VcEd Yamaha 4 OP Voice Editor By: Charles A. Brand Copyright (c) 1990 INSTRUCTIONS: ------------- Intro The VcEd Voice Editor is written for the Yamaha DS55 4 Operator FM Synthesis Keyboard/Synthesizer. The Editor allows you to build and Edit your own Voices or Tones, and then lets you transmit them to the keyboard or save them to a file. Using the Editor is quite easy, and it allows you to start from scratch or start with a Pre-Set voice by selecting a voice on the keyboard and then use the Menu Selection in the Editor to Send the voice from the keyboard to the Amiga and start Editing from there. You Edit a voice, by using the mouse to click on the parameter value that you want to change. You work on one Operator at a time, and you click on the Operator number to increment to the next Operator. Start-Up Upon starting VcEd you will see Initialized Voice data on the screen. At this point you can start Editing from Scratch. To change a parameter, simply Click the pointer over top of the parameter and it will be highlighted. At this time you can use the Gadgets, at the Lower Right hand corner of the screen, to change the parameter value. The Gadgets The Gadgets consist of a Slider Gadget, Left and Right Arrow Gadgets, and a TEST Gadget. The Gadgets function pretty much like you would expect them to. The Slider Gadget is clicked on and then Slid Left and Right, and while doing so, it will show a value in the box below it. The Left and Right Arrow Gadgets, when clicked on, will increment or decrement the value in the box below the Slider Gadget. The TEST gadget will transmit the voice, as it sits plus the changes you are making to the voice, to the Keyboard, then sends a 'Note On' command (Middle C) to let you hear the voice. After the tone has played, VcEd then Sends the Voice back to the Keyboard the way it was before the changes. After you set the parameter to the value that you want you have to click on the OK Gadget to exit from Edit mode. The TEST Gadget is also active while IN or OUT of Edit mode, however once you leave Edit mode, the Voice you will hear is the voice as it sounded before you changed a parameter, UNLESS you have the AUTO UPDATE MODE on, and in this case, everytime you exit Edit Mode the new voice will automatically be re-transmitted to the Keyboard. Otherwise, after you leave Edit Mode, you will have to Send the voice to the Keyboard yourself with the Menu selection shown below. The Menus The Main Menu has two selections, they are 'Init Voice' and 'Quit'. 'Init Voice' initializes the voice to a standard 4 Operator INIT VOICE as defined by Yamaha in the DX11 Owners Manual. I assumed that this was a Yamaha Standard. 'Quit' does exactly that, it returns you to the CLI or Workbench. The Load Menu allows you to Load a Voice from the Keyboard or from a file. You can load a voice from the keyboard, and start editing it from that point. This is handy if there is a voice, in the Keyboard, that you would like to make changes to. You can Load a voice, that you were editing or Saved earlier, from a disk file. This is handy if you had a voice you were Editing and just did not have time to finish, you can come back to it later. The Save Menu allows you to Save the voice to a disk file, or Send the voice to the Keyboard. You can Save a voice to a disk file to edit later or just to keep around as your own INIT VOICE. After Editing a Voice to the way you want it, you can Send it to the Keyboard and place it into the USER Voice number you want by: 1. Transmit the voice to the keyboard with the Send Voice Menu selection. 2. On the keyboard Press the 'Store' button then the '-1' button to turn off the memory protect. 3. Press the 'Store' button again and enter the USER MEMORY Voice number that you wish to send the voice to. (TWO Digits. ex. 09) 4. At this time, the Keyboard will be asking you if it is OK, and showing the name of the voice that is already at that location. 5. Press the '+1' button if you wish to store the voice, or the '-1' button to cancel the operation. 6. At this time it would be a good idea to write protect the memory again by Pressing the 'Store' button again and then the '+1' button. 7. The Voice is now in User Memory permanently until you change it yourself. Note that anytime during editing, you can transmit your voice to the Keyboard without wiping out any of your USER Voices, because the voice goes into an Edit Buffer and allows you to hear that voice until you put it into USER MEMORY or select another voice with the '+1' or '-1' buttons or use the NUMBER buttons to select another voice. The last Menu is the 'Misc' Menu and is used to toggle the AUTO UPDATE Mode ON or OFF. The current setting is shown to the Right hand side of the Voice Name Parameter and is shown as either 'AUTO OFF' or 'AUTO ON'. It is set to OFF at Start-Up. When this Mode is selected, the Voice you are Editing will automatically be Sent to the Keyboard whenever you Exit Edit Mode by Clicking on the OK Gadget. When this Mode is OFF, you must Send the Voice to the Keyboard yourself with the 'Send Voice' Menu selection. Finally, each Menu selection has a key Sequence assigned to it also, so that you can use the keyboard instead of the pull-down Menus. They are : Main: Init Voice - Right Amiga I (Initialize) Quit - Right Amiga Q (Quit) Load: Load Voice from File - Right Amiga L (Load) * Load Voice from DS55 - Right Amiga R (Recieve) Save: * Send Voice to File - Right Amiga S (Save) Send Voice to DS55 - Right Amiga T (Transmit) Misc: Automatic Update - Right Amiga A (AUTO ON/OFF) * Note that the Menu Items marked with an asterisk are not available in the DEMO Version of VcEd. (Hey, its only $10.00. I need a hard drive bad!!) Notes Some of the parameters, when clicked on, will Toggle, and will not need the Edit Gadgets. This is because they only have two states or possible values. These are : AME (0 or 1), Osc. Mode (Ratio or Fixed), Delay (On or Off), Delay Short/Long (Short or Long), Port Mode (FULL T or Fingered), Poly/Mono (Poly or Mono) (Gee, I bet you could-a guessed that last one), and finally LFO Sync (On or Off). If the AUTO Update Mode is on, then toggled parameters will still automatically update the voice to the Keyboard. Make sure your Keyboard is on before trying to Recieve a voice from it, or the program will send the Voice Edit Buffer Dump Request to Nothing and sit and wait for ever!!!!! If this happens, turn your keyboard on and manually transmit a bulk dump to VcEd. Your screen will appear to be a mass of crap at this point but it won't be locked up anymore. Now select the INIT VOICE Menu selection from the Main Menu. Now your set to do some editing again. Don't forget you have 4 Operators to program!!!!! How to Order the Fully Functional VcEd You can Order the fully functional Version of VcEd from me at : Charles A. Brand 95 Parana Dr. Newark, Ohio 43055 Phone : 614-745-5361 The Cost is $10.00 and you get the Source code written in fully commented 'C' language, a file that expalains the program line by line, and a layout of the buffer data and explanation of how it is implemented. I promise that I have worked my butt off on this project and that it is worth every penny of what I am asking. (Just ask me I'll tell you!) Any donation of $15.00 or more, will also get a SysEx program and a Voice Printout program, also with the 'C' Source Code for both. The SysEx will save standard 32 Voice and 100 Voice Bulk Dumps to disk and back to the Keyboard (DX and DS55). This program will also do System Set-up Dumps as well. The PrintDump program will print out the Voice parameter data from bulk dump files. You have the choice of a single voice or all 32 Voices of a standard 32 voice Yamaha 4 Op bulk dump. The Source for both of the extra programs is also fully commented. Feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or complaints and I will try my best to change, enhance, or help anybody do the same to this program. (Please do not call collect!)