X-oR

Universal System Exclusive Orchestrator

by Robert J. Melvin

Manual by Jim Johnson and Robert Melvin

Revision 1.1 April 5, 1990

Copyright 1989, 1990

All Rights Reserved

 81

Contents

A Note from the Caged Artist 1

Chapter 1 Getting Started with X-oR 3

Registration 4

HowX-oR Works (In a Nutshell) 4

Machines, Instruments, and Modules 5

Patches and Banks 7

Performances 9

Libraries 10

Menus and Windows 10

Data Entry Conventions 1

Hard Disks 12

Desk Accessories and Multi-tasking 12

Organizing Your MIDI Setup 13

Customizing X-oR for Your MIDI Setup 13

X-oR's Hidden Charms 14

Chapter 2 Customization Guide 15

Hard Disk Setup 16

Floppy Disk Setup 1

Set Up Your MIDI Switcher 20

If You Don’t Have A Switcher 22

Create the Setup File 22

Create the Bootup Comments 26

Prepare for Lift-off 27

Starting X-oR 27
Chapter 3 X-oR's Menus 29
The File Menu 29

Save and Save As 30

Format 30

Quit and To KCS 30

The Info Menu 31

Profile Help 32
Backups in X-oR 32

Chapter 4 Auditioning Sounds with X-oR 33

Mouse Play 33

MIDI Merging 37
Local Control? 39
Panic 39

Chapter 5 The Performance Window 41

Performance Window Display 42

Editing Performances 43

Getting and Sending Performance Patches 44

Loading and Saving Performances 45

Patch Status in a Performance 46

Performance Comments 46

Printing Performances 46

Chapter 6 Bank Operations 47

Bank Windows 47

Opening Banks 48

Initializing a Bank 48

Loading a Patch from a Bank 49

Storing a Patch in a Bank 49

 Update Bank Patch 49

Editing Banks: Copy, Move and Swap 50

Renaming a Patch in a Bank 50

Getting and Sending Banks 50

Saving Banks 51

Closing Banks 51

Internal Bank Files 51

The Perf Bank Switch 52

Speed Issues when Loading Performances 53

Bank Update 53

Bank Comments 54

Printing Banks 54

Chapter 7 Using the Libraries 55

Creating a Library 55

Opening a Library 56

The LIBRARY Window 56

Storing Patches in the Libraries 58

Library Duplicate Checking 58

Editing Patch Information 59

Library Keyword Tips 60

Moving Banks to the Libraries 61

Deleting a Library Patch 61

Searching the Libraries 62

Editing the Keyword List 65

Library Applications 66

Library Techno-details 67

Chapter 8 Patch Editing 69

Opening a Patch Edit Window 69
 The Patch Edit Window 70

Sliders 71

Text Boxes 72

Envelope Graphs 72

Storing Edited Patches 73

Patch Name and Comments 74

Getting and Sending Patches 74

Loading and Saving Patches 74

Initializing Patches 75

Transplanting Sections 75

Blend/Mingle 78

Randomize w/Mask 82

Chapter 9 System Parameters 83

The System Parameters Window 83

Editing in the System and Setup Windows 84

MIDI Switcher Parameters 84

Changing Colors 85

Automatic Setup Save 85

Saving X-oR's Default Options 85

Chapter 10 Instrument Setups 87

Using the Setup Editor 87

The File Menu 88

The Edit Menu 89

Choosing a Profile 89

Default Storage Path 90

Instrument Setup Parameters 90

Instrument Setups in

X-oR 95
Chapter 11 X-oR and the MPE 97
Memory and the MPE 97
MPE Mouse Play Options 99
Using X-oR with Other Systems 100

Appendix 1 Service and Support 101

X-oR Support on Dr. Ts BBS 104

Appendix 2 MIDI Switcher Programming 105

Suggested MIDI Switchers 109

Appendix 3 Creating and Editing Profiles 111

Index 113
A Note from Welcome to X-oR, my first-born male child (or
the Caged that's how feels, anyway). X-oR is the first of a
it

Artist totally new breed of editor/librarian. In my mind,

however, its been a long gestation period-six
years, to be exact. Since the earliest Caged
Artistprograms, DX-Heaven and CZ-Rider, I've
known that it should be possible to create a
universal editor. However, it took twenty more
individual ed/libs before felt had the reguisite
I I

knowledge and experience to tackle the

problem. As X-oR grew, It started to take on a
life of its own, as children will often do. It
became much more powerful than had I

imagined. guess I'm just talking like a proud

I

father— shut up now, and let X-oR speak for

I'll

itself.

X-oR combines powerful patch creation and

editing with librarian and database functions for
almost any MIDI device. Ifs not just an
editor/librarian; ifs all the editor/librarian
programs you need, operating harmoniously in
an integrated environment customized to your
MIDI setup. (In case you're wondering, X-oR is
shorthand for Exclusive-as in System Exclusive-
-Orchestrator. see It as an orchestration
I

program-but not in the traditional sense.)

X-oR presents an entirely new way of viewing

your MIDI instruments. Under X-oR's control,
your assortment of MIDI gear from various
manufacturers resembles a single multi-faceted
instrument. The unified user interface puts you in
touch with ALL the power of your system, from
the most subtle parameter on up to the overall
configuration. For those of you who have never
ventured beyond a preset, X-oR may be your
ticket to new adventures in sound. For the weary
adventurer, ifs a ticket back to the more creative
and musical aspects of life.

A Note from the Caged Artist 1

Experience tells us that creating a good patch
editor is probably never going to be easy, no
matter how many tools you have at your
disposal. Every instrument has its own quirks, if
not outright bugs-usually just enough to drive
the average MIDI programmer up the wall. This
is why one of our goals is to provide support for

as many instruments as possible. We feel that

you, our customers, should be able to spend
most of your time and effort on MUSIC-and
leave the "tooling" to us!

On the other hand, your package does include

the necessary tools to make X-oR work with any
MIDI device, and if you're prepared for a real left-
brain workout, we don't want to discourage you.
The development system may not be
Profile
simple, but
it is fast, powerful, and flexible
enough to get around the gnariiest problems.
Actually, to tell the truth, we kind of enjoy this
stuff!

We feel--and we hope you agree--that X-oR is a

big step in the right conceptual direction. Once
you've got up and working with your
it set
system you may soon find
(the hard part), it

indispensable--so dig in and ENJOY!

