ac7 style file renamer: testers wanted

[shiihs]

11 hours ago, Chandler Holloway said:

@shiihs

 

Hope you’re doing well. Any updates on your ReStyle investigations? Please let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to provide for testing purposes or if you’d like me to clarify my previous reports regarding the variation swap errors.

 

Hi @Chandler Holloway,

 

Thanks for your interest and sorry for my lack of responsiveness. I've been busy doing other things (related to my day job and to composing music mainly) so I haven't had much time/energy left for investigation. I still intend to give it another go when inspiration for new music dries up, so thanks for the new data you've provided. Nowadays I'm less using my Casio and more some other instruments I have (although, as it happens, I've used it yesterday after a few weeks of not even looking at it - maybe the universe is trying to tell me something ).

 

11 hours ago, Chandler Holloway said:

In unrelated news, I recently found out that there is another layer of complexity in the .AC7 we haven’t considered up until this point: “Fixed” Rhythm data for a factory preset Rhythm. Please reference the discussion in this topic, specifically Brad’s explanation of enhanced Rhythm data in the preset Rhythms at the end of page 3.

https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/18562-will-we-see-an-update-for-ctx-before-the-year-ends/&do=findComment&comment=61577

[...]

The fact that these “Fixed” preset Rhythms cannot have their data edited by the end user outside of changing the voice assignments and mixer settings brings up another valuable feature you could add to ReStyle to make it even more useful for Casio owners. Namely, altering preset .AC7 files such that the keyboard will not recognize them as fixed data and allow users to fully edit them as if they were any other custom User Rhythm.

 

Actually, I thought about this from day 1. I had noticed when editing the rhythms that tracks from the presets could not be modified, and I was curious if I could find something in the .ac7 file that indicates that a track is locked. I have a vague idea of where to look. I believe the .ac7 file format contains certain "markers" to indicate that a track is locked for editing, and so (at least in theory) it should be a matter of removing the marker to unlock the track.

 

It is sometimes claimed that these locked tracks contain "richer" information that one could not create on the instrument itself, and there's some truth in that (e.g. on my Casio, the auto-arranger for some rhythms produces a completely different sequence depending on whether you start playing in a minor key or a major key - I didn't find yet how that can be made on the instrument itself, but in the .AC7 file there are provisions for different intros based on the type of key.). From what I remember, the preset tracks often contain "expression pedal" information that can be used to modulate some DSP effect or other parameter, and also pitch bend information, which automatically makes things sound better (provided they are used wisely). I think with more investigation it should eventually be possible to dump the contents of these preset tracks or even unlock/edit them (although I'm not sure Casio would be very happy with such feature - I still wonder why they are so protective of these file formats. Are they afraid that people will no longer buy newer instruments if they can do everything on the cheaper ones? No idea.).  I strongly suspect Casio internally has a tool to convert between midi and .ac7, and they simply record and enhance their tracks in a DAW before converting it to .ac7.

 

11 hours ago, Chandler Holloway said:

 

Perhaps this mysterious “PP” section contains the instructions for these enhanced Rhythm features? The fact that the PP section was entirely blanked out for Variation 2 would make sense, as the ReStyle swapped version of the Rhythm deleted all the content in Variation 2 and reverted the voice assignments back to their default settings.

 

To be honest, I still suspect PP stands for phrase pad: first of all because it's a new feature in the more recent Casios, and these PP sections only appear in the .ac7's from such instruments, and secondly all other sections in the .ac7 file also start with a 2 letter acronym that relates to the information that follows in the file. The locked rhythms already exist in older instruments where no PP section appears in the .ac7 file.

 

At the moment I cannot accurately parse the PP section (and I don't have such a recent Casio, so it's not really possible for me to do experiments - of which many would be needed to get a clear view on what goes where in the file format) . Lack of accurate understanding the internals obviously opens the door to introducing corruption when manipulating the sections in the file.

 

I hope that the new files you've provided last time (and also the ones you've provided now) will shine some more light on the pending questions.

