Yahoo Groups archive

Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 22:42 UTC

Thread

patches loaded via C64

patches loaded via C64

2001-05-09 by turnthatdamnthingoff@yahoo.com

Hmmm...well I actaully have 2 C64's, one drive and cheap b+w monitor. 
The last time I tried these things were several years back and as I 
recall I was able to load my Sonorus CZ editor/lib but it didn't work 
quite right. I have set them up again but I can't seem to get any 
prompt to show up onscreen. At least thats how I remeber it should 
work.. turn it on and a prompt should appear so I can type in the
load 
command. Both power supplies and both computers do exactly the same 
thing. The things will turn on once but won't turn on again unless I 
pull the power transformer plug from the electrical socket and stick 
it back in. Very weird. Kinda like rebooting the power cord! Sitting 
there yanking the power cord in and out of the electrical socket fast 
and repeatedly will finally yield some garbled jibberish on the 
monitor screen. Both power supplies and C64's do the react the same 
way. Very, very strange. I tried finding some troubleshooting stuff
on 
the web and apparently these chips can open up and oxidize and the 
power transformer themselves are known for being crappy. And I don't 
know what the hell is up with these things. It looks like I won't
have 
acccess to all my old sounds. Rats.

Re: [CZsynth] patches loaded via C64

2001-05-10 by Summa

Hi,

I still have a working C64 (haven't turned it on for 2 years but it should
work) at home but I guess that won't help you much. I'm not a specialist on
these Computers since I never owned one in the 80s and the one I have is a
gift, so I never opened a C64 like I did with all my other computers...  
If you have a picture the power transformer is working... it's maybe a
problem with the computer other then that it's quite unlikely that both have
the same problem. Have you tried to use a TV instead of the monitor,
sometimes those monitors have switches for this and that. Maybe turning the
computer on without having the the disk drive attached will help...

Summa


At 03:02 09.05.01 -0000, you wrote:
>Hmmm...well I actaully have 2 C64's, one drive and cheap b+w monitor. 
>The last time I tried these things were several years back and as I 
>recall I was able to load my Sonorus CZ editor/lib but it didn't work 
>quite right. I have set them up again but I can't seem to get any 
>prompt to show up onscreen. At least thats how I remeber it should 
>work.. turn it on and a prompt should appear so I can type in the
>load 
>command. Both power supplies and both computers do exactly the same 
>thing. The things will turn on once but won't turn on again unless I 
>pull the power transformer plug from the electrical socket and stick 
>it back in. Very weird. Kinda like rebooting the power cord! Sitting 
>there yanking the power cord in and out of the electrical socket fast 
>and repeatedly will finally yield some garbled jibberish on the 
>monitor screen. Both power supplies and C64's do the react the same 
>way. Very, very strange. I tried finding some troubleshooting stuff
>on 
>the web and apparently these chips can open up and oxidize and the 
>power transformer themselves are known for being crappy. And I don't 
>know what the hell is up with these things. It looks like I won't
>have 
>acccess to all my old sounds. Rats.
>

			     
           +                        
           +                       
           +     /\      /\         
        /\ +  /\/  \    /  \        
+++++++/++\++/++++++\++/+++ \    /\  /\         /    O   
      /    \/        \/      \  /  \/  \ |   | /     |  /----
 /\  /     +                  \/        \\---/ ----  |  |
/  \/      +                  /\                  /     \----
           +                 /  \                / 
           +                 Nicknames  : Summa or SumGhost
           +                 AIM        : Flotorian
           +                 Born       : 1967
           +                 Profession : Student of Computer Science
           +	                     

A Touch of Future - Project : http://www.mp3.com/AToF/
Casio CZ Synth Station      : http://www.mp3.com/stations/CZ/ 

Boycott the Premium Artist Service!!!


