raffivegas

On 5/12/2018 at 8:19 AM, Mike Edwards said:

hi is it possible you've misremembered? I haven't touched my pd1 in a long time but i thought any effects that utilise sampling e.g tape stop, scratching etc happened across the whole mix? Reverse will be one of those effects.

 

Have you noticed anything new with 1.04? I asked casio support what had changed and they said they would ask japan but ultimately just fobbed me off.

thanks for the response.  I've scoured both the manuals but I can't find where it mentioned the sampling effects being applied to the entire mix, although it does make sense.  Still will bug me until I can read the official documentation on it.  I haven't noticed anything new with 1.04, I was really REALLY hoping for world clock, I mean, how hard could it be?  Just don't understand that limitation...

I'm using Bank 4, the Pad Set type is set to Drums, I have an individual pad set with a Cymbal ride sample, I have the pad next to it set to type Effect, and have chosen Reverse Play (effect #45) as the effect.  When I set the Effect Target to Current Bank or even set it to Bank 4 specifically, the Reverse Play effect is impacting the entire mix, so its applying the effect to all the banks.  I remember being able to use a LPF and target a specific bank in the past, recently upgraded the firmware to 1.04 and didn't use the XW-PD1 for a while, and now it's applying an effect to all banks regardless of what I've chosen for the effect target.   

Hey Brad, you're right on the money.  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.  I didn't know what I should be searching for, but now I do.  I found several USB ground loop isolators on Amazon.  I saw that you had posted something else earlier and deleted it perhaps.  I was wondering if something like a Kenton USB Midi to DIN Midi might isolate the noise as well, but that might be less guaranteed.  In any case, I appreciate the response.  I'll probably update the thread once I confirm the issue has been resolved.

Hi all, I've recorded a video showcasing a really high pitched whine I can't get rid of whenever I hook up the XW-PD1 to my computer with the USB cable.  The whine is present even when monitoring the XW-PD1 directly with headphones.  I've tried nearly everything: different computers, different audio interfaces/mixers, different outputs from the XW-PD1, the whine occurs even when the XW-PD1 is powered off.  Watch the vid please and you'll hear what I mean.  In my opinion, it renders the unit useless for DAW control.  Is there any way to overcome this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGMFsBwl7Kg

 

I'll update the thread if I have some big breakthrough.

 

Well, I've made a breakthrough.  I was totally wrong in my last post.  The XW-PD1 controls outboard gear.  Check it out!

VIDEO: XW-PD1 engine controlling 2 others synths.

28 minutes ago, Mike Edwards said:

thanks for the write up. I haven't usb midi'd my PD1 yet but I intend to. Surely in terms of receiving midi, each bank is on it's own midi channel? Are you saying the sequencer plays each bank on the same midi channel? I should check it for myself but I am curious as you have it all hooked up. Love your gear by the way. Casio and Meebleep ftw 

26 minutes ago, Mike Edwards said:

another thought. I was meaning to check this as well. If the trackformer software unlocks all of the hidden editing potential, doesn't that mean it is totally configurable via sysex? How else could they communicate?

hey Mike, thanks, the gear is fun, I literally just started doing the hardware thing like a month ago.  In late October, I was about to order a Meeblip Triode but decided to check Craigslist and someone had just listed an Anode, I couldn't believe my eyes, picked it up locally for $70.  In any case, I really envisioned a setup where I could control 1, 2,or 3 hardware synths on 1, 2, or 3 of the banks with the PD1 as the sequencing brains, and use maybe like the 4th bank for drums. 

I just tore down my setup last night, but I'll probably be setting it up every weekend.  If you go to the download area for the editor, it will let you download the editor itself, but there will also be a download button for the manual of the editor.  In fact, I think you can run the editor without having the PD1 hooked up.  You should check it out, it will give you a really good idea of what you can program. 

