Yamaha Corporation After Touch Magazine Archive Feb 1989 Issue 02

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THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION

OF

THE

YAMAHA USERS

GROUP

.

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FEBRUA

RY

1989

YAMAHA

®

THE

WINTER

NAMM

SHOW, held Janu-

ary 20-22

at

the

Anaheim

Convention

Center, proved to be busy for

the

people

at

the

Yamaha Corporation

of

America exhibit. In

addition to showcasing

the

complete line

of

Yamaha products, the exhibit was

the

center

for

a number

of

other

activities, including demon-

strations

by

Yamaha's

team

of

Product Special-

ists, autograph sessions with a

number

of

top

artists, three days

of

performances

by

Chick

Corea,

and

a special

Cl

giveaway.

All four

of

Yamaha's DMI Product Specialists,

Phil

Clendennin,

Danny Hoefer, Mark Santos,

and Kevin Stratton, were

on

hand

to demon-

strate

the

new DMI products. (For more

on

the

Product Specialists, see

the

interview in the

January 1989 issue

of

After Touch.)

Drummers

on

hand

for

autograph

sessions

included Bobby Blotzer

of

RATT, LA session

player Vinnie Colauita, Alex Acuna, Peter Er-

skine,

Aresnio

Hall's

drummer

Terri Lyne

Carrington,

Dave

Garibaldi

from

Wishful

Thinking, and

the

drummer in

Chick

Corea's

current band, Dave Weeki. Also

on

hand

to

sign autographs were bassists Jeff Berlin,

an

LA

session player, Verdine

White

of

Earth,

Wind

and Fire, and

the

bass player for

Mr.

Big, Billy

Sheehan.

Visitors to

the

exhibit were treated to perfor-

mances

by

The

Chick

Corea Akoustic Band.

Besides

Chick

Corea, who used a Yamaha MIDI

grand, KX88, KXS, TX16W,

and

MC2404,

the

group consisted

of

John

Patitucci, who played

an

LBS

custom-S string bass, and Dave Weeki,

who played

on

Tour Series Custom drums

in

Cobalt

Blue with

the

SD295 Metal Snare and

DSP850 double bass drum pedal. They did three

shows a day,

and

had

standing-room

only

crowds for all performances.

The

sound system

was

all Yamaha, including a PM300 mixer for

the

house sound and new

':A..ST"

loudspeaker

systems.

AST

stands for

Active

Servo

Tech-

nology, a newly-developed Yamaha technique

that

provides

exceptional

low

frequency

performance

with

a relatively small speaker

cabinet-attaining

sub-woofer-type

bass

response without

the

mass associated

with

exist-

ing sub-woofer speaker systems.

2 AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5 No. 2

&

Yamaha also held drawings

on

Friday and Sat-

urday for a C1 Music

Computer

and accom-

panying software packages. Friday's grand prize

winner was

Scott

Zehm,

of

San

Bernardino,

California. Scott's prize was a standard

Cl

with

two disk drives, plus

an

extensive software pack-

age.

The

lucky

man

of

the

weekend might well

have

been

Saturday's grand prize winner, David

Oviatt.

The

day before, David

had

been a run-

ner-up in

the

drawing, winning a jacket instead

of

the

Cl.

Undeterred, David entered the draw-

ing

on

Saturday, and became

the

grand prize

winner

of

the

day.

He

won

a

Cl/20

(a

Cl

equipped with a 20 meg hard disk drive) plus

an

extensive software package.

Yamaha wishes to acknowledge and

thank

the

following software companies who donated

products for these drawings: Auricle

Control

Systems, Bacchus Software Systems, Computer

Business Associates,

Dr.

T's Music Software,

Dynaware,

Electronic

Courseware

Systems,

Golden

Midi Music & Software, Robert Keller,

LTA

Productions, Macaluso, Magnetic Music,

MIDiconcepts, Midisoft, Music Soft, Passport

Designs, Playroom Software, Rigamer Technol-

ogy,

Silver

Wolf Software,

SNAP

Software,

Sound

Quest, Temporal Acuity Products, Turtle

Beach Softworks, Twelve Tone Systems, and

Voyetra Technologies. -Sibyl

Darter

Soundcheck

'88

Update

The

International

Popular Music Festival

will

be

held,

as

previously

reported

in

AfterTouch,

on

February

12th,

at

the

Fuji

televison studios in Tokyo.

The

previous loca-

tion, Budokan,

on

the grounds

of

the Imperial

Palace,

was

not

available due to

the

recent pass-

ing of Japan's honored Emperor Hirohito. This

year,

the

United

States will be represented

by

the

winner of Soundcheck '88, Giraffe. This

San

Jose-based group

is

leaving for Japan

on

February

7th,

accompanied

by

Soundcheck

A&R

person Bob Stabile. Doug Buttleman, the

executive Producer of

the

Soundcheck project,

will be leaving a day later, along with a group of

celebrity judges from the USA. There are

21

finalist bands, from

15

different countries.

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February 1989 Volume 5, Number 2

Issue

#41

4 Questions & Answers

Answers to questions from readers.

By

Steve Deming

and

Torn Darter.

6 Session Notes from

"The

'burbs"

8

An

insider's look at Jerry Goldsmith's scoring sessions for

the

new Joe Dante film.

By

Tom Darter.

G10

Performances

TX81Z Performances for the G

10

MIDI guitarist.

By

Craig

Anderton.

11 Sequence

An

introduction to Yamaha's new MIDI sequencer program for

the

Cl

music computer.

By

Scott

Plunkett.

14

Hot

Tips

Reader tips for

the

MEP4, MV802, and more.

16

MIDI

Mixup

MIDI feedback

and

other

horrors.

By

Michael Babcock.

18 C 1 Users Central

Presenting a simple

Cl

program for loading voice

and

perfor~

mance data from a

Cl

disk to a DX7 II.

By

Jim Smerdel

and

Tom Darter.

of

America.

No

part

of

this publication may

be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or

transmitted in any form

or

by

any means,

electronically, mechanically, photocopying, recording,

or

otherwise, without

the

prior written permission

of

Yamaha Corporation of America.

Editor

Tom Darter

Operations

Sibyl Darter

Production

Sibyl Darter

Tom Darter

Editorial Board

Steve Deming

Charles Feilding

Bob

Frye

Rick Huyett

Mark Koenig

J.P. Lincoln

Phil Moon

Jim Smerdel

Steve

Thatcher

Cover Photograph

Jim Hagopian

Dee Dee Cawley

AFTERTOUCH

is

pub-

lished monthly. Third class

postage paid

at

Long

Prairie, MN and additional

points of entry.

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Free.

Address subscription cor-

respondence to AFTER-

TOUCH,

P.O.

Box

7938,

Northridge,

CA

91327-

7938.

POSTMASTER:

Send

form 3579 to P.O.

Box 7938, Northridge,

CA

91327-7938.

Vol.

5 No.

21

AFTERTOUCH 3

I have

an

RX7 drum machine

that

I use with

an IBM sequence program (Texture). Is there a

way I

can

turn

Effects

on

and off via

MIDI?-

Jon Epperson, Mission Viejo,

CA.

Yes,

this

is

possible.

You

need to send the RX7 a

System Exclusive

"remote

switch parameter

ch

ange message" from your computer.

The

mes-

sage

string

is

shown

below

on

the

left

(in

hexidecimal), with explanations on

the

right:

Hex

code explanation

FO

Sys

Ex

message

43

Yam

a

ha

ID number

ln

substatus and device

number

(n

=MIDI

channel)

02 group and sub-group

50 parameter group

lB

parameter number:

Effects

00 or

7F

OO=off;

7F=on

F7

end of Sys

Ex

message

I own a

CXSM

computer, which I love,

but

when I feel like creating graphics

with

MSX

Basic I find the

unit

a little lacking. I

though

I

had been saved when I saw a CXSM

II

on

dis-

play in a local store,

but

I was told it was

not

for sale.

What

is

the

story?

-Brad

Morris,

Peoria, IL.

The

CXSM

II

has been officially discontinued,

so

it

is

no longer available at any retail outlet.

4 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 No. 2

Answers To

Questions From

Readers.

By

Steve Deming

& Tom Darter.

RX7

digital

rhythm

programm

e

r.

&

I use a

DX7

II

FD

to control a Roland MKS20

sound

module.

There

are two scenarios I've

been trying

to

achieve

without

success.

Here

they

are: 1) I would like one foot controller

controlling

the

OX's local volume, while the

other

foot controller controls

MIDI

volume

only (for

the

MKS20). Is this possible? 2) Is

there

any way I can program these machines so

that

my left hand (on

the

OX)

is playing a

OX

patch only, while my right hand (on

the

OX)

is

playing a piano patch

on

the

MKS20

only?-

Eric Tallman, San Francisco,

CA

First, question one:

If

you

look under the

words

"Foot control" in the DX7 screen displays

for

its

Foot Controllers,

you

will see numbers: 4

for

FCl

and 7

for

FC2. This means

that

FCl

out-

puts MIDI

Controller

Code

04 information

(MIDI

Foot

Controller),

while FC2 outputs

MIDI Controller Code 07 information (MIDI

Volume).

