are asking - but please be aware that you can turn the knob while keeping it pressed to change the tempo decimals, then as soon as you release the knob the display will go back to the integer part of the tempo.

Please also note that you can control the Nome using MIDI messages. So you could "add more UI" to it by configuring a MIDI controller to send CC messages to change the tempo the way you want it.
RadekPilich
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 Jan 2026, 23:00

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by RadekPilich »

Simon wrote: 11 Jan 2026, 21:27 I know this is not what you are asking - but please be aware that you can turn the knob while keeping it pressed to change the tempo decimals, then as soon as you release the knob the display will go back to the integer part of the tempo.
Yes, I am aware of the push turn decimals. It's fine as an extension for initial set of features / master clock use. I am certainly liking (thumbs up) pretty much all if not all of the small tricks / shortcuts you've managed to put in there.

My comments are from the perspective of MANUAL / DISCONNECTED / SLAVE "dj / live sync", which is quite different from the MASTER / connected slave clock use case.

Therefore I've arrived at the triple sensitivity jog workflow described as point 6 in the previous post. Personally, I would argue it's more ergonomic / practical / musical than the current implementation. But of course I can see this is a minority perspective and it is conflicting with simple approach that prioritizes the majority that likely don't care about decimals and / or RTFM.
Simon wrote: 11 Jan 2026, 21:27 Please also note that you can control the Nome using MIDI messages. So you could "add more UI" to it by configuring a MIDI controller to send CC messages to change the tempo the way you want it.
I am aware, but don't see much tricks for manual slave sync.

Again, two thumbs up for how the MIDI implementation is done at the moment, a couple of "nice!" designs there.

What could work is if we could use note on / off messages to momentarily trigger tempo decimals offsets (in relative way). So we would have two notes - one for speed up and one for slow down. Velocity would be the offset amount. So for example:

1 - 0.01
2 - 0.02
...
10 - 0.10
11 - 0.12
12 - 0.14
...
65 - 1.00
66 - 1.1
67 - 1.2
68 - 1.4
...
120 - 8.0
121 - 9.0
..
127 - 20.0

While we would press and hold the note, it would offset the current tempo by amount given by the velocity. Once we would release the note, it would jump back to the original tempo (or to the changed tempo if we had changed the tempo with existing CCs at the same time).

This would allow us to map multiple buttons / pads with different fixed "pitch nudge" sensitivities. Or just have two velocity sensitive pads / keys and be able to control the speed up / slow down via played velocity.

EDIT: Or possibly a single CC-based approach somehow mimicking the pitch riding. Have a dedicated CC that offsets the the tempo. I believe both methods would lead to having two tempo structure - primary (displayed, controlled with existing methods) + applied offset, controlled via notes / CC, and somehow indicated on the Nome, at least in the binary no offset / some offset manner.

The CC values:

0 - -10% of the primary tempo
...
55 - -1% of the primary tempo
...
60 - 67 - "no offset zone"
..
72 - +1% of the primary tempo
...
127 - +10% of the primary tempo

This would be usable via fader, knob, encoder, pads.

Just nothing down fresh ideas, not enough though went into any of this yet.

P.S. The 7-segment display is obviously not nice for text. Are you open for suggestions to change some terminology / abbreviations to make the settings more intuitive? I am not saying much could be done here, this might be harder to find something arguably better than to come up with new features specifications.
Simon
Posts: 1399
Joined: 09 Jan 2022, 22:08

Re: [RELEASED] Firmware 5.0

Post by Simon »

Thanks for the feedback. Adding extra commands should not be too much trouble. I am in contact with other DJs as well trying to find the best approach, I might contact you directly to speak about this :)
Post Reply