MusicXsynth
David,
An editor/librarian is a program (or module) that allows you to change
(editor) the sounds in your synthesizer from the defaults and manipulate
them (librarian). This, of course, assumes that you have a synthesizer that
allows modifying the sounds for editing, and uploading/downloading them for
the librarian functions. Most inexpensive synthesizers do not allow this,
while the moderately priced to expensive ones generally do.
>> "Why can't much (if not all) of an editor/librarian be handled by
capturing the system exclusive data of a MIDI device?"
Answer: that's just what an editor/librarian does. The advantage is that
the editor/librarian program provides the protocol support, file system
support, and meaningful user interface (hopefully 😉 that a raw data dump
does not. Also, supplied MIDI SysEx documentation has not been well known
for it's completeness and/or accuracy. Generally, a commercial program has
those little gotcha's worked out of it.
The Roland MT-32 is a Linear Arithmetic Multi-Timbral sound module, which
32 partials total. These 32 partials are assigned "on-the-fly" to provide
up to 8 separate, simultaneous sounding notes, plus a rhythm channel. The
way this works is that a complex sound might require 8 of the 32 partials
to generate a single note. A simpler sound might require 4 partials. Since
the maximum number of partials available is 32, you would be limited to 4
simultaneous notes of the 8 partial sound, but could have 8 simultaneous
notes of the 4 partial sound. The MT-32 responds to MIDI channels 2-9
(default) for the possibility of 8 different instruments, with channel 10
being the Rhythm channel. It is a sound module only – it does not have any
keyboard.
I heard one time that it was the single most popular piece of MIDI gear
ever sold. I'm not certain whether that's true, but, there definietly are
a lot of them in the field. Many, but not all, MT-32's have been known to
have a slight hum, which shows up on critical recordings. The hum, if
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