- Bob Melvin (Chief Executive X-oRcist)

Chapter 1 This chapter provides an introduction to X-oR,
explaining the basic concepts, and defining the
Getting terminology we use throughout both the
Started with program and the manual. (A "must read"!)
X-oR

Chapter 2 provides complete step-by-step

instructions for setting X-oR up for your system.

Chapter 3 gives a brief overview of X-oR's

menus. The File and Info menus are described
in some detail.

Chapter 4 delves into the techniques used to

monitor sounds in X-oR.

Chapters 5 to 8 deal with X-oR's four main

windows: Performance, Bank, Library and
Patch. Each window corresponds to a certain
type of data file. These chapters include
descriptions of all the commands and
techniques used to manipulate MIDI data.

Chapter 9 explains each of X-oR's global

parameters, including Options
those in the
menu and the System Parameters window.

Chapter 10 is a reference for using the Setup

Editor (as opposed to the step-by-step
procedure of Chapter 2), describing the various
instrument Setup parameters, most of which
are also available in X-oR.

Chapter 11 is basically for MPE (Dr. Ts Multi

Program Environment) users.

We suggest that you keep all your Instrument

manuals handy while you learn the program.

Ifany changes were made to X-oR since this

manual was released, they are listed in a file
named READ. ME on your program disk.

Getting Started 3
Registration |
Before you do anything else, fill out and mail the
warranty registration card that came with X-oR.
As soon as we get it, we'll send you a free
backup disk.

HowX-oR X-oR deals system exclusive

primarily with MIDI
Works (In a data. This a particular type of MIDI data which
is

Nutshell) handles information that is specific to a single

instrument, or family of instruments. Because
every manufacturer handles system exclusive
information in a different way (and may even
handle it differently in different instruments), all

editor/librarian programs have previously been

limited working with a single type of
to
instrument. However, after many years of
working with different manufacturer's MIDI
implementations, we have developed methods
that can be applied to just about any instrument.

\
The result is X-oR.
'

To work with an instrument, X-oR needs to know

the instrument’s technical details, such as
communication protocols, patch formats,
parameter ranges, etc. This is accomplished
through the use of Profiles, which are special
data files that contain all the necessary
information. (Some people may prefer the term
"Driver" or Template".) We've provided a large
number of Profiles for existing instruments on
the PROFILES disk, and even more on Dr. Ts
affiliated BBS.

Most users of X-oR wont want to deal with

creating a Profile, so we've left this considerable
task to another program (the X-oR Profile
Development System, otherwise known as E-
oR). This separate program has many special
tools for deciphering and debugging weird MIDI
implementations, as well as the extra screens for
editing the Profile. This two-program
arrangement also allows X-oR to be both
simpler and smaller, which is better when you
run it with a sequencer in Dr. Ts MPE or any
similar multi-tasking environment.
 Profiles can be exchanged between all of the
computers that X-oR runs on (ST, Amiga,
Macintosh, and PC). Building a Profile is a lot
faster than creating a dedicated editor/librarian
program (for us, it's about 20 times faster).
Therefore, with some help from the more
technical-minded X-oR users, every MIDf
instrument that handles system exclusive data
will hopefully soon have a Profile.

Machines, Throughout this manual, we will use the term

Instruments, Machine to refer to a single MIDI device (such
and Modules as a Matrix 1000, a DX-7 or a Prophet 5). Most
Machines only require a single X-oR Profile, but
for reasons of programming necessity or
convenience, Machines may be broken down
into two or more Profiles. For example, a
complex Machine such as the Yamaha TX81Z
might have one Profile for sounds, and a
separate Profile for microtuning tables.

Instead of dealing with Machines per se, X-oR

works with what we call Instruments. Each
Instrument uses only one Profile, which usually
represents an entire Machine. The exception is
when the Machine uses multiple Profiles (as in
the above example), in which case several
Instruments are required to completely control
one Machine.

There is no restriction on how many Instruments

may use the same Profile, so if you have 16 DX-
7s, they are treated as 16 separate Instruments.
X-oR currently handles up to 128 Instruments at
a time, which is enough for most studios, don't
you think?

Getting Started 5
In complex Machines (practically any modern
synth),a Profile is divided into Data Types, each
of which is nearly a complete Profile in itself.
Each Data Type corresponds to a particular data
format in the Machine, for example, Single
patches vs. Multi patches. The Profile structure
ties the Data Types together, and allows for
inter-Data Type communication, one secret to X-
oR's sophistication. The Profile specifies how
many Patch Edit Buffers of each Data Type it will

control, usually duplicating the

Patch Edit
Buffers within the actual Machine. For example,
an MT-32 or D-1 10 Profile has a "Part Tone" Data
Type, with eight Patch Edit Buffers assigned to
it.

To make things easier to describe, we'll use the

term Module to refer to a single Patch Edit
Buffer. A Moduleisn't the data in the Edit Buffer

(that's calleda Patch), but the modular part of

the Instrument that uses the data. Some
Instruments will only have a single Module, while
others may have many. For example, the D-1 10
has eight separately addressable timbres (the
"Part Tone" Data Type), a multi-timbral setup,
drum setup, and program change table-11
Modules in all! All of these Modules are part of
one Instrument, and all are controlled by one
Profile.

The following diagram shows how X-oR divides

a Machine into several Instruments and
Modules, using multiple Profiles.
 "
Uoice Module
Perf ornanc e :: if Module
TXI1ZJ1TF.X*

{Microtune Full Module

TXI1ZPCT.XCR

[progran Map :
:

Module
TXIlZEFX.Xm
'

{Effects- Module
Tmzsvs.xn

Module

Instrunents

TX-81Z Instruments and Modules

Patches and I X-oR uses several types of data structures, or

Banks |
The basic file is a Patch, which is the
files.

generic term for a single sound, voice, program,

preset, tuning table, drumset, or whatever you
calla certain specific bunch of parameters. In X-
oR terms, a Patch is the data for one Module.
For instance, in the TX-81Z, "Patch" refers to
either a Voice, or to a Performance, or to a
group of System parameters, since each of
these is treated as a separate Module. You
should take note that some companies use the
term "patch" to refer to a particular kind of
Patch.

Getting Started 7
Bank files are a collection of all the stored (i.e.

"dormant" or "non-running") Patches in a given

Machine. The format of X-oR Bank files depends
on the design of the Machine (and also on the
whim of the Profile author), and may contain
Patches for any number of a Machine's Data
Types. (Because of the way X-oR handles Bank
windows, however, this is all pretty transparent.)
Note that some manufacturers use the term
"bank" to refer to a sub-grouping of patches in
memory. When we say Bank, we mean ALL the
patches, not a sub-grouping.

