Casio VZ-8M, VZ-1 & VZ-10M

Update. Impatient to try it out. I bugged my friend and I should have my VZ-10M back before Christmas. :grin:

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Hi there

Tried the preset on my mk1

I set Total Control to on and midi ch to 5 (I also tried the same with midi ch 1)

Exclusive & Program Control are both enabled

I am still able to change patches (only when midi channel 1 is set on the VZ)

But none of the control parameters seem to have any effect

2 things to point outā€¦ā€¦

1ā€¦ When I twist a knob or change any control on the screen nothing is being sent to my Mio Xl as normally would happen on any other working patch in the Electraā€¦. Howeverā€¦ the Mio IS lighting up when Iā€™m changing patches in this preset (but only working on midi channel 1 set on the VZ)ā€¦ā€¦

And 2ā€¦ the memory usage indicator on the bottom left hand corner of the Electra screen appears very fullā€¦. Although there appears to be no glitches, i havenā€™t had a crash.

Iā€™ve gone back to a couple of other synths on the same midi patchbay just to check nothings amiss and everythingā€™s working just fine with the Electra & itā€™s routings through the Mio

@NewIgnis This documents the differences between the VZ-8M and VZ-10M. A quick perusal indicates the main difference is that there are more effects on the VZ-8M. The voice data is 100% compatible.

Differences between VZ models.

Try uploading the preset while you are on the lua code page, and look for any special messages. Do you see anything special?

Do you have installed MIDI-Ox on your PC to monitor traffic? It is important we see the Casio send the 681 bytes to the E1 after a program change (only in Normal Mode). If that doesnā€™t happen, the synth wonā€™t react to any parameter changes either.

This is what the E1 should send out when doing a patch select:
image
The first request is to set the bank.
The second is a voice dump request.

And this is the typical response the synth should send with that exact total amount::

One small thing to check regarding the unresponsiveness on channel 5. The E1 preset is set to send/receive on channel 1 by default. You can edit the preset and change it to the channel you want to use (there is a button in top left of the editor for that).
Thanks for testing out the preset. Iā€™ll be doing the same next week.

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NEW VERSION 4 CASIO VZ 8M - now available for testing

https://app.electra.one/preset/lR8oqPFHRHoflcKuHo63

Full Patch parsing is present on the patch and it allows you to change all voice parameters (except effects), including the modular ones :slight_smile:

Controls have been moved a bit though.
From version 3 to version 4 some 80 lines of code have been added. I do hope itā€™ll work on Mk1.
(Next version will contain ā€˜harmonicā€™ parameters and Effects settings - display only).
I hope Iā€™m halfway now of where I want to get.


Pages

  • Performance: patch browser + global settings + name

  • Routing: sets the line set-up, waveforms, vibrato and tremolo. Color scheme to understand the algorithm faster:

    • White: sound output
    • Blue: phase modulator
    • Dark blue : 2nd degree phase modulator
    • Yellow: ring modulator
    • Brown: 2nd degree ring modulator
  • Pitch: Pich Envelope Key Follow settings

    • Subsequent equal levels colour dark
  • Pitch Env:

    • Sustain step colours blue
    • End step will hide unused steps
    • Subsequent equal levels colour dark
  • All Modules: on/off, amp sens & env depth per module in one page

  • Module: all module parameters, except the envelope

    • Equal KF levels colour dark
  • Module env: module envelope parameters

    • Sustain step colours blue
    • End step will hide unused steps
    • Subsequent equal levels colour dark
    • Rates are shown inverted as time
  • Monitor: only for debugging purposes

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Thatā€™s fantastic @NewIgnis !! FYI, in case you donā€™t have it, here is the SysEx manual for the 1M/10M. I havenā€™t investigated it thoroughly, but I think there is a difference in the SysEx ID between the 8M and the 10M. If that is all then it should be something I can address during testing next week.

Hi there, Thank you for your thorough response, just found some time to go through.

