Basic Q's _re_ Alesis OEM Micrologic & SoundDiver

[DrMarkAndersenexcite.com]

I've gotten Alesis OEM Micrologic and SoundDiver up and

running on the home computer, and got my QS8.1 hooked up

via MIDI. I'm having great fun composing in Micrologic, and

am considering upgrading to Logic Gold or Silver. The

documentation for Micrologic is not always as helpful as I'd

like, but I've been able to figure most things out on my own

(with one notable exception, detailed below). SoundDiver is

another story altogether. The documentation that I've got for

SoundDiver is pretty good at explaining how to do relatively

uninteresting things, but not at explaining the things I'd like

to do, other than hinting that they're possible. If the qs-list

were still in operation, I'd post these questions there, but that

list seems to have died out. So, here are my questions:

 

1) (Micrologic) How can I access the Hyperdraw feature in

Micrologic? The manual mentions this feature but doesn't go

into much detail. I can find HyperDraw in the menu, but the first

item in the HyperDraw submenu says "off", and clicking there

doesn't seem to change it to "on". Do I need to upgrade to use

this feature? If so, is there some other convenient way to enter CC

data in Micrologic?

 

2) (SoundDiver) How can I save (to disk) and load (to the QS8.1) an

edited mix in SoundDiver? I've tried a couple of things here, without

success. Editing mixes is no problem, I can do that, I just can't

seem to do anything with them once I've edited them.

 

3) (both) How can I load an edited mix from SoundDiver into a MIDI

track in Micrologic? I'd like to be able to take advantage of the

QS8.1's flexible effects routings in my own mixes, while still having

my Micrologic song files relatively "self-contined". Currently, I just

use the event editor to insert a "setup string" at the beginning of

each MIDI track, that sets CC7 (volume), CC10 (pan), bank and program.

This works well, but I'm missing out on the available effects

configurations by doing this, so not all programs sound as good in

mixes as they do by themselves.

 

If there's a FAQ or online tutorial somewhere that has some or all of the

information I'm requesting here, please just point me in the right direction.

Many thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

cheers,

Mark A.

[Jim Aikin]

Have you talked to Emagic tech support about the hyperdraw feature? They should know whether it's enabled or disabled in Micrologic.

 

I don't have a QS to check this, but it may have a way to transmit one mix as a sys-ex dump. If so, it's a simple matter to put Micrologic into record (after making sure it's set to record sys-ex) and record the dump into a track. You can then start your actual song playback at bar 2; the sys-ex dump will be transmitted to the QS at bar 1, and the mix will be ready to go each time you start playback.

 

--Jim Aikin

[DrMarkAndersenexcite.com]

Originally posted by Jim Aikin:

I don't have a QS to check this, but it may have a way to transmit one mix as a sys-ex dump. If so, it's a simple matter to put Micrologic into record (after making sure it's set to record sys-ex) and record the dump into a track. You can then start your actual song playback at bar 2; the sys-ex dump will be transmitted to the QS at bar 1, and the mix will be ready to go each time you start playback.

 

--Jim Aikin

 

Thanks, Jim. I tried this; saving a single mix as sysex from the QS

front panel seems pretty easy. When I tried recording the sysex in Micrologic, and opened the resulting sequence in the event editor,

however, I found a single event, of type sysex, num=0, val=0. When

I did the same with Freeloader, Freeloader received a 166 byte sysex

file. Is this enough for a single mix? How can I look at this file

to see what's being transmitted?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Mark A.

[cidnbnet.nb.ca]

Are you using a mac or a pc?.....The Alesis boards react differently believe it or not. I'm using mine with a mac and free loader is basicly useless....

[DrMarkAndersenexcite.com]

Originally posted by cid@nbnet.nb.ca:

Are you using a mac or a pc?.....The Alesis boards react differently believe it or not. I'm using mine with a mac and free loader is basicly useless....

 

I'm using a PC (Tiger Direct, 266 MHz Pentium II). The test I described above is the only thing I've used FreeLoader for yet. I guess maybe I should test its functions a little more extensively before relying on it. I was hoping it would be useful for restoring the factory patches; I don't necessarily want any edits I make to be permanent. However, editing is not much of an issue right now, since I still haven't got SoundDiver to do what I think it should.

 

regards,

Mark A.

 

------------------

Mark A.

New Mexico St. Univ.

[Dave Bryce]

When I did the same with Freeloader, Freeloader received a 166 byte sysex

file. Is this enough for a single mix?

 

Although I won't swear to it, that's probably enough...Mixes are pretty small.

 

How can I look at this file to see what's being transmitted?

 

Here is a more QS-specific and safer way to do it.

 

First thing, dump the Mix into a record-enabled track on the sequencer using the MIX EDIT to MIX EDIT prompt under the SAVE menu. You'll find it by scrolling up with the D slider when you get to the MIDI MIX 00 to MIDI MIX 00 page. If you do it that way, then the Mix will not overwrite anything when it is reloaded from the sequencer - it'll just fill the Mix edit buffer. Then, change to a different mix in the QS, then transmit the data from the sequncer. The Mix you want should appear right away in the QS, and will not have overwritten any other data (even though it may look that way at first).

 

See if that helps.

 

dB

[DrMarkAndersenexcite.com]

Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

 

Here is a more QS-specific and safer way to do it.

 

First thing, dump the Mix into a record-enabled track on the sequencer using the MIX EDIT to MIX EDIT prompt under the SAVE menu. You'll find it by scrolling up with the D slider when you get to the MIDI MIX 00 to MIDI MIX 00 page. If you do it that way, then the Mix will not overwrite anything when it is reloaded from the sequencer - it'll just fill the Mix edit buffer. Then, change to a different mix in the QS, then transmit the data from the sequncer. The Mix you want should appear right away in the QS, and will not have overwritten any other data (even though it may look that way at first).

 

See if that helps.

 

dB

 

 

Thanks, Dave. This did exactly what I wanted it to.

[Dave Bryce]

Glad to be able to help.

 

dB