Hello,
I'm a new member here, hi to all. I've recently aquired an MC-50 and am trying to set it up with an old Yamaha YS200 synth. So far I am able to assign midi channels and record to the sequener on multi tracks/midi channels and play back on the synth. My question is how or where do you normaly save voicing info? That is to say if I load a song into the MC-50, how or where does it know how to config the synth's voicing (i.e. patch number, midi chann. etc, ) for that some? Right now it seems that I have to manually go into the synth and set this stuff up before playing the song. Any help would be appreciated.

Well, the easiest way to get the MC50 to transmit program changes and whatever else (Volume, Pan etc) is to record that into the MC50. Just make sure that the synth is setup to transmit and recieve program changes.

To be on the safe side, put a couple of blank bars in front of the tracks. Basically leave bar 1-2 empty, so you can record program changes and volume/pan stuff into the desired midi tracks.

-ED-

it depends how fast your synth can change programs and be reready to play notes. alot of times i send changes in the middle of a song and just do a little experamenting to see whats the last tick i can get away with it.

as for how
microscope mode on the roland mc sequencers makes it super easy to program them on the exact tick where you want them. go into microscope mode hit edit and dial up create
hit enter
dial up program change
hit enter
curser over to change the midi channel if you need to
curser over and enter program number
hit enter
you might need to hit microscope to exit edit mode depending if you have continuouse edit mode selected or not or you can just go back to play mode and see how the programing works. after you get it down it takes about 2 seconds to do the whole process start to finish and even less time to tweek the timeing or if the program # isnt right

[This message has been edited by djboomstick (edited 01-06-2004).]

Thanks you guys. I searched the MC-50 manuals all day today and found some info on program changes (PG) as they call it. I'm surprized it's not mentioned anywhere in the manual's indexs. A couple of guys from another website also contributed some info that got me on the right path. I have some concerns about the limitations of my synth, the YS200. I'm at work now and it will have to wait a few more hours till I get home. I apprecite your responses. If you wouldn't mine, please check back here tomorrow and look for this post. I'll either have some good news or a bunch more questions.

I did have some success last night following your advice searching for the (PC) feature on the sequencer. I was able to record a specific voice for each track, assign it a midi chann., and record. I did this on 2 tracks using 2 voices on two midi chann. Then I re-set the YS200 to a different voice (other than I just recorded with). When I played back my recorded tracks the sequencer automatically switched the synth back to the voices I originally set to record with. The only thing I had to set manually was the midi receive channels on the synth. I can live with this (for now).

A couple of new questions. It seems that with each hurdle I over come, 10 more pop up.

1. The YS200 is capable of playing up to 8 voices at once. I can get some very nice sounds combining 2 or more voices. How can I get the MC-50 to save a (PC) for 2 voices on the same midi track? Up to now, I know how to save 1 voice, but what if I want to record using 2 simultaneously on the same midi track?

2. I'm wondering about the bulk dump feature on the YS200. I tried it last night but it didn't seem to do anything. Someone mentioned that the MC-50 should be set to record, that was something I didn't do. I just hit bulk dump. It only took a few seconds to complete. Tonight I will try it again with the sequencer set to record. Maybe this is how you can save multiple voices to one midi chann.

3. The manual for the MC-50 says "each phrase track can store musical data of all midi channels. The MC-5- has 8 of these tracks for a total of 128 tracks of midi data".
Any idea what this means and how it apples?

4. The YS-200 has 99 pre-set and 99 user voices. When I input a PC on the MC-50 it just asked for the voice number, any idea how I might input user voices (U) as opposed to the pre-sets (P)?

1. you can't. you could copy the data and change the channel on the whole thing but if you send 2 PG change commands on the same channel it will not work out you just have what ever one was send last

2. the roland mc sequencers can only take bulk dumps from roland or boss stuff. they had a librarin OS for takeing bulk dumps from other gear but you had to unload the mrc OS to load the libriarian OS

3. you can have all 16 channles on each track. but you only have 2 midi outs so really its 32 channles not 128. but you do have 128 for editing or what i do some times it spread the drums out multi track style so its easyer to edit the hihats and stuff .or move a few channles onto one track like 1-8 on track 1 then you have 7 empty tracks for more recording or editing. i wish my triton did that

4. you have to do a bank change befor the programe change youll have to look at the yamahas midi implamentation charts to see what it likes. typicaly it would be CC 00 or CC 32. sometimes both or one or the other will work. play with it and see how it goes. the PG will go after the bank change make sure to give that yamaha time to change banks half a mesure or what ever works then PG change

[This message has been edited by djboomstick (edited 01-07-2004).]