 

[Chandler Holloway]

4 hours ago, shiihs said:

I strongly suspect Casio internally has a tool to convert between midi and .ac7, and they simply record and enhance their tracks in a DAW before converting it to .ac7.

Oh yes, almost certainly. MIDI to .AC7 conversion is already possible on an MZ-X model through the hardware interface, so the technology definitely exists. I wouldn’t doubt that they have a dedicated software utility for this purpose since I doubt they’re doing it all on hardware. 

 

4 hours ago, shiihs said:

I had noticed when editing the rhythms that tracks from the presets could not be modified, and I was curious if I could find something in the .ac7 file that indicates that a track is locked. I have a vague idea of where to look. I believe the .ac7 file format contains certain "markers" to indicate that a track is locked for editing, and so (at least in theory) it should be a matter of removing the marker to unlock the track.

That’s nice to hear. We’ve also just recently learned that the MZ-X500 can “unlock” these Rhythms by copying them to a user slot within its own pattern editor, so that’s one potential avenue to explore. However, I don’t have regular access to an MZ-X model myself so it wouldn’t be easy for me to do it all by hand. Hopefully you can implement the unlocking in a future update, but please don’t feel obligated to work on anything until you really want to. The Rhythm archive is a labor of love and a passion project for me too, and I can assure that there are days (if not weeks, if not months) where I have zero motivation to keep plugging away at it.

 

However, I did get to spend some time with an MZ-X500 when it was on display in a store near me a while back, and I was able to get a good chunk of the library exported and archived. This model also has phrase pads (16 compared to the 4 on the CT-X) so perhaps inspecting these files will reveal some more information about this mysterious “PP” section. I have attached all of the MZ-X Rhythms I have so far to this post for your reference.  .MZ-X Rhythm Archive Session 1.zip

 

4 hours ago, shiihs said:

At the moment I cannot accurately parse the PP section (and I don't have such a recent Casio, so it's not really possible for me to do experiments - of which many would be needed to get a clear view on what goes where in the file format) . Lack of accurate understanding the internals obviously opens the door to introducing corruption when manipulating the sections in the file.

Huge bummer! I would gladly ship you mine in a heartbeat if I didn’t actively need it for Casio work. Fingers crossed that one of our EU users might be kind enough to let you borrow a CT-X3000 or X5000 for a while (if you’re interested). For the record, I will gladly reimburse anyone in Europe for shipping costs back and forth if they’re willing to volunteer their CT-X for mad science experiments. ReStyle is so valuable for my Rhythm projects that it would be a no-brainer to throw some extra support behind the development process. I’m happy to discuss details with anyone who’s interested, shoot me a private message and we can get it all sorted out.

[shiihs]

4 minutes ago, Chandler Holloway said:

We’ve also just recently learned that the MZ-X500 can “unlock” these Rhythms by copying them to a user slot within its own pattern editor, so that’s one potential avenue to explore.

 

Maybe if someone on the forum could post two versions of the same .ac7: one locked and one unlocked, that would be very instructive.

 

[Chandler Holloway]

Sure. @jose antonio tafalla blas has an MZ-X was just testing this before.

 

Jose, would you mind importing these two stock CT-X Rhythms on your MZ-X, and then copying them around to circumvent the Fixed data restriction? I've chosen two Rhythms from my archive, I can confirm that both of them contain Fixed track data in their current form. When you "unlock" them on the MZ-X, please try to avoid making any changes to the content of the Rhythms so we can keep them as close to the original for comparison's sake when shiihs inspects the files. Only do the bare minimum required "un-fix" the tracks on your end. If you run into a "Disabled" track (wasn't aware that that was a thing), leave it alone. Strangely it only appears to apply to the Perc track during Intros and Endings. Feel free to do this at your own convenience. Your help is very much appreciated.

 

@shiihs Here is a rundown of which tracks on which variations are currently fixed, which ones are disabled (did not know that was a thing) and which are empty for your reference. Jose can also use this as a checklist to make sure he's unlocked all the right tracks.

