Xpantastic!

Hello all,

I bought my Xpander a couple of years back, but I'm scared of programming the thing 
because if those pots wear out it could be expensive to fix. 

So I thought that there must be Xpander editors out there that I could run on my Mac. 
There is - it's made by Soundquest:

http://www.squest.com/

It's expensive and didn't work all that well for me - give the demo a try if you're 
interested.

Anyway, I decided to make my own editor in JAVA. It's going to be a simple little thing, 
nothing too flashy (load and save your settings but no Mutli patch editor) 

Does anyone in this group have any knowledge of the sysex implementation for the 
Xpander?

I'd be very interested in any sysex help anyne can offer.

thanks

ekol

Yeah- I have Sound Quest too, and have problems with the OB8 and Xpander.

Look in the files section in the Yahoo group- if the Xpander sysex sec
is not there, I have it somewhere at home.

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 12:12 PM, ekol.info <ekol.info@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hello all,
>
>  I bought my Xpander a couple of years back, but I'm scared of programming
> the thing
>  because if those pots wear out it could be expensive to fix.
>
>  So I thought that there must be Xpander editors out there that I could run
> on my Mac.
>  There is - it's made by Soundquest:
>
>  http://www.squest.com/
>
>  It's expensive and didn't work all that well for me - give the demo a try
> if you're
>  interested.
>
>  Anyway, I decided to make my own editor in JAVA. It's going to be a simple
> little thing,
>  nothing too flashy (load and save your settings but no Mutli patch editor)
>
>  Does anyone in this group have any knowledge of the sysex implementation
> for the
>  Xpander?
>
>  I'd be very interested in any sysex help anyne can offer.
>
>  thanks
>
>  ekol
>
>

Or, you could buy a hardware MIDI controller.

Hi,

Doepfer used to have a quite interesting controller with rotary (I suppose) encoders, but it is 
not anymore available. See: http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm

I have got the Bitsream 3 controller:
http://www.cme-pro.com/en/product-detail.php?product_id=6

But, I don't yet have experience on using it with Xpander. Its back and forth rotating 
potentimeters are not as good as true rotary encoders would be, however.

An other product I would consider is the Novation Remote:
http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_control/remote_zero_sl/#images

Cheers,
Tiitu.

PS. Bitsream 3X's automated recording of the movements of the knobs, joystick, crossfader 
and ribbon controller sounds really good, when thinking the use with Xpander, especially.

Yes - I bought a Bitstream 3x for this purpose and spent quite alot of time trying to get it 
to work with the xpander, but with no success.

It is an amazing controller, but I didn't find it easy to configure at all. The Reason 
templates they provide were all over the place - I had to set my own ones up in the end.

The JAVA solution is partly a hobby project to help me really get up to speed with JAVA 
and I prefer it because I can make a user interface that suits me (eg - there's a slider that 
says OSC1 freq right there for me to use)

There's so much to program on the xpander that i'd imagine you'd get very confused as to 
what knob did what if you used the bitstream. 



--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, "envia94" <akva@...> wrote:
>
> PS. Bitsream 3X's automated recording of the movements of the knobs, joystick, 
crossfader 
> and ribbon controller sounds really good, when thinking the use with Xpander, 
especially.
>

Any other hints of better products?

there really isn't anything - the Xpander is just too old to be 'cool' in the synth editing world.

I was hoping these guys would make one, but I don't think they're interested: (the Pulse 
editor is good tho')

http://www.rekonaudio.com/

Thanks for the link to the Waldorf Pulse editor. Pulse is one of my favourites too, but still 
Oberheims sound much better in their own way. There are probably so few Xpanders left  in 
comparison to Pulses that in comparison it would not very well pay off to make a VST editor 
for Xpander.

On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I, for example, don't 
want to take the time and efforts of using computers all the time. I prefered a simple and 
quick interface like that of the John Boven's Solaris to be released in the near future. Maybe 
that's the way to go after Xpander and Matrix-12. Still I think, I'll 'never' sell mine, because 
they cannot but getting rarer and rarer.

Take a look!
http://www.johnbowen.com/

Best regards,
Tiitu.

How about a "full-screen" editor running "endlessly" under 
Linux on an old laptop with some simple serial MIDI 
interface? If the editor were entirely keyboard driven, and 
the laptop could suspend/hibernate successfully when the lid 
were closed, you could think of it as a "hardware editor". 
You could even re-label the keys! ;)

I'm interested in your comparison of the Xpander and the 
Pulse, as I've always fancied a Pulse+. In the meantime I 
have a Super BassStation, but you don't hear people rave 
about those the way they do with the Waldorf.

One of these days I will write the ultimate Xpander patch 
editor. When my children have grown some more...

And that Solaris is a tasty piece of kit.

Cheers,

John :^P

envia94 wrote:
> 
> 
> Thanks for the link to the Waldorf Pulse editor. Pulse is one of my 
> favourites too, but still
> Oberheims sound much better in their own way. There are probably so few 
> Xpanders left in
> comparison to Pulses that in comparison it would not very well pay off 
> to make a VST editor
> for Xpander.
> 
> On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I, 
> for example, don't
> want to take the time and efforts of using computers all the time. I 
> prefered a simple and
> quick interface like that of the John Boven's Solaris to be released in 
> the near future. Maybe
> that's the way to go after Xpander and Matrix-12. Still I think, I'll 
> 'never' sell mine, because
> they cannot but getting rarer and rarer.
> 
> Take a look!
> http://www.johnbowen.com/ <http://www.johnbowen.com/>
> 
> Best regards,
> Tiitu.

