Yamaha MU-128 with PLG100DX (DX7)

[Dr3Tri]

I tried DX7/TX7 editor but SYSEX edits had no any effect. From this site could be found some info. It seems to be mandatory to use host machines ID in SYSEX strings, which explains why TX7/DX7 editor won’t work.
http://web.archive.org/web/200512161353 … sexman.htm

Anyhow, i believe that it might not necessarily be huge project. Maybe "MU128" switch to current editor?
MU-128 can hold 3 PLG cards, so besides that device ID it is needed to tell in which slot PLG card is located too. Maybe some toggle from 1 to 3 would handle that..

At first i was hopefull to get it working with any DX7 editor because it can transmit/receive SYSEX dumps directly from DX7.. . . quite misleading i think.
BTW. i had DX200 year ago and i could use DX7 editor (preset in Peavey PC1600X) to successfully edit its sounds. DX200’s use PLG150DX instead of older 100DX, but i guess that it doesn’t matter.

[atom]

I see there is a bug in the TX7 code where the device id will not be changed, but i fixed that and when the new builds show up it should work. The device id is in the 3rd byte and in Ctrlr it’s the MIDI Channel (that’s what the manual says), and this is what i did, so if you set the MIDI channel to 4 the 3rd byte will be 0x13, if the cards in the MU are adressed this way it will work.

[Dr3Tri]

I got the impression from that page i linked that in MU-80 (as in all MU-series of modules) model ID is needed to editor work. I can’t understand how that module could recognize that SYSEX strings are targeted to it instead of real DX7 instead if not using MU-128 specific ID at some phase.

I just checked MU-128 settings and there is SYSEX enable / disable switch for both the unit itself and in the PLG specific settings.. i got both enabled.
There is feature in MU-128 which shows MIDI data of the parameter when pressing enter quickly two times in row. I checked it with [i:35fho4nm]carrier 1[/i:35fho4nm] parameter and got this: F0 43 10 [b:35fho4nm]62[/b:35fho4nm] 60 00 0B 57 F7

In that MU-80 example model id was said to be 4C. How ever, from here:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/a … rclass.htm
-can be seen that ID for XG sound card is also 4C.

"[i:35fho4nm][b:35fho4nm]MU-80[/b:35fho4nm] – size of sysex commands usually 9 bytes

Let’s look at the example from above…

F0 – here comes some data
43 – this is a Yamaha synthesiser
10 – substatus and device number
4C – model ID (this is an MU-80)
00 – group and sub group numbers – an identifying number
00 – usually the part number you are talking to – in a multi-timbrel synth.
7E – the identification of the specific parameter (in this case XG System)
00 – the DATA… this is the bit that changes the sound of the parameter – this is the bit you can enter and adjust.
F7 – data sending is finished… goodbye

…If you are sending sysex commands to the DX7 they will always begin with F0 43 10 and if you send to the MU-80 they will always start with F0 43 10 4C and they will always end with F7. It’s the 2 or 3 data bytes before the F7 that most interest us who want to send messages to the synth.[/i:35fho4nm]"

[Dr3Tri]

Updating this topic if someone else considers to buy MU128 or similar PLG host.

DX7 editors work with PLGDX cards instantly. Years ago i noticed that i can use DX7 editor with DX200 (which holds PLG150DX card inside) in fly -just plugging cables and that’s it.
It’s same thing with MU128.

What caused confision earlier was probably that i had no experiences of CTRLR editors (i still don’t) and i was trying TX7 editor with MU128. That did not work. I tried that again few days ago. Also tried to edit advanced MIDI settings and SYSEX values for device etc.
Those settings were btw. also confusing. Each parameter setting (model ID etc) in CTRLR editor asks two hex values instead of one. I don’t get purpose of that.

Now when i setup XP for old laptop (with tascam us-122 usb soundcard) and tried old UNISYN editor which have DX7 profile on it, it worked instantly.

I still like to get ctrlr working because having VST editor is much better way to handle things when composing music.

[atom]

well why 2 values i don’t know sysex messages are split into bytes (7bit values), the manufacturer id is one byte, the device id is one byte.

anyways

i’m doing the ctrlr v5 things like that will not be an issue there, since the program will work in a slightly different way.

And yes the UNISYN, Sounddiver, Cubase programs deal better with hardware thanks to the fact that people worked on them for years, and propably thanks to the fact that someone got money for doing them (that always helps), Ctrlr is early and in many ways different, i hope to achieve the stability and usability of those programs SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE ” title=”Smile” />

[Dr3Tri]

I meant this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52484296@N00/5467843473/

Must give two values for BOTH device ID and manufacturer ID.
Now, if manufacturer ID is 43 and device / model ID is lets say 62, how do i know which values to put in each location?

More status updates: i got also TX7 CTRLR working with MU128 + PLG100DX and there were no special tricks. For other Yamaha MU users: it is needed to select PLG card manually from MU’s front panel when starting to edit sounds. That’s not biggie though..

So advanced MIDI settings does not matter anymore because i got this working without those settings.

However, because MU128 + PLG100DX combination does not allow for saving sounds to internal memory those must be saved else where. I tried to save and load sounds in CTRLR but without any luck. Like after using "save" function and saving program to some folder in HD, when trying to load it from same location there is nothing to load. Saving obviously does not happen.

Another thing to keep in mind. Saved preset should keep all parameters of the sound instead of just those that have been edited, so that when sending preset to a synth it would be complete. BTW. It is not possible to transmit patches or banks from PLG card to outside (i think) so requesting dump ain’t gonna work. I remember reading from somewhere recently that traffic is "one way only" (manual perhaps).
Though when using randomize funtion in CTRLR and modifying sound after that until it sounds OK and saving it, it should contain all parameters that make it sound complete.

—

Forgot to mention that having a sound preset saved with VST hosts song file would be even better than working save / load functions or preset library capabilities. When every track simply would have sound preset in it’s memory that’s all that is needed. Well, maybe library would be useful in situations where one would tries other presets in place of original to see if they work better.

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