Atari-Midi Archives

Thanks Gregor

 I'm still working on this beast. And somehow I don't
believe there's an electronics flaw. The battery
replacement mod does say that (weirdly enough) it does
not have a default configeration but loses its memory.
One can reconfigure it either by feeding it the
original sound banks by audio tape or midi.

 I think you're right however that I might not be
giving Midi-Ox the connection. I went into  the
multimedia folder and changed the Crystal(sound card)
out to external device. Perhaps I also have to
configure Crystal in to external device. I had
expected that Midi Ox would do that for me.
 Haven't yet had the time to go beyond that, but it
seems on the right track. 

 Also your suggestion of hooking up the PC to the
Atari. What however is the passive or controlled media
machine. Would a sent message(a .mid tune) be received
by any midi player, or would the player machine be the
sender. I know that doesn't make sense but that is the
depth of my confusion on this. If I "play" a midi tune
on one computer does a second computer receive that
message and have enough smarts to play it ? 

 Or more importantly make any sense to these
unassigned note off/on msgs. and in what tinber,
frequency , frequency changes , wave table.etc. It
appears beyond me. And then there are the packages,
release, decay, sustain and all the rest.

 Of course as you suggest there could be internal
electronic faults. Perhaps it awaits the M1 I've
thirsted after for 25 years. But then again maybe only
one of  these new machines can possibly answer the 
needs I expect and would challenge. 

 My dream machine would take the notes and
instrumentation I've assigned those notes to and play
them back to me so that I could adjust my arrangements
accordingly. The solos and lead instruments I should
be able to add arpeggios, bends, phrasing, and
sampling to achieve my final product. From what I've
heard the Fairlight at $60k was able to do that 40
years ago but claims are that many much cheaper
machines can do that now. For example to do some of
the Gil Evans charts with different voicings. Maybe
with a Coleman Hawkins or Dizzy lead instead of Miles.


 Maybe I should simply forget about getting some old
B3 organ sounds, sell the EX if I can get it
functioning, and my Martin Committee since I no longer
have teeth much less embrochure, and see if there is a
box that can do what I want musicily.

 Oh well dreams are what keeps us living.

 But thanks for your help.

L

> Message: 2         
>    Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:28:06 -0000
>    From: "gregor_malecha"
> <gregor.malecha@...>
> Subject: Re: Korg EX8000
> 
> Hi Lawrence,
     
> 
> I remember you were struggling with this machine
> already in January, 
> when you posted messages in the atari-midi group. 
> 
> It looks like there are many possible sources for
> troubleshooting to 
> be excluded one by one. 
> 
> I don't know the Korg DW8000/EX8000 but the question
> arises: May it 
> be that the unit is damaged? 
> 
> Could/can you try it in other environments (since
> you don't have a 
> keyboard an Atari Sequencer with any stupid little
> sequence on all 
> MIDI channels -> EX8000 -> amp) with any success? 
> 
> Concerning the battery replacement & the "empty"
> memory: Wouldn't it 
> just revert to a factory default memory setting? I
> don't believe 
> these machines just go completely blank (just an
> assumption). 
> 
> Did you try a manual dump and did you receive
> anything in the Mega-4 
> ST (trying to get patch-banks
> OUT OF your EX8000)? (SOMETHING should be coming out
> of it.)
> 
> Unless this (EX <-> Atari) is successfull no need to
> try the new PC 
> connections - OR - : 
> 
> Do you have another MIDI unit, which you can use to
> verify the MIDI 
> signal flow in your setups without involving the
> EX8000? 
=== message truncated ===
    Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 15:17:38 -0400 (EDT)
>    From: Lawrence Walker <bigwalk_ca@...>
> Subject: Korg EX8000
> 
>  I have a Korg EX8000(no keyboard) rackmount DW8000
> that I picked up in a thrift store and have been
> trying to ressurect for some time. I'm basicly
> synth-illiterate but used Ataris for years. I
> deduced
> the battery was dead and did the battery replacement
> mod from Bryan Resslers site;
> http://www.pallium.com/bryan/dw8000.php
> 
>  Downloaded the DW8000 manual and A.Ruggeri's DW
> editor/librarian, a PC program later. 
> http://www.anthonyruggeri.com/web2001/dw8000.asp
> 
>  On the frontpiece of the EX just below the tuning
> knob there is a button labelled A4. It emits sounds
> thru my earphones, mostly decaying whistles when I
> play with the program and parameter knobs..
> 
>  I have a Mega-4 ST and also a Tweety board. I had
> no
> luck with numerous old ST programs getting
> patch-banks
> into my EX, altho I was able to lite up the Midi
> connection indicator with one of them. Since the
> Korgs
> memory was now blank I couldn't do much.
> 
>  I finally got a PC game-port midi adaptor (the
> people
> at the local music-store here in the boonies looked
> blank when I asked if they had one) and am trying to
> use my W98-SE PC to use the DW-8000 editor to
> download
> the memory banks. I also have Midi-Ox installed.
>  Somehow Midi-Ox did transfer a stub to the editor
> program but won't connect to the EX. I have the midi
> cables connected to the in out ports but the midi
> panel indicator doesn't light up and there is no
> response. Anyone have any ideas ? Sorry if it's PC
> specific but I do want to use my Atari programs once
> I
> get this beast functioning. Of course it's
> complicated
> by not having a musical keyboard.
> 
> Lawrence


Lawrence Walker

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FIRST A QUESTION TO ALL:
Does anybody have a Korg DW8000/EX8000 default SysEx dump (or any 
other working memory dump) to e-mail this as *.syx file to Lawrence 
to help him getting his machine up ?