From what I discovered (or didn't discover), when NOT in Midi mode, all the Banks send to all midi channels.  So basically, I had my Meeblip set to channel 2, 3, or 4, and it would still receive midi from any of the banks on the PD1, which is not good.  The only way to set a channel for midi out is in the editor, in Midi config mode, the 16 step sequencer buttons can each get a Midi channel assignment.  So you can enter Midi mode, select the first "page" by pressing the 1st step sequence button, then you get 16 pads sending midi out to channel 1, and you press 2, you get the 16 pads sending midi out to channel 2, and so on and so forth.  This is pretty useless IMO.  I could be missing something though, but I don't think I am.  I was also pretty shocked/disappointed that there's no start/stop via midi or CC (for the master transport controls).  I know there's no Midi sync, but I thought well hey, at least I'll be able to set the BPM then have the DAW or whatever other external sequencer and the PD1 start simultaneously just by pressing start on the PD1 or the DAW.  Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to do this.  You literally just have to start the PD1 and whatever other gear manually on the downbeat, which is both cool and annoying at the same time.

I'll update the thread if I have some big breakthrough.

PD1 jamming with Meeblip Anode

On 12/30/2016 at 5:16 AM, MIDI said:

It seems like this probably won't get answered. May have to test it yourself, unfortunately. Still you can return the iconnect if it doesn't. Good luck!

On 6/17/2016 at 7:34 AM, Mike Edwards said:

Hi,

 

I think I would like to try using my pd1 to sequence my volca keys and beats. I would prefer to use the midi+ as it is cheaper and does more than the kenton. Can anyone confirm it will work?

 

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/iconnectivity-iconnect-midi2-lightning-edition-interface/555535-01/

 

Kind regards,

Mike

So before you go wasting your money (like I was going to), I hooked up the XW-PD1 to my laptop hoping to test out its midi functionality.  I intended to use the pd1 to control my meeblip anode.  I wanted to ditch the laptop, so I was looking at the iconnectmidi4+.  Before I spent the money on the iconnectmidi4, I wanted to make sure i could accomplish what I wanted to via midi.  Sadly, I couldn't figure out a way to send a specific BANK to a specific Midi Channel.  What this basically means is that if you want to send sequencer data from one bank to one external instrument and utilize the other 3 banks for internal sounds, you can't.  All 4 banks will be sending your midi instrument notes at the same time.

In an even more upsetting way, when you go into Midi mode on the XW-PD1, it disables all sequencer, bank, and pattern functionality.  In the Midi mode, you can control 16 different instruments (you can assign 16 different channels using the PD! software editor), but you are limited to the 16 notes/pads per midi channel.  It's probably hard to understand just reading my poor explanation here on the forum, but basically, in midi mode, I can send notes to my Meeblip manually, in real time.  A range of 16 notes mind you, and I can't change octaves.  I can't sequence the notes either.

Midi was an afterthought on this thing.  Don't know why they bothered with the USB port.

On 1/1/2017 at 5:22 PM, Sapper said:

I guess I could do that but I'm trying to avoid using a computer. I did get better results by routing the line out to mic in and maxing the input gain. Gives much better levels and I can still use headphones. Just have to be careful not to slide the mix fader towards external! Get some nasty feedback if you're not careful.

I feel your pain.  I recently tried to explore the midi functionality of the XW-PD1.  It was a let down.  I too wanted to re-sample effects internally without having to rely on a computer.  Seems like a missed opportunity.

hmm, that would concern me.  It doesn't seem like something that should happen.  I won't be able to sacrifice 6AA batteries to verify if mine does it.

4 hours ago, J.Palomino said:

So I've had this toy for close to a week. I did a lot of reading up before purchasing and was really expecting it to be a lot tougher to learn. So far everything seems pretty straight forward. I skimmed through the physical manual and got to work. Maybe I'm completely oblivious to the difficulty at the moment cause I'm not digging deep enough? I'm having way too much fun to care. 

I've been loading up banks with effects, plugging in my phone and messing around with some of my favorite songs. However, after a while it'll just shut off. I thought this was the batteries being low so I changed them and all was good for a solid 10 minutes before shutting off again. No biggie really, I haven't done so yet but I figure I can just use the power cord since doing this might be too much for batteries alone to handle. Anyone else notice this? 

directly from the manual:

Auto Power Off
TRACKFORMER turns off automatically to avoid
wasting power if no operation is performed for a preset
amount of time. Auto Power Off trigger times are
shown below.

Battery-powered operation
Approximately 6 minutes

AC adaptor-powered operation
Approximately 4 hours

NOTE
You can disable Auto Power Off if you want. For
more information, refer to the separate User’s Guide
(Tutorial).