question on top. ??? so even though i assign NRPNs in a DAW like CAKEWALK, ES wont recognize it? i just reviewed the data list of the ES, and concerning NRPNs, it was said there,

why? kindy enlighten me pls.

thanks in advance..

NRPNs are not used in the Motif-series products because each Voice has hundreds of editable parameters that directly edit the tone engine of the synthesizer. These directly editable parameters can be stored with the VOICE, so it is not necessary to edit them each time you want to use the Voice. You simply recall the stored USER version of the Voice.

Synth engines like the Yamaha GM/XG modules and keyboards use NRPNs because in general, they do not have storeable USER banks. (This is one of the big reasons they are less expensive than the pro synth engines). NRPNs are used in these engines because each time you recall a Voice in a multi-timbral setup you must keep the edits as data in the setup measure of the sequencer. It is the nature of GM and XG to RESET every parameter to a neutral state, and create SETUP BAR in which you do all your programming. While NRPNs are great for this purpose, the typical GM/XG owner (end-user) is not the one programming the NRPNs, that is done by the programmers creating/selling the GM or XG MIDI files.

In one instance (like the Motif-series) you have several banks of USER customizable Voices… in the other (the XG module) you have no USER customizable banks of Voices (none, zero, nada). By the way, the PLG boards are XG compatible (and carry the logo)… notice their USER (customizable) banks are volatile and must be restored on each power cycle.

It is simply a matter of convenience and workflow. Once you edit a drum kit in the former, you name it and store it. ...then next week when you want to use it, you simply recall it. In the latter, you must edit the drum kit for each sequence you use it in, there is no way to easily recall that data from song to song.

Cut and paste the data, you say…
In the former if I edited a snare drum in a USER kit I can easily copy that edited snare to another USER drum kit with a simple operation. In the latter, even if you can read NRPNs and System Exclusive data like it was English (and I got really good at doing that when I was working with XG sound alike files)… it is a major task to find the edit for just that snare drum in the Event list of that song where you liked it. You wind up with a list of several hundred commands just to customize the MULTI (and you have to do it this for each sequence...) You don’t realize how many parameters are in a MULTI until you start programming them with Control Change, Sysex and NRPNs!

Hope that helps shed some light on why NRPNs are not used in the pro level synthesizers. It is not that they aren’t useful. They are, in fact, very flexible to work with (it is simply not the type of editing most pro-level guys/gals want to deal with when editing sounds). They’d rather name and store the Voice and recall it when they want… and they are willing to pay more to do so.

bad mister,

wow..thanks for that response. i was really enlightened. :D actually i was starting to think it’s like that. that the point is NRPNs are not needed anymore coz u can edit and customize your own sounds directly instead of inputting a code for a certain voice like you said, a snare drum or bass drum. thanks a lot. :D

by the way, can you recommend me a site or something that can point me to that direction? i still use a GM/XG module and would like to adopt and apply those NRPNs and SysEx as well. :D thanks. :D

greatly appreciated,