Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Atom,

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your concussion (and separation) but certainly glad that you made it back to us.

Yeah, we're still rockin' on. Here are answers to all of your questions.

Question:
i'm looking through the MIDI-Implementation -Chart-V2. 43.pdf and it's looking good! i see that CC-74 is routed to VCF... i'm assuming that's the
"normal" VCF; could it also control the moog-slayer cutoff on a per-patch basis? or could that be "hard-wired" to another CC? same questions apply
to moog-slayer resonance. or are those determined by the setting of "P2 58 - Aggressive Resonance"?

Answer: VCF cutoff can be controlled by MIDI CC74 and let's you sweep through the original VCF cutoff range. VCF resonance can be controlled by MIDI CC71 and let's you sweep through the original resonance range. But, if you turn on aggressive resonance (which can be enabled/disabled per patch) then the resonance range is pushed up to go right into the Moog-Slayer crazy madness area. This can be controlled using CC71 that also expands into the same crazy madness range. Now, since the digital to analog converter is only 8 bits, you're not going to get quite the same perfect sweep and micro control as a POT gives. But it's pretty darn good anyway.

Question:
from the Owners-Manual- V2.4.3.pdf: "NRPN messages MUST be sent as three consecutive messages starting with the MSB, followed by the LSB and then
the data value." does the kit understand running status of NRPNs?

Answer: No, NRPN on the HAWK does not understand NRPN running status. To be honest, I didn't think there was such a thing as NRPN running status. Anyway, each NRPN change requires transmitting the three bytes NRPN MSB, NRPN LSB and then data value.

Question:
starting n page 2, the Parameter-Quick- Reference- V2.43.pdf refers to "CC#"... is that actually the NRPN LSB?

Answer: yes, that is the NRPN LSB. I shall update the documentation to make that clear.

Question:
"MIDI CC 'Hardware Controller Friendly' Method" - ROCK!! i don't remember hearing about that before, but that will save a lot of memory on my
pc1600x!

Answer: Yes, when I was putting together the MIDI controllers for me, I thought it would make life easier to set up controllers in this way. I think it works well. :-)

Question:
"Poke data into an address location" - wtf!?! would that allow someone to enter "illegal" values into a patch? or crash the synth while trying?

Answer: Yes, you can poke data into almost any location. Since one day soon, I will be releasing all of the assembler code with comments and supporting documentation, people will probably go crazy thinking they can make the synth do lots of new things when in fact most people will just crash their synths. But there are definite possibilities such as reseting LFO's at will, retriggering EG's at will, editing sequencer notes in real time. That kind of thing.

Question:
will upgrading the firmware upgrade the boot version? or does that require an EPROM burner?

Answer: You need a new boot ROM. I no longer ship them out as EPROM's (which is SO old school). Boot ROM's go out as EEPROM's (which I should have been doing some time ago). Now, for any of you out there that have not put your kit together yet it is important to install an additional 28 pin socket where the first flash ROM is installed. So looking at the board from the left, the first three chip locations will need a 28 pin socket installed (it used to be just the two on the left - now it should be three). If you do that, then you can actually upgrade your boot ROM using the flash process and then do a swap of the boot ROM out of the third socket and into the first socket. I will have to write this up to explain it. In your case, since you haven't done the 1.3 board yet just make sure that you put an extra 28 pin socket into the third 28 pin socket location (from the left). Email me separately for details. I will be taking some photos soon to put into a document.

Question:
i still intend to put my EX800 in a 1U case. has anyone done that yet? i'm thinking about doing that with a very minimal front panel (power, volume,
tune, write, LEDs, and maybe the speed knob?) similar to a matrix-1000. it seems like i would be able to do everything except emulate the front panel
number buttons. i think the only (possibly?) missing functionality (with a pc1600x) would be the ability to save an edited patch into a different
location than what i started editing. is that correct? or could i press "write", then send a PC over midi, then "write" again?

Answer: I know I'm going to regret saying this because there is a certain person on this list who is going to give me the hurry up about this but...
I bought the cheapest 1RU unit I could find and am slowly in the process of putting together a 1RU Poly-800. Between you and the other person who shall go unnamed, that's two people that are interested in doing this. And there's me of course. So that's makes three interested. I am hoping that there would be a lot more other people out there who would like to convert their Poly's into a single RU. I know I could do the job as a one time custom built thing. But the hours involved in doing it would make it impossible to do the same for other people. It would just take too much time to build one at a time. So what I am trying to do is find a metal shop in my area that can do the panel punch hole work for me in short runs of 10 units. This means, I will need a commitment from about ten people to be willing to buy the kit. What the would include would be a new display/keypad PCB that uses a nice backlit green (or blue) 2x16 LCD with all of the buttons needed to provide the exact same function as currently exists on the Poly. The difference being that the number buttons (1-8) won't be there because we will use an up/down left/right data entry menu system that uses the benefits of an LCD. Most of the other buttons will still be there on the front panel. The work involved is:

1) develop the new display/keypad PCB
2) write the software needed to use the LCD and new buttons
3) get a metal shop to punch the holes in the front and rear panels of the 1RU housing
4) create the templates for drilling holes in the 1RU housing to mount the original Poly printed circuit boards (the MK2 will be a real squeeze)
5) package it all up into a kit with the documentation etc

Now, I have not done the math on how much such a kit will cost. But I do know that the 1RU housing is about $50 USD, the LCD is $7 for the green lit and $15 for the blue backit (which is much better of course). A new display/keypad board is going to cost around $10 plus PCB standoffs and other hardware another $10 to $15. But the big question is how much it costs to have the rack enclosure get all of the holes punched. This is important because we want the thing to look professional and something that enhances the Poly-800. Also, if we get the hole for the LCD punched professionally then we can put a small clear plastic protector in behind the front panel (whereas if we were to create the hole ourselves (with drill, saw and files) then you need to put a plexiglass cover on the outside so that you can hide the poor hole finish).

I am guessing that the cost of set up and punching the holes for such a short run of ten enclosures is going to be significant.

So, I can't imagine the kit being less than about 150 dollars. Now, I personally would consider that to be well worth the money. At the moment, I have a Poly-800 MK2, two original Poly-800's and an EX-800 all occupying serious space in my "studio/workshop" (and that's not including the two other ones sitting in flight cases - yes, I do have too many of  these dang things). So I would love to be able to collapse that down into four RU.

The alternative though, is that I just develop the PCB and write the software and make that available to everyone. Then, anyone that wants to create a rack mount version can do their own metal work. I am not really inclined to do it that way because if there's one thing I've learned about kits it's that people want a kit that has everything done for them. So I am going to make inquiries about getting the front and rear panel punched and once I have done that, I'll let you know how it went and what I think I may be able to get done and when. The WHEN is also a big deal for me because apart from my day job, I also have two other big projects underway. So this rack kit thing really needs a LOT of supporters for me to really start pushing it along.

So anyone who is interested in a rack mount conversion kit had better make themselves heard. I know, I'll put a poll up on this list and anyone who is interested in a rack mount kit had better go add their vote.

Oh and one last thing, the sysex implementation now allows sending and receiving the scratch memory patch data. You do this whenever you send or receive a single patch dump that has a patch number higher than 63. So 0 to 63 refers to patches 11 to 88 but 64 and up refers to the scratch pad (edited patch). So you can indeed read and write edited patches. Now, I am going to add a "Write" sysex function that lets you copy the edited patch into any patch location using a sysex message. So that will come along some time over the next couple of months.

Mike.