Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    Only in this conference ... ain't it great?

    I have a KX76 and 2 ESQ-Ms that treated me the same way the other
    night.  The problem is NOT in your ESQ.  The ESQ is NOT sounding 6
    notes (like you suspect) - it is sounding 4. (Funny, I thought mine was
    sounding 6 at first, too.) 

    Well, in any event, you probably have your KX in DUAL mode, but both
    "keyboards" are xmitting on the same MIDI channel.  Try changing MIDI
    channels on one of the banks, or else go into split or single mode.  I
    bet your problem will go away. 

    Incidentally, try playing either PIANO1 or CRYSTL in either the very
    high or low registers of the keyboard.  Then while sustaining the note,
    do a slow pitch bend up.  What do you hear?  Noise?  Please let me
    know.  I wonder if my units are sick or if this is normal with the
    famous Q-chip... 

-b

    
    	I put the kx in single mode on channel 1, and the esq in poly
    mode with base channel 1 (poly means polyphonic on one channel,
    right?) and the problem happened less often, but still happened.
    ). Yes, I get some pretty harsh sound (distortion) on some of
    the patches on lots of the patches. I think maybe that Q chip
    has coarse samples or something. Im going to explicitly try
    to set the kx to channel 16 and the esm to poly mode basechannel
    = 16 and try to duplicate the problem. What mode was your esq in
    when your problem went away. did it entirely go away? can you
    play normally and not lose any notes?
    
    by the way, have you done anything intresting with the kx76 controllers
    and the esq. I am trying to setup the four controller sliders
    to do ADSR, with no luck though.
    
    thanks
    pzl
    

    re .1
    
    The ESQ-1 (And the ESQ-m, I assume) has a notorious pitch bend problem
    which I uncovered, to my chagrin, a month or so ago. Try the BLPNO
    (or whatever it is, Internal Bank 2) set your wheel to bend an octave,
    hit something like Bb above middle C, and bend UP  S L O W L Y.
    What do you hear?? Well you hear a hell of a lot more than the
    mircotones between the notes. What comes out of my machine can be
    described only as garbage. Very bad. Gotta do somethin' about that.
    
    dp

RE: ESQ grunge

    Yeah, David - BLPNO is another good one.  What a crock.  If it weren't
    for the fact that these things were very flexible and easy to program,
    I'd be *real* disappointed.  Maybe I'm due for that S-550 after all ... 

    Oh - and I'll wager that the grunge is simply a result of poorly-looped
    samples.  I wonder if this is a known problem?  Has anyone called
    Ensoniq yet?  (215-647-3930, ask for service)

RE: KX -> ESQ saga

    MIDI Mode on the ESQ should make no difference.  Poly mode responds to
    one channel.  In multi mode, the thing should only respond to the
    channel that you're playing on (assuming you're in SINGLE on the KX). 

    I suspect that the initial problem was DUAL mode on the KX.  But the
    other stuff?  Perhaps you're playing a layered patch?  (I don't know
    how familiar you are with the ESQ ... please don't take any comments as
    condescending).  Go into the patch/layer page and scroll thru it.
    That's bitten me in the fanny more than once. 

    I don't think you can map the 4 sliders to perform ADSR functions.
    Those kind of things via MIDI require SYSEX messages, and I doubt that
    you will be able to make the KX look like an ESQ to the -M.  Sorry. 

    Let us know what happens.

-b

Hello, I'm back. I tried explicitly putting the kx88 in single mode
and tried again. The problem disappeared on all patched except the 
    string patches (SLOSTR and STRPAD). They are not layered, but they
    seem to want to wait until the envelope completes until releasing
    the oscillator for another note. Im fiddleing around with the patch
    to see whats going on. I checked the noise problem on the piano
    patches and the noise is there...digital grunge. It seems like
    all but the carefully filtered patches have this high end distortion.
    
    In reference to using the kx88 to control ADSR. Couldn't I use the
    Universal Parameter contoller option? The manual for the kx88/76
    has a 1 paragraph blurb on programming a controller to control
    the VCF Q of a juno 106 using Universal parameter. All you have
    to do is program in the byte sequence for the A or D or S or R
    (sys exculsive + controller group # + controller # + a place holder
    for the real time value + a terminator) and supposedly this should
    work> I tried, and it doesn't do anything. But I may have the
    wrong byte sequence. I'll have to play with it.
    
    Any Ideas for how I can use the kx88 to control more than notes
    and pitch bend/mod? Its a great keyboard to play, but I wish
    I could use it more as a controller with all the programmable
    sliders and switches it has (and I payed for!)
    
    Thanks for the help!
    
    Pete "If the kx88 has a vax instruction set, I could deal with this)
    

    I tried the experiment in .3 (BL PNO, octave bend range, Bb above mid
    C, hit it and bend up) and found some small "glitches".  Sounds like an
    occasional sine wave sneaks out.  But by no means garbage.  The
    main piano sound is still about 12dB louder than the glitch sound,
    and it's hard to find the glitch if you aren't looking for it.
    	
    I also found I don't get the glitchies anywhere below middle C,
    I get them in the range of G to C above middle, then a little hiss
    up to D two octaves up, then D# has the sine glitchies, then just
    a little hiss above that.
    	
    I'm running V3.5 of the ESQ roms, if that makes any difference... 
                                                                  
    		-Bill
    

    Im back again. Check this out. The problem crept back in! notes
    started to hang. I was paging through the master page and noticed
    that my master velocity display was corrupted. it would read
    VELSEN = XXXXX where XXXXX is whatever was on the display
    prior to scrolling to that page! After trying to reset it
    numerous times, I finally did a memory reset on the unit and
    everything has been great for about 2 days of solid playing.
    
    

RE: .7

    Good.  One of my -Ms was brain-dead when it arrived from the dealer,
    and also required a reset.  What version of the software do you have in
    your -M?  I wonder if that might clean up some of my noise problems? 

RE: KXmumble

    You can indeed define the two Universals to do SYSEX stuff.  I guess I
    assumed that you wanted to do ADSR (A,D,S & R) all at the same time.
    You can only have 2 UPs active at any one time .. of course, you could
    save AD in one setup and SR in a second, and recall setups as required.
    Kludgey, but it'll work.

-b

    
    When I first got my Emax and plugged the KX88 directly into it,
    I found that every 8th note struck didn't sound. Called E-Mu, they
    said it was the Active Sensing (see another current note on this)
    and that I should isolate the KX88 via some kind of MIDI switcher,
    or use MIDI thru from another unit.. anything to keep the KX88 from
    being plugged directly into the Emax. As my MKS-20 didn't seem to
    mind, I used its THRU to go to the Emax. Later, I got a MIDI switch
    device, and this has never been a problem.. though I never turned it
    off, there is supposed to be a way to software-switch the Active
    Sensing on the KX88 off.
    
    karl