Small Systems has designed and developed several programmable MIDI controllers for musical and theatrical applications, including the ABTT Product of the Year '94 and systems used in West End and Broadway productions. We welcome involvement inall and any MIDI projects using embedded controllers or PCs (or both!) Examples of our work include :

ridiculously easy to use general purpose MIDI control stations (foot, hand & radio controlled)	HotFoot is one of very few products that Small Systems has created to sell as an "off the shelf" product without a prior order. HotFoot was years ahead of its time and has still not been equalled by anything, anywhere at any price. Although now discontinued, prototypes created years ago exist for options that only now are being offered by competing companies such as Peavey, Kenton and Philip Rees. HotFoot was a MIDI controller that completely redefined the ease of use associated with the remote control of electronic instruments. Gone was the terrifying dialling in of hex digits: HotFoot was programmed in English via a 40x2 LCD, huge for its time. Gone was the lack of meaningful help when you needed it: Online help was available at the press of a key. Gone was the plethora of controllers required just because you had more than one effect unit: HotFoot would control all MIDI devices simultaneously. Suddenly the realtime control of synthesisers was really possible - when it mattered - live. HotFoot was operated by foot (no surprises there, then) was built out of steel for long life and was designed never to become obselete. A common claim, agreed, but HotFoot today, nearly ten years on, is still exactly as fundamentally useful as it was the day it was launched. In fact, it could be argued more so since MIDI has advanced and is even more entrenched as the control method of choice for many more entertainment systems than in 1991. HotFoot has kept up. Those few of us who are using one would be lost without it. A variant has been on rental from mm productions for several years and has controlled shows in the West End and on Broadway. HotFoot is not a toy and is still unbeatable at what it was designed to do years ago.
	64180 C and assembler, 8051 assembler
a radio link to a receiver based MIDI controller allowing switches to be sewn into dancers' clothing	Two dancers wanted to be able to trigger their own effects while dancing, but without trailing cables. We created a unit that had four buttons that could send the pattern in which they were pressed (up to 15 patterns plus all off) via a radio link to a decoder that converted the signal into MIDI. The MIDI was then fed into another of our products, the Relay Controller, which was used to trigger the effects. The remote device provided audio out which was connected to a standard radio mic transmitter belt pack.
	Small Systems provided the hardware and software for this product. The hardware was based around a small Phillips derivative of the 8051 and the software was written in assembler.
time code chasers allowing pin-point control of theatre sound effects with single video frame accuracy	Stop Box, mark I, II and III. The various Stop Boxes all have one thing in common: They watch time codes generated by an AKAI DR4 (or 8 or 16) and send a stop to the player at predefined time points. This gives very accurate control of audio cues for theatres. With each new version more features were added. The latest version, soon to be released, has a vastly improved user interface using a four line LCD with soft menu buttons as well as the fixed purpose buttons. Cues may be edited after creation and entire shows backed up to floppy disk for safe-keeping. A number of the DR's front panel functions are handled as well such as track muting and locate points.
	Originally used an Hitachi 64180 (a Z80 derivative), based on a redesigned Hot Foot core. For the Mk III the system uses an embedded PC on a chip. All the software is written in C.
sophisticated MIDI to relay control allowing integration of pre- and non-MIDI devices into a MIDI system.	The mm productions Relay Controller converts MIDI NoteOn messages and converts them into pulses on a set of 16 relays. The pulse lengths are individually programmable via the MIDI interface to suit any device that can be attached. This product won the ABTT product of the year award in 1994. Click on the award to zoom in...
	Small Systems provided the software only for this product which is based on an 8051 and was written in assembler.
velocity sensitive MIDI keyboard controller for fitting into new and existing organ manuals.	The system generates MIDI note information with velocity and can be daisy chained with other keyboards to create a complete organ, each manual utilising a different MIDI channel. A second interface provided a very high speed proprietary data stream directly into the customer's hardware. This was also daisy chainable. The system allowed the keyboard to be divided into zones, each being individually configurable for playability with a smooth transition between them. This system has been selected for installation into the keyboards and pedals of the Grand Organ in the Sydney Opera House, Australia during its millenium refit. Small Systems has supplied another embedded unit for tuning this organ and an organ configuration system running under Windows 98.
	This systems is based around a PIC 1743. Small Systems provided the hardware design and software, which was written in C and assembler for some truly time critical sections.
AKAI DR4 foot operated stop and start unit for Tori Amos.	This unit generates MIDI Machine Control messages to stop and start an AKAI DR4. It was created for Tori Amos who needed to control backing tracks and effects with her feet while playing her piano during a live tour.
	Small Systems provided the hardware and software for this product. The hardware was based around a small Atmel derivative of the 8051 and the software was written in assembler.

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