Both

Foot

Controllers

are pro-

grammed

as

part of voice data in the

DX7

II.

Therefore, to get the effect

you

want,

you

need

to program the following on the

DX7

for

each

voice

you want

to

use

:

FCl-program

it to control

Volume only (set the Volume parameter to a

high number, like

99,

and set the other

FCl

parameters to 0); FC2-program it

so

that

all

parameters are set to

zero

(meaning

that

it will

have

no

effect on the

OX's

internal sounds).

Finally, make sure

that

the MKS20

is

set to

respond to MIDI Volume.

Question two presents more

of

a problem:

The

DX7

II

outputs

on

only

one

MIDI channel

at

a time, and the MKS20 does

not

have a MIDI

key limit feature.

It

would be possible to "turn

off' the

OX's

right hand,

by

setting up a Split

mode performance

that

uses a "dummy" voice

in the right hand location (a voice where

all

op-

erator output levels are set to 0); however,

you

still wouldn't be able

to

stop

the

MKS20

from

responding to the MIDI notes being played

by

your left

hand

on

the

OX

.

The

only solution

would be to use a MIDI data modifier (like the

MEP4 MIDI event processor) to filter out all of

your left

hand

notes, allowing only those

from

your right hand to reach the MKS20.

I will

soon

be

working

with

my

own

G 10

MIDI

guitar controller

and

G

10C

controller

set.

What

are

your

recommendations

for a

wireless setup? My first instinct is

to

use a

standard

wireless

unit

on

the

guitar

strap.

However,

in

order

to

use a wireless

unit

be-

tween

the

G 10 and

the

G lOC, I need

to

get

some kind

of

a conversion cord for

the

multi-

pin connection between

the

two. Most

of

my

post-G lOC problems are

due

to

MIDI

DIN

5-

pin incompatibility

with

the

standard 1

/4''

plug;

Does Yamaha offer a MIDI-in, 1

/4"

signal-out

for connecting MIDI-sized equipment

to

stan-

dard

units?-

Tony Max Nance, Orange, N.J.

Well, first

of

all, it

is

impossible to convert a

MIDI-type signal to

an

electronic audio-type

signal (the kind transmitted

by

standard wire-

less

units) simply

by

using some kind of conver-

sion cable. Remember

that

the output signal

from the G 10C

is

a MIDI-type signal: It must be

connected to a MIDI-compatible tone gener-

ator (VIA MIDI) in order for the system to cre-

ate

sound-the

sounds themselves come from a

tone generator, while all

of

the MIDI data

for

controlling

the

tone generator comes from the

G10/G10C

system.

To

make a wireless connection between the

G 10C and your tone generator, you would have

to use a MIDI wireless setup, which

is

consider-

ably more expensive

than

a standard wireless

unit.

Finally,

the

multi-pin connector between the

G

10

and G 10C also carries a specialized kind of

data, which

cannot

be converted into "standard

wireless" data through the use of converter cord;

in fact, such a cord would be impossible to

make.

There

is

no

wireless

unit

that

allows

connection between the G

10

MIDI guitar and

the G

lOC

controller.

I want

to

control my Yamaha

RX5

rhythm

programmer from my Macintosh. To do this, I

need a

manual

or

pamphlet

that

gives

the

MIDI

commands for the

unit

(particularly

the

System Exclusive commands).

Where

can

I get

this

information?-

Tony Zepeda,

Oakland,

CA.

System Exclusive and other MIDI documenta-

tion can be purchased from the Yamaha Elec-

tronic Service Parts

Department.

For more

information, write to: Yamaha Corporation of

America, Electronic Service Parts Department,

P.O.

Box 6600, Buena Park,

CA

90622; or call

1-800-44 3-3548.

RX

17

digital

rhythm

programmer.

I am writing about

the

RX17

drum

machine. I

cannot

get

the

cassette storage feature

to

work.

I even tried

the

Radio Shack dataset model

mentioned

in

your earlier answer

on

this sub-

ject (in

the

July

1988

issue)

but

still

no

luck. I

usually get a message saying

"LOADING

or

VERIFY

ERROR,"

which according

to

the

manual means

that

the

RX17 does

not

recog-

nize the data,

but

is

at

least hearing something.

Do

you have any

further

suggestions?-Kenn

Busch, Janesville,

WI

Based

on

the

message you are getting, it sounds

like the problem

is

that

you are using high bias

tape with a normal bias machine.

The

Radio

Shack units

we

mentioned in July (CCR81 and

CCR82) are

both

normal bias machines.

It

is

very important to use normal bias tape when

using

these

normal

bias

machines

for

data

storage.

Our

band uses

the

D1500

digital delay and the

R1000

digital reverb, and we've lost the own-

ers manuals for

both.

How

can we get

another

copy of each?

-Gerald

Jones, Scottsboro, AL.

To

get a copy of

the

D1500 or R1000 owners

manuals, write to: Yamaha

Corporation

of

America, Pro Audio Division, Literature Dept.,

P.O.

Box 6600, Buena Park,

CA

90622

I recently

bought

a used Yamaha

PSS-360,

a

model

that

I believe had been discontinued. I

would like

to

get

an

owners manual.

Can

you

tell me how I might find

one?-

Elly Barker,

Urbana,

IL.

To

get a copy of

the

PSS-360 owners manual,

write to: Yamaha

Corporation

of

America,

Consumer Products Division, Literature Dept.,

P.O.

Box 6600, Buena Park,

CA

90622

Vol.

5

No.

Z/

AFTERTOUCH 5

SESSION:

"THE

'BURBS," a film directed

by

Joe Dante; starring Tom Hanks, Carrie

Fisher,

and

Bruce Dern; produced

by

Larry

Brezner and Michael Finnell,

to

be released

by

Universal

on

February 17th. Music

by

Jerry

Goldsmith,

the

award-winning composer

of

more

than

130

film scores.

Cast: A 70-piece orchestra, including three

keyboard parts. Besides composing

the

music,

Jerry

Goldsmith

will be

conducting

the

ses-

sions. Bruce Botnick

is

the

recording engineer;

Ken Hall

is

the Music Editor, (working with

an

Auricle program); Authur Morton

is

handling

the

orchestrations; and the contractor

for

the

sessions

is

Sandy DeCrescent.

Location:

The

Universal lot

on

Stage

10,

which

is

the

scoring stage.

The

basic scoring

sessions covers four

days:

November 28,

29,

and

30, and December

1.

All four sessions are dou-

bles: three hours in

the

morning, an hour for

lunch, three hours in

the

afternoon.

On

the

first

day,

Monday, the keyboard players are asked

to get there

an

hour early at

nine

o'clock, to

make sure

that

there are

no

problems in getting

the keyboard gear set

up-it's

not

a good idea to

take time making sure

the

keyboards work while

the

full orchestra

is

sitting there.

Jerry Goldsmith treats snythesizers just like

he treats all other members of

the

orchestra.

He

makes specific demands, and expects specific

results. His short-score compositions always

include detailed instructions for the entire or-

chestration,

and

that

includes

the

electronic

instruments.

During

recording,

he

is

very

careful about

the

overall mix:

he

adjusts

the

electronics, adjusts the acoustic instruments,

adjusts

the

overall mix and

then

records.

There are three keyboard desks

for

the film:

Ralph Grierson

is

playing desk one for

the

first

two days (he has other work scheduled for the

last two days); Mike Lang

is

playing desk two for

the

first two days, and will switch to desk one

for the last two days; replacing Ralph Grierson

on

Wednesday and Thursday (and playing desk

two) will be Randy Kerber; and I am playing

desk three all four

days.

Desk one has piano, a Yamaha TX16W, Ro-

land D-50 (sometimes

the

two are

MIDied

together),

and

Emulator

II. Desk

two

has

Yamaha DX7, D-50,

and

Emulator II. Desk

6 AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5 No. 2

An Insider's

Look

At

Jerry

Goldsmith's

Scoring

Sessions

For

The

New

Joe

Dante

Film.

By

Tom

Darter.

Jerry

Goldsmith

conducting

a

·

scoring

session

.

three has

DX7,

D-50, and Roland Super

JX.

There

is

a lot

of

jumping back and forth

on

cer-

tain cues.

For

the

Emulator

II

and

TX

16W,

Jerry

brought all

of

the

disks; for the D-50, the

OX,

and Super JX,

he

brought all of

the

cartridges.

Each

one

of

his parts indicates what instrument

is

to be played, if it

is

to

be MIDied to some

other

instrument, and what sounds from his car-

tridges

or

disks are to be called

up.