Hi Lawrence,

The battery
> replacement mod does say that (weirdly enough) it does
> not have a default configeration but loses its memory.
> One can reconfigure it either by feeding it the
> original sound banks by audio tape or midi.

Yep, memory was expensive those days, so it's possible no default 
banks were kept in ROM. 

> ...I went into  the
> multimedia folder and changed the Crystal(sound card)
> out to external device. 

That's all you have to do there. 

> Perhaps I also have to
> configure Crystal in to external device. 

That's done with the above. The PC as such is ready to receive MIDI 
data.

> I had expected that Midi Ox would do that for me. 

No, Midi Ox you have to configure yourself under OPTIONS/MIDI 
DEVICES. There you can connect MidiOx input to receive from your 
soundcard's Midi In port, and MidiOx output to send to your 
soundcard's Midi Out port. 

If you further set the checkmark to "Pass SysEx" in MidiOx OPTIONS 
everything received by MidiOx will be passed to the Midi Output as 
well (=Midi Through)

>  ... hooking up the PC to the
> Atari. What however is the passive or controlled media
> machine. Would a sent message(a .mid tune) be received
> by any midi player, or would the player machine be the
> sender. I know that doesn't make sense but that is the
> depth of my confusion on this. If I "play" a midi tune
> on one computer does a second computer receive that
> message and have enough smarts to play it ? 

Can work either direction, and either way is good enough to check if 
data flow is happening. (That's what it is about at the moment, just 
to verify if any stupid little midi byte goes from here to there.)

So if you use MidiOx (which has a Midi player built in, accessible 
via ACTIONS/Play MIDI...) to play a MIDI file, you need some software 
on the ATARI to receive it. This can be a sequencer, which you then 
put in Record mode. There you can see if it receives something. 

Or, the other direction, you use a Midi player/sequencer to play a 
Midi file from the ATARI and you can observe the Midi data arriving 
in MidiOx's "Monitor" window. For now there's no need to HEAR 
anything, it's just to see if ANY data are being received either way. 
Then you'll know the Midi connection as such is established and 
working. 

Once you have the connections/data flow together you can replace the 
ATARI by the EX8000 and try to send something there and see if it 
responds in SOME way. 

>  Or more importantly make any sense to these
> unassigned note off/on msgs. and in what tinber,
> frequency , frequency changes , wave table.etc. It
> appears beyond me. And then there are the packages,
> release, decay, sustain and all the rest.

This will remain abstract until you'll get the connections up & 
running and thereafter begin to hear something. Then only can you 
begin to explore these aspects and begin to understand what's what. 
I hope you've got the manual for the EX8000 to have some guidance to 
get into the workings of that machine. Otherwise where could you 
start getting your grips on it??? Besides, since I assume you are 
entirely new to MIDI, do some search on the www for MIDI tutorials. I 
believe to have seen some pretty good explanations once in a while. 
Or get a book about the MIDI basics, that's what I did in the 80's 
when I started. 

>  Of course as you suggest there could be internal
> electronic faults. Perhaps it awaits the M1 I've
> thirsted after for 25 years. But then again maybe only
> one of  these new machines can possibly answer the 
> needs I expect and would challenge. 

This you can only find out once you've got the basic connections 
together and your understanding of what MIDI can do and what not 
develops. 

>  My dream machine would take the notes and
> instrumentation I've assigned those notes to and play
> them back to me so that I could adjust my arrangements
> accordingly. The solos and lead instruments I should
> be able to add arpeggios, bends, phrasing, and
> sampling to achieve my final product. From what I've
> heard the Fairlight at $60k was able to do that 40
> years ago but claims are that many much cheaper
> machines can do that now. For example to do some of
> the Gil Evans charts with different voicings. Maybe
> with a Coleman Hawkins or Dizzy lead instead of Miles.

Same thing - your dream machine, any machine, will need YOU and your 
capability to handle it as its central part. The better your 
understanding, the better the machine will serve you. 

Also, by the way, there are software synthesizers for the PC 
nowadays, with which you can do many things. It doesn't necessarily 
have to be another hardware machine. But a keyboard as such you'll 
need sooner or later! 

Patience, persistence, digging, digging... after all it can be a lot 
of fun to explore, to get frustrated inbetween, and to eventually 
succeed, step by step... 

:^) Greg