No unusual messages appeared when I tried to send the patch to the Electra with the Lua editor open

Iā€™m on a Mac therefore using ā€˜Midi Monitorā€™

As you can see, it appears Iā€™m getting the bank & voice messages

No joy with a response from the VZ though

Something else I only noticed todayā€¦ā€¦ When I try any control other than patch select none of the midi out indicators are lighting up on the Electra

And thanks kiwigrass, midi channels appear to be in order

I genuinely believe Iā€™m set up correctlyā€¦. I am however prone to stupidity, so there could be some dumb ass user error going on over here :S

Getting the bank & voice messages is a good thing. The fifth byte (being 0x70) indicates the MIDI channel. I see you kept it as it was, which is channel 1.

Does your VZ respond to the program changes ? If it does then check the route back from VZ into E1. If all is well set up on the synth, the VZ should even send out its sysex by changing patches on the VZ itself.

In other words, first investigate your VZ and its MIDI out routing, Iā€™d say. What are the settings in voice edit TOTAL CONTROL MIDI.05 ?

This is vital: as long as the E1 does not get at least one patch dump from the VZ, it canā€™t fill in all the variables and it will not reconstruct the sysex outbound messages either. This preset creates a patch change by replacing bits and bytes from the string it got from the VZā€¦

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O.k

Thanks again for your help

It appears I needed to plug din sockets into my Mio to get going, i used a usb cable priorā€¦

Iā€™m now getting the patch dump into the Electra when I select a patch but only on midi channel 1

When I switch to midi channel 5 with ā€˜Total Control ONā€™ on the VZ the patch doesnā€™t change on the VZ and I I donā€™t get the 681 byte string

That is quite logic: my E1 preset is set to work on channel 1. If you change the channel on the VZ, you need to change the channel on the E1 too (via the editor before uploading it), else they wonā€™t talk to each other.

You do this in the editor by clicking on the "Edit Device " symbol


Then change to the desired MIDI channel

Last step: upload to the E1

Just got my VZ-10M back. Happy to report that Iā€™m able to select patches on the 10M from the E1 preset (on any specific MIDI channel). However, selecting a patch does not seem to cause the patch to be parsed on the E1. The MIDI 1 IN port on the E1 does flash when a patch is selected so there is communication. Will investigate further tomorrow.

This weekend, Iā€™ll look in the differences between VZ 1, 8 and 10 and adapt it .

You now have proof the E1 reaches the VZ. do you have proof any messages from the VZ do reach the E1.
Have you enabled Sysex in menu Total Control?

Yes, exclusive is on. On the 10M the MIDI settings are in MENU 3 (Total Control). Somewhat annoyingly, the exclusive enable setting reverts to disable when the unit is power cycled. Something for users to remember.
Using MIDI Ox I see the bank select and patch request messages, but I do not see any response. I will let you know if I learn any more.

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In the mean time I have implemented a rough version for automatic harmonic calculation for all modules.
Need to test this weekend. If it has any correlation to FM synthesis, having them all controllable in one screen, may help a lot in voice shaping.

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o.k, midi channel sorted, thanks

as before, iā€™m able to parse the patch upon program change, however, the controls appear to have no effect on the ā€˜midi outā€™

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u2xp53q9ionpidl153o95/IMG_0746.MOV?rlkey=5wanjde6gtq94z89osgs3dc5j&st=8ghwh8j3&dl=0

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If you mean a correlation between PD synthesis and FM synthesis then yes. So, having things on a single page could help a lot. My (limited) understanding is that PD is a special case of Yamaha-style FM. I found this short explanation useful.
Phase Distortion Synthesis Explained.pdf (152.4 KB)

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Iā€™m not sure what you try to resolve :thinking:
In the movie I see the parameters change each time you select a different patch. I see the colours changes as foreseen by the line settings of the patch.
In the lower right corner, I believe I even saw the name of the patch appear ā€œMajor Sawā€ ?

So the preset works, no ?

Yes thatā€™s right, Iā€™m receiving absolutely all the patch data into the Electra, including namesā€¦ The patch seems perfect within the Electra

I just cannot use any of the controls to manipulate the VZ, none (other than patch select functions) appear to be sending midi out

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That is strange. Even things like overall volume? That is a #CC message that the VZ should understand. With the 10M I can do that from the preset even though I havenā€™t yet been able to load the patch data into the E1.