The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Hey guys.

I'm a relatively new user with a CS6X and the PLG150-AN board 
installed, as well as a MIDI connection to my PC.  I've been trying 
for some time now to get the PLG150 board working with the AN1xEdit 
software, but have failed miserably so far.  Care to answer a couple 
questions?  :)

1.  All the information I've seen so far indicates that the 036/002 
bank is RAM (and thus volatile) and should clear out when the power 
is turned off.  (of course the 036/000 and 001 banks are static and 
remain, as they should)  However, when I shut down the CS6X and 
restart it, the 036/002 bank remains full of voices.  I've made sure 
that there are no files on the EXT smartmedia card it could be 
loading presets from.. so, should that bank clear out on a reboot or 
am I misinformed?

2.  I've tried and tried to get the AN1xEdit working, but no luck so 
far.  (i think)  I can click the keyboard notes with the mouse and 
the synth will play whatever voice I have selected on the synth, so I 
know the MIDI connection is happy, but that's about the extent of the 
functionality.  I've tried everything I can to get the software to 
update the synth with my virtual-knob-twistin-changes, without 
success.  I'm guessing I must be missing some very basic step here, 
as I am somewhat of a newbie when it comes to MIDI.

I've also got the AN Expert software, but haven't any luck getting it 
to upload changes to the synth.  Really, my goal here is to start 
experimenting with the PLG150-AN by tweaking existing voices and 
perhaps creating my own, but without the cooperation of the software 
I'm not getting very far.  :(

Any tips would be appreciated!

Jake

Hi Jake,

1. The user bank is volatile and you will lose custom voice data once
the power is turned off. However it I believe it is reinitialised back
to the preset voices on power on. 

2. Ok you need to understand that the PLG card mechanism is designed for
running on an XG host system. This means you must first initialise the
XG part information to select the card. This can be done from the SYSTEM
area of AN1xEdit (the bit immediately above the on-screen keyboard). In
particular you should ensure PART, BOARD, DEVICE and CH dials are set to
the correct values for operating with the PLG in the host device.
Generally the An1xEdit defaults should work, unless you have changed
your CS6x device number.

Its always worth going to the AN1xEdit Utils menu and choosing Refresh
Synth, to ensure the values have been sent to the device.

The only other problem you may face is how you are connecting MIDI to
the keyboard. If your interface is via a USB/MIDI adaptor, you may run
into problems. Basically such interfaces present a step transition in
bandwidth that can cause problems. They tend to work fine for standard
MIDI data, but for high bandwidth full streaming of Sysex with tight
restrictions on timing, they are problematic. Some of the higher end
USB/MIDI devices perform better through the use of greater buffering and
timestamping on top of USB. However with the size of data used in AN1x
sysex, your mileage may vary.

If possible I always recommend a standard serial MIDI port.

Also note you cannot bulk request data from the PLG card. There is no
return path in the hardware. 

Regards

Gary Gregson
Email:gary@...
 

-----Original Message-----

From: LoudSmile [mailto:loudsmile@...] 
Sent: 25 May 2002 04:39
To: AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AN1x] Voice banks on the PLG150-AN?