Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Glad this is working to some extent for you Bill. I am no expert - 
just hate being defeated by things like this and as my purchase of 
the DTXpress was mainly for recoding in Sonar, I had to get it 
working somehow!

Anyway, this is what I do. First check that the DTX is associated 
with the midi output and channel 10 in the "define instruments" 
section. I use a Roland UA-100 Audio Canvas which has two midi 
ports. I have my synth associated with the 16 channels of MIDI 1 and 
have assigned all of MIDI 2 to the DTXpress. If you only have one 
midi port, then you would assign channel 10 to the DTX and 
everything else to your other midi gear.

Then in track view, I set "IN" to "MIDI OMNI", "OUT" to the midi 
port I am using (in my case 2). I set the "CH" to channel 10 (which 
then shows "DTXpress") and "BNK" to "BANK" (NOT to GM - I think this 
is important as otherwise you will get GM sounds when you strike a 
pad). I select the drum kit I want by clicking the "PCH" arrow and 
all the drumkits show up. 

I am getting all the sounds (including the kick and snare) to sound 
and I can change them during playback (and when the sequence is not 
running) without any problem. I don't think the drum kits with midi 
sequences work in this but I never use them so for me it is not an 
issue. Perhaps somewone can let us know how that can be achieved. 
You do have to ensure that the track is "in focus" when you record 
the drums, or you will get other instruments "showing through" the 
sound. Also, I have only managed to achieve success with the input 
set to MIDI OMNI.

I know there is a way to associate particular program change numbers 
with particular kits within the DTXpress, but the instrument 
definition I attached on my last post seems to do the trick, at 
least for what I want it to do.

I hope that these pointers work for you. I am not familiar with the 
Audigy Card and have not played around with drum maps, but with 
luck, these settings should give you what you are looking to achieve 
which is really just being able to select kits from the computer, 
record them and play them back in the mix. Life should not be this 
complicated! I am just glad I have it working to a level that suits 
my needs.

Updates and more info would be great. Anyone played around with 
Studioware yet?

Good luck Bill with this....let me know how you make out :)

Stephen

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "wfaraoni" <wfaraoni@y...> wrote:
> Hello Stephen: nice work, you obviously have a much better handle 
on 
> this than I do. I spent a couple of hours today trying to get a 
drum 
> map to work only to find out that you loose soundfont capability 
if 
> you use a drum map. its one or the other!
> 
>  Now I have to ask you the particulars of getting it to work 
because 
> the snare and kick are still out of wack for me even though I can 
> emulate and record the rest of the sounds just like on the dtx. at 
> least the toms and cymbals sound like what there supposed to 
instead 
> of horns and whistles !!
> 
> what I did was load your instrument definition file to channel 10 
of 
> synth b of my audigy. which I used for output.
> 
> then I went into utility mode on the dtx and went to the dump page 
> and dumped the system file to the bank 10 of the sysx interface in 
> sonar. then I tried the user map instead.then I tried all the 
files.
> 
> I can select the various kits fine and the 4 I tested seemed to 
have 
> that same incompatability.
> 
> I am using a creative audigy card, so I ran it on synth b or 
should 
> I load it to a drum map?
> 
> anyway if you could provide a "step by step" for Dummies, You will 
> be our hero of the year :)
> 
> this is definitely much closer than anything Ive been able to do.
> I tried a bunch of other stuff but its not worth going into all of 
> that because none of it worked.
> 
> Your efforts are GREATLY appreciated :)
> 
> Thanks Bill
> 
> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Beaumont" <SJB@I...> 
wrote:
> > After much trial and error, and a lot of frustration, I have 
> managed to get an instrument definition put together for Sonar II. 
I 
> imagine it will also work in Cakewalk. There are some weird things 
> that happen if you select certain program numbers; the DTXpress 
> brain goes into a loop situation that fills the midi buffer. 
> Therefore do NOT select drumkits that are not named. I have tested 
> the named ones and they all seem to be working, at least in my 
> configuration.
> > 
> > I also send a SysEx message at the beginning of all my Sonar 
files 
> to the DTXpress that sets it up ready to receive the program 
> changes. This is simply a file that I sent to Sonar from the 
> DTXpress, after I had set up all the parameters in the unit.
> > 
> > Will be interested to know if anyone has been able to improve 
upon 
> this. I agree that it is amazing that neither Yamaha nor Sonar 
have 
> come up with any definitions or Studioware. 
> > 
> > Stephen