#SQ80 and Music-X
4 messages in this thread
Greetings to fellow Amigan musicians! As you'll see from the vaguely-worded
question, I'm new to the electronic side of music though full of projects …
mainly transcriptions for recorder consort, which I'll be happy to share if
anyone's interested.
I've started working with Music-X and my trusty Ensoniq SQ80, and I'm already
pleased with what I've managed. One thing, though, just doesn't seem to want to
work. I can entice sequences from the SQ80 into the Music-X environment, but
can't do much with them once they're there because Music-X says they are not
MIDI files. Can anyone out there give me some advice, and/or point me in the
direction of a protocol if that's the answer?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Niels Grundtvig Nielsen
73544.1153 @ compuserve.com
Are you using a sequencer built in to the Ensoniq SQ80 to record your
sequences? If you are getting the SQ80 to dump sequences as System
Exclusive data Music-X will store it, but it won't understand thre format
of the data. What you need to do is put Music-X into record mode and play
music on you Ensoniq SQ80. Music-X will store the notes in its own way and
let you edit them.
Peter Wade
Autopiloting from London, England
Thanks for your reply, Peter – unfortunately, I need to use the SQ80 to key
things in because I'm starting from scores I can't play! Using the SQ80 means I
can (effectively) enter pitch, duration and voice information all at once.
Could you explain, in terms suitable for a beginner, why Music-X can't
interpret what I thought was a MIDI file produced on the SQ80? There has to be
something here I haven't got the hang of.
Thanks again,
Niels.
I hope this explanation is a bit clearer than my last message. To be
honest I am guessing a bit at what your problem actually is.
The MIDI standard tells manufacturers what messages they should send when
you press or release a key, move a pitch bend wheel or a foot pedal, do
things with aftertouch or change voice on your keyboard. All MIDI
keyboards do these things the same way, and all MIDI sequencers can
understand and edit them.
Features like built-in sequencers and voice editing are all done
differently by different manufacurers. The MIDI standard gets round this
by what it calls "System Exclusive" messages. These have a code which says
what manufacturer they are for, and the manufacturer can use the rest of
the message in any way they want to. Most MIDI sequencers will store these
and send them back to the keyboard but they don't understand the contents
and so cannot edit them.
I don't know anything about the SQ80 but if you are using a built-in
sequencer on your SQ80 and then telling it to dump the sequence I would
guess it may be going to Music-X as a system exclusive. Muisc-X would
treat this as a block of mystery data which it can store or send, but not
do anything else with.
If that is your problem, I can see two possible solutions. If you make
your SQ80 sequencer play the music, does it send MIDI data as well ? If
so, try recording this in Music-X.
Alternatively, you could enter your music on the Amiga using Music-X. I'm
pretty sure you can enter notes and control pitch, duration, velocity and
everything else using the mouse and/or computer keyboard.
Peter Wade
Autopiloting from London, England