A Universal Editor/Librarian for Hardware?

[Rusty O'Hara]

the entire pre TI virus line needs a good editor.

Virus C SoundDiver?

[portland]

MidiQuest/SoundQuest supports a lot, but it crashes and is buggy.
I haven't used JSynthLib recently, but it wasn't any good either.
Unisyn is the best I've used. Too bad it doesn't work on 10.6
I'm interested in this Ctrlr project. I don't know anything about coding, but if there was an easy way I'd be glad to help develop a TG77 editor.

[Tsarik]

a librarian wavetable editor for the microwave XT would be awesome.

midi-quest is too f**k expensive. i don't want to pay for unsupported software which is probably just a burned disc over ebay(soundiver).

looks like i may have to resort to newsgroups to get full functionality out of my microwave xt

[atom]

just post your requests on the ctrlr.org forum, like you'll notice i deal with them as fast as i can, new editors come out as fast as people are able to test them. i just added mks30 mfb503 and oberheim matrix 1000 editors. any help is welcome, currently i'm working on AU support for all ctrlrs.

[Fatbenelton]

This is good for the Microwave XT:

http://www.soundtower.com/synth/microwave.htm

[madtheory]

What a palaver.

Just doing something similar now. Sending MIDI sysex from a Mac OS9 machine to a 10.6 machine. Aaaargh! And I only have two synths stored on that, I don't want to think about someone who had a large collection going back many years.

I'm kicking the OSX demo of MIDIQuest around, it's seems perfectly stable on 10.6.4. It's also straightforward to setup and use. SoundDiver was just as good/ bad IMO. Some of the UIs are ugly, but again no more so than SoundDiver! They're good to answer emails, so if it all works out I will buy it.

[crofter]

There's this,
http://www.amvst.com/node/167
for simple stuff, free too.

[madtheory]

Too simple- that's for MIDI cc only, not sysex.

Anyone know if there's anything that can read SoundDiver library format, besides SoundDiver?

[wjmwpg]

I'm kicking the OSX demo of MIDIQuest around, it's seems perfectly stable on 10.6.4. It's also straightforward to setup and use. They're good to answer emails, so if it all works out I will buy it.

Curious if it did "all work out" with MIDIQuest, and if so if you bought it and still like it?

[DLovas]

i will vouch for sounddiver and anyone who needs it i will attach it to this post. I purchased a patch library for my jp8000 on ebay a while back and it came with the full sounddiver so im guessing this isnt illegal or anything.

http://www.mediafire.com/?6ow1sr7x7ortvbi
Password to the file is: vseforum

EDIT: also anyone who downloads this (i see there are around 29 downloads since i posted it) just lemme know if it works ok and if i was able to help you... i like hearing that stuff. otherwise ill take it down if i dont think ppl are using the link

[Adrian Smith]

JSynthLib is an Open Source freeware Patch Editor and Librarian.

Its Java too so its cross platform.

http://www.jsynthlib.org/

"The project aims to eventually provide support for all existing Synthesizers by providing methods and documentation which allow users to develop drivers and editors for unsupported synths and contribute them to the project."

Wouldn't that be just the perfect Librarian/Editor?

However it doesn't seem to be getting the contribution it deserves.

I think for you to add an editor for an unsupported synth, you would have to code in Java?

The only other way would be to:

"Option Three: Contribute without Programming
If you are unable to program in Java or do not have the time to do so, but still wish to contribute to the project, you can send us Specifications we lack (currently we need a detailed specification for a Yamaha TG33 (we have the manual but it doesn't go into enough detail for us to write a patch editor))."

It would be great if there was some kind of Editor creator function, with a GUI so that you could add support for any synth, without having to touch a bit of code.

This app has huge potential, perhaps some programmers out there could build upon it?

[DLovas]

JSynthLib is an Open Source freeware Patch Editor and Librarian.

Its Java too so its cross platform.

http://www.jsynthlib.org/

"The project aims to eventually provide support for all existing Synthesizers by providing methods and documentation which allow users to develop drivers and editors for unsupported synths and contribute them to the project."

Wouldn't that be just the perfect Librarian/Editor?

However it doesn't seem to be getting the contribution it deserves.

I think for you to add an editor for an unsupported synth, you would have to code in Java?

The only other way would be to:

"Option Three: Contribute without Programming
If you are unable to program in Java or do not have the time to do so, but still wish to contribute to the project, you can send us Specifications we lack (currently we need a detailed specification for a Yamaha TG33 (we have the manual but it doesn't go into enough detail for us to write a patch editor))."

It would be great if there was some kind of Editor creator function, with a GUI so that you could add support for any synth, without having to touch a bit of code.

This app has huge potential, perhaps some programmers out there could build upon it?

