USING MIDIMAN WITH THE LXP-1 REVERB

Midiman offers far greater versatility and in depth editing of each program
parameter, than can be obtained from the front-panel alone.

To use the LXP-1 edit pages, you need to differentiate between the algorithms
or programs internal to the machine, and those parameters within each program
which are editable via Midiman.

Each algorithm ie. Plate reverb, Chorus 1, Chorus 2, Reverse, etc. as
designated by the LXP-1 front-panel program selector, is a unique DSP
software function.  Each works on a set of editable parameters which can be
accessed via the page set-ups from within Midiman.  However, you cannot change
from say the Reverbs page to the Chorus 2 page in Midiman and expect the 
LXP-1 to understand that the page parameters you now wish to adjust are part
of the Chorus 2 program.  The machine still thinks it is in the Reverbs 
program, and will interpret any Chorus 2 parameter edits as designated for the
Reverb algorithm.

Whatever page you want to edit, ensure the LXP-1 front-panel program selector 
is set to the relevant program.  Although Midiman's Reverbs page is universal
for Plates, Rooms, and Halls; you will still need to make your specific
program choice with the LXP-1 front-panel selector.

Once editing is complete, the changes may be saved either as a patch in the
LXP-1 internal register store (using midi patch change command), or onto
disk via Midiman's save file facility.

To store changes within the LXP-1 registers, select page 8 (LXP INTERN STORE)
from Midiman's LXP-1 screen.
This allows you to get to a < TX PATCH NUMBER > patch-change control.
To select a previously stored machine patch, use the mouse to scroll through
the patch numbers until they correspond with the required register number.

To save a patch in an internal register requires a little forethought.
First use Midiman-LXP-1 page 8 to select the patch/register number required
to store the data, and then return to one of the other 7 pages to perform
the editing.

Do NOT perform the edit function first.

Once editing is complete, you only need to return to page 8, arm the LXP-1
unit by pressing the front-panel midi button, and click your mouse on the
Midiman screen <SEND> button to transmit the patch change.
N.B. If you do the editing prior to selecting your patch location, you will
find that on returning to page 8 to scroll and select the patch numbers,
any data already stored in the LXP-1 registers will be accessed in the process,
effectively overwriting and losing your edited parameter values.

Remember to select your patch location prior to editing.  This is good practice
in any case, because you should check which LXP-1 registers contain data
which you either want to avoid erasing or erase accordingly.  There is no
display on the LXP-1 to indicate what has been stored.  For this reason you
may prefer to store patches on disk, where the requirement to name each file
will give some meaningful indication of each patch.  However there is one
major advantage in storing edits within the LXP-1.  The internal registers
record the program algorithms as well as the parameters, ie. it remembers
the setting of the front-panel 16 step program switch.  Consequently from
power up of your equipment, going straight to page 8 of Midiman's  LXP-1
file, and clicking with the mouse on the < TX PATCH NUMBER > control enables
you to scroll through all internally stored settings.  Apart from adjusting
the obligatory INPUT, OUTPUT, MIX controls, there is no need for further
changes.  This is real simplicity with 128 settings available at the click of
of the mouse.

Stored patches do not record the positions of the INPUT, OUTPUT, MIX controls.
These require setting manually each time regardless of the method
adopted for parameter storage.  Moreover the midi screen controls do not
always overwrite the DECAY, DELAY controls.  With some programs, these panel
controls supplement those controllers available from Midiman.  This is true of
of the chromatic resonator tuning in Chorus 2.

If edits are saved to disk files, remember the parameter midi values are only
"true" for those page controllers which have been adjusted in the edit
process.  If a page has eight controllers and you change one of them to
"fine-tune" a reverb patch, it is easily forgotten your new patch consists of
seven eighths internal settings, and one eighth page settings.  The other
seven page controllers will represent values different from the current
machine settings for the patch.  Saving the page to a file, and later
reloading it and sending the data via midi to the LXP-1, will result in only
one of the eight parameters being correctly set.  The other seven will
overwrite the default setting for the program with wrong data.

There are two choices here.  Either transmit only those screen controllers
from the reloaded page file which you know (and can remember?) represent
"true" edited data, and avoid transmitting the complete page; or ensure you
adjust every control on the page during the edit process, prior to saving
it to disk.  This is not so straightforward.  If you "fine-tune" an LXP-1
setting with just a couple of screen controllers from Midiman, it can be
awkward and time-intensive to have to go through and change all the other
controllers on the page so they aurally correspond with the internal default
values.  Because of the complexity of the program algorithms, some controllers
will make little if any audible variation to the patch, which makes setting 
with the correct level / midi value somewhat difficult.  Moreover, some 
controls are iterative in the nature of their adjustment, and only contribute
to the "quality" of the patch in association with other controls. 

With this in mind, the ability to transmit a change patch command from page 8,
take a snap-shot of the internal settings of the LXP-1, and store it in m/c
memory, becomes a valuable asset.  This results in a "true value" patch,
regardless of whether you use Midiman to "fine-tune" or perform complete
in-depth edits.

In its current implimentation, Midiman affords midi control of the LXP-1
equivalent to more expensive hardware-based midi-contollers.



July 1989,
Hollis Research
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