Yamaha MOX questions - editor/librarian software and stuff

[bloodyMary]

hi everyone.

 

I'm trying to prepare my MOX for gigging, and programming this thing is not easy. It's so much weirder than Korg. MOX seems to have a million of operation modes each with diff. limitations (pattern,mixing,master,perf,song,voice.. aarghh are you kidding me?) My Korg had way less modes and did it all. I really just don't get it. Why don't just create one Voice mode and one Multi mode where you can do it all?!

 

 

Anyway, sorry for this outburst.

 

 

I was about to ask about the software editors.

 

So there's a complimentary Yamaha software, but it seems only to edit Voices and Mixings (or Patterns? damn..)

 

What I'd like to do is to edit performances and masters, and more importantly, have a librarian feature.

 

 

I'm aware of Melas tools, and they seem great, but frankly I don't want to spend money on something I expect Yamaha to provide. Also I'm broke.

 

 

So, do I miss something? Does Yamaha provide a librarian feature and/or master/performance editor?

 

 

 

Another (semi-related) question: I tried to save _just_ master programs onto a USB stick, but it seems that Yamaha only offers to save everything. The problem with this is a long loading time of "everything". since 128 masters aren't gonna be enough, I'd like to be able to load another 128 quickly (like, on stage while the vocalist is talking between songs).

 

Can't I?

 

 

 

 

Thanx in advance.

 

 

P.S. I did read the manuals, and it didn't help. They like to go into long detail about something obvious like naming a patch but a complicated feature would be described with half a sentence..

 

P.P.S. I work in electronics RnD, and I have scientific equipment that's way easier to operate than Yamaha's synths.

[JeffLearman]

I haven't ever had a Yamaha keyboard. The power amps I got back in the late 70's came with the best owner's manual ever.

 

What you say reminds me of Roland manuals for Juno 60 and JX10:

 

Floobar control: Adjust floobar parameter of tone.

 

Really helpful! Manuals written by people who didn't speak English and didn't understand synthesis.

 

Rant over, back to our regular programming.

[miden]

These questions are probably better asked over at the forum... http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewforum/165/

[AnotherScott]

MOX seems to have a million of operation modes each with diff. limitations (pattern,mixing,master,perf,song,voice.. aarghh are you kidding me?) My Korg had way less modes and did it all. I really just don't get it. Why don't just create one Voice mode and one Multi mode where you can do it all?!

Yes, that is an area where Yamaha is more complicated, though possibly not as much as it first appears:

 

Voice mode = Program mode

Performance mode = Combi mode

Master mode = Set List mode (Kronos), except its MIDI zone function is in Combi mode

Song mode and Pattern mode = Sequencer mode

 

Mix mode isn't really a mode in the same sense the others are... it is a set of parameters shared by Song and Pattern mode, and I think the advantage of separating it is to allow you to call those parameters up independently of the particular song or pattern. Korg has its equivalent parameters in both Sequencer mode and Combi mode.

 

It's not an exact correspondence, especially since each machine has certain functions that I think don't exist at all on the other, but it might help. Korg's biggest advantage is that its Combi mode is far more flexible than Yamaha's Performance mode, since it supports 16 parts instead of 4, and incorporates MIDI zoning (which you have to go to Master mode for on the Yamaha), and the ability to assign different sounds to different MIDI channels (which you have to go to Mix mode to do on the Yamaha). That's really the big difference, and I would agree it does make some things a lot simpler on the Korg, being able to do so much more from within that one mode.

 

I was about to ask about the software editors.

 

So there's a complimentary Yamaha software, but it seems only to edit Voices and Mixings (or Patterns? damn..)

 

What I'd like to do is to edit performances and masters, and more importantly, have a librarian feature.

 

 

I'm aware of Melas tools, and they seem great, but frankly I don't want to spend money on something I expect Yamaha to provide. Also I'm broke.

 

 

So, do I miss something? Does Yamaha provide a librarian feature and/or master/performance editor?

If you have an iPad, Yamaha has a Performance editor ("Performance Editor Essential") for $4.

 

 

Another (semi-related) question: I tried to save _just_ master programs onto a USB stick, but it seems that Yamaha only offers to save everything. The problem with this is a long loading time of "everything". since 128 masters aren't gonna be enough, I'd like to be able to load another 128 quickly

Two different issues here... which comes in the form of good news/bad news.

 

You're correct that "Yamaha only offers to save everything" (at least within whatever kind of object you're working with) - however this does not mean you have to load everything. Check reference manual page 155. It shows you can only save everything or specific objects (but still all of them... i.e. All Voices, All Songs, etc.)... but then go to page 156... yes, you can load everything, but also you can load just the Voices, or just a single Voice, or a single bank of Voices, or a single bank of Performances, etc. There are lots of options there, though not necessarily every one you could ever want. Which brings me to the bad news... you can't load just Masters. If your Masters include only pointers to Voices and Performances, as I alluded to in another thread, you could functionally simulate modeless switching between Voices and Performances using Performance mode alone, by creating some Performances that consist of nothing but single Voices. Then you could do what you want because you can load banks of Performances at will, the way you would like to load Masters. But if your Masters also include Songs/Patterns or MIDI zoning, that won't do it for you. Loading Masters would be a useful function, and now that you point it out, I'm surprised it is not there. You could easily want quick pointers to different sets of 128 Voices/Performances/Songs/external MIDI sounds for different gigs. Maybe there's some way to do this that I missed, and someone else will chime in.

 

Oddly, Yamaha does seem to have a separate procedure for Masters... you can bulk dump them over MIDI (see page 132), which I suppose might be a way to save just Masters to, say, an iPhone or iPad running some kind of MIDI app. But exactly how you would do that (or how you would get them back), I can't tell you.

 

P.S. I did read the manuals, and it didn't help. They like to go into long detail about something obvious like naming a patch but a complicated feature would be described with half a sentence..

 

P.P.S. I work in electronics RnD, and I have scientific equipment that's way easier to operate than Yamaha's synths.

These two issues are related. In fact, while the Yamaha may not be the easiest to operate, it actually isn't bad, in that once you do figure things out, most of it really is quite logical, IMO. The bigger problem are the manuals which don't make things clear and so make it much more difficult than it needs to be.

[MIDI2XS]

[...]Oddly, Yamaha does seem to have a separate procedure for Masters... you can bulk dump them over MIDI (see page 132), which I suppose might be a way to save just Masters to, say, an iPhone or iPad running some kind of MIDI app. But exactly how you would do that (or how you would get them back), I can't tell you. [...]

It's true that you can bulk dump Masters, but just one at a time. The data can be captured using any device capable of dealing with such a SysEx file. Unfortunately, not only would each file be a single Master, but when sent back to the synth it can't initially be directed to a User location. Instead, it goes to the edit buffer, although once in the buffer can be stored elsewhere.

 

So, if you only needed to load a very small number of Masters, it might be practical. Otherwise, an "All" file is still the way to go.