A Profile may not provide Bank storage

capabilities for all Data Types. This is
its

because the Bank file format generally reflects

the architecture of the Machine. If a machine has
no Bank storage for a certain type of Patch, X-
oR usually doesn't either. In such cases, all the
Bank commands in the menus will be inactive.
On the other hand, ifs also possible for the
Profile author to "invent" a Bank format when no
such format exists in the Machine, which may
actually improve upon the design of a Machine.

All Patch and Bank files may be individually sent

or received via MIDI (if possible), and saved to
disk.
Performances I
A Performance is a sort of "SuperPatch" file, that

contains the current Patch data for each Module

in your system, as well as the name of the
current Bank file for every Instrument. The best
way to think of a Performance is as a "snapshot"
of your entire MIDI system. Loading a
Performance file can restore every possible bit
of data in your MIDI setup to the way it was
when the Performance was stored. Even if your
MIDI setup has changed, X-oR will load the
Performance correctly. For example, a
Performance created in your home studio can
be loaded into any studio with X-oR-if they have
compatible Machines in their setup, you're all
set!

Keep in mind that the Performance file itself

contains only the Patch data (as shown in the

Performance window), and merely "points" to
the correct Bank files (otherwise, it would use a
large amount of disk space).

A File Edit Llbram 6et/Send Options Iif»

firman ram vm&m imrnn D

fllilSiniSISIISIfilfd eHfffjjjtii
1 rt
Hll
1 Roland __
4 Roland Hll FartTone 3 lassDrift 1 llbrarj uder P

5 Roland Hll uder F

( Roland Hll Faction! 5 labblsynth D'8MGE0« ) ) 10 Ri

7 Roland Hll PartTom ( Tiftbass IHTBft* • 15 inba-En

pinmaui ! Breat
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THr’ISHI i e Penal
-- Roland
Hll Tnbr.Tbl Imaned Tnbr.Tbl : Synth
11 Hatrlillll Voice CELLOSMP CPEEDflRT * G : Synth
m Rorj T-i Conti CisnicRaln ! Synth
1 Rory T-l Progran vSgnthsaaeep HTEJUMl *155 ! Synth
- Rorj 1-1 Drw Rlt 1 Imaned Drift Kit tn Die
~ Rorj T-I Drat Rlt 2 linantd Drift Kit [ it- B
- Rorj T-l Drift Rlt 3 imaned Drift Kit ! Snap
- Rorj T-l Drift Kit 4 Imaned Drift Kit iPiano
-

—
Rorj T-l Global Imaned Elobal lie FW
Register

X-oR Performance Window

Getting Started 9
Libraries |
X-oR also goes one step further than most
editor/librarians, and provides a separate
Library for each kind of Patch (each Data Type),
which holds an unlimited number of Patches,
and which also allows you to cross reference
Patches by name, date, or any of several
qualities, or keywords. This frees you from the
need to remember which Bank contains that
killer stringamawhap sound you programmed

last month--an activity which always slows down

the creative process.

The Library is also a great place to store

Patches as you're editing them. With a couple of
clicks of the mouse, your edited sound is
permanently saved to disk, and when you're
done you'll find that you have a record of the
session in chronological order.

Libraries can only store Patches from a single

Data Type. However, Libraries can be created
for all kinds of Patches, not just those that exist
in Bank format, which is why it's usually no big

deal if a certain type of Patch isn't available in

Bank format. Also, Libraries may be shared by
different patch-compatible Instruments, even
though the Bank file formats may be different.

Menus and I X-oR uses the familiar GEM system of windows

Windows |
and drop down menus for its user interface. The
Atari manual covers all aspects of the windows
(opening, closing, moving, sizing, etc.) as well
as menus. If you're not familiar with GEM, check
it out!

One window, the Performance window, is

always open, to reinforce its importance as X-

oR's control center. Most of the other
windows
on the screen depend on the Module that is
selected in the Performance window. Other
windows, such as the Patch Edit window may
be opened from the menus. Each Bank also has
Its own window, which may be opened with the

Open Bank... item in the File menu.

10 X-oR
 Many menu items can also be selected with
< Control > key combinations. In such cases, a
letter will appear to the left of that item in the
menu. Pressing that key while holding the
< Control > key is a quick way to select the
menu Item, without using the mouse. (Control
keys wont work while any menu is displayed.)

Data Entry I Most of X-oR's data entry methods should be

Conventions I
familiar, if you've worked with other GEM
programs. An object may be selected by
clicking on it with the left mouse button. When
an object is selected, it is usually highlighted
(light letters on a dark background with the
default configuration). In many cases, clicking
on a highlighted object has a special meaning.
Some objects may be “dragged" by holding
down the button and moving the mouse.

We also use various "menu switches." These are

specialmenu commands that directly affect X-
oR global parameters. A check mark next to a
menu item shows that the item is "on".

Its important that you know how to operate a

standard GEM file selector. This isn't covered in
the ST manual, but it is fairly intuitive. If it gives
you trouble, there are several good books on
the market.

Text areas in dialog boxes are edited using the

<lnsert>, < Delete >, and < Backspace > keys
in a manner similar to the “Replace" mode in
most word processors, and the <Esc> key will
clear the text. The cursor control keys and
mouse can also be used to move the cursor
within a text field.

Getting Started 11
Hard Disks |
X-oR allows you to take full advantage of a hard

disk, both data storage and program

for
execution. X-oR's setup program allows you to
specify a separate folder for each Instrument in
your system, as an aid in organizing your
sounds you dont know what a folder is, you
(if

should read the Atari ST manual before

proceeding). X-oR may also be executed
directly from a hard disk, though you'll need to
insert your original program disk (the "key disk")
in drive A when you first boot the program. You

can remove the key disk as soon as X-oR is up

and running.

Desk Thanks to its GEM interface, X-oR provides full

Accessories support of most desk accessories. The reason

and Multi- we say "most" rather than "all" is that there are
tasking some DAs out there that use rather, ah,
Environments "creative" programming techniques, that may
conflict with X-oR's operation. We
suggest that
you thoroughly test any desk accessories that
you intend to use with X-oR before you dive into
any heavy-duty editing. One other warning:
Many desk accessories, especially "corner
make use of the right hand side of the
clocks",
menu bar. Because X-oR uses this space for
some prompts, we suggest that you avoid such
DAs, at least until you are comfortable enough
with the program that you can live without that
information.