For this rea-

son, the various keyboard setups are

not

the

standard

setup

that

many

of

the

performers

bring-

Jerry requests

that

only certain instru-

ments be brought.

Ralph Grierson,

for

instance, brought much

less

than

half

of

his standard setup, and the

same

is

true

for

Mike Lang and Randy Kerber.

This

is

a cause for some mixed feelings: In the

past, Ralph has suggested that, since he spends

a lot of time putting his setup together and

feels

comfortable with it, he would like to have the

opportunity to use his entire basic setup; but he

also understands

that

Jerry's compositional

approach doesn't require that.

While there are some composers who spend a

fair

amount

of

time working

out

particular

sounds

or

getting

aspects of

the

synthesizer

setup worked out ahead of time, many composers

hire keyboardists or synthesizer players that they

know

well,

write the parts with general directions

as

to the kind of sounds they want, and

then

it

is

the responsibility

of

the synthesizer player to

program

the

sounds, MIDI various instruments

together, and get

the

final sound.

Jerry

Goldsmith,

on

the

other

hand,

approaches

the

instruments

as

he

does

the

rest

of

the

instruments of the orchestra: it

is

always

the case

that

he comes prepared with all

of

the

sounds

that

he

wants, and a very specific selec-

tion of instruments. That's why it

is

so

easy to

list the specific instruments being used in

the

score. This

was

no less true for

the

other scoring

sessions I have worked

on

with Jerry:

Explorers,

Poltergeist

II,

and Innerspace. Jerry really knows

his stuff.

We

only has a

few

difficulties during

the

setup

period:

Ralph

Grierson's

MIDI

patching

machine crashed

as

it

was

being set up; it might

hae been a problem with a cable, or there may

have been a problem with

AC

being plugged in

or unplugged at

the

wrong time.

In

any case,

Ralph wound up having

to

do all

of

his MIDI

patching manually. He did

say

that

it

was

lucky

that

the unit happened to blow up

at

this partic-

ular time, rather

than

at almost any

of

his

other

dates when

he's

using his full setup, because

then

he would have had a very difficult time

making

the

necessary

instrumental

changes,

particularly

in

a

TV

score, where a keyboard

player

is

often called upon to make a large num-

ber

of

changes in a very small amount of time.

A

few

anxious moments were caused

by

the

TX16W-it

was

rented,

and

showed

up

originally without

the

System disk; finally,

the

System disk showed up, and

we

loaded

the

nec-

essary sounds without further difficulty.

Also,

thank

God

for

edit/play

buffers:

we

only had

one

cartridge for each type

of

unit, and

sometimes two different keyboardists needed a

sound from a cartridge

on

same cue.

No

one

wanted

to

alter

the

internal

memory

of

the

units they were using,

but

it wasn't necessary:

One

player

would

load

a

sound

into

the

edit/play buffer from the cartridge,

then

pass it

on

to next keyboardist; if one

had

to change

sounds

on

the same instrument during a cue, he

was

the

one

who would keep

the

cartridge

plugged into his unit.

The

TX16W does

not

have a volume control

on

front panel,

so

to

pull instrument in and out

of mix during a cue,

we

had

to call up a page

with volume, and move' from 99

to

0 or vice

versa. Luckily, there

was

no

change of Perfor-

mance during any cue,

so

this

was

no

problem.

During any session, you always

learn

that

what

you

thought

would be difficult and what

actually

is

difficult are sometimes very different.

In this session, I had none

of

the those pages full

Jerry

Goldsmith

with

Tom

Darter

at

a

scoring

session

for

the

film

Poltergeist II.

of notes

that

test your sight-reading and your

nerves, but there were

other

things. Here are

three of

the

difficult things I learned about on

this date:

1) Whole notes. In the very first cue

of

the

movie,

my

part

called

for

octave whole-notes

on

the

D-50, held for four bars. This innocuous-

looking part

was

actually tied to a D-50 patch

that

contained

a

rhythmic,

multi-timbral,

quasi-sequenced effect

that

was

perfectly in

time with

the

click

and

meter of the cue. There-

fore, if I

don't

play

the

octave right

on

the

downbeat

of

the first bar,

the

rhythm for the

entire four bars will be wrong.

Not

really dif-

ficult, but something

you

can't afford to lose

concentration on.

2) Straightforward eighth-notes in a mod-

erately fast tempo. If a part like this

is

exposed

{either

as

a solo or with just a

few

other instru-

ments), any error sticks

out

like a sore thumb,

and

the

part doesn't look or sound hard. If

you

get too comfortable with your old piano chops,

your

hand

(or one finger) will stray over

an

extra

synthesizer key and create a "clam"-keep those

fingers high, and be careful.

3) Program changes during a cue.

If

you

call

up

the

wrong sound or fail

to

connect

{or

dis-

connect) a MIDI hookup, it's just

as

bad

as

miss-

ing 200 notes. Also, if you have to make MIDI

Continued

on

page

20

Vol.

5 No. 2/ AFTERTOUCH 7

G~DMIDI

TX81Z

Performances

For

The

GlOMIDI

Guitarist.

By

Craig

Anderton.

TXBl Z

FM

digital

tone

generator.

WHEN

RESPONDING

TO

MIDI guitar

controllers such

as

the

Yamaha G10, all

synthesizers

and

tone generators are not created

equal-some

lack the MIDI features necessary to

link synthesizer

and

controller together in

an

efficient manner.

The

most

important

of

these features

is

the

ability

to

receive

on

at least six different MIDI

channels at once, since guitar controllers usu-

ally work best when each string can control its

own channel.

One

benefit

of

this approach

is

that

bending

one

string will

not

bend

the

pitch

of

the

other

strings (while with a keyboard,

bending

with

the

pitch

bend

wheel usually

changes the

pitch

of

all

keys

being held down).

Another

benefit

is

that

each voice controlled

by

that

MIDI

channel

can

be

set

to

"mono

mode." This insures

that

each channel will play

only

one

note

at

a time, thus mimicking the

way

a guitar string responds (since each string also

plays just one

note

at a time}.

Performance Mode Basics

The

TX81Z and TX802 tone generators are

very well-suited to guitar synthesis.

The

main

reason for the cost differential between

the

two

is

sound quality, circuit complexity, and extra

user

RAM,

not

any differences in MIDI guitar

compatibility. Both are equally flexible

for

gui-

tar applications, thanks to the availability

of

Performance

mode.

In this mode, each MIDI channel controls its

own instrument.

An

instrument

is

a combina-

tion of any

one

of

the synth's voices along with

several associated settings: number

of

notes

the

voice will play (usually one

note

with MIDI gui-

tar), volume, transposition, detuning, output

assignment, LFO selection, microtuning, and

8 AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5 No. 2

upper/lower

key

limit. Since each string can

control

a different voice, you

can

have, for

example, bass voices

on

the

bottom

two strings,

lead guitar

on

the

top two strings, and some

kind of piano sound

for

the

middle two strings.

Typical Performance

1:

Mono Mode

Let's look at

the

two Performances I've found

most useful when feeding a TX81Z from the

G

10

(the

screen dumps are

taken

from

the

"TX81Z

Pro"

editor/librarian

from Digital

Music Services). These Performances can serve

as

"templates"

into

which you can plug different

Voice numbers

and

other

parameters to create

different sounds.

Figure 1 shows a very common MIDI guitar

Performance

that

assigns each string to its own

channel. Each instrument plays one

note

and

the

same Voice number (

112

in this case).

The

first six

instruments

play

the

first six MIDI

channels (as expected), but instruments 7 and 8

are assigned to MIDI channels 1 and 2, which

correspond

to

the

controller's

two

highest

strings. These additional instruments thicken

the

upper

register

by

doubling

the

top two .

strings. To add a chorusing effect, note that

instruments 7 and 8 are detuned

by

-2. Also,

since doubling

the

sound makes the top two

strings louder

than

the others,

the

volume

for

the

doubled instruments has been reduced to

77.

Detuning

and

volume changes hold many

other

possibilities. For example, with

the

above

template,

try

detuning

instruments

5

and

7

(which are set to the same MIDI channel and

therefore play

the

same notes)

by

+ 2 and

-2

re-

spectively.

This

would again give a large enough

frequency offset for chorusing, but the offset

would be centered around concert pitch. In this

case, you'd probably want to set

both

instru-

ment

s to a somewhat lower but equal volume,

say

around 80.

On

some sounds, doubling

the

bottom

two

strings can add a really strong low end.

This

is

particularly effective

on

MIDified rhythm gui-

tar parts.

Another

trick

is

to transpose the dou-

bled

instruments

an

octave

higher

or lower;

adding a sub-octave to

the

bottom

two strings

works very well.

Finally, don't forg

et

to edit each single Voice

so

that

its mode

(in

the

Function

me

nu)

is

Mono, not Po

ly,

and

save

it before working with

a Performance. Mono mode insures

th

e most

guitar-like feel.

