Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Hello xx-7 owners!

Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3
for XX-7 command stations? SoundDiver has presets 
for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate with my XL-7.
Any experience?

zoot

The question of SoundDiver's support (or lack of support) for E-Mu's 
16-controller sysex format has received considerable discussion over 
the past year or two. Several of us on the list have even 
communicated with SoundDiver staff. The last I heard was that they 
were going to support the 1615 byte format, but I have never seen 
anyone here say, "Its out!"

I am not a MidiMac person, so I didn't keep tabs on the issue.  If 
no one else here has a definitive answer, I'd be willing to try to 
locate the e-mail address of the person I last heard from with 
SoundDiver and forward this post to try to see where they are with 
the 16 controller format.

Hope this helps.

--Steve


--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "zo7ot" <andras@c...> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello xx-7 owners!
> 
> Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3
> for XX-7 command stations? SoundDiver has presets 
> for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate with my XL-7.
> Any experience?
> 
> zoot

OK.  I found the reply from SoundDiver.  In April of last year I 
made a number of suggestions to help them get their hands on either 
a P2500 or a command station.  (One of the issues was that E-
Mu/Creative would not supply them with the hardware.) I received a 
prompt, very polite reply. (See below).

I am not sure if they really needed access to E-Mu engineers. If 
their software uses sysex commands to access preset data, that info 
was already available. And since I took the time to mine the 1615 
byte sysex format (as well as the remote control commands), I would 
have been willing to help. I even offered to share some of the 
undocumented sysex capabilities I had uncovered!

After re-reading the reply I got almost a year ago, I kinda doubt 
that they ever decided to support the 16 controller format. Although 
I didn't post it previously, I post it here for historical interest.

Hope this info helps.

--Steve

======================================================
   Hi Steve,
 
    Thanks for your offer. We've been looking into the eBay option 
for a number of months now, but frankly, investing in a command 
station will not give us access to the inside information we require 
when developing an instrument module. Since Emu is done building 
these models, the engineers we would normally deal with regarding 
such issues have been laid off and are obviously not available. 
Furthermore, Emu does not wish to deal with these issues since they 
have nothing to do with their current revenue stream. In short, we 
are looking at a difficult project that does not fit in our new 
products development schedule, is of questionable sales potential 
and will have us working in the dark.
 
    Sound Quest has not ruled out adding support for these products, 
but it does look unlikely we'll develop modules for them in the next 
6 months. This may not be good news, but I'd rather tell the truth 
than dispense marketing hype to those who are looking for a quick 
solution.


--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "zo7ot" <andras@c...> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello xx-7 owners!
> 
> Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3
> for XX-7 command stations? SoundDiver has presets 
> for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate with my XL-7.
> Any experience?
> 
> zoot

Thank you for the info,
I got the same answer from SoundQuest engineers,
(they're going to do nothing with it) that's why
I started to use SoundDiver. It almost able to
manage XL-7. It freezes when requesting riffs,
and forgets all previous requsted instrument names.
So I have to choose the intruments at the command
station for the layers, but after SoundDiver is able
to make all the tunings for a preset. This way is 
still faster than using only the station.

zoot


--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "steve_the_composer" <smw-mail@p...> 
wrote:
> 
> The question of SoundDiver's support (or lack of support) for E-
Mu's 
> 16-controller sysex format has received considerable discussion 
over 

> the past year or two. Several of us on the list have even 
> communicated with SoundDiver staff. The last I heard was that they 
> were going to support the 1615 byte format, but I have never seen 
> anyone here say, "Its out!"
> 
> I am not a MidiMac person, so I didn't keep tabs on the issue.  If 
> no one else here has a definitive answer, I'd be willing to try to 
> locate the e-mail address of the person I last heard from with 
> SoundDiver and forward this post to try to see where they are with 
> the 16 controller format.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> --Steve
> 
> 
> --- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "zo7ot" <andras@c...> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Hello xx-7 owners!
> > 
> > Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3
> > for XX-7 command stations? SoundDiver has presets 
> > for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate with my XL-7.
> > Any experience?
> > 
> > zoot

On 3/15/05 4:17 PM, "zo7ot" <andras@...> wrote:

>>> Hello xx-7 owners!
>>> 
>>> Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3 for XX-7 command
>>> stations? SoundDiver has presets for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate
>>> with my XL-7. Any experience?