_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @... address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-11 by turnthatdamnthingoff@yahoo.com

> gift, so I never opened a C64 like I did with all my other 
computers...  
> If you have a picture the power transformer is working... it's maybe 
a
> problem with the computer other then that it's quite unlikely that 
both have
> the same problem. Have you tried to use a TV instead of the monitor,
> sometimes those monitors have switches for this and that. Maybe 
turning the
> computer on without having the the disk drive attached will help...
> 
> Summa

Hi Summa,
  Well all this stuff has been collecting and collecting and one of 
the best feelings in the world is to get rid of all the useless junk 
and clutter that one piles on in life. Since I can't get these things 
to work and are obsolete, I took the oppurtunity to trash them and 
relieve myself of the burden of having to cart  this stuff around for 
the rest of life. If they were useful in some way I would have gave 
them to charity but they're less useful as a doorstop or an ashtray.
Did you ever want to do that. Grab all the crap that you're saving for 
absolutely no reason at all and are never going to use and just chuck 
it?  ;)
I think soundiver has random functions and maybe I'll build some more 
sounds when I'm in the mood. Funny thing is most of this "old" midi 
synths apparently are a pain to get working right in a modern software 
application. I once asked on the soundiver list how come all those old 
editor/librarians for the C64 and the Atari all worked great with the 
Casio's and now all of a sudden they're so terribly hard to implement.  
I forgot what they said, though.  

Jon

RE: [CZsynth] Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-11 by Furman, Jon W.

I know why that is unfortunately, it's because Casio implemented Sysx back
then a little differently than the rest of the world. Basically they
expected for there to be 2 way communication in the middle of 1 sysx stream
of data,  no one else does this. I believe that windows (I'm not sure about
98, 2000 and above, but 3.1 and 95 were like this) actually did some kind of
error checking in its midi subsystem, so that when it got these half formed
sysx streams it would generate an error. Since all Windows MIDI apps depend
on the Windows MIDI subsystem then none of them would work with the CZ. I
don't believe that this was problem with the VZ though, it's sysx was
somewhat reengineered. The reason that DOS/Atari/C64 apps worked is because
the app directly handled all MIDI and the OS couldn't mess it up.  Early on
a lot of Windows MIDI apps just didn't work with the CZ. I remember back
when you had to boot 3.1 in a special mode to get MIDIQuest to work with the
CZ, some apps try to use special timing loops to get around the problem.
About 5 years ago, right when Unisyn came out for PC, I tried to get it
working with my CZs. Of course it didn't, which pissed me off because the
reason I bought it was for the CZ support and I was pretty explicit when I
asked about it working and I was assured that it would. I was lucky though
and managed to get a hold of the editor for Unisyn and found a simple mod to
fix the troubles there so I got working Unisyn profiles for all my CZ's.
Unisyn is a pretty nifty program once you get it working, I can't imagine
using it without access to the profile editor though. I've tweaked almost
every profile that I use to either just work or work better. The editor only
runs on a Mac though,  so I got a Quadra sitting under my desk next to the
PC for when I'm  in the profile editing mood. Sorry guys this was probably a
lot more than you wanted to hear about CZ sysx and Windows MIDI apps....


I'm the other, 
Jon
Show quoted textHide quoted text
	-----Original Message-----
	From:	turnthatdamnthingoff@...
[SMTP:turnthatdamnthingoff@...]
	Sent:	Thursday, May 10, 2001 9:29 PM
	To:	CZsynth@yahoogroups.com
	Subject:	[CZsynth] Re: patches loaded via C64


	> gift, so I never opened a C64 like I did with all my other 
	computers...  
	> If you have a picture the power transformer is working... it's
maybe 
	a
	> problem with the computer other then that it's quite unlikely that

	both have
	> the same problem. Have you tried to use a TV instead of the
monitor,
	> sometimes those monitors have switches for this and that. Maybe 
	turning the
	> computer on without having the the disk drive attached will
help...
	> 
	> Summa