Typical Performance

#2:

Omni

Mode

Mono mode is n

ot

the

optimum choice if you

don't want a newly-played

note

to

cut

o

ff

any

previously-played notes

that

are still sounding

D

Performanfe

Editor

I

name

:

Pu

I

se

1.-Jave

I 1 :

Me

llowSqar 5 :

Me

llowSqar

assign

mode

NORM

2 :

Me

llowSqar 6 :

Me

llowSqar

micro

tune

select

OCT.

3 :

Me

llowSqar 7 :

Me

llowSqar

effect

select

OFF

4 :

Me

llowSqar 8 :

Me

llowSqar

inst.

number

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

number

of

notes 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

voice

number

129 129 129 129 129 129 129 129

receive ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2

key

limit

IL

C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2

key

limit

/H

G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8

de

tune

' +0 +0 +0 +0 +0 +0

-2 -2

(±)

note shift +12 +12 +12 +12 +12 +12 +12 +12

volume

73

99

99 99 99

50 50

ALL

8 out assign

LR

LR LR

LR

LR LR

lfo

select

1 2

VIB

VIB VIB

...

micro

tune

OFF

OFF OFF OFF

OFF OFF

G

10

MIDI

guitar

sys

tem

Figure

1. A typ

ica

l

mono

mode

TXBI Z P

erformance

for

use

with

the

G

10.

Vo

l.

5 No. 2/ AFTER

TOUCH

9

G1D

Continued fram page 9

on

that

same string. Choirs, flutes, strings,

horns,

and

similar "pad" sounds (as well as

patches with long release times where you

need

to

avoid

having

notes

cut

each

other

off}

require a Performance like

the

one shown in

Figure 2.

In this Performance, only instrument 1

is

of

interest because it has all eight

of

the

TX81Z's

notes assigned

to

it. Assigning eight notes to

an

instrument automatically takes all

the

other

instruments

out

of

the

picture.

However,

remember

that

the

guitar

is

still transmitting in

Mono mode. Setting

the

receive

channel

to

Omni

guarantees

that

signals from any of

the

strings will be played

by

the

assigned Voice,

up

to

a

total

of

eight

notes

sounding

simultaneously.

In this case, you need

to

go

into

the

Function

menu for the single Voice used with this Perfor-

mance,

set

the

mode

to

Poly,

and

save

the

Voice. Otherwise, you'll

hear

only one

note

at

a

time, even

if

you strum a chord.

Another

important

point

is

that

setting

the

pitch

bend

response to zero makes life a

lot

easier with this performance.

This

is

because in

Omni

mode, bending more

than

one string con-

fuses

the

TX81Z, which can't decide which

of

the

various bend messages it should follow.

The

result

is

a rough

and

uneven sound. However, in

cases where bending

is

absolutely necessary, if

you can avoid bending more

than

one string at a

time you'll be able

to

get

away

with adding some

pitch

bend response.

One

Final

Tip

One

point

about MIDI guitar

that

doesn't

seem to have

gotten

a lot

of

print

is

the subject

of

adding special effects. Over

the

years,

we

have come to associate certain guitar sounds

with specific signal processors-the wah-wahs of

funk music, the

fuzz

of heavy metal, a bit of long

echo

on

a stinging lead part, slap back echo

for

a

rockabilly groove, and so on. Adding some gui-

tar-oriented signal processing to a synth's sound

will often make a MIDI guitar feel much more

like a "real" guitar, because you'll be hearing a

more

familiar

sound.

Try

chorusing

some

rhythm parts, too.

MIDI guitar

can

be

a

lot

of

fun, but it can't be

said

enough

that

you have

to

optimize

the

controller, the converter, and

the

synthesizer to

make

the

whole process work. Hopefully this

article has provided a bit

of

insight into how to

tweak your synthezier

and

tone generator Per-

formances for MIDI guitar.

Figure

2.

A

typical

omni

mode

TXBIZ

Performance

D

Performanfe

Editor

far

use

with

the

G

10.

I name:

Horns

* I

1:

HornMut*

5:

ass;gn

mode

NORM

2:

6:

m;cro tune select

OCT.

3:

7:

effect select

OFF

4:

8:

;nst. number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

number

of

notes 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

vo;ce number

107 107 107

107 107 107 101 101

rece;ve ch.

OMNI

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

key Hm;t

/L

C-2 C-2 C-2

C-2 C-2

C-2 C-2 C-2

key Hm;t

/H

G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8

de

tune

+0 +0 +0

+0 +0

+0

(±)

note

sMft

+0 +0 +0

+0 +0

+0

+0 +0

volume

99 99 99

99 99

99

ALL

8 out ass;gn

LR LR LR

LR LR

LR

lfo select

OFF

OFF OFF

OFF OFF OFF

VIB VIB

...

m;cro tune

OFF OFF OFF

OFF OFF

OFF

10 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 No. 2

For

SINCE YOU

CAN

RUN just about any kind

of

MS-DOS software

on

the Yamaha C1

Music Computer, it's easy to forget

that

those

MIDI ports,

CS

sliders

and

note-value keys

aren't just added for cosmetic value. Despite its

multi-talented

nature,

the

C1 was primarily

designed

as

a tool for music creation.

With

that

in mind, Yamaha has introduced Sequence, a

professional sequencer software package

that

is

specially designed to give musicians access to

the C1

's

unique music making capabilities.

Graphic Interface

Some popular computers have a form

of

user

interface known

as

a graphic interface.

Without

naming names, you'll probably recognize one of

these computers

by

the

presence

of

a small trash

can in the lower right corner

of

the

screen when

the computer

is

turned on. This type

of

inter-

face

has proven to be especially useful

for

music

applications. As a general rule, MS-DOS appli-

cations

don't

use a

graphic

interface,

but

Yamaha has thoughtfully included a graphic

interface package with Sequence

so

that

you

can take advantage

of

features like pull-down

menus, scroll bars,

and

graphic editing. For

those

of

you who are

addicted

to

a mouse,

Sequence also supports

both

mouse and key-

board commands.

In

addition to providing a graphic environ-

ment

to aid in music creation, Yamaha has

given a great deal

of

attention

to

the

C1

's

music

hardware. Recording can take place from either

of the two MIDI IN ports, and each track can

be assigned to play back through any

of

the

eight MIDI

OUT

ports.

The

CS 1 and CS2 slid-

ers

ar~

available for data entry (you'll appreciate

this when you want to move quickly from the

lowest to

the

highest value

in

a range)

and

tempo control during a playback.

If you happen to find yourself without a MIDI

keyboard, you can still compose

by

step record-

ing using

the

C1 keyboard.

The

notes

can

be

entered

on

the

C1 note

keys

(which are logi-

cally laid

out

to resemble a piano keyboard),

the

note values

can

be set with

the

note

value

keys,

and

the

proper

octave

can

be

set

with

the

C1

's

octave

keys.

If

you

need

to

do

long

se-

quences,

Sequence

is

also smart

about

how

An Introduction

To Yamaha's

New

Sequencer

Program For

TheCl

Music

Computer.

By

Scott Plunkett.

C1

much

extended

memory

is

available

on

the

Cl.

With

the

standard 512k

of

extended

mem-

ory,

about

39,000 notes

can

be stored. If you

need

extra memory, you

can

buy

an

EMB15

RAM

board

to

boost

your

extended

memory

to

2 meg

and

get

a

healthy

193,000

note

capacity.

If you're

the

type of composer who needs

that

193,000

note

capacity, you'll be happy to know

that

Sequence has 400 tracks. Only (!) 200 of

them

can play simultaneously,

but

you

can

use

the

others for editing or making safety copies of

tracks.

There's

also

a

handy

provision

for

converting any

part

of

a track into a pattern. A

patte~h

may

then

be inserted into any

of

the

400 tracks at any specified location.

Up

to 1024

patterns

can

be defined

at

one time,

so

fre-

quently

used phrases or repeating parts may

quickly be constructed, edited, and inserted

into empty tracks for song creation.

Master Track

You

can simply set a tempo and a meter and

begin recording or playback, or you can use the

Master Track if you want complicated meter

and tempo changes.

The

Master Track Numeric

Editor lets you see all of

the

current meter and

tempo changes and edit

them

as

single events.

The

location of each event

is

shown in Meas/

Beat/Clock

and

Hr/Min/Sec/Frm

format

so

that

you

can

make changes based

on

SMPTE

time

code

locations.

Since

you

can

record

tempo changes in real time using

the

CS

1 slider

or even record tempo changes over MIDI, the

Master Track editor gives you a convenient

way

to edit out mistakes

or

insert new data.

The

Master Track

is

also used for inserting

Rehearsal Marks.

Any

time you want to mark a

particular location for playback, you can insert

a Rehearsal Mark with a comment.

By

specify-

ing

the

proper Rehearsal Mark for playback,

you

can

jump immediately to any position

in

the

song.