X-oR has been successfully tested with several

manufacturer's multi-tasking environments,
including the MIDITasking
forthcoming
environment from Atari. If you have enough
memory in your computer, you should be able
to run X-oR concurrently with just about any
major Atari ST sequencing program.
Organizing X-oR can bring all your MIDI equipment together

Your MIDI as a team. But first, in order to do this, both your

Setup equipment and your creative modus operandi
must be compatible. We have a general rule for
this:

If it ain't programmable, don't program it!

This rule applies to repatching audio cables,

MIDI cables, changing non-programmable MIDI
Channel assignments, etc. Luckily, products are
available which make virtually everything
programmable. A MIDI switcher, for example, is
a relatively inexpensive way to improve your
sanity.

Of course, unless you have a MIDI

programmable robot, some important things are
bound to be out of X-oR's control. For this
reason, X-oR gives you plenty of opportunities
to save comments with your data, reminding
you to "turn up effects send 2 on mixer channel
5," or any such non-programmable tidbit of

information.

Customizing X-oR's most powerful and exciting features are

X-oR for Your made possible by customizing it to your
MIDI Setup particular MIDI setup. When X-oR knows what
instruments you have, how they are connected,
where you want to store their data, etc., it can
automate many tasks. For example, X-oR is

capable of loading, saving, getting, or sending

all the System Exclusive data in your MIDI setup

with a couple of clicks of the mouse.

Getting Started 13
 Getting MIDI data from instruments (and also
sometimes sending data) requires two-way (bi-
communication, which means
directional) MIDI
repatching your system. X-oR is designed to
handle all MIDI patching functions automatically,
by taking control of your system's
programmable MIDI switcher or patch bay, if
you have one (look, ma, no hands!). Otherwise,
X-oR will instruct you to make certain
connections when necessary. You don't need a
programmable MIDI switcher to use X-oR, but
we strongly recommend it!

Teaching X-oR about your system is not going

to be as relaxing as a day at the beach, but it
only needs to be done once. The next chapter
contains complete step-by-step instructions on
setting X-oR up, along with examples for a
typical system.

To get a feel for X-oR, you could skip ahead to

the end of the next chapter, and run it with its
example setup. However, the setup process
must be done before X-oR will be of much use
to you.

X-oR's Hidden 1 X-oR has a lot of power, and not all of it can be
Charms I
discovered by just poking around. If you read
this manual, you stand a fairly good chance of
discovering all its features. As with any tool, the
more you know how to use it, the better it works.

14 X-oR
Chapter 2 This chapter covers all of the steps needed to
customize X-oR to work with your system.
A Step-By- Normally, this will only need to be done once,
Step though you can modify the setup at any time if
Customization you add new Machines or change your setup.
Guide

By way of example, we'll also show exactly what

is needed to configure a typical MIDI system
consisting of an Ensoniq ESQ-1, Yamaha TX-
81 Z, and a Casio CZ-101. Your system is
probably much different than this, but this will

serve to illustrate the principles involved.

If you run Chapter 10, which

into snags, refer to
contains a complete description of the
Instrument Setup window, or to Chapter 9,
which describes the System Parameters
window. If you have problems getting one
particular Machine configured, or if one aspect
of your system hasn't been nailed down yet, just
ignore it for now; you can always go back and
correct the setup after everything else is
working.

Customization Guide 15
Hard Disk I If you're using a hard disk for dataand program
Setup |
storage, the first thing you'll need to do is copy
X-oR to your hard disk, and then set up the
folders that you'll be using for data storage. (In
this section, we'll assume that you know how to
perform basic disk operations such as creating
a folder and copying files; if you're not sure how
to do this, see your ST manual for details.) If
you've been using your hard drive for a while,
make sure that the partition you use has enough
space to hold all of the programs, Profiles, and
data files you'll be storing there, as well as room
for expansion. (A half-megabyte per synthesizer
is probably adequate.)

1) Create a folder called XOR, and copy the

filesXOR.PRG, XOR.RSC, XOR.CFG,
KEYWORDS.TXT, BOOTUP.TXT,
HEI_P_SET.TXT, ED_SETUP.PRG, and
ED_SETUP.RSC you plan on
to this folder. If

using X-oR in Dr. Ts

Program Multi
Environment, you should also copy the files
XOR. INF, XOR_MEM.PRG, XORMEM.RSC,
and XOR_MEM.INF to the folder XOR.

2) Now create
a new folder for each Machine
that you own (these folders could be inside
the XOR folder if so desired). Each folder
should be given a name that represents the
Machine it supports. For the sample system
described above, you would create three
folders: CZ101, ESQ1, and TX81Z. (Note: if
you're using a Mega computer, make sure
your folder names are no longer than seven
characters-otherwise, a bug in the Mega
operating system will bite you.)

3) Now insert the PROFILES disk in drive A.

For each Machine that you own, copy the
appropriate file with the .ARC extension into
the XOR folder. For our example system,
copy CZ101.ARC, ESQ1.ARC, and
TX81Z.ARC. Also copy ARCX.TTP, which is a
program you'll need.

16 X-oR
 4) The files you have copied are "archived",
or simply "arced", which means they are
compressed so that more of them can fit on
the disk. You now need to "de-arc" them.
Using your work disk, double-click on
ARCX.TTP to run it. In thebox that appears,
type in the name of the .ARC file--CZ101 for
example--and hit < Return >. Do this for all

the .ARC files you copied in step 3. The XOR

directory should now contain files with .XOR
and .HLP extensions for all your Machines-
check to make sure that does. Your XOR It

folder should look something like this:

Desk File Hem Options 14:80:15

!77<H titts used In 24 Itens.

1
ja
_ JO.
IT
T "’"’"’"of
jj_
~

jiil

Folders

5) If you've been using any Caged Artist

editor/librarians, copy the data files for these
programs to the appropriate data folders.
You should have a separate folder for each
Instrument, and the folder should contain
ALL the data for that Instrument.

Customization Guide 17
Floppy Disk I If you're using a floppy disk system, you'll first
Setup |
need to create a "working cop/ of the X-oR
program disk, and then copy X-oR, Its support
files, and the Profiles for each of your Machines

to this disk. We suggest that you use either a

RAM disk, an "alternate desktop" program such
as NeoDesk, or some other file moving utility for
this task, if you have one. The standard GEM file
copy function is woefully inadequate for copying
files between two floppy disks, as you may have

discovered.

1) If you don't have a formatted disk handy,

insert a blank disk in drive A, and format it as
a double sided disk.

