All about the Roland Jupiter-series

-----Original Message-----
From: N. Kent [mailto:ndkent@...]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 10:16 PM
To: analogue heaven; media@...
Subject: Re: [AH] MKS-80 w/PC-1600x ??


> Sounds like the 1600 is pushing stuff out too quick for the MKS to 
> deal with it. If the 1600 has a delay parameter, try tweaking that.

I don't believe it has a delay but I may be wrong, also just moving the
slider slower should achieve somthing like that. A delay parameter, if
there was one would seem kind of counterproductive for any kind of live
tweaking, would it not. Sending one single parameter sysex string, even
very quickly shouldn't choke anything. Sure you could space the 7 or
whatever number of bytes the MKS uses out via a delay if there is one,
but thats probably not the problem.

> 
> >I'm using a PC-1600x to program an MKS-80.  I noticed that when I move
the
> >faders all the way up, or all the way down, the parameter displayed on
the
> >PC-1600x goes all the way up or down, but the parameter on the MKS-80
does
> >not.  If I repeatively move the fader up a bit then all the way back
down,
> >I get an assortment of small values on the MKS-80, eg. 1, 3, 4, 7, 2, 3 .
.
> >. but not zero.  In the same way, if I keep moving it up, I get an
> >assortment of high numbers, but never 100.  Any ideas??
> 

For what its worth I have the original PC-1600 and an MKS-80. The
original factory patches had only a patch of some popular MKS-80
parameters not all of them so I fleshed it out to all the parameters in
3 patches. 

But speaking of data overload, make sure you don't have some kind of
midi loop or software thru going on. For example just test your MKS with
the Peavy and I guess the keyboard but keep out any interfaces or
computers, see if it works. Theres that switch on the back for the real
programmer, but I don't think that would make it function wrongly
instead of just not function.

Then I'd reload the PC-1600 patch assuming it was the factory one. Maybe
it got scrambled a bit or got updated wrong. You can program the sliders
to output a range other than 1-100 or whatever, some patches need it,
you can do 0-1 if thats what you need. For some parameters on the MKS
there are only values like for 0-7 or whatever. Is the parameter in
question really supposed to go to 100? Some don't. Your Peavy will
should read small number values for some things like waveshapes or
octave detunings. 

So *none* of the parameters work corectly with the MKS or just a
specific few while others work correctly? A reload or patch edit of the
slider range on the improperly working ones should fix it if its a
matter of just certain parameters.

As a last resort I guess check out the output of the peavy with a
realtime midi viewing utility. If you use a computer there should be a
share or freeware one out. I find one essential when doing PC-1600
patches to see if whats coming out of the PC-1600 is what I expect it to
be. You shouldn't see anything coming out except short sysex strings
just when you nudge the slider. If stuff is coming out when the slider
isn't moving then you have something in your rig generating unneeded
midi when it shouldn't or something is broken.

nick kent