Info on using MIDIEX 1.8 for the IBM PC (running DOS) Provided by Livewire Audio PO Box 561, Oceanport NJ 07757 MIDIEX is a very simple MIDI program that allows you to save the internal memory of most synthesizers to disk. This saves you LOTS of money over the alternative: buying expensive, proprietary memory "cards". MIDIEX 1.8 will work with almost all Yamaha synths (specifically, the DX7, DX7II, TX7, TX816, TX802, TG22, SY35, SY85, SY99, FB01, TXZ81Z), most Korg synths (M1, M1R, M3R, O3R/W, T1, T2, T3. The DS-8, 707, Poly-800, EX-8000, DW-8000 can load but not save sounds). Some Roland synths may work, and almost any other synth that can transmit it's internal data from it's own panel (that is, it doesn't need external handshaking) should work. This is because MIDIEX cannot send a "Request SYSEX" message to your synthesizer, so all received data dumps must be initiated by the synthesizer. This means most Casio synths won't work, a lot of the older Roland's won't either. For some reason, Kawai synths don't seem to work with this version, but earlier versions (such as MIDIEX 1.5) do work with the Kawai's. This version of MIDIEX allows you to set the IRQ level the MPU-401 uses (default is IRQ2), set the base address of the MPU card, and set the receive buffer size. See the "technical info" section for details. Most PC's will not need to change these settings. System requirements for MIDIEX are: 1) Almost any true IBM compatible PC, from the XT on up. 2) You will need at least 512K memory, more if you are doing huge (larger than 128K) MIDI saves or loads. A hard drive is not needed. 3) You MUST have a MIDI interface that is compatible with the industry-standard Roland MPU-401 interface. We have tested this program successfully with the MIDI Quest boards, which are a heck of a lot cheaper than Roland's, and more compact to boot! Most non- standard interfaces (such as the Key external) and some game boards will not work. To run MIDIEX, unzip the program to your hard disk, or a floppy disk. You should be running DOS (version 3.3 or later preferably). DO NOT run MIDIEX under Windows! We cannot guarantee that loading or saving under Windows will work. We have another program (WSYSEX) for Windows that may work for you. But why bother? DOS is faster, and Windows is for wimps! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUICKSTART: To run MIDIEX, type MIDIEX (and press enter) and the program will confront you with three choices. Either press R (to receive a MIDI dump from a MIDI synth) or press S to send a file you have saved. Press F to list the files in the current directory. Pressing escape will exit the program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETTING UP YOUR MIDI SYNTHESIZER Before loading any new sounds, first SAVE YOUR INTERNAL SOUNDS. Loading in a bank of new sounds WILL ERASE your synth's internal memory. Given the AWFUL quality of most factory-supplied synth sounds, this is no great loss. But save your sounds anyway! We'll start with setting up your synthesizer keyboard correctly for MIDI loading and saving. Each synth is different, but some general rules are: 1) Plug in a MIDI cord from your PC's MIDI interface out port to the synth's MIDI in. Plug in another card from the synth's MIDI out to the MIDI interface in if you are saving sounds. 2) Set your synth to MIDI channel 1. Most of our Livewire sounds are saved this way, and may not load correctly into your synth if you don't set it to MIDI channel 1. See your synth's owner's manual for details. 3) Turn your synth's write-protect feature off. You cannot load sounds to a synth that has it;s internal memory write-protected (duh!) 4) Turn your synth's MIDI system exclusive ON. Some synth's may not have this parameter. awhose that do will usually have it set to OFF by default. Turn it on or you can't load or save sounds over MIDI. 5) If your synth has a "device ID number: (some Yamaha's may), leave it alone for now. If you have problems loading, set if for "1" or "ALL". See your synth's owner's manual for details. Some synths may have other requirements for MIDI bulk dump loading & saving. Again, see your synth's owner's manual for details. To save your synth's sounds, run MIDIEX by typing MIDIEX (and pressing enter). Get your MIDI keyboard ready by entering the MIDI data dump area of your MIDI keyboard's functions. Prepare it to transmit whatever you want to save (perhaps "all data"). Press R on your PC's keyboard to receive a file. Now, press whatever button on your MIDI synth to start transmitting the data. At this point, the synth should "dump" it's sound parameter data from it's MIDI out into the PC's memory. After a while (anywhere from 5 to 45 seconds), MIDIEX will see an end-of file (EOF) message, and the transfer will be finished. MIDIEX will prompt you for a filename - enter one (prefaced with a pathname if you like). That's it! TESTING FILE INTEGRITY Well, not really. We here at Livewire now you never take anything for granted with computers. This is the second time I'm typing this file - the first one disappeared into god knows where! So let's check your saved file - exit MIDIEX by pressing escape. Check the size of the file you just saved by entering DIR. If the file size is 1K or smaller, your dump wasn't saved in it's entirety. What happened? Well, some less enlightened manufacturers put an end-of-file message at the end of EACH PATCH in a bank, instead of an EOF at the end of a patch bank where it belongs. Older Rolands are infamous for this nasty behavior. That's why the file size is so small - only the first patch in the bank was saved. If this happened to the bank you just saved. MIDIEX won't work for you. Contact Livewire for a copy of a program that will work or purchase a commercial program such as Pixel Publishing's "Super Librarian" (highly recommended!) Most likely, your file's size was larger - anywhere from 2k to 128K in length. So, chances are your "dump" was good. But who's taking chances? Not us! Let's load that file back