[LAU] GeneralMusic RealPiano Expander, FREE

[Stephen Doonan]

On 02/07/2016 05:17 AM, jonetsu at teksavvy.com wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Feb 2016 03:54:07 -0700
> Stephen Doonan <stephen.doonan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This GeneralMusic tone generator still works great, EXCEPT that the
>> front LCD display seems to be nearly worn out and does not give a
>> very good indication of changes made when front-panel buttons are
>> pushed.
>
> This person has made in 2013 an application panel for this
> device:
>
> http://ctrlr.org/gem-real-expander/
>
> Might work only on Windows.  If so it still a starting point.
>
> Cheers.

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

I downloaded the CTRLR program, executed it and loaded the GEM RealPiano 
Expander controller panel you mention above, and was able to get a few 
of the buttons on the controller to work and some MIDI communication 
between the software panel and the actual hardware device.

However, in order for the software controller to work, the actual LCD 
panel on the hardware must also be referred to (be visible) in order to 
make some changes.

I learned from a little research on the Internet that quite a few of 
these GEM RealPiano Expander modules had LCDs with a short lifespan, and 
a few intelligent people have replaced the LCD. Here is a webpage about 
that from the Web Archive--

http://web.archive.org/web/20070818165252/www.generalmusic.us/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=169&posts=71

I am much to inexpert electronically to do anything like that myself.

Best wishes,
Steve
-- 
My Music: https://soundcloud.com/stephendoonan/