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Just about every week, we get several e-mails from someone looking to buy our sounds on the old RAM cards. I usually respond and explain that the cards have not been made in many years and are no longer available. I also mention that all our sounds are available in other formats including system exclusive (sysex) or standard midi files and that all you need to load them into their synth is a “midi interface”.

All of those old RAM cards have a battery inside of them. It’s usually a small “lithium” battery about the size of a US nickel. The battery usually has a lifespan of about five to ten years. After that, they go dead and whatever data you have stored on the card is lost.

A midi interface is not as complicated as you think. As you can see in the picture, It’s just a little USB device that you connect to your computers USB port. You then run a midi cable from the midi interface “midi output” to your synths “midi input”. Takes about two minutes to set up everything. There are two types of midi interfaces. One is a actual piece of hardware consisting of a small box or rack mount device that has midi inputs and outputs. You only need a simple one that has one midi in and out. However, if you have a lot of synths and samplers and plan on recording them using midi, you can purchase a larger midi interface which can have up to sixteen in’s and outs. The second kind of interface is just a simple USB to Midi cable. This should also do the job for simple sysex dumps, but I have not had the opportunity to test this yet so it’s possible you may run into problems with certain midi devices if you go this route. A USB to mid cable can be purchased for under $20. Midi interfaces are a bit more, but you can find a simple one that will do the job for around $75. USD. That’s about the same amount of money that you would spend on one or two RAM cards!

As I mentioned, we provide you will a software app with your order that lets you load in the sounds from the computer to your synth. The apps are available for both the Mac or PC users. We also provide instructions on how to set up everything to get your computer and your synth talking to each other. This does take a bit more time to sort out everything, but most users have things set up within an half hour or less. The set up is a bit different depending on which synth or computer you have, but most synths are pretty easy to deal with – the older ones only have a few midi parameters so it’s easy to access the midi section and see what’s going on inside.

If you do wind up having a problem once you get our sounds, we don’t forget about you. I’m happy to answer as many e-mails or phone calls as it takes to get you up and running. Our customer support is as good as it gets.

3- Once you have your midi interface up and running you will now be able to do lots of cool stuff with your computer. Not only can you now load our sounds into your synth, but you can also use the software that we give you to “save” whatever sounds you have in your synths memory to your computers hard drive. The midi interface and software app will work with just about any synth that has midi, so you can now do a “bulk dump” to load and save sounds from any synth you happen to have in your rig that has a midi port.

After you get used to using our app to load and save sounds you can then take the next step and get yourself a “librarian” or “editor”. A librarian is a software app which lets you take several banks of sounds and choose the ones you like most to create your own “custom sound banks”. Need a bank of sounds with just organ or piano sounds? No problem. Just use your librarian to drag and drop all your keyboard sounds into one custom sound bank. Some librarians are sold by music software companies, but there are also lot’s of free ones that can you can download online. An “editor” not only lets you set up your own custom sound banks, but you can also access all your synths parameters and “edit” them to create your own sounds. This is what we use when we create the sounds that we offer for sale. Who knows, maybe you can become the next Patch King! Just like librarians, editors can be purchased or found online for free. The ones that are for sale usually have lot’s more features. Some of them, like Mark Of The Unicorns “Unisyn” or Sound Quests “Midi Quest” are both librarians and editors and work with hundreds of different synths and are the top choice among musicians who want to store and edit sounds with their computers.

Unlike the old RAM cards which will just hold a small number of sounds, your midi interface lets you store all your sounds on your computers hard drive – so you can now store an unlimited number of sounds on your drive and access them with a few click of the mouse. You also don’t have to worry that the battery is going to go dead (like on the RAM cards) and you will lose all your sounds. Also remember that your synthesizer has an internal battery with a lifespan about the same amount of time (5-10 years) as the RAM cards. When your synths internal battery goes dead, just like the cards, you lose all the sounds in the synths memory. When this happens, all you have to do is replace the battery and reload the sounds again using our software app and your back in business!

