Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

I posted this on the Keyboard Forum, but these are kind of detailed 
questions and I believe there are a lot more subject matter experts 
here!  

I understand from reading the manual that once the Rack is slaved to 
the PEK, it becomes basically "set it and forget it." If a sound is 
edited and saved on the PEK, this automatically happens in the Rack 
at the same time (presuming they are both running the latest version 
of software). Here are my questions related to this:

1) In order to "sync" the sounds in both units, could I just go 
through and rewrite the programs (some or all) and this would sync 
them? Or is it easier to do some kind of sysex program dump using a 
PC? Would the PE Rack need to be upgraded to the newest software rev 
to support any of this? Where can I get the upgrade & how is it 
loaded? Lots of similar questions!  

2) If I use another keyboard MIDI'd to the PEK (with PEK chained to 
the PE Rack), will the controller fire all 8 voices, or just the 
PEK's 4 voices? I am assuming that the Poly Chain feature hopefully 
acts like a MIDI thru when this kind of setup is used. I would like 
to have my S90 serving as Master to do automatic patch changes on 
certain songs. I would mainly play the PEK's keyboard, but wanted to 
know if the S90 will indeed control all 8 of the voices when set up 
like this. To add another wrinkle to it, are there any conflicts 
when using Poly Chain to a PE Rack and MIDI thru to another keyboard 
altogether?

These may sound a bit "out there," but are questions that apply to 
my rig! Thanks in advance for any help you can provide on these.

Regards,
Eric

Eric Lawson said  on 5/26/2005 9:00 PM:
> I posted this on the Keyboard Forum, but these are kind of detailed 
> questions and I believe there are a lot more subject matter experts 
> here!  
> 

I dont have a rack yet, but I plan on adding one.  they keyboard is just 
so good, and 8 voices would be heaven...


> 1) In order to "sync" the sounds in both units, could I just go 
> through and rewrite the programs (some or all) and this would sync 
> them? Or is it easier to do some kind of sysex program dump using a 
> PC? Would the PE Rack need to be upgraded to the newest software rev 
> to support any of this? Where can I get the upgrade & how is it 
> loaded? Lots of similar questions!  
> 

you dont have to sync the units from what I understand.  when you select 
a patch on the PEK, the rack gets the patch sent to it.  I do not know 
how combi mode works.

Having the latest software is always a good idea. 
http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/ is where they will be.

> 2) If I use another keyboard MIDI'd to the PEK (with PEK chained to 
> the PE Rack), will the controller fire all 8 voices, or just the 
> PEK's 4 voices? I am assuming that the Poly Chain feature hopefully 
> acts like a MIDI thru when this kind of setup is used. I would like 
> to have my S90 serving as Master to do automatic patch changes on 
> certain songs. I would mainly play the PEK's keyboard, but wanted to 
> know if the S90 will indeed control all 8 of the voices when set up 
> like this. To add another wrinkle to it, are there any conflicts 
> when using Poly Chain to a PE Rack and MIDI thru to another keyboard 
> altogether?

I would imagine this must be the case, otherwise dynamic voice 
allocation would not work, and MIDI sequencing would be ludicrisly 
difficult.  I cant imagine Dave Smith would f#$@# up the MIDI spec that 
badly.

Tony

There is one serious issue concerning chaining with the current Rack 
OS: Sounds that have programmed sequences can sound different on both 
units.
The Evolver keyboard swithes the modulation destinations of the 
sequencer off when it's not running, while the rack plays the mod 
values of sequence step 1 when the sequencer is off. Thus, when the 
sequence for example contains a pitch modulation of 3 semitones in 
step 1, the keyboard will play note C while the rack will play note 
Eb.

This will be changed with the next rack os. If you want to use sounds 
with programmed sequences before the new os is released, you have to 
manually set all sequencer values for step 1 to zero or remove the 
modulation destinations.

Stefan 

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, marzzz@a... wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/26/05 7:02:04 PM, eslawson@c... writes:
> 
> 
> > 1) In order to "sync" the sounds in both units, could I just go
> > through and rewrite the programs (some or all) and this would sync
> > them? Or is it easier to do some kind of sysex program dump using 
a
> > PC? Would the PE Rack need to be upgraded to the newest software 
rev
> > to support any of this? Where can I get the upgrade & how is it
> > loaded? Lots of similar questions! 
> > 
> Best thing to do is a "DUMP EVERYTHING" from the PEK to the Rack. 
This way 
> the programs are synch'd between the two units. There are some Rack 
programs 
> that are NOT on the PEK, so you may want to save everything on the 
Rack first. I 
> will leave the details to dB, but you will need to upgrade a 
current Rack to 
> match the PEK perfectly/
> 
> > 2) If I use another keyboard MIDI'd to the PEK (with PEK chained 
to
> > the PE Rack), will the controller fire all 8 voices, or just the
> > PEK's 4 voices? I am assuming that the Poly Chain feature 
hopefully
> > acts like a MIDI thru when this kind of setup is used. I would 
like
> > to have my S90 serving as Master to do automatic patch changes on
> > certain songs. I would mainly play the PEK's keyboard, but wanted 
to
> > know if the S90 will indeed control all 8 of the voices when set 
up
> > like this. To add another wrinkle to it, are there any conflicts
> > when using Poly Chain to a PE Rack and MIDI thru to another 
keyboard
> > altogether?
> > 
> Here's the setup:
> 
> To polychain a Rack to a PEK, take a MIDI cable from the 
PEK "PolyChain OUT" 
> to the Rack MIDI IN. If you want to control the PEK directly from 
the S90, 
> take the S90 MIDI OUT to the PEK MIDI IN. The S90 will now have 
access to control 
> all 8 voices. In a studio situation, the PEK remains polychained to 
the Rack, 
> but the PEK MIDI IN/OUT goes to the MIDI interface IN/OUT. 
> 
> Basically, once you have Polychained the PEK to the Rack (and made 
the 
> appropriate audio connections and Global settings) the Rack for all 
intents and 
> purposes can cease to exist, and the PEK will act as an 8 voice 
synth.

> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> -Marshall

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "drtrippler" <doct@o...> wrote:
> the rack plays the mod 
> values of sequence step 1 when the sequencer is off.

Is this also the case with the mono Evolver?

Yes.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "meatballfulton" <rost@...>
To: <DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 10:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Evolver] Questions about chaining PEK to PE Rack


> --- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "drtrippler" <doct@o...> wrote:
>> the rack plays the mod 
>> values of sequence step 1 when the sequencer is off.
> 
> Is this also the case with the mono Evolver?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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