Recording

With

Sequence

Both realtime and step recording are possible

with Sequence.

In

realtime record you have the

option of using replace mode, which erases what

Vol.

5 No.

21

AFTERTOUCH

11

what

was

previously

on

the

track

and

replaces

it

with

the

new

recording,

or

overdub

mode,

which adds

the

new recording

to

the

old. Loop

recording

is

available

(with

the

option

of

quantizing

during

recording) for

building

up

drum

and

rhythm

tracks quickly,

and

there are

three

punch

modes, including

an

auto

punch

mode

that

can

punch

in

and

out

to

the

preci-

sion of Sequence's 480-clocks-per-quarter-note

resolution.

Sequence

can

record

on

multiple tracks si-

multaneously,

which

can

really come

in

handy

when

you need

to

port

over a song from

another

sequencer.

In

fact, since

each

of

the

two MIDI

IN ports are active

and

each

port

supports

all16

MIDI

channels,

you

have

the

potential

of

recording up

to

32 different parts in

one

pass.

Sequence

can

recor.d while it's synchronized

to

other

sequencers

with

standard MIDI clock,

direct

SMPTE

sync (using

the

Cl's

SMPTE

ports),

or

MIDI

Time

Code.

When

you finish recording a track, Sequence

responds

by

giving you a visual representation

of

what

was

recorded

in

the

Track

Data

area

at

the

bottom

of

the screen. You'll never have

to

won-

der

anymore

about

whether

a

track

actually

contains data.

This

display

is

normally

what

you see

at

the

bottom

of

the

main

screen,

but

there are actually some powerful functions hid-

den

within

the Track

Data

area.

Clicking

the

mouse

button

beside

the

Track

Data title brings up

the

Track

Attribute

screen.

For

each

track, you

can

set a time offset

to

move

the

track forward

or

backward in time, change

the

transposition, or send

an

initial program

change,

volume,

or

pan

value

whenever

playback begins. A unique feature in

the

Track

Attribute

window

is

the individual track

tempo

LFO.

You

can

set

the

speed

and

depth

of

the

tempo LFO

on

each

track

to

give a more fluid,

human

feel to quantized tracks.

From

the

Track

Attribute

screen, you

can

go

to

the Track

Comment

screen

to

add a 32 char-

acter

comment

for

each

track.

This

is

a good

place

to

put

information about

the

tone

gener-

ators and patches you used, in case you

want

to

reconstruct a performance later.

The

last hid-

den

function, Velocity Meter,

is

the

most enter-

taining.

With

this feature you

can

watch

the

changing

note-on

velocity

of

each

track

as

it

plays back.

This

is

sort

of

like having a block

of

MIDI

VU

meters

at

your disposal, except you

never have to worry about clipping.

12 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 No. 2

Main

Recorder

display

of

the

Sequence

program

Continued fram page

II

Bar

Graph

And

Numeric

Edit Windows

One

advantage

software

sequencers

have

always

had

over

their

hardware counterparts

is

that

they

can

make good use

of

the

computer's

screen size. Screen

size

really becomes a big plus

when

it's time

to

edit. Instead

of

seeing just one

MIDI

event

at

a time, whole

note

lists

can

be

shown,

or

some form

of

graphic editing

can

be

used.

Since

both

styles

of

editing have their

advantages, Sequence uses

them

both.

When

you

select

a track

to

edit, you

can

choose

either

a Bar

Graph

edit window or a

Numeric

Editor. Since up

to

4

of

these edit win-

dows

can

be

opened

and

viewed simultaneously,

you

can

actually edit a track using a combina-

tion

of

the

two methods.

The

Bar

Graph

window shows notes in a "pi-

ano

roll" style.

Each

note

is

represented

by

a bar

whose

location

in

the window determines the

pitch

and

starting

point

(in

measure/beat/

clock

format).

The

length

of

the

bar

cor-

responds

to

how long

the

note

was held down

when

the

track was recorded. To make mistakes

easier

to

find,

the

Cl

sends a

Note

On

message

to

your

tone

generator so

that

you

can

hear

the

pitch

whenever

you

select

a

note

bar

for

editing.

With

the

mouse, you

can

lengthen

notes,

shorten

notes, delete notes, move notes,

or

even draw new notes.

The

Numeric Editor gives you a complete list

of

all

of

the

MIDI events in

the

track.

If

you

aren't interested

in

seeing those

pitch

bends

that

you

got

a

bit

carried

away

with,

don't

worry, you

can

filter

out

any type

of

data

with

the edit filter. Like

the

Master Track editing

window,

the

Numeric Editor shows

the

starting

time

of

every

event

in

both

measure/beat/

clock

and

hour/minute/second/frame

formats.

If

you're scrolling through

and

want

to

hear

a par-

ticular note, clicking

the

mouse

on

the

note

number

will send it to your tone generators.

There's also a

PLAY

button

in

the

upper right

corner

of

the

window

that

will play all

of

the

events

that

are currently visible.

Any

of

the

data

that

appears

in

the

window

can

be

changed,

and

events

can

easily be inserted or

deleted.

Region Editing

If

you

don't

want

to

work

on

individual

events, Sequence lets you select a region

by

dragging

the

mouse over

the

desired area

in

the

Bar

Graph

or Numeric Editor window,

or

by

using

the

Set

Region

command

to

set region

start

and

end

points. Entire tracks

can

also be

selected

by

simply clicking

on

the

track

number

in

the

main

display.

In

addition

to

the

standard

Copy,

Cut,

and

Replace options, you

can

Filter

Out

specific types

of

data

from a track or use

the

"Cut

with Time" function

to

shorten

tracks

by

removing

the

selected region itself along

with

the

data

in

the

region.

As

you would expect

with

a professional se-

quencer, you

can

do

things

like

quantize

a

region

(Note

On

with

or

without

duration,

Note

Off

with

or

without

duration, etc.), trans-

pose, modify velocities

and

gate times,

or

thin

out

and modify controller data.

There

are also

some clever commands

to

create trills, tremolos

and

arpeggios from your recorded data.

And

if

you start getting tired

of

those step recorded

and

quantized tracks, there's a Bounce function

that

changes

the

feel

to

a shuffle or,

if

you like,

something more exotic.

Rhythm

Note

Assign

Tables

And

MIDI

Macros

If you've ever created a drum

part

for

one

drum

machine

and

then

decided

to

switch to

another

drum machine, you've probably

been

a

victim

of

the

"Those

Note

Assignments Don't

Live

Here"

syndrome.

Since

every

drum

machine manufacturer decides

on

a different

default

note

setting for

each

drum,

the

chances

are very slim

that

you'll actually

hear

a kick

drum playing

when

you play your kick drum

track with

the

new drum machine. Sure, you

could change all

of

the

note

assigns

on

the

new

machine,

but

you'll probably get tired

of

learn-

C I

music

computer.

ing

the

operating

systems

of

every

drum

machine

you

encounter.

A

simpler

way

to

approach

the

problem

is

to

use

Sequence's

Rhythm

Note

Assign table.

With

this table you

can

designate different playback notes for

each

recorded note. So, for instance, if

D1

is

desig-

nated

as

the

kick

drum

note

on

one

drum

machine

and

A1

on

another, you could assign

all

D1

notes

to

play A1

notes

with the

Rhythm

Note

Assign table.

The

MIDI Macro function

is

a powerful fea-

ture designed for experienced MIDI users. A

string

of

MIDI data

can

be

entered

and

saved

as

one

of

128

MIDI macros.

Any

of

the

128 macros

can

be inserted

into

a track

to

be

sent

when

the

sequence plays back.

This

can

be particularly

useful for sending MIDI System Exclusive codes

to

your

tone

generators

to

change voice param-

eters during a performance.

Unfortunately, with a professional program

like Sequence, covering all

of

its many features

in

one

article

is

impossible. But,

the

strengths

of

this

kind

of

program are as

much

in its user

interface

and

the

way it allows you

to

work

as

in

the

individual features

that

it includes.

The

best

way

to

get

an

idea

of

what

Sequence

can

do

is

to

go

to

your local authorized Yamaha C1 dealer

and

ask for a demo or,

better

yet, actually make

some music

with

it yourself.

Vol.

5 No.

2/

AFTER

TOUCH

13

Tips

Readers Tips

For The MEP4,

MV802, And

More.

MEP4

MIDI

event

processor.

Three

Ways To

Adjust

The

DX7's

Velocity

Range

With

An

MEP4

By

Jack

R.

McCreary

The

expressiveness

and

feel

of

the

DX7

and

PF15 (with a MIDI retrofit) make

them

excel-

lent

master keyboards. Unfortunately, however,

since

neither

keyboard puts

out

a higher MIDI

velocity

than

about 105, they are

not

very suit-

able for use

with

non-

Yamaha products

that

comply with

the

standard MIDI velocity scale

of0-127.