>> The question of SoundDiver's support (or lack of support) for E- Mu's
>> 16-controller sysex format has received considerable discussion over the past
>> year or two. Several of us on the list have even communicated with SoundDiver
>> staff. The last I heard was that they were going to support the 1615 byte
>> format, but I have never seen anyone here say, "Its out!"
>> 
>> I am not a MidiMac person, so I didn't keep tabs on the issue.  If no one
>> else here has a definitive answer, I'd be willing to try to locate the e-mail
>> address of the person I last heard from with SoundDiver and forward this post
>> to try to see where they are with the 16 controller format.
>> 
>> Hope this helps.

> Thank you for the info, I got the same answer from SoundQuest engineers,
> (they're going to do nothing with it) that's why I started to use SoundDiver.
> It almost able to manage XL-7. It freezes when requesting riffs, and forgets
> all previous requsted instrument names. So I have to choose the intruments at
> the command station for the layers, but after SoundDiver is able to make all
> the tunings for a preset. This way is still faster than using only the
> station.

I myself use MOTU's Unisyn (Macintosh only) which interfaces quite well with
Command Stations (XL-7 in my case). It even downloads and edits arps
patterns. What's really ace is that the patch names in MOTU Digital
Performer are automagically updated when Unisyn updates its banks from the
instrument. Very keen!

Despite the menu structure, I find the Command Stations remarkably easy to
edit from the front panel, moreso than other synths I've had.

--
Mibrilane

I use PC, and the latest Unisyn version for it is 1.5.
It is compatible only with the earlier EMU modules.
There's no upgrade, only for Mac. :(


zoot

>
> I myself use MOTU's Unisyn (Macintosh only) which interfaces quite well with
> Command Stations (XL-7 in my case). It even downloads and edits arps
> patterns. What's really ace is that the patch names in MOTU Digital
> Performer are automagically updated when Unisyn updates its banks from the
> instrument. Very keen!
>
> Despite the menu structure, I find the Command Stations remarkably easy to
> edit from the front panel, moreso than other synths I've had.
>
> --
> Mibrilane
>
>
>

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "zo7ot" <andras@c...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello xx-7 owners!
> 
> Could anyone ever use MIDIQuest XL or SoundDiver 3
> for XX-7 command stations? SoundDiver has presets 
> for XL-1 turbo, but it can't communicate with my XL-7.
> Any experience?
> 
> zoot

I just got midiquest XL. If you open the 'create new instrument'
function, you can build one based on the P2k engine. It looks
promising   - but my time is limited right now for doing the reprogamming.

I am able to 'grab the ROM names' from the p2k ROM I have in place
without any problems, which implies that a simple tweak would make
this possible with the other ROMs, and possibly make some kind of
librarian/editor feasible.

Does anyone know where I the old sysex definition pdf is? I can find
it - I beleive it was an addendum in the Orbit v2 manual, or the
planet phatt, but I could be wrong.

>
>
>
> I just got midiquest XL. If you open the 'create new instrument'
> function, you can build one based on the P2k engine. It looks
> promising   - but my time is limited right now for doing the reprogamming.
>
> I am able to 'grab the ROM names' from the p2k ROM I have in place
> without any problems, which implies that a simple tweak would make
> this possible with the other ROMs, and possibly make some kind of
> librarian/editor feasible.

I was trying to connect the same way, but I couldn't normally.
There are some usefull info in the "Fast Tips" window, and it
seemed to be done after I could download the intsruments names,
but they're actually just names with inactive gray, and can not
be edited.

If anyone could make a working NEW INSTRUMENT preset
(one or more ini file as i know) for XX-7 in MIDIQUEST XL
please post it here.


zoot

> Does anyone know where I the old sysex definition pdf is? I can find
> it - I beleive it was an addendum in the Orbit v2 manual, or the
> planet phatt, but I could be wrong.
>
>
>
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