2) Insert theX-oR program disk in drive A,

and copy the files XOR.PRG, XOR.RSC,
XOR.CFG, KEYWORDS.TXT, BOOTUP.TXT,
HELP_SET.TXT, EDSETUP.PRG, and
EDSETUP.RSC to the blank disk. (If you
don't know how to copy files from one disk to
another, see your ST manual.) If you plan on
using X-oR in Dr. Ts Multi Program
Environment, you should also copy the files
XOR.INF, XOR_MEM.PRG, XOR_MEM.RSC,
and XORMEM.INF.

3) Now insert the PROFILES disk in drive A.

For each Machine that you own, copy the
appropriate file with the .ARC extension to
your work disk. For our example system,
copy CZ101.ARC, ESQ1.ARC, and
TX81Z.ARC. Also copy ARCX.TTP, which is a
program you'll need for the next step.

18 X-oR
 4) Insert the work disk in drive A. The files
you have copied are "archived", or simply
"arced", which means they are compressed
so that more of them can fit on the disk. You
now need to "de-arc" them. Double-click on
ARCX.TTP to run it. In the box that appears,
type in the name of one of the .ARC files—
CZ101 for example--and hit < Return >. Do
this for all the .ARC files you copied in step 3.
The work disk should now contain files with
.XOR and .HLP extensions for all your
Machines--check to make sure that it does.
After this step, you may erase the .ARC files
on your work disk.

5) Now format one floppy disk for each

Machine in your system, and write the name
of the Machine on each. These will be used
for storing data for your Machines.

If you find that your working disk does not have

enough room for the Profiles you wish to use,

you may be able to get enough space by
deleting XOR.PRG and XOR.RSC temporarily,
and then going ahead with the rest of the setup
procedure. Once that is done, delete ARCX.TTP,
ED_SETUP.PRG and ED_SETUP.RSC from your
working copy, and then restore XOR.PRG and
XOR.RSC. Note: DO NOT delete anything from
the original X-oR program diskl

Customization Guide 19
Set Up Your I if you're using a programmable MIDI switcher,
MIDI Switcher I
the next step to set up your switcher, and
is

create the switcher programs that will let the

computer talk to each of your Machines
independently.

Before you proceed, make sure that your

computer is connected so that it can send
program changes to your switcher. Some
switchers only accept program change
messages on a certain input, while fancier ones
make the input programmable. Whatever the
case, make sure the switcher's "control input" is

connected to the computer's output.

Because each MIDI switcher is different, we

cant give you any specifics on how yours must
be programmed, but we can give some general
advice. The first program in your switcher (or
maybe the first few programs) should connect
your system up in its normal configuration (s) for
making music. You’ll then need to create a
program for each of your Instruments, which
connects the Instrument's MIDI output to the
computer's MIDI in, and the computer's MIDI out
only to the Instrument's MIDI input, as shown
below. Any special functions that your switcher
has, such as data filtering, transposition, or
especially MIDI merging, should be turned off in
each of these programs.
 As you create these programs, write down the
switcher program number assigned to each
Instrument, and determine the program change
number to send which will select this program.

Ifyour switcher doesn't have enough inputs for

allof your synths, you'll have to decide which
ones you'll be getting data from the most often,
and connect those to the switcher's inputs. The
other Machines will have to be patched
manually when you need to get sounds from
them.

Customization Guide 21
 You Don't
If ...don't despair. X-oR can be used quite
Have A effectively in most situations with only one-way
Switcher... communication. To get this happening, all you
need to do is connect your computer's MIDI
output to the MIDI input of each of your
Instruments, either with a thru box or using MIDI
thru jacks. If you're using your ST for
sequencing, it’s probably already set up this
way. DO NOT use the MIDI outputs of your
Instruments to drive the MIDI inputs of the
others, even if the Instrument has a MIDI merge,
echo, or software thru feature. This is because
most software thru's won't echo MIDI system
exclusive data, not to mention the fact that you'll
have to do major repatching if you need to get
data from your Instruments.

On the more complex

input side, things get a bit
without a switcher. you presently can't afford a
If

programmable MIDI switcher (i.e. you just spent

your last dime on X-oR), you might consider
getting (or making) some kind of cheap manual
switch box, with enough inputs to handle all of
your Instruments. Alas, the manual switchers we
know of have at most five or six inputs. You may
be better off saving your pennies for a
programmable switcher. In the mean time, you
could have a clump of well-labled cables from all
your instruments next to your computer (at least
it beats crawling around behind the racks).

Create the Now we're ready to create X-oR's setup file. This
Setup File |
is done with the program ED_SETUP.PRG. (If

you're using a hard disk, you've already copied

this to the XOR folder; otherwise, you copied it

to your working disk.) Start ED_SETUP.PRG by

double-clicking on its icon, and the following
screen will appear:

22 X-oR
 ED_SETUP.PRG Main Screen

The Instrument Setup window will soon contain

a list of all of the Instruments in your system,
along with their system exclusive channels and
other important settings. Your system is

probably not exactly the same as our example

system, so you'll need to add your own
Instruments, and delete some of the example
Instruments. Instruments are added one at a
time, using the following procedure for each.

1) Pull down the Edit menu and select Add

Instrument. A new Instrument specification
willappear on the screen, with the title

XORFILE.

2) Now you'll choose the Profile that this

newly added Instrument will on the
use. Click
word XORFILE, and a file selector will
appear. Use the file selector to choose the
Profile for the new Instrument, and click on
OK. The Profile name you selected will now
be shown, instead of XORFILE.

Customization Guide 23
Create the 3) Click on the number in the column labeled
Setup File SysX Chnl, and use the slider or computer
(continued) keyboard to enter the Instrument's system
exclusive channel, unit number, device
number, or whatever value it uses to identify
incoming system exclusive messages. This is
usually defined differently for different
Machines--some may use the same number
that is used for the MIDI basic channel,
others may use a completely separate
number, and a few may not even have such
a number. You may have to spend some
time scratching your head and thumbing
through your synthesizer's manual to get this
right, if you've never dealt with it before.

4) Each Instrument has a default MIDI

Receive Channel (shown here as Recv
Chnl). At this point, we won't go into what
this entails, since it's not essential to get X-oR
running. However, in most cases, this
channel same as the SysX Chnl, so
is the
click on the Recv Chnl number and enter the
same number you used for SysX Chnl. (This
wont be possible the SysX Chnl is greater
if

than 16, in which case, set the Recv Chnl to

off.)

5) If you're using a MIDI switcher, click on the

number in the column labeled Swch Prg#
(Switcher Program), and enter the number of
the program that you created specifically for
this Instrument (keep in mind that our
program change numbers start at zero, not
one). If you dont have a switcher, or if your
switcher is short of inputs and cant receive
data from this Instrument, set this to off.

