Work in progress ...
MIDI Devices
Until now XLib supports following MIDI devices: Fantom-S, Fantom-X, Fantom-XR, Fantom-Xa and Juno-G.
DropOuts
If XLib will receive data, it requests it via MIDI. If the device is not responding to that request there will be an orphaned request within XLib's buffers called DropOut. XLib will stop all data transfer as long as there are any DropOuts. You can clear the buffers if you click on the Refresh Button, switch MIDI on and off or if you start the Settings dialog.
Why there are DropOuts?
The time between the system exclusive (SysEx) messages send to your device should be about 25 msecs. If you chose a value too small your device can not respond fast enough. Try a greater values to avoid DropOuts. Go to Settings | Special.
If the DeviceID of your MIDI Device doesn't match the DeviceID of XLib, your MIDI device will not respond at all. Set both DeviceIDs to the same value. Go to Settings | MIDI.
If you have chosen the wrong target device, your MIDI device will not respond at all. Go to Project Options of your Preset.xlb.
DropOut might occur if you chose the wrong MIDI interface or you have made wrong connection between your midi MIDI device and your MIDI interface or may be you just forget to power on your MIDI device.
Project
A Project may contain user and / or card data and the corresponding Wavetables. You can open / create Projects for different Source MIDI devices. The first time you create a Project or everytime you change the target MIDI device you have to go to the Project Options and (re-)synchronize your wavetables. A Project has its own file format with the extension xlb. You can import / open original Roland Librarian files into / as a Project file.
Target Workspace / Preset.xlb
XLib will let you chose only one target MIDI device. The corresponding xlb. file will be autocreated if you start XLib the first time or everytime XLib can not find a Preset.xlb in the default path. Chose your MIDI device and the installed SRX-Boards on the Options tab of your Preset.xlb. You have to fill the empty Preset.xlb with the preset data of your MIDI Device. Select all rows within each Grid and select Receive from User in order to get all preset data. It is essential for the Wizard that all preset data of your MIDI device is within your Preset.xlb file.
It is not possible to receive or send the GM data of the Preset.xlb file. You can only select GM data on your MIDI device if you double click on the row header of the GM Patches or GM Rhythm Sets.
Source Workspace
Within the Source Workspace you can open / create your own Projects.
Grid
You can move / copy data from one grid to another or to the same grid with the mouse via drag and drop. In order to copy or move the selected data you have to select full rows. The drag and drop action begins always with a single click of the row header of the selected data with the left mouse button. Then hold down the left mouse button and drag the data to your target grid and drop at onto your target row. The grids within Xlib will not create new rows. For example: if you move 100 Patches onto the first row of a Patch Grid with only 50 rows, only the first 50 Patches will be copied. It's up to you to make enough space for your data. If you want more rows within a grid, press the CTRL + INSERT key to add a row to your grid. If you want less data press the CTRL + DELETE key to delete all selected rows.
You can move data if you hold down the CTRL key while dragging and dropping the data. You copy the data only if you don't press any key while while dragging and dropping the data.
If you press the SPACEBAR you send the data of the current row in the grid to the selected Temporary memory of your MIDI device.
If you press the SHIFT key and the SPACEBAR you send the data of the selected rows in the grid to the selected User memory of your MIDI device.
If you press the CTRL key and the SPACEBAR you receive data from the selected Temporary memory of your MIDI device into the current row of the grid.
If you press the CTRL and SHIFT key and the SPACEBAR you receive data from the selected User memory of your MIDI device into the selected rows of the grid.
if you press the DELETE key you initilize the the data of the selected rows.
You can only receive or send data if you have selected at least a full row.
It is not possible to send or receive data if MIDI is off or if there are any DropOuts.
If doubleclick on the row header you send the data of the current row in the grid to the selected Temporary memory of your MIDI device. This only works if you have selected Send To Temp for the Ribbon Send button. You cannot send data with a doubleclick to the User memory of your MIDI device.
There is a rule of thumb you cannot mess up things if you don't use the CTRL key.
Wavetables
Wavetables will be translated in real time. If you change a mapping of a wave within the source wavetable, every time coresponding data is transmitted it will replace the original wave with the new wave. The complete Wavetables will be saved each time you save your Project. So you will never lose your original data. You can export your data with its mapped Wavetables (hard-coded) into original Roland librarian format. So it is possible to convert from each Roland librarian format to each Roland librarian format.
Wizard
The wizard randomizes the data of the Preset.xlb and creates new Patches, Rhythm Sets or Rhythm Keys. It is essential for the wizard to work that there is no empty data within the Preset.xlb. As an alternative you can open or create a file named Seed.xlb. The wizard will look for the Seed.xlb. If this is file is note open. It will randomize the data of the Preset.xlb.
MIDI Monitor
The MIDI Monitor is a debugging feature with which you can analyze the MIDI data being sent or received. Use the MIDI Monitor only for small amounts of data. You can freeze XLib if send thousands of SysEx messages with MIDI Monitor on within a few seconds. You have to select the data which should be monitored in the Settings dialog.Mode Switch
You can select different modes of your MIDI device with the Mode Switch. It's not just a remote control. The Mode Switch defines the destination of your data being send to the temporary buffers of your MIDI device.
There are Temporary buffers for the Patch mode and the Performance mode (except for Rhythm Patterns). So if you send a Patch to Temp in Patch Keyboard mode you can hear the Patch if play on the keyboard. If you send a Patch to Temp in Patch Key Pad mode then you can hear the Patch if you play on the Key Pads. If you send a Patch to Temp in Performance Part 1 mode you can hear the Patch selecting Part 1 and playing the Keyboard.
In most cases Patch Keyboard mode might be the best choice, but with the Mode Switch you can address every temporary buffer of your MIDI device.
MIDI File Player
It's a convenient feature of your MIDI device that you can prelisten your Patches and Rhythm Sets with a press of a button. Roland called this feature Preview and you can configure the way you want to prelisten within the System Settings of your MIDI device.
XLib will trigger the Preview after you have send a Patch or a Rhythm Set in Patch mode if you have checked Preview and Auto Play within the Play buttons menu. The Roland's hardware Preview don't work within the Performance mode and with Rhythm Keys. So this is the point where the MIDI File Player jumps in. XLib auto create a MIDI File within your default path called default.mid. If you load this MIDI file and if you have checked Strip MIDI File and Adapt MIDI File within the Play buttons menu. Now XLib will use the hardware Preview of your MIDI device if possible otherwise it will play the selected MIDI File. The Strip MIDI File option will suppress programme changes and sysex messages being played. This is an essential feature because if you send a Patch to Performance Part 5 and then the MIDI File will be triggered to listen to that Patch a programme change message would overwrite your data at once. The Adapt MIDI File option will do the following. It looks for the first note and its channel within the active MIDI file and then every time a note with this channel should be played it replaces the channel to the channel of the selected Part. So if there are some notes on channel 1 within the MIDI File and you send it a patch to Performance Part 5 on channel 5 everything work as expected. But there is some more magic with the Adapt MIDI File option. If you play a Rhythm Key all notes equal to the first note within the MIDI File are transposed to the corresponding note of the selected Rhythm Key so you can prelisten all Rhythm Keys with one MIDI File. Which MIDI File is appropriate for your needs is up to you.
Another option of the Play button menu is Auto GM-Mode. The Auto-GM-Mode will send each time you load a MIDI file a command to your MIDI Device which ensures that it is in GM Mode. So if you want to use the MIDI File Player as a GM MIDI File Player this is the only option of the Play button menu which should be checked.
Copyright © 2009 Morten Schröder, Germany. All rights reserved. All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.