17 Jul
2016
17 Jul
'16
10:14 p.m.
On 17.07.2016 17:33, Thomas Poulsen wrote:
I'll love to hear if other LinnStrument users have
been able to do more with any of the free synths on Linux.
I happed to have a piece of hardware that I've taught to send MPE recently. Often you
can configure decent
synths manually to acceptably work with MPE.
If you activate MPE on your device, it'll send some magic RPNs to the synth to
configure it. Specifically, the
device tells the synth how many zones/groups it has (1-8), how many voices each zone has,
which MIDI channel
range a zone spans over and finally the master and the voice pitch bend range for each
zone.
A synth that supports MPE would understand those messages and configure itself
accordingly. If you know all of
the above (e.g. reading the device's manual or by spoofing on the RPNs), you can
configure the synth manually.
E.g. here is how to manually configure Zyn with known zone layout and pitch bend ranges.
Example 1
---------
Let's assume 1 zone (implies 15 voices) and a voice pitch bend range of 48 semitones.
Channel 1: master | zone 1 (unused)
Channel 2: voice 1 | zone 1
Channel 3: voice 2 | zone 1
Channel 4: voice 3 | zone 1
Channel 5: voice 4 | zone 1
Channel 6: voice 5 | zone 1
Channel 7: voice 6 | zone 1
Channel 8: voice 7 | zone 1
Channel 9: voice 8 | zone 1
Channel 10: voice 9 | zone 1
Channel 11: voice 10 | zone 1
Channel 12: voice 11 | zone 1
Channel 13: voice 12 | zone 1
Channel 14: voice 13 | zone 1
Channel 15: voice 14 | zone 1
Channel 16: voice 15 | zone 1
With one zone, channels 2-16 represent 15 voices of the same instrument. Your device thus
sends notes in a
round-robin fashion on channels 2-16.
So, simply activate channels 2-16 in Zyn, load the same instrument on all of them (really
tedious, I know,
but this may be automatable) and set the pitch bend range for channels 2-16 to 48000
cents.
Example 2
---------
Let's assume 2 zones (7 voices each) and a voice pitch bend range of 24 semitones for
zone 1 and 48 semitones
for zone 2.
Channel 1: master | zone 1 (unused)
Channel 2: voice 1 | zone 1
Channel 3: voice 2 | zone 1
Channel 4: voice 3 | zone 1
Channel 5: voice 4 | zone 1
Channel 6: voice 5 | zone 1
Channel 7: voice 6 | zone 1
Channel 8: voice 7 | zone 1
Channel 9: master | zone 2 (unused)
Channel 10: voice 1 | zone 2
Channel 11: voice 2 | zone 2
Channel 12: voice 3 | zone 2
Channel 13: voice 4 | zone 2
Channel 14: voice 5 | zone 2
Channel 15: voice 6 | zone 2
Channel 16: voice 7 | zone 2
Your device sends notes for instrument 1 in a round-robin fashion on channels 2-8, for
instrument 2 on
channels 10-16.
Activate channels 2-8 and 10-16 in Zyn, load your first instrument on channels 2-8, your
second instrument
on channels 10-16. Set pitch bend range for channels 2-8 to 24000 cents, for channels
10-16 to 48000 cents.