	Hi Summa,
	  Well all this stuff has been collecting and collecting and one of 
	the best feelings in the world is to get rid of all the useless junk

	and clutter that one piles on in life. Since I can't get these
things 
	to work and are obsolete, I took the oppurtunity to trash them and 
	relieve myself of the burden of having to cart  this stuff around
for 
	the rest of life. If they were useful in some way I would have gave 
	them to charity but they're less useful as a doorstop or an ashtray.
	Did you ever want to do that. Grab all the crap that you're saving
for 
	absolutely no reason at all and are never going to use and just
chuck 
	it?  ;)
	I think soundiver has random functions and maybe I'll build some
more 
	sounds when I'm in the mood. Funny thing is most of this "old" midi 
	synths apparently are a pain to get working right in a modern
software 
	application. I once asked on the soundiver list how come all those
old 
	editor/librarians for the C64 and the Atari all worked great with
the 
	Casio's and now all of a sudden they're so terribly hard to
implement.  
	I forgot what they said, though.  

	Jon









































































	To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
	CZsynth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

	 

	Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-11 by turnthatdamnthingoff@yahoo.com

--- In CZsynth@y..., "Furman, Jon W." <jfurman@t...> wrote:
>Sorry guys this was probably a
> lot more than you wanted to hear about CZ sysx and Windows MIDI 
apps....
> 
> 
> I'm the other, 
> Jon

Hi Jon....
    No not at all. Your information is greatly appreciated and has
answered my question. Thanks  :)

Jon

RE: Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-11 by Kenji

I thought I heard somewhere that their MIDI implementation is different because
the CZ101 was one of the first MIDI instruments made and the standard was not
quite as "standard" yet.  Maybe I'm wrong though.

-k

>    From: "Furman, Jon W." <jfurman@...>
> Subject: RE: Re: patches loaded via C64
> 
> I know why that is unfortunately, it's because Casio implemented Sysx back
> then a little differently than the rest of the world. Basically they


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

RE: [CZsynth] RE: Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-14 by Furman, Jon W.

Yeah that's at least partially true. The earlyness of the spec is probably
the biggest reason why they did it differently. It looks like from what they
did that they just interpreted the early MIDI spec differently than what was
intended and without any real precedents before them to compare against the
CZ sysx implementation became a little funky. Really though you can almost
ignore the Casio spec (the only instrument where you can't do this is
sending samples to the RZ-1)  and go ahead and send the entire sysx strings
like normal, the CZ series will just store the extra bytes in the input
buffer and then process them when ready. This makes it totally transparent
to the PC that there is anything going on that's different. As of yet I have
never caused a buffer overflow on a CZ doing this and this solution is a lot
easier than timing loops or booting windows in special modes to allow direct
control of the MIDI port or anything like that. So far I've applied this
technique in Unisyn and Cakewalk (I really like storing all of my instrument
settings in the sequence file)  with very good results. I suppose that on a
very fast PC you might get into trouble but most midi apps let you specify a
packet size and delay time in between sysx packets and fiddling with this
should set things straight again. 

Jon   
Show quoted textHide quoted text
	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Kenji [SMTP:kenjib@...]
	Sent:	Friday, May 11, 2001 5:03 PM
	To:	CZsynth@yahoogroups.com
	Subject:	[CZsynth] RE: Re: patches loaded via C64

	I thought I heard somewhere that their MIDI implementation is
different because
	the CZ101 was one of the first MIDI instruments made and the
standard was not
	quite as "standard" yet.  Maybe I'm wrong though.

	-k

	>    From: "Furman, Jon W." <jfurman@...>
	> Subject: RE: Re: patches loaded via C64
	> 
	> I know why that is unfortunately, it's because Casio implemented
Sysx back
	> then a little differently than the rest of the world. Basically
they


	__________________________________________________
	Do You Yahoo!?
	Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
	http://auctions.yahoo.com/

	To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
	CZsynth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

	 

	Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Re: patches loaded via C64

2001-05-15 by neil whitelaw

This may be helpful. Cheers.

http://www.cyweb.com/~karl/midi/


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.