Yamaha 4-Operator FM Synthesizer Family

Single Patch Editor

This patch editor is meant to work with a variety of Yamaha 4-Op FM synthesizers. However it has only been tested with certain ones. If you try it with your synthesizer and it doesn't work, please contact me (sean@cs.gmu.edu) and I will work with you to modify it to get it working. Status:



Communicating with Edisyn

Set your synthesizer's receive and transmit channel to the same thing (perhaps Channel 1), and set Edisyn's Send and Receive channels to that as well. Set the program change to be Com (Common). Make sure that Sysex reception and transmission are turned on and that memory protect is off.

Setting the Synthesizer Type

The 4-Op synthesizers differ from one another in how their memory is organized (banks, patches, etc.), and how they respond to change-patch requests. You have to let Edisyn know what kind of synthesizer you're using or else it'll make the wrong kind of requests.

It's also important to set the right synthesizer type before uploading or saving a patch, particularly if you have the V50; or otherwise not all patch information may be uploaded or saved.

About the TQ-5, YS100, YS200 and B200

These units have their own special effects units. Some effects have legal time values from 0 to 40. Others (echoes and delays) extend these time values from 0 to 75. Edisyn does not try to change the bounds of the values depending on the effect you have chosen: instead if you choose a value from 41 to 75, Edisyn will display a little statement that this is for echoes and delays only.

Additionally, there is one special effect that is not available from the front panel, but is available over sysex: OFF! Incredibly this is only an option over sysex. Don't ask.

About the V50

The V50 editor is not completed yet, and is in a partial state. In particular, if you Shift to Hi, the Frequency Ratio and Frequency Ratio Fine knobs won't display the proper frequencies (because I don't have that data yet). However, if you change the knobs, they'll affect the Hi parameters appropriately.

Per-Synthesizer Parameters

Some 4-Op synthesizers have parameters and options that others do not. Various parameters in this patch editor are labeled to indicate this. You may see: 21 for the DX21, 27 for the DX27, 100 for the DX100, 11 for the DX11, TX for the TX81Z, the symbol > which indicates a group of later synthesizers, notably the TQ5, YS100, YS200, and B200, and finally V for the V50.

Bank Sysex

This patch editor knows about bank sysex messages (which group together multiple patches) as well as single-patch sysex messages. If Edisyn loads or receives a bank sysex message, you will be given the option to edit a patch from it, to save the whole bank sysex, or to upload the whole bank sysex.

About the Menu

If you mutate or recombine patches (using randomize, merge, hill-climb, or nudge) it may result in unfortunate operator frequency results. The Restrict Mutated Frequency Ratios... menu lets you restrict mutation or recombination of operator frequecies so that they only result in integer values or only to coarse-tune settings (either way, no fine tune). I suggest integers. I strongly suggest you also edit the mutation parameters to remove Fixed Frequency, Detune, and Frequency Ratio Fine from every operator, and also Transpose from the global settings.

Selecting a Patch Bank and Number

Different 4-Op synths have different organizations of memory, and so differ in the banks and patch numbers you can access. Specifically:

Gotchas



Librarian Support

The bank structure in the librarian will depend on the kind of 4-op machine you have set Edisyn to. Once you have opened the librarian, it is locked to that kind of machine -- to use a librarian for a different kind of machine, you'll need to open a new patch editor.

The TQ5 and later machines have 100-patch banks: but I do not know any way to upload more than the first 32 patches to them.

The Yamaha 4-Op machines cannot write individual patches: if you attempt to do so from the librarian you'll be told that you cannot. Instead, you should write the entire bank.

Edisyn can quick-request a bank from some 4-Op machines (notably the TX81Z) via Request Bank from Synth. This is a lot faster than the patch-by-patch request method in Download Bank from Synth. So try it out; it might work!

Microtuning

The TX81Z can store microtuning information from the user, and it also has several preset tuning. Though it does not discuss this in the manual, it is my understanding that the DX11 also has the user tuning slot as well. Edisyn's MIDI Tuning Standard editor has a special facility to send and receive tuning information to these synths.

Thanks

Thanks to Matt Gregory (mgregory22@gmail.com) for his considerable help in debugging this patch editor. Thanks also to Jesse Guessford and the GMU School of Music. And thanks to Thor Zollinger (thor276@cableone.net) for his help in getting the DX11 editor working properly. Thanks to Vasilis (kasiofz@gmail.com) for reporting and testing bugs in the TQ-5. Thanks to Martin Tarenskeen (m.tarenskeen@kpnmail.nl) for envelope revisions. Finally, thanks to Jay Lifton (jay@jaylifton.com) for help on the V50.

By    Sean Luke
Date    TX81Z Version: September 2017
4-Op Version: December 2019