There are many other good reasons for purchasing a midi interface that I won’t go into at the moment. Your welcome to call or e-mail us if you need any more info and I’ll be happy to fill you in.

Click Here To Get To Our Main Catalog Page

Have an old Roland Super JV or XP synth that you want to load new sounds into? Here’s how to set up your synth to receive the sounds.

The following instructions are for the Roland JV1010, JV1080, JV2080, XP30, XP50, XP60 & XP80.

There are two sections in your synth that you need to make adjustments – SYSTEM & UTILITY

SYSTEM SETTINGS

1- Choose system button

2- On Patch Midi Page – Set Receive Ch to #1

3- Use the Arrow Down Button to get to the next page

4- On Sys Exclusive Midi Page – Set RX EXC to “ON”

5- Use Arrow Down Button to get to the next page

6- On Receive Midi Page – Set everything to “ON”

UTILITY SETTINGS

1- Choose utility button

2- On Menu 1 – PROTECT – Use right arrow – scroll to Protect – choose “ENTER BUTTON”

3- On Write Protect Page – Set Internal “Off” & Exclusive “Off”

That should set up your synth to receive the sounds. Look for the midi light to flash when your loading in the sounds from the computer. They end up in your “USER” Bank.

Remember that on Roland synths Midi Channel 1 = Midi Channel 17 – so If you get an error message after setting up the JV or XP, try changing the midi channel in the software your using to load the sounds from channel #1 to channel #17.

If you continue to have problems, there are also a couple of settings in your software that you might need to change – the “buffer” & “transmission speed”. Raise the buffer & lower the transmission speed. Experiment to find the right settings for your system.

More info on all our Roland JV & XP Series sounds can be found “At the Roland Sound Section Of Our Web Site”

How To Load Sounds on Macintosh

How To Load Sounds On PC

The Yamaha DX7 was one of the best selling synthesizers in the history of electronic music. It’s been over twenty years since the last ones finally rolled off Yamaha’s assembly line, but there are still a lot of them in use all over the world and lots of musicians still looking for new sounds. The sound collection that we programmed for the DX back in the 80’s has been one of our best selling patch sets with over 1000 new sounds in all. The sounds are no longer available on ROM or RAM cards. They come in a system exclusive (also known as sysex) or a standard midi file format (.mid) – so you need to load the sounds using your computer and a midi interface.

Here are some tips on how that is done……

The first thing to remember is that there were several different models of DX7’s. The original “brown” DX was one of the first instruments to have MIDI. It had limited midi features and several bugs which were improved on the later DX7-2 models. The DX7-2 Series included the DX7-2, DX7s and the DX7-2FD. The 2FD had a built in floppy disk drive and we actually offer our DX7 sounds in that format as well. In addition the company “Grey Matter” produced the “E” update. When the E board was installed in the DX it expanded the memory. Loading new sounds into each version via midi is a bit different on each model – so we have listed the set up procedure for each model DX.

In order to load sounds into any of the DX models via midi your need a “Midi Interface” and two “Midi Cables”. There are two types of midi interfaces. One is a actual piece of hardware consisting of a small box or rack mount device that has midi inputs and outputs. You only need a simple one that has one midi in and out. However, if you have a lot of synths and samplers and plan on recording them using midi, you can purchase a larger midi interface which can have up to sixteen in’s and outs. The second kind of interface is just a simple USB to Midi cable. This should also do the job for simple sysex dumps, but I have not had the opportunity to test this yet so it’s possible you may run into problems with certain midi devices if you go this route.

The interface gets connected to your computers USB port. You then run a midi cable from the “Midi out” on your interface to the DX “midi in” port. You can then connect another midi cable from your interface “midi in” to your DX “midi out”. This is called “handshaking” and assures better communication between the DX and your interface. It’s not always necessary to handshake the midi cables, but best to have a second cable around just in case you have to. Some synths will not respond to the dump if the second cable is not connected.