I have used

the

Yamaha MEP4 MIDI event

processor to change

the

velocity scale

of

the

DX7

and

PF15

in

the

following three

ways:

Velocity Shift. In its only explicit reference

to this issue,

the

MEP4 owners manual suggests

shifting

the

entire velocity scale, using settings

like this

on

one

processor:

O:MSG:9n. xx.

yy

1 :OFS:yy, V = +

22

(A

second

processor

is

also

needed

to pass

through velocity messages

of

0

in

an

unmodified

form to provide for

Note

Off commands.)

While

correcting

the

upper

end

of

the

ve-

locity scale, this solution also distorts

the

lower

end

of

the

scale so

that

extremely soft passages

can

no

longer

be

played.

3-

Way

Split

Velocity

Shift.

An

improve-

ment

over

the

above

setup

is

to

use

three

processors

to

add

extra

velocity

values

in

progressively greater amounts. {One processor

must still be dedicated to protect

the

integrity

of

14 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 No. 2

Note

Off = Zero Velocity commands.)

Though

the

values should be tweaked to match different

equipment and playing styles, something along

the

following lines works welt:

Processor One:

The

message filter passes

both

Note

On

and

Note

Off

commands.

The

Data

Modifier

is

Limited (LIM) to pass through

unmodified velocity values from 0 through 40

(decimal) only.

Processors

Two

through Four:

Only

Note

On

commands pass

the

Message Filter. Using the

LIM

command,

each

processor

passes

through successive bands of

the

DX

or

PF

ve-

locity range; for example, 41-60, 61-80, and

81-105 (all decimal values). Following this,

an

offset (OFS) function adds progressively

greater amounts

of

velocity

in

each processor;

for example, V = + 4

in

Processor

Two,

fol-

lowed by V = +

12

in Three,

and

V = +

22

in

Four.

Though

the

modified velocity scale

is

not

seamless-there

is

an

abrupt break between 40

and 45, for example, and a gap

of

10

at the high-

est break

point-both

the

lowest and highest

MIDI velocity values are preserved. Further-

more,

the

breaks

that

do occur in this modified

velocity scale are effectively masked by

the

three-way split.

Under

the

Velocity Shift

for-

mula in example 1 above, a 22-point velocity

shift more

than

doubles

the

lower values. In this

setup,

10

additional units near

the

top

of

the

velocity scale represent a proportionately small

shift.

Reshaping

Upper

Velocity

Curve.

This

setup requires only two processors. Processor

One

passes both

Note

On

and

Note

Off com-

mands

through

the

Data

Filter,

and

sends

through (LIM) unmodified velocity values from

0 to 79 (decimal). Processor Two limits

the

range of modifications to

the

velocity scale from

80 to the upper

end

of the DX/PF scale.

The

velocity date (yy)

is

then

offset (OFS)

by

a

value of -40 and, finally, expanded

by

a factor

of 2 (EXP:

yy,

R = 2).

As a result of these operations, an incoming

velocity value of 80

is

still transmitted

as

80

(80-

40 = 40; 40x2 = 80). However, at higher

velocity values, the scale

is

reshaped to transmit

progressively

higher

velocity

values. For

example, 90

on

the DX/PF scale becomes 100 at

the MEP4's output

(90-

40

=50;

50x2 = 100).

The

maximum DX/PF value of

105

now be-

comes

130

(105-

40 =

75;

75x2 = 130).

Experimentation with these values suggests

that

an even lower break point

for

the begin-

ning

of

this upper velocity curve

can

be effec-

tive. Some

of

my MIDI slaves respond best

when the LIM command begins at a velocity

value

as

low

as

74

(decimal) with an OFS of

V=

-37.

For most applications, this

is

the

best solu-

tion

to

the

DX/PF velocity problem. Lower

velocity values are preserved; also, unlike the

two previous solutions,

the

maximum MIDI

velocity

of

127

is

reached

without

creating

discontinuities. In addition, this setup frees two

MEP4 processors for other assignments.

I hope other MEP4 users find these setups

useful.

Getting

More

Than

Eight

Input

Channels

From A Yamaha

MV802

Mixer

By James

A.

Laing, Jr.

I recently purchased a Yamaha MV802 to mix

my

keyboards and tone generators. I've discov-

ered that I really have more

than

eight input

channels available to me, even if the "extra"

channels don't have the same flexibility

as

the

eight "main" channels provided

by

MV802.

I have two stereo tone generators (Yamaha

TX802

and

Kurzweil

KlOOO)

plus a

drum

machine. I also like to use

the

MV802 for play-

ing CDs (using

my

portable

CD

player) while

the band

is

on

break. I only

use

one

of the two

available Effects Loops (for reverb),

so

I

use

the

MV802

rack-mount

mixer.

stereo returns from

the

unused Effects Loop

as

inputs for

my

CD

player! Using the Aux Return

controls, I effectively have volume and balance

controls

for

the

CD

player.

I

use

a Roland D-50

as

part

of

my

setup; since

I

use

its "built-in" effects only, I need to add

only its output to

the

mixer-so

I use the "Sub

In"

R/L

jacks. I simply

use

the D-50's volume

control and effects controls. This means

that

I've used four line-level sources (two for the

CD

player and two

for

the

D-50) without using any

of

the eight "main" channels.

The

eight main channels are available

for

the

TX802,

my

Kurzweil K1000,

and

my

drum

machine. Since these units use only six of

the

eight channels, channels 1 and 2 are still free for

mics!

And,

if I have a need

for

more inputs,

there's always

the

"Sub

In"

AUX 1 and AUX 2

jacks! I hadn't realized when I purchased

the

MV802

that

it would allow for such flexibility.

Maybe others could benefit from realizing

that

there

are ways to

add

extra

inputs

to

their

MV802.

Using

E! To Reduce Noise Levels

By

Mark

Nadlin

Here

is

a tip

for

E!

equipped DX7

II

users.

The

noise level

of

any

MIDI

piece

can

be

reduced

by

altering

the

velocity level in

E!'s

Track Assign map (accessed via button

#28).

Since "5"

is

the normal velocity level, levels

of

"6" or "7" work well.

On

muddy-sounding patches, increasing

the

curve to "Pos

1"

and decreasing the level to "4"

usually improves the clarity.

Altering levels here allows

you

to trim the

audio volume fader and results in "cleaner"

audio.

Vol.

5 No. Z/AFTERTOUCH

15

MIDI

Feedback

And

Other

Horrors.

By

Michael

Babcock.

STOP!STOP!STOP!STOP!STOP!STOP!STOP!

andtheregoesthatredlightagain

...

Ron can't make it stop, and he has to.

The

most

innocent

of gestures and

we

are buried

with exploding cascades of repetitious notes.

Feedback?! Shades of amateur engineering

at

a rock

concert

sound

check-the

Sorcerer's

Ap.prentice in sound,

no

brooms or buckets,

compressed to 700 milliseconds.

Click. (Ron got it

to

stop.) Blink. Stupor.

What

happened?

Welcome to

the

non-standard world

of

what

we

thought

was

a perfectly good MIDI cable.

Yeah,

folks. Feedback.

Ron

had

caught a great riff

on

the sequencer

of his Prophet VS synthesizer, and

had

decided

to do some program changing from his Atari-

ST-based sequencer. So he grabbed

the

MIDI

cords

he

bought

specially yesterday for this

occasion (on special), patched the

OUT

of

the

Atari to the IN

of

the VS, patched

the

IN of

the

Atari to the

OUT

of

the

VS, and turned

on

both

machines.

Instant sonic Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Ron

has

encountered

two standardization

sins.

One

is

on

the

Atari, the other

is

in his new

MIDI cables. Both problems arise because MIDI

doesn't use all S pins in the DIN connector.

The

MIDI specification uses a S-pin connec-

tor to do a job

that

requires only 3 pins because

at the time MIDI

was

born, S-pin DIN connec-

tors were cheap and available, and there

was

already a little experience using this type of

cable for synchronizing instruments.

So

the

specification calls for using only

the

middle

three pins

on

the

connector.

What

about

the

outside pins?

Atari's response

on

the

ST

was

to

reduce

component

count

(save money)

by

putting

the

MIDI IN and MIDI

OUT

signals

on

its two

sockets where they belong,

and

putting

the

MIDI

THRU

signals

on

the (unused) outer pins

of

the

ST's MIDI

OUT

socket-no

separate

MIDI

THRU

socket.

That

system seems safe

16 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5

No.2

enough, since a true MIDI cable doesn't use the

outer pins

at

all-the

THRU

signal simply goes

nowhere.

And

if

you

really want the Atari's

MIDI

THRU

signal,

an

easy,

pleasant Saturday

project builds you one. (If you're

not

into build-

ing, three audio DIN-to-RCA adapter cables

and

several RCA female-to-female adapters will

do it.)