Straight 8-Beat

Intro

1. Perc (Disabled)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Variation 1

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Empty)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Empty)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Fill 1

 

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Empty)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Empty)
7. Chord 4 (Empty)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Variation 2

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Fill 2

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Empty)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Empty)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Variation 3

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Fill 3

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Empty)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Variation 4

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Fill 4 

1. Perc (Fixed)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Empty)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Ending

1. Perc (Disabled)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Jazz Funk

Intro

1. Perc (Disabled)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Variation 1

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Empty)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Empty)

Fill 1

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Variation 2

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Fill 2

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Empty)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Variation 3

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Fill 3

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Empty)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Variation 4

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Fill 4

1. Perc (Empty)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Ending

1. Perc (Disabled)
2. Drums (Fixed)
3. Bass (Fixed)
4. Chord 1 (Fixed)
5. Chord 2 (Fixed)
6. Chord 3 (Fixed)
7. Chord 4 (Fixed)
8. Chord 5 (Fixed)

Straight 8-Beat CT-X3000 Fixed.AC7 Jazz Funk CT-X3000 Fixed.AC7

[casio_style]

there is a program made long ago by Russian programmers to unlock AC7 files, only it works for Casio CTK. Right now I have unlocked one style, you can also look and compare what the differences will be.Synth Pop.AC7 unblock.AC7

[shiihs]

Just now, casio_style said:

there is a program made long ago by Russian programmers to unlock AC7 files, only it works for Kasio STK. Right now I have unlocked one style, you can also look and compare what the differences will be.Synth Pop.AC7 unblock.AC7

Thanks, i will take a look!

 

[shiihs]

7 minutes ago, casio_style said:

there is a program made long ago by Russian programmers to unlock AC7 files, only it works for Kasio STK. Right now I have unlocked one style, you can also look and compare what the differences will be.Synth Pop.AC7 unblock.AC7

 

Interesting... The "unblock.AC7" file seems to be corrupt. Internally the file size is listed as 10965 bytes (which corresponds exactly to the size of the locked rhythm), but the unblock.AC7 file now is 11133 bytes long.  Can you re-import the unblocked file without getting errors?

 

[casio_style]

1 hour ago, shiihs said:

 

Interesting... The "unblock.AC7" file seems to be corrupt. Internally the file size is listed as 10965 bytes (which corresponds exactly to the size of the locked rhythm), but the unblock.AC7 file now is 11133 bytes long.  Can you re-import the unblocked file without getting errors?

 

I can’t say how this program works and what it adds to the file there, but the fact is that the style is unlocked and works as standard. The fact that the file is growing, I know when you re-unlock it will be the same result.

[casio_style]

I can even drop the program itself to you, this is an exe file, it works without installation, if you are not afraid of viruses, you can parse it and see how it works.

[shiihs]

4 minutes ago, jose antonio tafalla blas said:

Unlocked tracks on the mzx-500 can be edited later on the ctx. I can assure you.

 

 

I believe you, but if I understand correctly, @casio_style used another (Russian?) sw tool to unlock the styles, and the resulting style seems to be not 100% correct anymore. It may be that the code inside the Casios have some tolerance for certain errors. So if you could upload the same .ac7 locked and unlocked using the MZ-X it'd be interesting, as that would probably behave more as we expect.

 

@casio_style I cannot do much with an .exe as I'm not a windows user. Also reverse engineering .exe files is not really feasible, except in very specific cases.

 

[shiihs]

Just now, jose antonio tafalla blas said:

Here is one of them unlocked.

JAZZFUNK.AC7 16.7 kB · 0 downloads

please also add the original locked one so i can compare what's different between the two versions (btw, your unlocked file has 100% correct format)

 

 

[shiihs]

10 minutes ago, jose antonio tafalla blas said:

Jazz Funk CT-X3000 Fixed.AC7 23.84 kB · 2 downloads

 

Thanks, but the problem here is that the CT-X3000 .ac7 file contains many pieces of information that were not yet supported on the MZ-X. Could you therefore import the CT-X3000 ac7, and then export it again from the MZ-X while keeping locking in place? That should make the comparison a lot easier because then I have both a locked and unlocked file saved by the same machine (containing the same types of information).