Original DX7 NOTE: You can only load 32 sounds at a time into the original DX7Select Memory SelectSet Memory Protect Internal to “off”The original DX will only receive on midi channel 1 – so make sure your software is set to transmit on channel 1When the display reads “Sys Info Avail”, the DX is ready to receive the data.

Grey Matter E Card

If you have the Grey Matter E board installed there are several additional steps: Press “function”, then “operator select” twice to select the “memory” page, push button 31 twice (Memory Protect Internal) and then “off”. This disables the memory protect. Then press “function”, then “operator select” four times to select the “keyboard control” page, push button 2 (Midi in filters: SYSEX) and then “on”. This enables SYSEX data transfer.

DX7-2 Series

In the DX7-2 synths, most of the midi functions and parameters are adjusted using buttons 31 and 32. Make sure you set the “Rcv Ch” on the DX and your software program set to channel 1. The DX-2 series can hold 64 patches in it’s memory. There are two different memory banks (A and B). The “receive block” (button 31) lets you set which memory bank you load the sounds into. You also need to turn memory protection off (Button #14) and set “MIDI IN” to “normal” (button #29). If you don’t do this step, you get no error message and no hint of what is wrong, but the keyboard will not accept the sysex data.

Well that about covers it. If you need a program to load in the sounds we provide a couple of good ones that are easy to use for both the Mac and PC. More info on how to load the sounds using sysex software programs can be found at:

How To Load Sounds on Macintosh

How To Load Sounds On PC

Click Here for more info on our Yamaha DX7 sound collection

It may be a bit confusing if you never loaded in new sounds into your synthesizer via the midi port – so we have put a tutorial together on exactly how it’s done. When you purchase any of our sounds in PC format we usually provide the files in both system exclusive (.syx) and standard midi files (.mid) formats . This gives you a wider option as to what programs you can use to load the sounds. There are many programs that you can use to load the standard midi files including DAW programs such as Logic, Cubase or Digital Performer. We also provide a easy to use program called MIDIOX (http://www.midiox.com) that you can use to load our SYSEX files. This tutorial will show you how to load in SYSEX (.syx) files using MidiOX.

1- Make sure you “Save” your internal sounds before loading in our sounds. Our sounds will replace your internal presets, so it’s best to save them to disk so you can reload them in later if you wish. Many synths have a “re-initilize memory” setting which you can use to restore the original factory settings. Each synthesizer is set up differently – so refer to your owners manuel on how to transmit a “Bulk Dump” or “Sysex Dump” from your synth to your computer.  Be sure you have installed the latest drivers for your MIDI interface (these are available from the maker of the midi interface).

2- First you need to set up your synthesizer to receive the file. The owners manuel will also inform you on how to set up your synth to receive a “System Exclusive” or SYSEX Dump. Some synths require you to turn off the memory protect. Others require you to “Enable” or “Turn on” the System Exclusive. It varies from synth to synth. We recommend that you set your synthesizer to Midi Channel #1. This is the default channel when “Midiox” loads. 

3- Connect a midi cable from your computers midi interface or sound card midi out to your synthesizers midi in. Also connect a cable from your computer midi in to your synthesizers midi out. If your sound card just has one port then connect it to the midi in of your synthesizer

4- Open Midiox and click on “Help/Contents/Getting Started” and read that. 

Also click on “Making Connections”. That tells you how to connect Midiox to your synthesizer.

You set this up by going to “Options/Mididevices”. While your in the contents menu also click on “System Exclusive/Sending A File”. Under the “Options” menu, select “MIDI Devices”. Look in the “MIDI Outputs:” box and select the appropriate MIDI OUT device (this tells MidiOx where to direct the MIDI data). If you do not see an entry for your MIDI interface, then you probably need to reinstall or update the appropriate drivers for your MIDI interface.

5- Then take any one of our sysex files and drag them from your desktop into the “Monitor – Output” box. The Sysex View and Scratchpad window should pop up and you should see the data in the window. Then go to the File Menu and click on “Send Sysex File. The data will automatically begin sending to the synth. Wait for the progress bar to complete.