The

manufacturer

of

Ron's new so-called

MIDI cables also did

something

contrary

to

MIDI spec. Rather

than

leave the outer pins

unconnected

to

any wires in

the

cable, this

manufacturer wired the left two pins together

and the right two pins together. (I've speculated

as

to

why and haven't come up with anything

convincing.)

The

combination of Atari

ST

MIDI

OUT

I

THRU

and

a cable

with

outer

pins wired

together

gave

Ron

a weird signal

path.

Any

MIDI signal passing from VS MIDI

OUT

to

Atari

ST

MIDI IN should stop

at

the

Atari, un-

less you have

connected

to

the

Atari

MIDI

THRU.

What

must

NOT

happen

in

this

hookup

is

to

allow a MIDI signal to flow into

the

Atari MIDI IN and get

onto

the

Atari MIDI

OUT

line.

THRU

yes;

OUT

no. But Ron's

cable has shorted the Atari MIDI

OUT

and

MIDI

THRU

together, and sent note informa-

tion back to the MIDI IN

on

the

VS.

The

VS

both

plays

the

note

and sends

that

note to the

VS's

sequencer-which

dutifully sends

it

to

MIDI OUT,

to

the

Atari

...

We now have a

feedback loop, using a MIDI hookup

that

is

en-

tirely normal and legal.

What's supposed to happen? Let's look

at

the

MIDI spec:

Cables shall have a maximum length of fifty

feet

(lS

meters), and shall be terminated

on

each

end

by

a corresponding S-pin DIN male

plug,

such

as

the

SWITCHCRAFT

OSGMSM.

The

cable

shall

be

shielded

twisted pair, with

the

shield connected to pin

2 at

both

ends.

What

pins do

we

attach

to?

What

do

we

do with

the

pins

we

don't

use?

Is

a cable

that

does

MORE

than

what

this paragraph says still a

MIDI cable? Some answers might come from

elsewhere in the MIDI spec.

The

diagrams help

some. They tell

us

that

on

both

MIDI

THRU

and MIDI OUT, pin 4

is

connected (through a

220-ohm resistor) to a + 5 volt power source in

the machine,

that

pin 5 gets the MIDI signal,

pin 2

is

grounded, and pins 1 and 3 are unused

and unconnected. (See Figure 1.)

On

MIDI IN, pins 4 and 5 go almost directly

to

a

light-emitting

diode

(contained

in

a

component called

an

opto-isolator) such

that

electrons must flow

into

5,

through

the

light-emitting diode in

the

opto-isolator, and

back out of

the

machine through

4. Again

there are unconnected pins: pins 1

and

3 again,

and

also

2.

Repeat: pin 2

is

unconnected-it

is

not

grounded.

So what

we

have

is

a MIDI signal's electron

flow

(negative charges) passing from machine A

out

5, into machine B via

5, passing

through a light-emitting diode, back

out

of

machine B via pin 4, and back into maching A

via pin 5, ending up being pulled into the + 5

volt side

of

machine Ns power supply. (Interest-

ing: machine

B's

light-emitting diode

is

run

by

machine Ns

circuits-there

is

no

electrical

con-

tact!

So how does

the

signal get through?

Be-

cause inside machine

B's

MIDI IN opto-isolator,

a sensor picks up

the

emitted light from

the

diode

and

sends a

current

on

to

the

rest

of

machine

B.

For a very short distance, the signal

is

sent

by

light,

not

by

wire;

the

two machines

are

thus electrically isolated.)

And

here's a subtle detail:

the

MIDI spec

doesn't mention it,

but

it

is

important

that

the

circular metal housing

that

surrounds the 5 pins

in the cable be not

attached

to

the

shield

wire!

The

cable shielding

is

attached

to

pin 2

at

both

ends

of the cable; pin two of MIDI

OUT

and MIDI

THRU

are grounded,

so

the

cable shield will

work. This shield wire does

NOT

have to carry

a return current (unlike

the

shield in common

consumer-grade audio cables).

The

pin-S wire

sends a signal to

the

light-emitting diode, and

the pin-4 wire completes

the

circuit back

to

the

sending

machine.

Note

that

the

receiving

machine (MIDI IN) does not have

2 con-

nected. So there should be no connection be-

tween

the

grounds

of

the

two machines!

But-

suppose the cable connector's metal housing

is

connected to

the

shield wire:

Then,

when

the

cable

is

inserted into

the

MIDI sockets

on

the

two

machines,

the

housings

contact

the

machines' metal chassis, creating

an

electrical

path

between

the

grounds

of

the

two machines.

And

now

the

electrical isolation

is

broken, and

the likely consequence

is

hum, maybe RFI, and

even computer

noise-noise

from the MIDI data

signal itself. But that's another MIDI Mixup.

So how do you protect yourself?

Check

your cables electrically.

You

can use a

test meter, set for resistance. If the meter jumps

to

(nearly) 0 ohms, it means "there

is

an elec-

trical path;" if

the

resistance remains high, it

means "there

is

no electrical path." (Any

other

value means you have a weird cable!)

You

might

make something out

of

some wire and a flash-

light (light means "electrical path"), or even

an

oscillator-use your ingenuity. Touch one tester

wire to one

of

one connector (use

an

alliga-

tor clip if you have one.)

Now

go

the

other connector with your

other

tester wire,

and

touch

each

of

the

pins in

that

connector, and the circular metal housing.

You

should get these results::

• For the middle three pins ( 2, 4 & 5): each

should be connected ONLY to

the

corresponding

in

the

other

connec-

tor-2

to

2, 4

to

4,

and

5

to

5.

NO

connection to pins 1

or

3, or

the

hous-

ing. (Check especially:

no

connection

of

4

to

1,

nor

5 to 3 nor 2 to the housing.)

•

The

circular metal housing shouldn't be

connected to anything.

• Pins 1 & 3: well

...

Well, what about pins 1 &

3?

They shouldn't

be connected to 4 or 5.

If

they are unconnected

to

anything, that's

OK

for MIDI. How about 1

to

1,

and

3

to

3?

It

probably won't

hurt

any-

thing, unless some manufacturer gets nervous

about

unattached

connector

pins

(worried

about RFI noise), and grounds them.

Or

unless

somebody wants to save a nickel and puts some

strange signal

on

them, such

as

MIDI THRU.

But this

is

where

we

came in. .

..

Vol.

5 No.

2/

AFfERTOUCH

17

C1

Presenting A

Cl

Program

For

Loading

Data

From

A

Cl

Disk

To

A

DX7

II.

By

Jim

Smerdel

&

Tom

Darter.

THIS

MONTH,

we

present a simple

Cl

pro-

gram

that

can be used

to

load voice and

performance data from a

Cl

data disk to a DX7

II.

(It

is

the companion to last month's pro-

gram, which

was

designed to dump voice and

performance data from a

DX7

II

and save it to a

Cl

data disk.)

In

order to use this program, you

must first put together a disk

that

will hold

both

this program

and

the

other system files needed

to operate

the

Cl.

To

prepare the disk, follow

these steps:

1)

Boot up

the

computer with the DOS disk

in drive

A.

Put a blank disk in drive B and

format it, using

the

format command (as

follows-format b:/s).

2)

The

computer will prompt you from there,

and format the disk in drive

B.

A basic

form of

DOS

will be copied

onto

the disk.

3)

Copy

onto

the

disk

the

file

COMMAND.COM

from the DOS disk

in

drive

A

(use

this

command-copy

command.com b:).

4) Insert

the

MIDI Monitor disk

in

drive A.

5) Copy

onto

the disk

the

four BULK files

from the Monitor disk in drive A (use this

command-copy

bulk•. • b:).

At

this point,

you

still need

to

enter the pro-

gram, using

the

DOS text editor of your choice.

Type it in just

as

it looks, and save it to your disk

as

a text only file.

Be

sure to include

the

"BAT"

extension in

the

file name; this indicates

that

it

is

a

DOS

batch file.

Once

you have entered

the

program

on

the

disk, you are set. Put

the

disk in drive A (you

can

boot

the computer with this disk), and put a

data disk in drive

B.

Make MIDI connections

between the

Cl

and

the

DX7

II, and make sure

that

the

DX7's Device Number

is

set to

1.

The

program

is

expecting to see three banks

of

information from

the

DX7

II

(Voice bank

A,

Voice bank

B,

and Performance); however, you

don't have to send

or

receive all three banks. If

you

want to skip a bank or banks, use a single

"x"

as

a placeholder.

To

run

the

program, type

in the file name (LD-DX7II.BAT) followed

by

18 AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5

No.2

the

names of

the

three files

you

want to send to

the

DX7 from your data disk (be sure to put a

single space between each of the file names);

then,

hit

RETURN.

echo

off

rem==============================

rem

After

Touch

Version

rem

LD-DX7li.BAT

SEPT

29,

1988

rem

Written

by

Jim

Smerdel,

ver

1.0

rem=====::;::=;::=:;;;==================;:;::;;

rem===========~==================

rem

Check

to

see

if

all

x's

were

entered?

rem=========:;:=================::;==

if

not%!= = x

goto

notx

if

not%2=

=x

goto

notx

if

not%3=

=x

goto

notx

goto

end!