 

 

[shiihs]

Just now, jose antonio tafalla blas said:

A funny thing ... the rhythm I have unlocked comes from the ctx3000 but on the mzx-500 you see 2 endings and two intros and they are different from each other, so Casio simply copies the rhythms from one keyboard to another.

 

My guess is they copy more than just rhythms  between models, but the .AC7 files contain a lot of extra data on the ctx3000 (you can see from the file size already: the locked ctx-3000 file is 24408 bytes, and the unlocked mz-x file is only 17103 bytes. For that reason it would be very useful if you could produce a locked file with the mz-x by importing the locked ctx-3000 file into mz-x and immediately exporting it again without removing the locks (if that is possible).
 

[shiihs]

Thanks @jose antonio tafalla blas. With this I have enough information for now. I think I have an idea now how the locking inside the .ac7 files works. I need to think a bit how to best proceed.

 

[Chandler Holloway]

Thanks for your help, Jose!

[shiihs]

@Chandler Holloway I've implemented my theory about track locking and I would ask if you can try to import the attached .AC7 file, to see if it unlocks the tracks for editing without weird side effects. I've already been able to unlock tracks on my WK-7600 with this same approach.

 

Turns out I was looking in the wrong direction at first. Instead of removing a "locking marker", I had to insert an "allow recording" marker instead. This explains why the mysterious .exe file from @jose antonio tafalla blas makes the .ac7 files longer (and my approach now also does). 

 

If it works, I can create a new build of ReStyle that unlocks all tracks for editing while saving.

 

I still haven't been able to see why some tracks are marked as "disabled" on your system - disabled doesn't seem to exist on my WK-7600. 

So I'm a bit curious what happens to those tracks after the "unlocking" took place.

 

Unlocked Straight 8-Beat CT-X3000 Fixed.AC7

[Chandler Holloway]

  

11 hours ago, shiihs said:

I still haven't been able to see why some tracks are marked as "disabled" on your system - disabled doesn't seem to exist on my WK-7600. 

So I'm a bit curious what happens to those tracks after the "unlocking" took place.

 

The disabled tracks now appear as empty, so users are now free to add an extra layer of percussion to the intros and endings of the preset Rhythms.

 

I can also confirm what Jose has said; the previously Fixed tracks now appears as recorded, and can now be properly spot cleared like any other User Rhythm.

 

I have attached a short video demonstrating the successful unlocking of the Straight 8 Beat rhythm. To my ears, each variation sounds exactly the same as the source Rhythm, so it doesn't seem like the unlocking resulted in any other change to the source material. Great work, shiihs!

 

I'm excited to have this feature available in the next version of ReStyle, it's going to make my updated CT-X Rhythm archive that much more useful to Casio owners. Previously it was only really useful to MZ-X owners, since that's the only other model that can work with 4-variation Rhythms. Now that I can distribute unlocked versions of these Rhythms, CT-X owners will get some extra functionality out of the archive as well. I think I will keep the existing archive up as a raw preservation of the presets and released the unlocked versions separately as their own thing.

 

Now all that's left is ironing out the remaining issues with variation swapping and it will be the perfect tool for completing the archive. As always, I'm happy to help with testing this feature or anything more advanced you plan to add to ReStyle down the road.

[Akshansh - Alex]

Hello Everyone 

I'm new Member in this topic/group

 

Can anyone provide me software download link?

Will it works in Mac OS?

Is there any way to make Event Edit function with this software for CT-X?

Because CT-X does not comes with this Function... I've my 3 Casio Keyboards MZ-X500, CTK-7300IN, CT-X9000IN/5000

Thank You

[shiihs]

1 hour ago, Akshansh said:

Hello Everyone 

I'm new Member in this topic/group

 

Can anyone provide me software download link?

Will it works in Mac OS?

