Having trouble with the Soundtower editor

[thirteen_engines]

Hi folks. I'm giving the Soundtower PX editor a spin but can't seem to get it to connect fully. I can spin knobs on the PX and see the effect in the editor but I can't receive banks from the PX. I'm pretty sure that I have the PX globals configured correctly ... triple checked them over the last 10 days.

I know that midi In works since I just played the PX with my NDLR. Midi Out appears to work as well as I can see the port light up on my MOTU Midi Express when I tap a key. I would think that sysex communication also is working since I loaded Shaw's Deckard's Dream (thanks yet again, Shaw) via the Mac's sysex librarian app.

At this point I'm at a bit of a loss. Has anyone else got the editor to work?

Cheers,

Keith

[SynthMarc76051]

I really like the look and functionality of SountTower. My problem is that I keep having crashes. I've used a USB cable as well as the Roland USB to Midi cable and the same thing happens. ST replied to me and said

"I am sorry to hear about your troubles. There is a bug in the Prophet X USB MIDI. It loses connection after receiving few dumps. There is no workaround it. I was told that guys at Sequential are actively working on it.  Do you have a standard MIDI interface that you can use for now?"

Evidently they have been working on it for the last several months. I'm going to get on the phone with ST soon and see if they can somehow help me over the phone. Will keep you posted

[Derek Cook]

It would be great if they are working on it, as the Prophet X MIDI seems even buggier than my Yamaha EX5 SYSEX, and that is saying something!

It does take the shine off what is otherwise an excellent board. I still have open bug reports on MIDI, so I need to chase those up some time.

[SynthMarc76051]

There's a new firmware for the PX. V 2.2.1.0. It was released a few days ago and addresses the midi USB issues. I installed and Soundtower is working much better now. I can now get the PX to connect, bank reception is quicker and responsive and the sound genetics panel doesn't hang. So far so good.

One thing I thought it did was to highlight which step you were on in the sequencer window. It does it in the smaller window on the seq tab but not on in the larger one that comes up when you press F9. I thought when I first started using it that it did that.

What I wish is that I could easily add and modify a sequence from ST when playing the virtual keyboard. Its like the seq is really more of a novelty on the PX and ST doesn't really do much to add to its useability. I wish it were more user-friendly and robust. The same with the ARP in ST. Where I could program an ARP and then use it in a saved sequence. Maybe I'm missing something in how to use it.

Overall improving usability in the PX in areas such as SEQ/ARP/Sample handling/File uploading, patch/preset/bank management from within the PX would make this sooo much nicer in an already great instrument. Totally love the PX.

-Marc

[Julienne Fractals]

The latest OS release does fix the long standing USB midi issues.

Can finally have NRPN, USB and edit samples start/end/centre/size now and it no longer jumps all over the place, and the synth no longer locks up after a few patch changes.

And Soundtower PluginSE works.
Except I can't seem to write patches effectively from the application. I have the plugin for OB6/P6 and P12 and they all write correctly. Will raise it with Soundtower.

Thanks - can finally ditch the old school Dins.

[NivekReznourgensen]

And Soundtower PluginSE works.
Except I can't seem to write patches effectively from the application. I have the plugin for OB6/P6 and P12 and they all write correctly.

@jago - Can you elaborate on this?  I also have the P12 Soundtower editor plugin, but it seems it is unable to save any changes made to the patch - either by saving the project or by saving the instrument as a separate instrument preset in my DAW (using Studio One's "Save Preset" feature).  This is something I'm trying to get cleared up with Soundtower themselves but haven't gotten an answer yet; and that really limits the plugin's usefulness.  I was hoping this was a P12-specific bug, but maybe it affects the PX as well.

[Julienne Fractals]

And Soundtower PluginSE works.
Except I can't seem to write patches effectively from the application. I have the plugin for OB6/P6 and P12 and they all write correctly.

@jago - Can you elaborate on this?  I also have the P12 Soundtower editor plugin, but it seems it is unable to save any changes made to the patch - either by saving the project or by saving the instrument as a separate instrument preset in my DAW (using Studio One's "Save Preset" feature).  This is something I'm trying to get cleared up with Soundtower themselves but haven't gotten an answer yet; and that really limits the plugin's usefulness.  I was hoping this was a P12-specific bug, but maybe it affects the PX as well.

Hello. I don't use StudioOne. But this should not matter. I use the instrument plugin version (not control) of the SoundtowerSE plugins .
Within Soundtower you have the "Write" Option. Have the patch ready you want to save on your P12/PX. Select the write option. A sub window will appear. Here at the top you can rename the patch to whatever you want. Now select the patch slot where you want to save it. Hit the write button. Now when you go back to the banks option, you should have your new patch saved for you in the slot you chose. This is common for all sound tower plugins I have for Dave/Seqential including the P12, OB6, P6 and Prophet X. If you are still having issues drop me a message with your contact details and I will try and assist you one 2 one.

Thanks

Jago

[thirteen_engines]

I usually lurk about the board every morning while drinking coffee. Imagine to my surprise this morning I came across the answer to my soundtower editor problem. It turns out that there is nasty little bug that disallows sysex message transfers on any midi channels other than 2 and ALL. I switched to ALL and soundtower fired right up!

Apparently, Sequential is aware of this bug but who knows when or if it will be attended to. Here's the link to the forum thread where I found the info this morning.

https://forum.sequential.com/index.php/topic,6257.0.html

Keith