:notx

rem

= = = = = = = = = = = =

=:;;;:;::;:

==

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

tern

Check

to

see

if

the

files

exist

on

b:

drive?

rem==============================

if%

I = = x

goto

bank2

if

not

exist

b:%

I

goto

ckbank2

goto

bank2

:ckbank2

echo

• •

•%

I

isn't

on

drive

b,

Ctrl

+break

to

quit!,

or

to

continue

pause

:bank2

if%2

= = x

goto

perf!

if

not

ex~t

b:

%2

goto

ckperfl

goto

perf!

:ckperfl

echo

• • •

%2

isn't

on

drive

b,

Ctrl

+break

to

quit!,

or

to

continue

pause

:perf!

if%3

= = x

goto

continue

if

not

exist

b:

%3

goto

levck

goto

continue

:levck

echo·

''

%3

isn't

on

drive

b,

Ctrl

+break

to

quit!,

or

to

continue

pause

:continue

rem==========:;:::;;==================

rem

insert

file

names

into

bulk

transmit

commands

rem

and

create

temporary

file=

tempfile

rem======:;;:===============:::;::;;::;;;======

if%

I = x

go

to

bk2

echo

pause

•'

'Ready

to

send

voices

to

bank

1-32

of

the

dx7ll>tempfile

echo

tr

dx

7

_Lp_off(O),

I>

>tempfile

echo

trdx7_Lrblok(0,0), l>>tempfile

echo

tr

''b:%1",

l>>tempfile

:bk2

if%2

= = x

goto

pfl

echo

pause

• •

'Ready

to

send

voices

to

bank

32-64

of

the

dx7ll>>tempfile

echo

tr

dx

7_Lrblok(O,

I),

I>

>tempfile

L

ET

US

HEAR

FROM

YOU!

We

want

AfterTouch to be

an

information network

for

all

users

of

Yamaha professional musical

products, so please join in. We're looking for

many different kinds

of

material.

Have you created

an

incredible

patch

or

per-

formance for the DX7 II,

the

TX81Z,

or

any

of

the

other

members

of

the Yamaha family

of

FM

digital synthesizers and tone generators? How

about a patch for the SPX90

II

multi-effects

processor,

or

a great voice edit or

pattern

for

the

RX5? If so, send

them

in. If

we

use your mate-

rial, we'll give you full credit plus $25.00 for

each

item used.

Have you discovered a trick

that

increases

the

musical flexibility

of

one

of

the

Yamaha profes-

sional musical products?

Send

it

in

to our

"Hot

Tips" column. If

we

use

your tip, you'll receive

full credit plus a check for $25.00.

Have you developed a new approach to

one

of

the

Yamaha professional musical products, or

have you discovered an important secret regard-

ing their

use?

Put it

on

paper and send it to

us.

Don't

worry about your writing

style-just

get

the

information down. If

we

decide to use your

material

as

a full article

in

AfterTouch, we'll

write it up, put your name

on

it,

and

send you a

check

for

$100.00.

(An

AfterTouch

article

always covers

at

least

one

magazine

page-

which translates to

at

least four double-spaced

pages of typescript.)

C1

echo

tr

"b:%2

11

,

l>

>ternpfile

:pfl

if%3

= = x

goto

nopfl

echo

pause

'"Ready

to

send

Performance

data

to

the

dx711>

>tempfile

echo

tr

"b:%3",

1 > >tempfile

:nopfl

echo

beep

'

''

'

''

''finished'' ' ' '

''

> >tempfile

rem==============================

rem

redirect

commands

from

temporary

file

into

bulk

program.

rem==============================

By

the

way,

we

cannot

assume liability for

the

safe

return

of

unused ideas, patches, or manu-

scripts.

We

will only be able to

return

unused

material if you enclose a self-addressed, stamped

envelope with your submission.

And,

if you just have a question regarding

the

use

of

Yamaha professional musical products,

send it along too. We'll do our best to answer it

in

the

pages

of

After Touch. (We regret

that

we

won't

be able to answer questions through

the

mail,

but

we

will use all

of

your questions to

guide

us

in

our

choice

of

future topics.)

Receive

AfterTouch

Free

Every

Month!

YOU

CAN

RECEIVE

AFTERTOUCH

for

an

entire year, absolutely free, just by asking. If

you are

not

already

on

our

mailing list

and

would like to be, just send

us

a request in a letter

or

on

a postcard. Include your name and mail-

ing address,

and

be sure

to

sign your request (a

postal regulation); it lets

us

know

that

you really

want

to

receive After Touch.

When

we

receive your card

or

letter, we'll

put

you

on

our

permanent

mailing list,

and

you will

receive twelve issues

of

AfterTouch absolutely

free!

There

is

absolutely

no

obligation,

and

no

other

strings attached.

(If

you received

this

issue

in

the

mail, you are

already

on

our

permanent

mailing list, so you

don't

need to send

in

another

card.)

bulk<tempfile

del

tempfile

goto

end

Continued

rem==============================

rem

if

you

come

directly

here

you

must

have

entered

all

x's

rem==============================

:end!

echo

• • •

"you

must

enter

at

least

one

file

name!,

try

again.

:end

AFTER,

TOUCH

is

a

monthly

informational

publication from

the

DMI

Division

of

Yamaha

Vol.

5 No. 2/ AFTERTOUCH

19

AFI

'ERTOUCH

P.O. Box 7938

Northridge,

CA

91327,

79~

•

or

program

changes

a

during

cue,

it

is

very

important

to

remember to reset everything for

the

beginning

of

the

is

one

of

the

easiest things

to

forget

and

screw up on.

Just

as

you learn about new difficulties

at

each

session, you also learn

about

things

that

help you get through the

day.

Here are three

things

that

came

in very

handy

for me during

the

sessions:

1)

The

Yamaha

YME8.

In

simple

MIDI

setups like

the

ones used for

"The

'burbs" ses-

sions, it

is

very easy

to

turn

instruments

on

and

off

with

a YME8:

You

don't have to remember

to

reach somewhere else

to

turn

volume

on

and

off.

Also, if you are using

an

instrument

with a

"Local

Off'

MIDI feature as your master, you

can

hook

the

instrument

to

itself using YME8

and

make all MIDI changes

at

one

location-

this allows you use

one

keyboard

as

the

master,

even

when

its sound

is

not

required.

Of

course,

for more complicated MIDI setups, a more com-

plicated MIDI

patching

system

is

a necessity.

2)

More

than

one

keyboard instrument. Even

with

sophisticated

MIDI

patchers,

complex

MIDI master keyboard controllers,

and

state-of-

the-art

tone

generators, it

is

sometimes useful

to

be able

to

change sounds simply

by

moving your

hand

to

another

keyboard.

Granted,

it

is

great

to

need only two (or three)

to

get

the

job

done

20

AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 No. 2

• Continued from page 7

(thanks

to

rack-mount

MIDied

tone

gener-

ators),

but

it's also great

to

have an extra key-

board

when

the music

is

moving and changing

quickly.

3)

Your fellow keyboardists. A

few

of

the

cues

called for odd MIDI changes between instru-

ments

that

were parts

of

more

than

one desk;

in

every case, the players all banded together to

figure

out

a

way

to

take care of it (plug in

or

pull

out

a MIDI cable, adjust volume

on

an

instru-

ment,

and

so

on).

During

the

sessions, Jerry

Goldsmith

was

adept

at

making quick changes

to

his music

to

meet

the

changing needs

of

the

picture.

At

one'

point,

Joe

Dante

asked

him

how

he

was

able

to

do it so consistently,

and

Jerry answered, "It

comes from working in radio, which was done

live. If there are just

ten

minutes until air time,

you take care

of

it!"

Of

course,

some

things

always have

to

be

done

again, especially if

the

cut

of

the

film

changes following preview screenings.

We

had

one

final single session

on

January 3rd,

1989,

from 7:30

to

10:30 PM.

Only

a

few

cues were re-

done,

and

everything

went

smoothly.

At

the

end

of

the

session, Jerry told Joe

Dante

jokingly

that

he

couldn't make any more changes, since

he

(Jerry)

was

leaving for Italy

the

to

begin work

on

another

film score.

Yamaha Corporation After Touch Magazine Archive Feb 1989 Issue 02

Yamaha Corporation AfterTouch Magazine Archive Feb 1989 Issue aftertouch-1989-02 Yamaha Corporation - AfterTouch Magazine Archive - Feb 1989 Issue

Yamaha Corporation AfterTouch Magazine Archive Feb 1989 Issue aftertouch-1989-02 Yamaha Corporation - AfterTouch Magazine Archive - Feb 1989 Issue

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