Other MIDI INFO
KORG M1
I use my M1 as my mother keyboard and use the excellent WM1 by Angel Ortega and you can download the zip file of the 12,000 sounds in 120 banks here.
Casio HZ-600
A lot of people have emailed me asking on my opinion of the Casio HZ-600. There is indeed very little information on the Web about this keyboard. To be honest it is quite understandable why, as a keyboard it is pretty poor, both in its keyboard and especially its sounds. I bought it to use as another keyboard to use alongside my M1 and the best thing about it is the Mod wheel, which you can turn on and then set in a particular position, and it will remain there, unlike the joystick on the M1. So if you have a sound that responds to Modulation as many on the Morpheus (for example) do, you can set the wheel in a particular position, and play away. Then with the filter open (or whatever part of the sound responds to modulation) you can use both hands to play. My setup is such that I have the M1 and HZ600 both set as mother keyboards through the Midi patchbay, so they will both play the same thing, so I can use the M1’s keyboard and the wheels on the HZ600. As for the sounds well, they are reminiscent of a cheap home keyboard. Sure, you can edit them, and there is a resonance parameter, but they are really very weak sounds and very tinny. On there own they can only be described as Cheesey. I guess it’s like anything though if put it through enough effects and stuff you may get something out of it. I paid £125 pounds for it in a second hand shop, but that was probably £50 too much. For a bit more I’d get a Kawai K1 as that is apparently quite good and you can get the rackmount K1r or m for about the same price.
Click Here to go to another site for some HZ600 WAVS
Midi Basics
Ok, there does seem to be people out there who have trouble with the Midi idea. I have noticed on sites like www.Synthzone.com, that some people have trouble using their synths in Multi-timbral mode. Well I will try and explain it in as simple a way as possible.
I will use the M1 as my example but the same principles can be applied to any synth that claims to be Multi-timbral.
Midi consists of 16 channels, numbered 1 to 16 (what a bit of luck). This means that you can have 16 different sounds playing at once. The M1 is only 8 part multi-timbral which means that you can use 8 of these 16 channels at once. It is not limited to channels 1 to 8 though, you can assign any channel. On the M1 you do this in Combi mode, selecting the multiple type of patch (1st page in edit mode) as opposed to single, layer or split. Paging through the edit combi mode, you can select the sound, then the midi channel, volume, pan, output, effects etc..
Firstly though you will need to do something which is important when using any synth (with a keyboard). You must turn Local Off. This detaches the keyboard from the synth (not physically - obviously - but in the synth's software), this is set in the Global - 5 page. If you do not do this you will always hear the sound that is set to the channel that your M1 is set to (also in Global -5 page) when playing the keyboard, as well as the sound that your sequencer is set to. I will give an example to illustrate this.
e.g. Your M1 is set to Midi channel 1 (in Global - 5), you have a Combi set up where you have a 3 patches (or progs in Korg speak) to channels 1, 2 and 3. You want to play the sound on channel 3, as you have already recorded the other 2 tracks. You set your sequencer to record on channel 3 but when you play the keys you hear the sound on channel 3 play as well as the sound on channel 1. This is due to the fact that Local is On and the synth is playing the sound on channel 1, the midi info is going to the sequencer, and being sent back out to go to channel 3 - therefore you hear both sounds. Turn Local Off and this wont happen.
If after turning Local Off on your keyboard, you don't hear anything, what do you do? This is usually because Midi Thru is not turned on, on your sequencer. You may see a Midi In light up but not the Midi out. Turn Midi Thru On, and you should hear the sound on the designated channel. If not, you probably havn't got the Midi out plugged into your Midi In on your keyboard.
This effectively gives control of the sound selection over to the sequencer rather than the keyboard, for the sound that you want the keyboard to play. If you have other sound modules plugged into your midi chain, then of course you can control them from the keyboard. Just assign a sound on your module to a Midi channel and select that channel on your sequencer. Obviously, you have to make sure that no other sounds are set to play on that channel, otherwise you will hear both of them, unless that is what you want to do. I like to do this when playing a Piano/String sound. Just setup my S760 so that it plays a Piano sample on say channel 1, and a nice string sound set to the same Midi channel (1) on the M1.
So that is Multi-timbral in a nutshell. The 2 things you need to be aware of are Local On/Off and Midi Thru.
Polyphony
The M1 is 16 note polyphonic. This is very low for todays synths, which means that if you use all 8 parts (8 part multi timbral - remember) you can play only 2 notes on each channel. However some sounds use 2 samples (well most of them), this cuts it in half as each sample will use 1 note. So if all 8 parts have sounds with 2 samples you only have 8 note polyphony. Of course Polyphony counts are relevant per synth, so don't confuse the fact that you may have used 16 notes on the M1, your other synths are independant, and will have their own polyphony values.
I've been asked a couple of times how to set-up the SR16 to use in Cubase as a drum module, instead of as a pattern machine, using the drum editor in Cubase. Well, it's a little tricky, but this is how to do it. Hit midi setup on the Sr16, and go to the setting where you select the drum map. It should say normal, set it to user 00 to 09. Well now if you hit the bank button, and select user bank 00, the first pad in bank 00 will be triggered by the note C-2 in Cubase, so set this to the sound you would want for this note. Pad 2 will be triggered by C#-2, pad 3 by D-2 and so on until you get to pad 12 which will be B-2, remembering to save bank 00. Then go to user bank 01, and the first pad will be C-1 and so on until you have selected all sounds for banks 00 to 09. You can set up another set of banks by selecting user 10 to 19 and do the same thing. You can also set groups of sounds in the banks menu, so that say a closed hat will end the trigger of an open one. Then go to Cubase and create a drum map where the out notes correspond to the notes on the SR16, i.e. C-2 Kick drum will play the sound (hopefully a kick drum) attached to pad 1 Bank 00 on the SR16, C#-2 will play pad 2 bank 00 and so on - EASY!!
KORG POLY-800
I bought my Poly-800 for only £100 about a year ago and I think it sounds great. I had a bit of trouble with it though as it had lost all of it's sounds. I had to send a tape to Korg to get a replacement. It also loses it sounds every now and then, and I have to reload them back on. If you need the sounds I've put the horrible scratchy ZX spectrum like noises here for you to download, but don't listen to it as it's a data stream!!!!!