[LAU] A Bach in appology and completeness :-)

[Niels Mayer]

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 6:37 PM, Niels Mayer <nielsmayer at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr04/articles/xgmasterclass.htm is a

FYI, in addition to part-I above ("Creative Synthesis With Yamaha XG
XG Masterclass: Part 1"), there's also two follow-on articles (part II and III):

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may04/articles/xgmasterclass.htm ::
Creative Synthesis With Yamaha XG, XG Masterclass: Part 2: Layering
voices is one of the best ways to maximise the potential of your XG
module, so here are a variety of ingenious ways you can use this
technique — you can even turn your synth into a high-spec step
sequencer!

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/articles/xgmasterclass.htm ::
Creative Synthesis with Yamaha XG, XG Masterclass: Part 3: In the
final instalment of our series of XG programming tips, we take a look
at how the advanced modulation parameters can bring your layered
sounds to life.

Although all the examples specify changing sound parameters via gui
programs like XGEdit, these GUI tool only help the user associate a
particular sound feature with the MIDI controller or sysex data that
actually invokes the feature: it's closer to programming, which is
still done textually, and not via GUI.

http://electro-music.com/forum/phpbb-files/db50gde_276.doc details the
MIDI programming needed to unlock the advanced synthesis features of
fully-editable XG: "THE  DB50/SW60/MU10 GUIDE Written by : Nick Howes
... This guide also contains notes for developers & system
programmers."

> The CS?X series might be able of some nice synthesis, but from all I've ever seen,
> it's realm of music is limited. And one of the most "downturning" features of it is, it's basic sounds.

The above articles should provide a point of disagreement. :-)

> The standard GM or XG patches are good for a small instrument,
> acceptable for a learner, but for a pro keyboard: no. some of the
> synth sounds are OK. some of the patches know, where they are going.
> Yet I still keep it with Roland in this aera of sound. :-)

Are your comments about "fully editable XG" or about "XG Lite"? All of
Yamaha's current products seem to use a simplified and nonprogrammable
version called "XG Lite" which doesn't have the advanced synthesis
features described in the above articles. I'm not sure why yamaha
dropped fully-editable XG as a product feature in its latest line of
keyboards. Probably marketing reasons (more profit from selling a
complete synth with it's own custom GUI, very little in fully
programmable computer card like the db50xg). The follow-on PLG modules
from yamaha require buying an expensive synth from yamaha to host the
cards...

> One thing, just on the side, you are so very kind, to include links to a lot of issues you mention,
> which is really very nice. But for me you don't even have to mention any GUI based software. :-) I only use text.

There's lots of command line midi tools available, e.g. (1) alsa-utils
/usr/bin/arecordmidi by  Clemens Ladisch ; (2) Pedro López-Cabanillas'
http://drumstick.sourceforge.net/ which contains
/usr/bin/drumstick-buildsmf   /usr/bin/drumstick-metronome
/usr/bin/drumstick-dumpmid    /usr/bin/drumstick-playsmf
/usr/bin/drumstick-dumpsmf   ; (3) More complicated "scripted" MIDI
programming could occur via Pedro López-Cabanillas' Kaseq:
http://kmetronome.sourceforge.net/kaseq.shtml "ALSA MIDI Kommander is
a DCOP interface exposing many ALSA Sequencer features for shell
scripts, Kommander scripts, or KDE programs requiring MIDI Sequencer
services. A few MIDI utilities have been developed with this tool,
which can be used both as programming examples and as real work
tools.").

-- Niels
http://nielsmayer.com