-- 
John Pallister
john@...

>  > On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I,
>  > for example, don't

Well, not sure about that. There was one for the Matrix 1000 years
ago, and it cost more than the synth.
A decent hardware based editor is likely to cost $600 or more, because
tooling costs will be high, and the number of units sold will probably
be very low.

I have a C structure definition of the Xpander/M12 patch format somewhere.
I don't know how accurate it is, but it's probably close enough to
figure the rest out.

Cool! I'd be very interested in a copy of your C struct, if 
that's OK.

Cheers,

John :^P

Tony Cappellini wrote:
>>  > On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I,
>>  > for example, don't
> 
> Well, not sure about that. There was one for the Matrix 1000 years
> ago, and it cost more than the synth.
> A decent hardware based editor is likely to cost $600 or more, because
> tooling costs will be high, and the number of units sold will probably
> be very low.
> 
> I have a C structure definition of the Xpander/M12 patch format somewhere.
> I don't know how accurate it is, but it's probably close enough to
> figure the rest out.

-- 
John Pallister
john@...

But why would you want the editor on a separate machine? Why could it not run on the 
same machine as your DAW?

Actually, it may be because you're running a Windows machine... when I moved from 
doing music on Windows to the Mac, one of the first things I noticed was that Cubase 
does not 'hog' the MIDI ports in the same way that it does on a Windows PC.

I've just done some tests using my new JAVA editor with Cubase loaded up and I can 
change the params on the Xpander even tho' the ports can be seen on Cubase. This means 
that the ports are effectively 'shared' on the MAc which is good news. It may be the same 
for Logic tho' I haven't tested that yet.

The Pulse+ is a great machine. It sounds brilliant and the modulation possibilies are huge 
(just like the Xpander) - it is monophonic and the interface is limited. Get the Rekon VST 
plugin and it's great tho'.



--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, John Pallister <john@...> wrote:

>
> How about a "full-screen" editor running "endlessly" under 
> Linux on an old laptop with some simple serial MIDI 
> interface? If the editor were entirely keyboard driven, and 
> the laptop could suspend/hibernate successfully when the lid 
> were closed, you could think of it as a "hardware editor". 
> You could even re-label the keys! ;)
> 
> I'm interested in your comparison of the Xpander and the 
> Pulse, as I've always fancied a Pulse+. In the meantime I 
> have a Super BassStation, but you don't hear people rave 
> about those the way they do with the Waldorf.
> 
> One of these days I will write the ultimate Xpander patch 
> editor. When my children have grown some more...
> 
> And that Solaris is a tasty piece of kit.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> John :^P
> 
> envia94 wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks for the link to the Waldorf Pulse editor. Pulse is one of my 
> > favourites too, but still
> > Oberheims sound much better in their own way. There are probably so few 
> > Xpanders left in
> > comparison to Pulses that in comparison it would not very well pay off 
> > to make a VST editor
> > for Xpander.
> > 
> > On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I, 
> > for example, don't
> > want to take the time and efforts of using computers all the time. I 
> > prefered a simple and
> > quick interface like that of the John Boven's Solaris to be released in 
> > the near future. Maybe
> > that's the way to go after Xpander and Matrix-12. Still I think, I'll 
> > 'never' sell mine, because
> > they cannot but getting rarer and rarer.
> > 
> > Take a look!
> > http://www.johnbowen.com/ <http://www.johnbowen.com/>
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > Tiitu.
> 
> -- 
> John Pallister
> john@...
>

I totally agree that hardware controllers are the way to go. Nothing beats building a sound 
up by twiddling knobs on the machine itself!

The thing is, I find editing the Xpander using the six rotary controls very unsatisfying. It's 
the only part of the fine machine I dislike. Not to mention the strain one is putting on 24 
year old technology by editing on the machine.

Developing a software editing solution comes a very poor second  IMO, but if it means I 
can use my Xpander for years to come, I'm prepared to go for it. 

Wouldn't it be great if someone built a hardware controller specifically for the Xpander, 
where each param had its own pot!

The Solaris does look lovely. I WAS saving for one of the Prophet 08s, but that Solaris has 
grabbed my attention somewhat instead!



--- In xpantastic@...m, "envia94" <akva@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the link to the Waldorf Pulse editor. Pulse is one of my favourites too, but 
still 
> Oberheims sound much better in their own way. There are probably so few Xpanders left  
in 
> comparison to Pulses that in comparison it would not very well pay off to make a VST 
editor 
> for Xpander.
> 
> On the other hand, a simple general hardware editor would do fine, I, for example, don't 
> want to take the time and efforts of using computers all the time. I prefered a simple 
and 
> quick interface like that of the John Boven's Solaris to be released in the near future. 
Maybe 
> that's the way to go after Xpander and Matrix-12. Still I think, I'll 'never' sell mine, 
because 

> they cannot but getting rarer and rarer.
> 
> Take a look!
> http://www.johnbowen.com/
> 
> Best regards,
> Tiitu.
>

http://www.squest.com/Windows/Instruments/xpander/index.html

I just found this link. But, is it the same software?
http://boduns.starlink.ru/MUSIC/DISTRIBUT/MIDQUEST.7_0/

Yes - an earlier version I think



--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, "envia94" <akva@...> wrote:

>
> I just found this link. But, is it the same software?
> http://boduns.starlink.ru/MUSIC/DISTRIBUT/MIDQUEST.7_0/
>

Ok. I did download it. Cheers!

I know later versions of this software work as VST instruments within Cubase.


--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, "envia94" <akva@...> wrote:

>
> Ok. I did download it. Cheers!
>