Is there any way to make Event Edit function with this software for CT-X?

Because CT-X does not comes with this Function... I've my 3 Casio Keyboards MZ-X500, CTK-7300IN, CT-X9000IN/5000

Thank You

 

Hi Akshansh, nice to meet you.

 

Since I don't have a Mac I cannot make builds for Mac unfortunately. However, if you are tech savvy you can run the tool directly from source code which you can find on github. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm afraid I cannot help you since I don't have a Mac myself and I don't know how everything works there.

https://github.com/shimpe/ac7renamer which depends on https://github.com/shimpe/ac7parser

 

@Chandler HollowayUnfortunately I could not find a way to quickly fix the variation swapping. Internally the variations are tagged with all kinds of numerical IDs, and I suspect that older keyboards can only work with IDs that are "small enough", and the four variation boards use IDs that have larger numerical values than the older keyboards can work with. The only way I can think of is to completely rebuild the .ac7 file from scratch, with freshly assigned IDs to everything. However, that is quite an undertaking and won't be available any time soon (especially because I'm also not spending any time on it at the moment). On the positive side, I have managed to extract several variations from a  rhythmic pattern from my WK-7600 and then map each of the instruments onto another synthesizer. So this means that in principle the parser for .ac7 files is quite sound. This is how I created the rhythmic track in my "Gayatri Mantra" video:

. 

[Chandler Holloway]

@shiihsI see, thanks for the update. Any hope of the unlocking feature being added in an update soon?

 

As for the variation swapping, please don't worry about it too much. I tested it with some two variation Rhythms from my PX-350 and it works perfectly; while fully functional 4-variation swapping would be nice, this feature is still very useful for the 2-variation models that benefit the most from my archive. Plus, the variation swapper in its current form is still fully capable of swapping everything except variation 2, which still allows for previously impossible stuff like copying fill patterns into variation slots and vice versa.

 

I also did some testing on the transition from 4-variation Rhythms to 2-variation models since I have two different 2-variation boards I can test this with (CT-X700 and PX-350), both with a different way of exporting Rhythm files.

 

The CT-X700 has no Rhythm Editor, but it can import .AC7 Rhythms with the Data Manager for CT-X software, and then those same Rhythms can be exported back to PC from the internal storage. I was doubtful that this method would result in a truncation of the source Rhythm, since the .AC7 file isn't being modified. Indeed, even after importing the file to the X700 and exporting it back to my computer, the file size was still exactly the same as the 4-variation source file. Even ReStyle still recognizes it as a 4-variation model (i.e. it doesn't gray out the drop down boxes for var3 and var4), so I think it's safe to say that the source data was not condensed down to 2-variations.

 

The PX-350 has a Rhythm Editor and the ability to export Rhythms to flash drive. I found that opening a 4-variation Rhythm in the editor and saving it to the internal memory will condense the finished Rhythm down to two variations and reduce the file size, but this is a fairly time consuming process. However, it does convert the Rhythms to a format that's fully compatible with ReStyle's variation swapping.

 

In any case, I have attached all three of my test files down below for your inspection. Perhaps seeing the differences between the 2-variation PX-350 version of the file and the original 4-varition source file from the CT-X3000 will be of some use to you. I'm pretty sure the CT-X700 file will be exactly the same but you might take a look just for kicks.

 

So, for my "ideal" archive meant to fully support these two variation boards without onboard editors, I will need to create seven permutations of each 4-variation source Rhythm to account for all the possible unique combinations of variations in the first two slots:

 

V1-V2

V1-V3

V1-V4

V2-V3

V2-V4

V3-V4

 

Then I will condense each Rhythm down to a 2-variation file using my PX-350, which will allow end users to properly utilize ReStyle for further variation swapping if they want to re-order the two variations to produce all the other possible combinations on their own time. Locking or unlocking Fixed data won't be necessary here, as these boards don't have editors to begin with. However, if it's added to ReStyle by the time I've reached that part of the project, then I will also unlock each Rhythm just in case.