I doubt it will supply access to the fizmos hidden parameters - at least not the first time around

[madtheory]

I'm kicking the OSX demo of MIDIQuest around, it's seems perfectly stable on 10.6.4. It's also straightforward to setup and use. They're good to answer emails, so if it all works out I will buy it.

Curious if it did "all work out" with MIDIQuest, and if so if you bought it and still like it?

Yes and no. I decided to move ITB, after I bought the V Synth the Casios seemed redundant because it's a vastly more powerful synth, plus I've had the Casios for years. The other problem was that MIDIQuest's Casio profiles were vert poor compared to SoundDiver. No CZ-1 support and no support for Operation memories for the VZ, so it did not keep track of layered sounds in the cool way Diver did. So I bought Redmatica Autosampler and sampled all of my Casio sounds into Kontakt. I didn't use MIDIQuests SoundDiver import routines, it was quicker to fire up the old Mac with Opcode Galaxy- only because I didn't need to learn anything new to do that! So I sold the Casios.

The XML patch naming worked well with the Lexicon inside Pro Tools, but then I discovered Mellowmuse IR1A. I sample all my Lex settings with Apple Impulse Response Utility and sold the Lexicon. I'll do the same with the Yamaha DMP7D, which I never got to work with MIDIQuest.

Getting rid of MIDI hardware has freed up some ports so I plan to edit the Roland SPD. Turns out that the built in MIDI on the M Audio FireWire 1814 is no good for most sysex. The MIDISport 4x4 works perfectly though. MIDIQuest works great with the V Synth, I use it for the D50. So I'll be putting it through its paces again soon. I must say its great to both cut down on hardware and also to have more ITB control.

[toprockstudios]

Hi,
I bought a Virus C about four years ago, since then I bought about four other analog synths as well and I am completely stumped on the whole .mid transfer "sys ex" thing. The guy who I bought the Virus C from gave me a copy of Sound Diver and it seems to crash or doesnt support Virus C, I gave up on it for a while, couldnt find any info on the web, and the guy who gave it to me cant be bothered, lol. Does anybody know of any sites on the internet that explain how to transfer .mid files from a PC to a synth via midi? . If I want to transfer the factory sound banks to lets say a Dave Smith Poly Evolver or Moog Voyager, what are the necessary steps to take on a PC? And is there really no good software programs out there? how is that possible? Please, somebody

[wjmwpg]

Hi,
I am completely stumped on the whole .mid transfer "sys ex" thing. Does anybody know of any sites on the internet that explain how to transfer .mid files from a PC to a synth via midi? . If I want to transfer the factory sound banks to lets say a Dave Smith Poly Evolver or Moog Voyager, what are the necessary steps to take on a PC? And is there really no good software programs out there? how is that possible? Please, somebody

Well, I'm fairly new to all of this myself, but from what I'm gathering from your post, what you want to do mostly is save patches and banks of patches to your PC and back to your synths, (rather than editing your synth's parameters from your PC). For this all you need is a librarian program. I'm on a mac, but I believe the general free librarian of choice for PC is MidiOX. Easy to find with a google search. The general protocol on how to save patches and banks is somewhat difficult to describe as it can vary from synth to synth somewhat. For that you need to dig into the Owner's Manual of the particular synth you're using or trawl old forum posts where doubtless somebody else has already asked the same question regarding that exact same synth. Most synths (at least mine) save patches and banks in the SysEx format. (I think of SysEx and MIDI CC's as being different languages, even though they both travel to and from your synth in the same MIDI cable highway. For me SysEx is like Kanji - where a single character can mean a lot. I think of MIDI CC's as being more like english letters and vowels - they are something on their own, but you have to string a bunch of them together to get a word or sentence). Just to make things extra confusing sometimes a parameter on one synth is controllable via SysEx, and that same parameter on another synth will be controllable via MIDI CC's.

Now if you actually want to be able to edit (program sounds, etc.) on your synths via your PC then you need to find an editor program that works with the synth you're using it with. For this there's MIDIquest by SoundQuest (very mixed reviews), something new called CTRLR, JSynthLib, and good old SoundDiver and Unisyn; the two old favourites that haven't been supported for sometime and don't seem to like to function unless you're willing to run them on old machines and/or operating systems. I should mention here that some editor programs also function as librarian programs simultaneously.

I'm very curious about the potential of CTRLR and JSynthLib, but after getting into them a bit, I decided that I wanted to learn more than I'd already managed to figure out by myself about MIDI and SysEx before continuing.

At present, MacProVideo.com has just recently released a great video tutorial MIDI 101 : MIDI Demystified by Peter Schwartz. Or you can always go whole-hog (I did) and pick-up The MIDI Manual by David Miles Huber.

I, like you, am just starting this journey. But perhaps after I've read the book and watched the tutorial I'll have more to report.

Until then, get a PC librarian program like MidiOX, delve into your synth's manual on how to dump a patch via MIDI/SysEx, and good luck.