6) If this Instrument is one of two or more

identical Instruments that share the same
SysX Chnl, set the Sw./Send (Switch to
Send) parameter to on. Otherwise, leave it

off.

24 X-oR
 7) you have a hard disk, you will now need
If

to X-oR where the data for the Instrument

tell

should be kept. Click on the text in the

Default Storage Path column. A file selector
will appear, with which you should change

the drive letter (if necessary), and open the

folder that you created earlier for this
Machine (in step 2 of the hard disk setup), as
if you were going to load a file from the
folder. Then, click on OK. The storage path
you have chosen is shown. If you DO NOT
have a hard disk, the default storage path
should be "A:\" (no quotes).

8) Now repeat steps 1 through 7 for each

Instrument in your system. If you have two

Instruments of the same type-two DX-Ts, for

example-you'll need to create two separate
Instrument specifications, each with its own
switcher program and system exclusive
channel. (If you have two identical Machines
on the same channel, make sure that
Sw./Send is turned on.) For Machines that
use multiple such as the TX-81Z,
Profiles,

you will need to repeat these steps for each

Profile.

9) Delete any Instruments that were left over

from the example setup by clicking on any
parameter in the Instruments line, and then
choosing Delete in the Edit menu.

10) Clickon the window labeled System

Parameters and set the parameter labeled
MIDI Switcher Channel to the channel on
which your MIDI switcher accepts program
changes. If you aren't using a switcher, set
this to off.

1
1) If you're using a switcher, set the Default
Switcher Pgm to the program change
number that calls up the normal music-
making system configuration. If you're
switcher-less, set this to off.

Customization Guide 25
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Prepare for I Congratulations! X-oR is now ready to handle all
Lift-off I
of your system's sound management needs.
Now you're ready to load and run X-oR itself,
and explore its menus and windows with the
help of this manual. Pretty soon, you'll wonder
how you ever got along without it!

Starting X-oR |
To run X-oR as a stand-alone application, open
the desktop window where XOR.PRG is located
and double-click on Its icon. If you have a hard
disk, you should put your original program disk
In drive A,but start X-oR from the XOR folder on
your hard disk. Otherwise, you’ll start X-oR from
your working disk. If necessary, X-oR will ask
you to insert your original program disk in drive
A. Simply insert the disk, click on OK, and you
should be up and running.

To start X-oR in the MPE, refer to the manual of

your MPE host program to determine the proper

command to use. For example, in KCS (version
1 .7) you would click on the NEW button in any
Edit screen. When the file selector appears,
selectXOR. INF from the hard disk or working
disk,and after a few seconds, the program will
be up and running. If you get an "Insufficient
memory" message when you attempt to load X-
oR, see Chapter 11 for details on changing X-
oR's MPE memory allocation.

Customization Guide 27
sj0ji8| aiqssiAu; jo ||D| sj e6ed spi
Chapter 3 X-oR uses standard GEM dropdown menus for
all of commands. The Desk menu allows you
its

X-oR's Menus to access your desk accessories. The File menu

deals with most disk operations, with the
exception of Library files, which have their own
Library menu. The Edit menu includes options
and commands for both Bank editing and Patch
editing. All the commands to transmit or receive
Patch, Bank or Performance files are found in
the Get/Send menu. X-oR's Options menu
includes the means to choose most of X-oR's
important global parameters and options.
Finally, the Info menu provides Iriformation
about the current Profile, along with a few other
important facts. Most of these menus and their
commands will be covered in later chapters, but
in this chapter we'll discuss a few important File

and Info menu commands.

The File Menu |

The File menu, which
found in just about
is

every GEM used to access the

program, is

computer's disk drives. Because X-oR has to

deal with so many different types of files, its File
menu is a little different than that found in most
programs.

The first block of items in the File menu are

used to open, close, and save Bank windows.
These items are described in detail in Chapter 6,
so there’s no need to discuss them here.

The next few items are used to save and load

Patches and Performances. Again, there are no
real surprises here; for more information on
these options, see Chapters 5 and 8.

X-oR's Menus 29
Save and The two items just above the Format option in
Save As... the File menu are used to save the contents 01
the current active window (the front window).
The exact functions of these items will change
depending on which window is active. If the
Performance window is on top, then the Save
option will be Save Performance; if the Patch
Edit window is active, it will be Save Patch, etc.
This may seem to be somewhat pointless at first,
since it almost always results in duplication of
some menu item. The
other real advantage to
this scheme lies in the < Control > key
equivalents for these items. <Control-S> always
duplicates the Save item, and <Control-A>
does the same thing as Save As.... This means
that, in order to save the contents of whatever
window you're currently working in, all you have
to do is press <Control-S> to save under its it

name, or <Control-A> to save

existing it with a
new name.

Format |
This command formats the disk in drive A. After
selecting Format, a dialog box will confirm this
choice, and then a second dialog will ask if box
you wish to format the disk as a single or double
sided disk. (If you only have a single-sided drive,
don't choose the Double option.) As always,
formatting a disk erases all data on the disk, so
do be careful, okay?

Quit and To I The last item in the File menu is used to leave X-
KCS I
oR. When using X-oR as a stand-alone program,
this item is labeled Quit,and causes a complete
end to everything you are doing. All data will be
lost, and you will be returned to the Desktop.
 When running X-oR in the MPE, however, Quit is

replaced by To KCS. Clicking here takes you

back to the MPE host program (e.g. KCS or
Tiger Cub), without disturbing any data stored in
X-oR. You can then return to X-oR by selecting it
from the host program's MPE menu. You may
also terminate X-oR from the MPE host program
(see the MPE host program's manual for
details).

Any time you quit X-oR, it will ask you if you

want to save any edited data. This will only
occur if there is an edited Patch or Bank that has
not been saved to disk, so if you get such a
message when you leave the program, simply
click on Cancel and then look for asterisks
beside the names of one or more windows, or
check marks beside Patch names in the
Performance window, which indicate that the
contents of that window have been edited, but
not saved. Note that no warnings are given
when you return to the MPE host with To KCS,
which means that you're on your own!

The Info Menu I

The Info menu includes the Profile Help
command, information about the Profile, the
amount of free space left for Bank and Library
files, and the current Mouse Channel. Profile

Help (described below) is the only real

command in this menu. The other Profile-related
information is intended to help solve Profile
problems by providing the X-oR and Instrument
ROM versions the Profile was tested with, the
author of the Profile, and the date is was last
modified. If you have a problem, you
Profile
should provide this information to the Dr. T
Product Support staff (provided, of course, that
it is done by one of our authors--if not, please try

to contact its creator).

