Godric Wilkie's VL70m/General Purpose patches for Peavey PC1600/x

Here is a pair of Peavey PC1600 and PC1600x patches which a: provide a set of 
general purpose performance controllers, which include two CC#13 and CC#16 which 
are used by Yamaha VL70m; and b: provide a Non Registered Parameter Number 
(NRPN) based front panel for the VL70m.

You'll need a sysex downloading utility to squirt them from your computer to 
your Peavey PC1600.

On MacOs I would recommend the Alesis "Freeloader" available from 
www.alesis.com, and Steve Grace's "SysEx", which can be found in info-mac 
collections for more information on this latter e-mail him at sgrace@ioc.net.

In fact the patches have wider applications for other synthesisers - the 
controllers set will be useful for any MIDI synth even if it ignores controllers 
13 and 16, and the NRPN set may work for your synth (although they might do 
something different than their label suggests). In any case the NRPN set 
contains four faders through which you can set any NRPN and ÒData EntryÓ 
combination so, in theory, you should be able to get at any parameters on any 
synth which uses NRPNs. In the following paragraph read ÒsynthÓ for VL70m - if 
you donÕt have this beast.

The patches assume your VL70m is set to a basic channel 1. You will have to set 
your VL70m to match this or to "Omni". You will need to connect the MIDI out of 
your mother keyboard (or other MIDI controller, sequencer whatever)  to the MIDI 
in of the Peavey PC1600, and the MIDI out of the Peavey PC1600 to the MIDI in of 
the VL70m. The PC1600 will then merge your keyboardÕs messages with its own and 
send both to the VL70m, as if they were all generated by the same device.

Controller Set

Fader 1 - Breath Controller
Fader 2 - Modulation Wheel
Fader 3 - Foot Controller
Fader 4 - Portamento Time
Fader 5 - Main Volume
Fader 6 - Pan
Fader 7 - Expression
Fader 8 - Controller #13*
Fader 9 - Harmonic Content *
Fader 10 - Brightness*
Fader 11 - Attack Time*
Fader 12 - Release Time*
Fader 13 - Reverb Level
Fader 14 - Chorus Level
Fader 15 - Variation Level*
Fader 16 - Controller #16*
Button 1 - Sustain
Button 2 - Soft Pedal
Button 3 - No function (Fader ID on PC1600x)
Button 4 - Portamento (on/off)
Button 5 - Maximum Volume
Button 6 - Center Pan
Button 7 - 16 No function (Fader ID on PC1600x)
nb Items marked * may not work with some synthesisers, or may do something 
different - hey! not all synths implement Breath Controller and thatÕs a 
ÒstandardÓ, ÒdefinedÓ controller ;-(

NRPN Set

Fader 1 - Vibrato Rate
Fader 2 - Vibrato Depth
Fader 3 - Vibrato Delay
Fader 4 - Filter Cut Off
Fader 5 - Filter Resonance
Fader 6 - Filter EG Depth
Fader 7 - Bass EQ
Fader 8 - Treble EQ
Fader 9 - EG Attack Time
Fader 10 - EG Decay Time
Fader 11 - EG Release Time
Fader 12 - No Function
Fader 13 - NRPN Least Significant Byte (LSB)
Fader 14 - NRPN Most Significant Byte (MSB)
Fader 15 - Data Entry Least Significant Byte (LSB)
Fader 16 - Data Entry Most Significant Byte (LSB)
Button 1 - 12 No function (Fader ID on PC1600x)
Button 13 - Send Fader 13
Button 14 - Send Fader 14
Button 15 - Send Fader 15
Button 16 - Send Fader 16

Buttons 13 to 16 use a PC1600x feature which sends the current position of the 
fader above them (sorry to all those who havenÕt upgraded yet). I donÕt know 
what a PC1600 will make of the settings (hopefully just ignore them).

Faders 1 to 11 will do the function described for a VL70m, on another synth, 
they may: do the same thing (miraculous); do nothing (political); do something 
else entirely (this may be a good or a bad thing - I suggest you back up any 
voices in your synth).

In theory you should be able to use faders 13-16 on any synth. My understanding 
(and this works on a couple I have tried) is that you send the NRPN LSB first 
(adjust fader 13 and then hit button 13), followed by the NRPN MSB (adjust fader 
14 and then hit button 14). This defines which parameter you are going to adjust 
in your synth - then you do the same thing for the Data Entry LSB (fader 15 and 
button 15) and Data Entry MSB (fader 16 and button 16). This  adjusts  the 
parameter you selected with the NRPN faders. In practise you would probably want 
to hold the button down while you adjust the fader so you can hear a continuous 
change (if your synth permits this, some may want you to restrike the note for 
each change in the parameter). Usually adjusting the data entry LSB has little 
effect so you will find yourself doing the adjustment with fader/button 16. You 
may find that you can send the bytes in a different order (for example the VL70m 
ignores the Data Entry LSB entirely) - but I would recommend the above order 
which is why I used the Òsend faderÓ option so that you can set up your numbers 
and then send the values - otherwise youÕd be sending a string of (say) NRPN 
MSBs which may vex a synth of small brain.
Enjoy

As ever comments to g.wilkie@kingston.ac.uk or godric@gozen.demon.co.uk

http://www.gozen.demon.co.uk/godric/godric.html      or
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/~mu_s454/godric/godric.html