Korg Polysix Patch Transfer

Here I show a quick video on the method I use for transferring patches to the Korg Polysix using Audacity on a MacBook Air. It’s easy to do but I get quit a few emails about it, so I thought I would do a quick video. There is no auditioning of the patches as I haven’t setup my mixer yet to pipe in my narrative over music. I’ll be doing that for sure with future videos.

Also, I noticed after watching my video again that indeed the first transfer did work properly. I had my eye on the camera and computer which took my eye off the Korg Polysix for a second. I missed the fact that the LED lights did in fact work during the first go around. My Polysix does however fail to transfer successfully the patches on the first try often, so that can still happen. I almost always get it to work on the first try though.

Here is a video link to the AnalogAudio patches I mentioned in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/user/AnalogAudio1/about

Roland Fantom X6 Muting On/Off External Synthesizers

On the Fantom X6/7 you cannot mute external synthesizers triggered by the sequencer. You “can” mute in Song Edit mode the individual midi tracks but that process is not entirely practical for live use. By using RPS, you can create a pattern and write your own sysex messages which will be sent when triggered via the pads. This effectively allows you to mute on/off external synths in your live composition. It works very well.

Here’s a quick rundown from the video.

In Song Edit Mode you switch to PTN mode on the Roland Fantom X6.

There you create a pattern and insert a sysex string.

The sysex string for any particular synth can be found in the event window of MidiQuest 10 or 11. Just call up the synth ( it doesn’t have to be connected ) and press the button you wish to change. The sysex string will magically appear in the event window.

For the sake of this video I set PAD 1 to VOLUME OFF TRACK 1 and PAD 5 ( above it ) to VOLUME ON TRACK 1. I use the MIXER section on the Fantom X for dialing in specific volume levels.

You can insert any desired sysex string into any of the Patterns. You can even insert multiple sysex strings and have multiple commands happen at the same time.

Make sure you are in RPS mode and assign the Patterns to each pad like I mentioned above.

Be sure you set the PTN to trigger ONCE only in RPS mode. That’s all you need to trigger and send the sysex.

The all works BEAUTIFULLY for controlling external synths using sysex. The sky is the limit for all the custom possibilities.

Side Note: The video quality is a little bright and perhaps a tiny bit shaky. I’m still trying to get a handle on recording music videos. Over time I’m sure I’ll improve the quality and know how of it all. Thanks for watching!

Midori Japan

A nice chilled out HipHop track set to a collection of photographs that fall under the theme category of “green” here in Nagano City, Japan. One of the things I often do in photography is to shoot with a specific theme in mind. This could be a color, object, motion, texture, etc. I find shooting for specific colors to be a joy and especially in collecting the photographs over time. Most of the photographs taken in this collection were photographed sometime in the summer or late Spring. I hope you enjoy they slideshow as much as I have enjoyed photographing the scenes within. By the way, “Midori” means “Green” in Japanese. “A Midori Summer in Japan” is by Jim Atwood Photography at http://jimatwood.net.

More Jim Atwood Photograhy videos can be found on my Youtube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/jimatwood