X-oR's Menus 31
Profile Help |
The Profile Help command in the Info menu
loads and displays a file with the same name as
the Profile, but with the suffix .HLP instead of
.XOR. If it fails to find this file, it will let you load
any other .HLP file. If necessary, the file will keep
scrolling when you click the mouse or press a
key, until you've seen it all. Sorry, you can't
scroll backwards-maybe next version.

A high percentage of our user support calls are

related to Profile problems. To save our poor,
overworked support staff, all we ask is that you
read the help file before calling. The help file tells
you about the quirks of the instrument, the
operation of the Profile, and any known
problems.

Backups in I If you've used any kind of computer program

X-oR I
before X-oR, you've probably been drilled in the
importance of backups. While we don't want to
belabor the obvious, you should remember that,
as a computer musician, your art, career,
vocation, or whatever you wish to call it is
dependent on your sound data files. If you
lose them, you've lost the foundation of your
work. We suggest that you periodically make
multiple copies of both your Libraries and
Banks, and keep them in a safe place.
Chapter 4 It'simportant to have a good, easy way to
monitor your actions with X-oR--to check out the
Auditioning sounds that you've selected and edited. It's also
Sounds with important to have a variety of ways to do this.
X-oR Most of the time, a quick solo check is all that's
needed, but sometimes, when you're doing a
sequenced piece of music, you want to hear the
sound in a particular musical setting.

To cover all the bases, X-oR has several sound

auditioning methods. Our much imitated (but
never duplicated) full-screen Mouse Play feature
is the fastest and best way to get a feel for a

sound. If you need to hear a sound

polyphonically, X-oR can combine the MIDI
output of your master keyboard (or guitar or
whatever) with its own MIDI output. It will even

alter the channel automatically to play whatever

Module is currently selected in the Performance
window. On occasion, you may need to hear
how a patch sounds in the context of a
sequenced piece of music. For this, you'll need
a Dr. Ts sequencing program such as KCS or
Tiger Cub, which integrates with X-oR to provide
several more ways of auditioning a sound.

Mouse Play |
X-oR lets you use the right mouse button to play
any of your instruments. The basic concept is
simple: notes are left to right, velocity is up and
down-kind of like playing a keyboard with one
finger. Other tricks and options make Mouse
Play even more fun (and more useful). For
example, the Mouse Play options in the Options
menu, and Mouse Mod Controller, Mouse
Scale, and Mouse Key Shift in the System
Parameters window. Using all the options, the
mouse actually becomes an interesting and very
playable musical instrument.

Auditioning Sounds 33
 .

Basically, when you press the right mouse

button, a note is played. Its pitch and velocity
are determined by the mouse position. Low
pitches are on the left side of the screen, high
pitches on the right, and high and low velocities
at the top and bottom of the screen,
respectively.

The Mouse Play option, selected by clicking on

one of the five "Play" items in the Options menu,
determines what happens when the right mouse
button is depressed (no, it doesn't automatically
play the blues when it's depressed). If set to
Play Notes, a right mouse click will play a single
note each time it is pressed, and will hold the
note until the button is released. If set to Play
Glissando, dragging the mouse left or right
while holding the button down will create
glissandos.

The < Shift > and < Alternate > keys let you add
inflections to your mouse music. If the < Shift >
key is held down, the Mouse Play option will be
temporarily set to Glissando, which lets you
insert glissandos in normal (single-note) mouse
play.The < Alternate > key turns the mouse drag
motion into pitch bend, so that moving the
mouse left or right with the < Alternate > key
pressed bends pitch up or down.

Play Sequence, Play Range, and Play Cue are

when X-oR is running
available only in the MPE,
and cause the right mouse button to play the
current sequence, range or cue. These are
described in Chapter 1 1
 Mouse Mod Controller
When the right mouse held down,
button is

pressing the left mouse causes MIDI

button
controller messages to be sent. The MIDI
controller number to be used is specified by the
Mouse Mod Controller parameter, which is
found in the System Parameters window. It can
be set to aftertouch, or any MIDI continuous
controller from 1 to 31. The controller value sent
depends on the vertical position of the mouse.
Values are continuously updated as you drag
the mouse up and down with both buttons
pressed. When the left button is released, the
controllergoes back to zero (unless it happens
to be volume (MIDI controller 7), in which case it
stays where you leave it). The full range of
controller values (0-127) is available in the
middle 2/3rds of the screen. Use this feature to
test the expressive range of various controllers
in the sound you're working on.

Mouse Scale
This parameter, located in the System
Parameter window, gives you 13 different
scales that can be used for Mouse Play. All
notes played will be quantized to fit the chosen
scale, making it easy to create "tuneful" music
with the mouse. Choices include major,
harmonic minor, chromatic, whole tone, and
several other scales.

Mouse Key Shift

This sets the base key for the mouse scale, to
any value from C to B. You may type a number
from 0 to 1 1 to set this parameter.

Auditioning Sounds 35
Mouse I Most Modules in your system will have their own
Channel |
MIDI receive channels, which are shown In the
left-most column of the Performance window.
This almost always the channel on which you'll
is

want the mouse to play when you're working

with a Module. Therefore, X-oR automatically
changes the Mouse Channel to the Module's
receive channel whenever a new Module is
selected in the Performance window. However,
if the Module's receive channel is set to neutral
(shown as it will not be changed
automatically.

This automatic Mouse Channel selection is

enabled or disabled by the Auto Channel
Select menu switch (in the Options menu). If
the switch is on (i.e. it is checked) the Mouse
Channel changes automatically, as described
above.

The Mouse Channel can also be manually

changed at any time using the STs ten function
keys. The keys <F1> through <F10> set the
Mouse Channel 1 through 10,
to MIDI channels
and channels through 16 may be selected by
11
pressing either < Shift > key along with the keys
<F1 > through <F6>.

In theory, you should need to adjust the

rarely
Mouse Channel However, "multi-
manually.
timbral setup" Modules have more than one
MIDI receive channel, so which does X-oR pick
as the Mouse Channel? Some Profiles use their
own logic to pick a relevant receive channel
(which in turn sets the Mouse Channel), while
others leave it for you to change the Mouse
Channel manually.

The current Mouse Channel is always shown in

the Info menu, giving you visual confirmation

whenever you may need it.

