If you own any of the PLG plugin cards (I own 4) you will want editors for them.  The last sequencers with PLG support built in were SQ01 and SOL2.  These actually can work just fine today, you just have to know how to install them properly, there is a trick to it.

On Windows-7 you have to run the SQ01 INSTALLER with XP SP3 Compatibility and Administrator privileges.  Not the app after it’s loaded, the Setup.exe Installer program.  SOL2 requires the same settings to install correctly too, I have both up and running properly.  I haven’t tried Windows 8 or 10, but my guess is the same fix applies.

I’ve read too many threads trying to figure this out myself where people have gotten stuck like I did, SQ01 installed, but there were no midi devices in the window to select.  This fixes that problem. 

You can purchase SQ01 on CD directly from Yamaha as a spare part, it was about $15 including the shipping from Japan.  It was a bit of a hassle, I had to figure out how to order the Tools CD for the Motif-ES from the correct department.  SOL2 is much, much harder to find, I finally found it through a friend on a midi tutorials site.  The PLG card editors come on the CD’s with the sequencers.

A simpler method to get a sequencer up and running on Windows-7 (or higher) is to download the older XG-Works 3.0.7e sequencer off the following website (Tools Subsection):  http://xg-central.com/xgc-software.php
The PLG card editors are hard to find online anymore (they don’t come with XG-Works) but if you go to the Japanese Yamaha page you can still download them:
http://download.yamaha.com/search/detail/?language=ja&site=jp.yamaha.com&asset_id=21294&category_id=16244&product_id=437394&1501089322;

On the bottom of the page is a checkbox (click it) then the download link just below it for ‘allplginw.zip (4.66 MB)’ is enabled.

PLG cards also work with Cubase. I have used them through Studio Manager since Cubase SX 3.11 and now in Cubase 8 Pro installed on Win 7 64bit.
I currently work with my PLGs also with editors in stand alone mode.
All PLGs (PLG150-VL, PLG150-DX and PLG150-AN) are installed in MU2000EX.

Alex

Hi all,

javelin276 - 26 July 2017 01:10 PM

If you own any of the PLG plugin cards (I own 4) you will want editors for them.  The last sequencers with PLG support built in were SQ01 and SOL2.

A couple of clarifications are perhaps needed:
The Yamaha sequencers you mentioned are not at all required to use the PLG board editors (with a couple of exceptions, see further down). Yes, later versions of these editors can run as plugins within an OPT-compatible host, such as Yamaha’s own SOL, SQ01, XGworks ST or Studio Manager, but they work just fine standalone too. You can therefore use them next to any software you like.

Also, the phrase “PLG support built in” is a bit of a misnomer. The PLG editors are of course included on the SOL/SQ01/XGworks ST CD-ROMs, along with editors for a ton of other Yamaha instruments of their time, but they must be installed separately.

Running the editors as OPT plugins within a host sequencer like SQ01 has two obvious advantages: Project files can be saved including the editor settings, and the MIDI setup is simplified. Both are covered in various walkthroughs found elsewhere in this forum. For more information on Yamaha’s SOL sequencing platform and OPT plugins, check out this thread over at the PSR Tutorial Forum.

You should be able to use the editors in other OPT-compatible sequencers too, although I only know for sure of Cakewalk Sonar (all x86 editions from V2 onwards) and Sony Acid Pro to have supported the technology.

Please note that the PLG-150AP and PLG-150PF piano cards have editor plugins, but these are non-OPT (i.e. exclusive to the SOL plattform) and also can not run standalone. The same thing goes for the japan-only PLG100-SG card editor and the MU2000 sampling editor. These editors will only run within SQ01/XGworks ST/SOL.

Some earlier instruments, like the SW1000XG sound card and AN200/DX200 grooveboxes, had editor plugins designed for the Win95-era XGworks (v1-v4) sequencing platform, but these editors are not compatible with SQ01/SOL2 at all.

Best regards,

- H -