emusonacid!

Hey guys. E-MU. for life. I stumbled on an E-Synth in a pawn shop for cheap & picked it up astounded w/ sound quality & sound design possibilities, i found my Mackie C4 could potentially control the E4XT, but not the E-synth (at least via templates already available & i don't code XML :/ ) So i saved up & bought an E4XT to access the E-mu filters & such for live PA purposes w/ tactile control, but the darn things wont speak with each other & i'm down about it. I can map my C4 & load it with the template for my Yamaha TX-81Z & everything works beautifully (besides maybe operators 2 & 3 being transposed in the C4 display), but loading the preset for my E4XT & setting the appropriate midi out ports & channels in the C4 Commander software & through my motu midi timepiece results in no significant success.

On occasion one of the knobs will adjust the incorrect parameter on say the pan or volume of the E4Xt, but the same quality of control would accidentally happen on the E-Synth if i'm not mistaken. Do any of you have a C4 & E4XT connected & functioning as a happy family in your set ups? Did you run into & hopefully overcome such an issue as i'm experiencing? Any ideas where to start troubleshooting please?

Any ideas or feedback are greatly appreciated & i can't wait to get the two flying together. Thank you!!
~Steve

Hope I got it right... what you want doesn't work by default. You have to make this work by assigning certain things in the samplers cord section (PRESET EDIT), like Source - your (mapped) CC#/Destination - for example F-Cutoff/Amount, sadly there is no overruling general settings, so this is per preset ! You can assign CC to what they called MIDI A to (whatever the last letter was there). To assign a MIDI A (for example) to a corresponding CC-number you do it in the MASTER > MIDI > Cntrls 2 menu, refer to the manual. And since it's in the MASTER, THIS setting it keeps, at least. For example; If you have an E-Synth you can check it out, (guess like on my own E4k) the E-Synth Rom presets come pre-mapped to make changes with certain controllers already (like Filter Cutoff/Q/Chorus/Blends etc., it differs per preset), what did what there is in a add. manual that came with the E-Synth, should you have it. The most common being MIDI A-D which correspond to the 4 E-Synth Faders - if you have the E-Synth keyboard, but true for the rack also. The CC-number for MIDI A- D - as assigned by E-mu, but you can change - are CC# 21-24, so setting this CC# numbers to a knob on the Mackie will (hopefully ) make you twiddle each E-Synth Preset. This just as an example, as you can freely assign CC to MIDI A to "X", I write X because (depending on EOS version) they added more letters later versions, think it went to H at least in older versions. If you're sampling yourself you can create yourself a dummie-preset with the appropriate cord-settings, save that and use that as a template.

Rascal, Thank you so much for the response; E-MU g.u.i. is still so new to me, maybe three months or so of part time use. I have a rack mount E-Synth (4.10) & now a rackmount E4XT Ultra (4.70) as well. I see what you're saying w/ the cc mapping being specific to the presets. I'll admit, with the C-4 i was hoping it was plug n play with the E4XT, like with the TX81Z, especially as the template has pre-set functions showing on each knob (ie, 'Preset Select', or 'LFO 1 Shape'). But I can see how one familiar method of loading a template on the C4 software could easily require additional processes in the settings of a different machine to be controlled. Just now thinking though, if I had everything mapped/set correctly on global controls, the 'Preset Select' should be machine, not preset specific.? idk

I'll try going though the cc assign process you described on my next day off & see what happens & update. Thanks so much again, i really see some potential with tactile control on these functions & can't wait to get it working. :)

stevechristmas wrote:... especially as the template has pre-set functions showing on each knob (ie, 'Preset Select', or 'LFO 1 Shape').

Ah,wait a second. If it shows that I guess it's (C4) more like remote controlling the sampler via MIDI SysEx - like the Emagic sounddiver EOS-version (a software/floppy that came with Ultra, or did it shipped with my E4k, I forgot). Hmm, and that C4 template is not working with one of the samplers I got ya' ? Can't recall a special setting on the sampler that would not make this work (anyone?), you know someone who was/is using this successfully ? Opposed to using MIDI CC# for most common tasks like Filter Cutoff/Level things like I described in my last reply, which would be the better solution for Live PA twiddling. I actually dunno how the Emus behave audibly if you send them chunks of Sysex commands (anyone ?), I only had (also Sysex based) Access controller hardware for Microwave, and that was not funky, with audible dropouts, but OK for programing sounds. Dunno if I'm right with my assumption with the C4 sending Sysex commands - guess so, just wanted to add that info, if in case.

Hey, very much appreciating the ongoing dialog. I've got tabs up on Mackie, Emusonacid, and Midi.org forums at the moment (yes it's 6am here, i can't sleep & i'm sober) I think you're right in the sysex as the Commander software requires manufacturer, instrument, and device id #'s in Hex at the start of the code it's speaking to the E4xt on. I'm hoping to find someone on here who has used/is using the two together. If they can really work, it'd be a huge chunk of potential energy in both live PA & sound design in general (at least in my imagination). As per using the C4 for live PA if sysex, it seems to work almost flawlessly with my Yamaha TX81Z (also a sound design treat w/ tactile control of otherwise very nested FM synthesis parameters)

Cheers & big thanks,
~steve

hi,
did anyone get anywhere with the Mackie c4 and the Emu? I tried with the e5000 and I could not get any changes to register. I have an e4xt (can't see why this would make a difference as the sysex is surely the same) and will try on this later.

I did the hard work years ago to correct C4 preset sysex midi implementation for EOS as best as i could with EOS's sysex documentation, went way further in programming in order to almost fully program E6400 with C4 commander. C4 preset for EOS si completely crap. Many values are wrong.

Did you tried that ?
viewtopic-f=1&t=2035.php.html

I programmed it according to EOS's sysex implementation and it allows you to switch preset/voice for editing.
I remember it was quite working with E6400 and C4 commander. Still with unresolved problems.
In the end i never tested with the hardware, i planned to get it and couldn't afford in the end.

Try directly without midi timepiece in the chain, to eliminate possible troubles.
Your problem may be your sysex device ID. Just edit the sysex, it is not that hard. Take a day do to it and you are done. I didn't programmed sysex before doing this, either.

00h,05h = E4
01h,05h = E64
02h,05h = E4k
03h,05h = E64FX
04h,05h = E4XT
05h,05h = E4X
06h,05h = E6400
07h,05h = E4XT ULTRA
08h,05h = E6400 ULTRA


http://electro-music.com/forum/post-13286.html