Technical Questions Answered by Vic Lennard

Q Ghost in the works or what! My old Prophet 5 is acting in a most unsynthly manner. Over the past six months, various sounds have been changing overnight - I know what they sounded like in the afternoon but the next day some of them were totally different. About three weeks ago, I turned it on and there were no sounds at all. What the hell is going on?

N James
Gloucester

A The answer, I'm afraid, has little to do with the supernatural and more to do with the lithium battery inside your synth which backs up the patch memory during powerdown. This battery has a finite life of around five years or so, after which the voltage starts to drop. When this occurs, because not all of the data is properly supported, changes start to take place. In other words, parameters get altered and the sounds change for no apparent reason. Once the voltage falls below a certain value, the battery is useless and all of the internal sounds disappear.

Replacing the battery isn't the easiest of tasks as it requires the opening up of the synth and the removal of two circuit boards. The lithium battery is soldered in place and installing a new one is awkward because if you short circuit the contacts you run the risk of destroying the battery or severely reducing its life. I strongly advise you to let the professionals do the job. If there is no qualified service centre in your area, call the Synth Service Centre on: 071 586 0357 - who can also reload the original sounds for both the Rev 2 and Rev 3 models if you happen to need them.

Q I am an enthusiastic and ambitious keyboard player in desperate need of some expert advice. I have a Kawai K4, Roland Juno 106, Technics SX-K700 and an Alesis SR 16 drum machine.

My problem is this: In the past I have rushed into the MIDI scene with a great deal of haste and not enough thought. Consequently I have regretted the decisions I have made - particularly as far as computer sequencers are concerned. I have suffered for too long with the limited abilities of the Spectrum and Commodore 64's MIDI packages - almost to the point of depression.

I have a friend who briefly demonstrated the capabilities of one of the C-Lab packages, which impressed me, but unfortunately my friend moved away before I had the opportunity of using it myself to see just exactly what it had to offer. Also, he didn't tell me which C-Lab package it was, so I am still a little confused as to what Notator, Creator and so on actually do.

Could you please tell me exactly what the different C-Lab packages have to offer so that I can make a decision I won't regret.

Patrick Lanigan
Pershore

A C-Lab Creator and Notator are essentially pattern-based sequencers, which means that you construct a song in much the same way that you would with a drum machine. Pattern one might be the intro, pattern two the first verse and so on. There are 100 patterns in all, each of which offers 16 tracks, and you can copy tracks, or parts of tracks, from one pattern to another. This allows you to create a pattern for a verse and then re-use part of it in another pattern later in the song.

If 16 tracks aren't enough - which is possible as you could use an entire pattern just for the drums, with each instrument assigned to a separate track - there is an Arrange mode which lets you use up to four patterns at the same time. This effectively means that you can have up to 64 tracks running simultaneously, which should be enough for most of us.

Notator has the same sequencer functions as Creator with the addition of a musical scoring facility which lets you edit in standard notation and print out the score. While the score editor shows you the note information for the sequence, it also allows you to enter text, lyrics and a variety of scoring symbols.

The bottom line is that if you want to edit in notation or need to print out a score, go for Notator. Otherwise, Creator is your man! For more information, contact Mark Gordon at Sound Technology on: (Contact Details).

Q I have a niggling problem which I can't sort out. My system is a Roland MKB-200 master keyboard, an ST running Steinberg Cubase, and various sound modules including a Roland U-220 from which I use the drum sounds. I use the keyboard to play the drum sounds and work section by section on Cubase, looping as I go, and find that after a while the sounds start to cut out. I've tried everything, but the only thing that sorts the problem out is using a drum machine in its place and I don't like the sounds!

Jim Cabine
Chelmsford

A Many Roland keyboards implement a MIDI message called All Notes Off which has the express purpose of shutting down any hanging notes that occur within the sound module. If you like, this is a bolt and braces approach to ensuring that notes do shut off when you take your fingers off the keys.

Every time you lift all of your fingers off the keyboard, the Note Offs for the keys you've released are sent out, followed by the All Notes Off message. As you are looping on a sequencer and recording as you go, lots of All Notes Off messages are being sent and so are shutting off the notes that you are currently playing. The more tracks you record, the worse it gets.

There is an easy solution. Go to MIDI Filters in the Options menu and set one of the Controllers to 'AllNoteOff'. This will prevent the All Notes Off message from being recorded. As for why your drum machine doesn't behave in the same way, it simply doesn't recognise the All Notes Off messages!

Q I recently read in a music magazine - sorry, it was one of your rivals! - that the way to prevent a Roland JX-3P synth from receiving MIDI notes on all channels at the same time was to buy an Anatek Pocket Filter and insert this in line with the MIDI cables. The trouble was, the recommended unit cost nearly £90. Is there no easier or cheaper way of doing it? I would be grateful for any suggestions.

Neil Beresford
Telford

A When you turn a a JX-3P on, it defaults to operating in Omni On mode, which means that it responds to notes on every MIDI channel. Yes, there is an easier and a cheaper way of preventing this. In fact, it'll cost you absolutely nothing! Turn the JX-3P off, connect the MIDI Out to the MIDI In and turn it back on. The JX-3P will have reset itself to operate in Omni Off mode and will only respond to MIDI information on MIDI channel 1. Admittedly you can't alter this channel, but that's better than shelling out ninety quid on a filter, I think you'll agree. The moral to the story? If you want the right answers ask the right people...

Got a problem? Vic has an answer. Write to: Technically Speaking, (Contact Details)