Old 10-14-2013, 09:07 PM   #1
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default DX users here?

(I did do a search b4 posting)
Is there anyone else here using a DX-7, and specifically FM Alive's shareware program DXM3 running in Windows7? I know this is a bit of a long shot but you never know...
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-15-2013, 07:04 AM   #2
hwhalen
Human being with feelings
 
hwhalen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,034
Default

Hey JefferyET

I'm a DX-7 user, but not DXM3.
I've used older versions of DX Manager.

What's up?
__________________
My Music
Noise From My Head
On The Links
hwhalen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-15-2013, 07:20 AM   #3
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

I too still have my Mk1 DX7 (and SY77 and TX802). What is it you are looking to do?

I'm rebuilding my studio at present but I plan to get licenses for DXM3 and SYM3 in the next week or two and I'm using Windows 7 & 8.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-15-2013, 06:35 PM   #4
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

Well I am beginning to explore DXM3's library and patch editing, on 30 day trial. Jon Morgan (developer) is responsive & dedicated but has no explanation as to how to actually implement the offline (unconnected to the DX synth) editing capability which is touted as a feature. Sure editing is possible, but not useful with a deaf system! I have learned that MS completely abandoned its MIDI capability with Win 7, don't know if it would have been applicable. I presume what is needed is a 6-operator softsynth installed that will run the patches. Not for performing or editing, just to audition patches as they are filed or changed. Have seen NI FM7, Hexter, a couple others. I want free or cheap, with easy installation in Win 7. Is this possible? Or, am I stuck hooking the laptop to the DX7 for patch editing and auditioning/organizing? It would be nice to be able to carry these abilities around in the laptop.
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-16-2013, 08:14 AM   #5
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

Hmmm... Not sure about free DX7 emulators but what's your price range for cheap? I have NI FM8 which came with Komplete 8 (which runs fine on Win 7 & 8) but, to be honest, that's one of the few parts of Komplete 8 I've hardly used. I do pretty much all of my FM patch creation in my studio directly on the synths, hence not using FM8 much.
I do know that FM8 can load DX7 patches via SysEx so I assume it could work with DXM3 via something like LoopBe1 (http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html).
LoopBe is basically an internal virtual midi cable that you can use to virtually connect various things together inside Windows. I have LoopBe30 (basically the expanded version of LoopBe1) and it works reliably on Win7.

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be purchasing licenses for DXM3 and SYM3 and I can try running them on my Win7 box via LoopBe into FM8 and let you know how it works if that would help.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-16-2013, 09:38 AM   #6
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

Thanks ReaDave!
I guess its worth up to $30 USD to me to be able to do DX file management without being chained to the DX... Let us know how it works out for you, I might gain more insight from your experience.
NI has a rep for being pricey. LoopBe sounds useful, I wonder if it does the same job as Midi-Ox
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-16-2013, 10:45 AM   #7
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

LoopBe is basically an internal (virtual) midi cable to connect various programs running on the same computer together.
LoopBe1 is free and LoopBe30 is a paid app. LoopBe1 would be all you need to connect DXM3 to your FM VSTi.

NI FM8 is well above $30. I got it with Komplete8 but it is available as an individual purchase. It is $199 though.

As for free or cheap FM VSTi's, I really haven't tried any of them so I can't comment there. Perhaps someone else reading this might be able to add something in that regard.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-16-2013, 12:01 PM   #8
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

JeffreyET, I've just been doing some rather long winded digging and have found the very rare Hexter 1.3 Windows VSTi installer and added it to my VST folder and it works perfectly in REAPER on Windows 8 so it should also work on Windows 7 too. It is free and is supposed to be able to import DX7 SysEx files (haven't tried that yet).

If you want a copy of it, send me a PM and I'll email it to you. It is less than 1MB.

Edit - I didn't paste the link here on the forum because I closed my browser after downloading, then messed about in REAPER with Hexter and by the time I'd finished playing and launched my browser again, I forgot where I got it from! It took quite a bit of digging to find it so I figured it would just be easier to email it to you considering it's small size.
__________________

Last edited by Dannii; 10-16-2013 at 12:24 PM.
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-20-2013, 01:48 PM   #9
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

ReaDave, thank you so much for being interested enough to research & offer help!
Sorry it took so long to reply, I've been away.
I came across Hexter but the system requirements (on their download page) listed several other items I don't have installed so I didn't bother. If you have a bundle that can work in my system as-is I would certainly be interested in trying it! My email is Jeffrey@jetguitars.com, probably the best route for attachments.