in to be sure. LOADING FILES WITH MIDIEX Run MIDIEX by entering MIDIEX (and pressing enter). Press S to send a file. For example, to send your file named MYSOUNDS in your MIDI directory on drive D, type D:\MIDI\MYSOUNDS (and press enter) Your PC will then transmit the data out it's MIDI port to the synth. The dump should take anywhere from 5 to 45 seconds. Your synth may then say "MIDI dump received" or something similar. Or. it may sit there like a lump on a log. It doesn't matter. What does matter is if it says "MIDI error". This may mean that your synth didn't receive a MIDI EOF message, or the MIDI dump came in too fast for it too handle. Or, it might not mean diddly-squat (as Flanders would say on The Simpsons"). No matter what happened, you should now check the data dump you just received. Browse through your synth's sounds or patches or voices (or whatever your synth's manufacturer is calling them this year). Especially listen to the last few sounds in your synth's memory bank(s). A dead giveaway of a bad dump is a patch name like "!@#$%#&#^@!" instead of what should be "Piano 1". If this happens, try the dump again - it may work. If not, MIDIEX may not be the program for you - contact us for alternatives. Most likely, your sounds loaded back in OK. Now, try some others. Livewire Audio has a whole slew of great sounds for many synths. For a complete list of what we have available as shareware, see the end of these loading instructions. TROUBLESHOOTING Can't get your sounds to load back in correctly? We have tested ALL the synths mentioned at the very beginning of these loading instructions, and they all work with MIDIEX. If your's didn't load correctly, chances are you did something wrong. Go back to the setup section and double-check everything. Make sure you're using good MIDI cables. If you have purchased one of our sound banks, you can call us for free technical support at (908) 222-1227. If you couldn't even send in a measly shareware payment, yer on yer own, pal! CROSS-PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY MIDIEX can save any kind of files your synth can send: individual patches, performances, combinations, multi's, banks of whatever, setup's, sequences, all data, etc. MIDIEX can even accept dumps of raw PCM wavesample data, if your synth can initiate a standard MIDI sample dump. And, Livewire has programs for the Apple Macintosh and Atari ST computers that can load & save files in standard MIDIEX format. What this means is: if you save your sounds to a standard, DOS- formatted 720K 3.5" disk, those files can be read and used by all three computer systems. Is this ia cool MIDI world or what? TECHNICAL STUFF To set MIDIEX's configurable parameters, use: MIDIEX /B:nnnn /I:n /A:nnn where, /B:nnnn is the size of the receive buffer in bytes, /I:n is the IRQ level of the MPU, and /A:nnn is the base address for the MPU's I/O ports, (for hexidecimal numbering, precede the address with a 0x) The defaults are /I:2 /A:0x330 /B:1024. To bring up help, use: MIDIEX ? which will display the above message. PROGRAMMER's NOTE: MIDIEX has been completely rewritten and is now compatible with Turbo C ver. 2.0. To compile the files, you will need either Borland's Turbo C ver. 2.0, Microsoft C ver. 5.0 or later, or Quick C ver 1.0 or later compilers, and Microsoft's MASM ver. 5.1 or Borland's TASM ver. 1.0 assemblers. Make files have been provided for both Microsoft MAKE and Borland TMAKE utilities. MIDIEX version 1.8 updated by Mike W. Smith, 12/5/89. Testing and loading instructions by Mick Seeley for Livewire Audio. Copyright 1994 Livewire Audio. OBLIGATORY PLUG Livewire has uploaded this program, prepared this document, and extensively tested MIDIEX with a variety of MIDI synths -all at no charge. All we ask is that you send in payment for some of our soundbanks, which use MIDIEX to load. We have sounds for the following synths: YAMAHA ------- DX7 DX7S DX7II TX7 TX816 TX802 FB01 TXZ81Z KORG ----- M1, M1R, and M1R-EX M3R O3R/W T1, T2, and T3 DS-8 and 707 DW-8000 and EX-8000 Wavestation (all models) CASIO ------ VZ series (VZ-1 and VZ-10M only) ROLAND ------- MKS-80 Super Jupiter KAWAI ------ K1, K1R, K1M, and K1-II K4 and K4R Best of all, all these sounds are now available as shareware! These soundbanks and patch libraries formerly sold from anywhere to $29.95 to $139.95. Try them for free - they should be available on the same BBS that you downloaded this file from. If not, contact us (by voice) at the number below. If you like the soundbanks, you are obligated to send in payment. Shareware payment runs from as little as $10 to no more than $20. Those who send in payment get a disk with the latest version of MIDIEX, more sound files, the original factory sounds for backup, great new shareware programs, and the piece of mind that comes from knowing you compensated somebody for their hard work. So check out our soundbanks - if you like' em, send in the shareware payment. After all, anybody who can afford hundreds of dollars for a keyboard, and hundreds more for a computer system, can surely afford $10-20 for the sounds they're using! Livewire also has low-priced, high-quality, PCM sample disks for the Korg T1, T2, and T3, as well as for the Yamaha SY85 and SY99, Ensoniq EPS & ASR, and Casio FZ samplers. Sorry, sample disks are not available as shareware. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for a list of the sound disks available for your sampler. Here's hoping you enjoy MIDIEX - and our sounds, too. Good luck. Sincerely, Mick Seeley President Livewire Audio PO Box 561 Oceanport NJ 07757-0561 (908) 222-1227 Livewire Audio guarantees only that the enclosed product will load as advertised, and does not make any express or implied warranty as to the suitability or fitness for any purpose in connection with the equipment, hardware, or software products it sells. Livewire is not responsible for any damages or losses which the buyer may experience as a result of the purchase or use of the product enclosed.