Yamaha TG77 (rack SY77) stuck in Edit mode — is there any way out over MIDI?
I’m building an Electra One MkII preset to control a Yamaha TG77. Selecting voices and banks, showing the patch name, and switching between Voice and Multi mode all work fine. The problem is editing sounds.
The moment I send any parameter change from the E1 (filter, effects, an operator, anything), the TG77 jumps into Voice Edit mode. Its MIDI spec says exactly that for every voice parameter: receiving one switches the unit into Edit mode.
Once it’s in Edit mode, it stops listening for program changes. I can’t select a different voice — the sound won’t change. The only way out is to walk over to the TG77 and press the buttons by hand: EXIT, then EXIT again to the Auto-Store screen, then F7 to quit without saving.
So from the E1, I can edit a sound, but then I’m stuck. There’s no way to get back to picking voices without touching the synth itself.
What I’ve already tried, and why it didn’t work:
- Sending a program change to snap it out of Edit mode — ignored.
- Writing a sound back into the edit buffer (the $7F dump) — the spec says that dump only works one way, out of the synth, not in.
- Switch Remote (group 0x0D) — this looked like the answer. It’s a MIDI message that acts like pressing a front-panel button, so in theory I could “press” EXIT and QUIT remotely. I sent the command for the VOICE button and watched the monitor confirm it went out correctly, with the right device number (regular parameter messages with the same header work fine). The TG77 did nothing. My guess is the rack version just doesn’t support Switch Remote — the SY77 keyboard has a full front panel, the rack doesn’t.
What I’m hoping someone knows:
- Has anyone gotten a TG77 rack to respond to Switch Remote? Is there a setting I’ve missed, or does it simply not support it?
- Is there any other way over MIDI to get the TG77 out of Edit mode?
- Is there a way to edit a sound without it dropping into Edit mode in the first place?
- How do editors like Patch Base deal with this — do they just leave the synth in Edit mode and rely on you to exit by hand?
My setup: Electra One MkII (firmware 4.1.4) → 5-pin DIN → TG77, set to device 1, Voice receive on OMNI, direct program-change mode. Everything sends and reads correctly. The only wall is getting back out of Edit mode.