Thanks again.
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2013, 04:34 PM   #10
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

Check your inbox Jeffrey. I just emailed you the Hexter VSTi.
The version I found (VSTi version 1.3.0.0) doesn't require anything special to be installed. All you need to do is copy the Hexter.dll and few .syx files, and the 'DX7_banks' folder into your VST folder and REAPER will find it.

It works fine on my Windows 8 laptop and was written for anything post Windows 95 so it should run fine on Windows 7.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2013, 06:20 PM   #11
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

Thank you kindly - I will be off work & after sleep I'll check it out, about 16 hrs from now!
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2013, 08:52 PM   #12
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

I just tried running DXM3 with LoopBe1 and REAPER running Hexter but DXM3 requires a midi patch dump function to initialize which Hexter does not have.

However, what I did discover is that it isn't really necessary to have DXM3 and Hexter linked in order to create DX7 sounds, save them and then transfer later to a real DX7.

Here's what does work here for me. It seems like quite a few steps but in practice, it is actually quite simple.
  1. Load up REAPER and add Hexter to a blank track.
  2. If you're using a midi keyboard, set it as the midi input for the Hexter track or use the REAPER virtual midi keyboard.
  3. In Hexter, select a patch (go to 'Window' -> 'Patches').
  4. Edit (using 'Window' -> 'Main', 'Global' or 'Effects') existing patch or initialize the patch (press 'init voice' in Hexter lower right corner) and edit.
  5. Obviously, if you want to hear what the patch sounds like in a Mk1 DX7, don't use Hexter's effects.
  6. Once you're done editing, press 'store patch' in Hexter.

    - Editing a patch name in Hexter is a bit buggy. I needed to do the following to rename a patch...
  7. After storing the patch, using Hexter's patch browser, select ANOTHER patch and then reselect the patch you just created.
  8. In the drop down patch menu (next to '+' and 'Param' in the plugin window), select the patch you just created.
  9. Press the '+' button between the 'Param' window and the drop down patch list and select 'rename patch' making sure the name is ten characters or less.
  10. Click 'Save SYX' at the bottom of Hexter's patch browser to save a bank of patches (I think it stores 32 patches from the one highlighted but I'll have to double check that) or select 'Save 1Patch SYX' to save a single patch.

Once that is all done, you can load the patch banks or single patches back into Hexter using the 'Load SYX' button. A single patch SYX will be loaded into the slot selected in the Hexter patch browser and a bank of 32 patches will be loaded FROM the selected patch onwards.

These SYX patches are directly compatible with DXM3 and a physical DX7. I tried using DXM3 and successfully loaded the patches I created in Hexter into my DX7 and they sounded pretty much identical to Hexter aside from the differences between the actual physical hardware and the emulation.

Hope this helps you out Jeffrey. If you find any weirdness, post it here and we'll see if we can nut things out together.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2013, 05:28 PM   #13
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

I got it, ReaDave, thanks for taking the time. Another tool to try out.
I've noticed the DXM3 uses a proprietary file format *.dxm. So I suppose there can be no cross compatibilty between this and *.syx format... You can only work with one or the other. What would be really sweet is to be able to use DXM3 for editing/filing, while auditioning patches through Hexter. I wonder if MidiOx could mediate that... I have to read & experiment with it.
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2013, 11:53 PM   #14
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

Have a look through the last couple of paragraphs in my reply Jeffrey. I used DXM3 to successfully transfer .syx patches from Hexter to my DX7.
You could probably use Midi Ox to do that too but DXM3 is just as easy and has more DX7 specific features. IMHO, it is well worth the $20.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-23-2013, 03:42 AM   #15
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

Of course - sorry I overlooked that.
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-23-2013, 12:41 PM   #16
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

No probs. Let us all know how you go. I'm keen to hear.
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-14-2014, 03:43 AM   #17
JeffreyET
Human being with feelings
 
JeffreyET's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
Default

Hey ReaDave, I was reviewing old threads (looking for solutions to new problems, ha ha)& saw I left you hanging last year. As it turns out I learned from my Dad (original DX7 owner) that it had suffered a power surge that caused I/O damage. That explained most of my issues with DXM and I just abandoned the idea of creating / organizing patches on PC.
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
JeffreyET is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-15-2014, 05:05 AM   #18
Dannii
Human being with feelings
 
Dannii's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Adelaide, South Australia (originally from Geelong)
Posts: 5,598
Default

Bummer about the damage. Did it mess up the MIDI I/O?
__________________
Dannii is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:13 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.