 

Thanks again for all your hard work!

Straight 8 Beat PX350 Export.AC7 Straight 8 Beat X700 Export.AC7 Straight 8 Beat X3000 Source.AC7

[shiihs]

 

@Chandler Holloway There's one thing we (or at least I) haven't really thought about: rhythms made for more advanced instruments will sometimes reference sounds that do not exist on less advanced keyboards. So to be complete, in addition to variation swapping there should also be instrument editing...

 

 

[Chandler Holloway]

@shiihs Fortunately, the only 2-variation boards without Rhythm Editors are the CDP-S350 and the CT-X700/800, all of which are built on the same AiX sound source. They share the same voice assignments, even down to the Program Change and bank select values. The CT-X3000/X5000 Rhythms only use tones that aren't selectable on the X700/S350 in the Rhythm styles that are exclusive to the X3000/X5000, and there's only like 46ish of those Rhythms.

 

When I released my expansion pack that ported those 46 exclusive Rhythms to the X700/S350, I already made the necessary changes to the voice assignments to make sure that the Rhythms would sound close enough to the X3000 originals. I still have the notes I used to carry out that conversion process, so I can reference that to speed things up when I'm preparing the files for archival.

 

All the other 2-variation .AC7 boards have onboard Rhythm Editors that will allow the end user to adjust voice assignments to their liking after they import the files to the internal memory.

[Chandler Holloway]

However, the ability to, say, convert all instances of general Midi voices in the Rhythm to the higher quality tones on a particular model would be really nice. A lot of Casio Rhythms, especially older ones, almost exclusively use General MIDI tone assignments when programming Rhythms, presumably to increase compatibility when the same Rhythms are carried over to new models in the same "generation" of Casios. For example, a lot of CT-X Rhythms are recycled from the MZ-X, and in each instance of a ported Rhythm, the CT-X version uses a lot of GM voices.

 

Of course, this would require several model-specific "conversion tables" to be included somewhere in ReStyle, wherein the GM tones are assigned alternative tones from the main library based on what sounds "similar but better", so to speak. This conversion table is likely to be pretty subjective, as different end users will likely prefer different types of tones over others.

 

Perhaps if there was a way for users to create custom conversion tables for use in ReStyle? That way you could not only account for your preferred alternatives to the GM tones, but also your preferred alternatives to the non-GM tones a Rhythm might reference if it was programmed on a different model with a unique tone set. This would require knowledge of the voice assignments for both keyboards, but with the huge benefit of streamlining the conversion process and improving cross compatibility for as long as the .AC7 format is supported.

[shiihs]

 

2 hours ago, Chandler Holloway said:

@shiihsI see, thanks for the update. Any hope of the unlocking feature being added in an update soon?

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZ94jTcJ_joW0SoYwmhOTG0ntApunzqv/view?usp=sharing

 

If I remember well, the above version should unlock all tracks as they are saved (can't test it at the moment).

[Mclandy]

On 9/23/2020 at 5:34 PM, shiihs said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZ94jTcJ_joW0SoYwmhOTG0ntApunzqv/view?usp=sharing

 

If I remember well, the above version should unlock all tracks as they are saved (can't test it at the moment).

I was directed to this thread because I was asking if there was any way to edit the "notes" in a Rhythm pattern/part copied from one of the built-in rhythms on my CT-X5000.  Apparently this is not possible, because all those parts are marked as "Fixed", which I assume is what you mean by a "locked" track.  The suggestion was that if ReStyle unlocks the tracks, that might make them editable (show up as "Recorded" status??).  In any case, I tried it by running ReStyle (the version at the above link) on a User style that I copied from a built-in style (saved it to USB, opened in ReStyle on PC, renamed, saved it with a different file name, then reloaded from USB), and the parts still showed up as "Fixed" (and therefore, uneditable).

 

Do I understand this correctly, or does "unlocked" mean something else? Should ReStyle have made the parts in the saved AC7 file editable?  Could it be that the AC7 format for the CT-X keyboards is different?  Thanks.