36 X-oR
MIDI Merging I
MIDI merging "echoes" the data received at your
MIDI input to the computer's MIDI output, which
lets your master keyboard or other MIDI
controller play "through" the ST, while you're
sounds with X-oR. (MIDI merging and
editing
system configurations are discussed in

Appendix 2.)

X-oR's Merge function is on or

basically either
off. When Merge is two additional
on, there are
merge options: Solo, and Rechannelize. In
basic Merge mode, data on all 16 MIDI channels
is passed through the computer. With the Solo

or Rechannelize options, the incoming data is

filtered or modified such that the outgoing data
is entirely on the Mouse Channel.

The Mouse Channel can be thought of as the

"Solo/Rechannelize/Mouse Channel." With the
Solo option, only data on the Mouse Channel is
merged with the output from X-oR; all other data
is filtered. With Rechannelize, MIDI data on all

16 channels is merged, but every channel is

changed to the Mouse Channel. Solo is
especially useful if you're merging data from a
sequencer, and wish to hear only a single
channel, while Rechannelize is handy for
automatically switching the output of a master
keyboard to play the current Module.

Merge is controlled by three menu switches in

the Options menu; Merge, Solo and

Rechannelize. Merge is the master merge on-
off switch, while Solo and Rechannelize toggle
the merge options when Merge is on. If Merge
is off, and you selectSolo or Rechannelize, X-
oR will turn Merge on and select the option.

Auditioning Sounds 37
When Merge is on, X-oR needs to keep track of
notes received and transmitted, so that it will
know when to allow changes to occur without
causing notes to "stick" (i.e. act as if a key were
stuck in the down position). If you get a prompt
saying "Notes on?", releasing all keys should
allow the program to continue. If not, you'll have
to hit the < Return > key on the computer or a
mouse button to continue. The Panic
command, in the Get/Send menu, can also be
used to turn off any stuck notes.

Ifyou use Merge, and any of your Machines

have a MIDI overflow mode or MIDI merge
mode, It is possible to form a MIDI feedback
loop, in which case everything will freeze (or
maybe even crash). If this happens, don't panic-
just disconnect one of the MIDI cables attached
to the ST to break the loop, then track the
problem down and fix it.

The Filter Program Changes switch in the

Options menu determines whether program
change messages will be passed or filtered by
X-oR's Merge function. Generally speaking, you
will want to prevent program changes sent by

your master controller from being passed on to

other Instruments in the system. These program
changes can only cause confusion, since X-oR
is supposed to be handling all program
management chores. Therefore, this switch
should always be on, unless you have a special
need.
Local I Note that, [f your master keyboard is part of a
Control? |
synthesizer or sampler that has its own tone
generating circuitry, you may want to turn local
control off in this instrument. Otherwise, each
time you play a note, two notes play-one
will

from the synth itself, and one on whatever tone

module is listening to the keyboard. Worse yet, if

the synth is listening to itself via MIDI, two notes

willbe played on that instrument, and you'll be
leftwondering why your eight-voice synth only
plays four notes. If the keyboard that you are
using as the master controller does not have
some sort of "local control off mode, ifs not a
very good choice for use as a master controller,
no matter what the salesman told you.

Panic |
The Panic command, found in the Get/Send
menu, is for emergency use only. It sends an All
Notes Off message on each MIDI channel, along
with note off messages for all 128 MIDI notes. It
also sets the pitch bend to zero on each
channel, and turns off the sustain pedal as well.
Use this if any notes "stick" while you are
playing. The Panic command is duplicated by
the <Control-Z> key combination.

Auditioning Sounds 39
•J! uo aouejuas 0uo A|uo sbi| 06bcJ S!M1
Chapter 5 The most important conceptual structure in X-
oR is probably the Performance. X-oR achieves
The its high level of integration by dividing your MIDI
Performance system into modular components (Modules),
Window and then recombining the Modules into a
Performance. Ifs like a gigantic Multi-Patch,
spanning all your Instruments.

A Performance file contains the current Patch

data for each and every Module, along with

some Instrument-level information (e.g. the
mode of the Instrument and the Instrument's
current Bank file). The function of the
Performance file is to save and restore the entire

state of your MIDI setup.

In addition to showing the current Performance,

the Performance window functions as the
control center for most of X-oR's other windows,

f "The Performance window is so important that

when you first boot X-oR, will be open; and it

unlike the other windows in X-oR, can never be it

closed. The Performance window is shown

below:

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2 [
I Roland 0-111 PartTone 2 Sin Hal let IHITM* # 43
f
4 Roland 0-111 PartTone I lassDrun 1 library
5 Roland D-111 PartTone 4 lassDrun 3 library
( Roland D-111 PartTone 5 libblsynth
7 Roland D-111 PartTone 6 Tinbass
8 Ro^d.O-lli Pa^tT^ 7 Elec0rgan2

18 Roland D-111 Drunset lenaned Drunset

-- Roland D-111 Tnbr.Tbl lenaned Tnbr.Tbl
II Hatrli-llll Voice CELLOSW? ICREEMT •
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The Performance Window

The Performance Window 41

 Each line in the Performance window lists a
Module, and the name of the current Patch for
that Module. The current (i.e. selected) Module
is highlighted--this is the Module that affects,

and is affected by most of X-oR's windows and

menus. A Module can be selected by clicking
anywhere on its line. Whenever you select a new
Module, windows for the last selected Module
will disappear, and windows for the new Module

will open (if necessary). This feature makes the

Performance window the center of the

program, since most functions in X-oR involve
only the currently selected Module.

One important point to keep in mind is that

when you select a new Module, the windows for
the current Module be closed, but the data
will

they contain will not be lost. As soon as you

return to a previously selected Module, its
windows will be reopened.

Performance The Module Status/Receive Channel Display

Window (the left-most column of the Performance
Display window) is used to show the current status of
each Module. Normally, it shows the channel on
which the Module is receiving voice messages
(notes, controllers, etc.). Modules which either
don't respond to voice messages, or which
respond on multiple MIDI channels may be
shown as Modules which are completely
inaudible in the current Performance are shown
as off. A designation of "xxx" signifies that the
Module does not correspond to the current
mode of its parent instrument. For example, a
TX-81Z may be in either “Performance" or
"Single" mode, but never both at once. When a
Module is marked "xxx," usually means that if
it

you select the Module, the mode of the

instrument will be changed to make the Module
active (making other areas inactive, if

necessary).
 X-oR also shows a question mark (?) if it thinks a
Module's Patch data may be out of sync with the
actual data being used by the Instrument. You
will notice that all the Patches have question

marks when the program boots. Patches

become "in sync" when they are received or
transmitted. The only way a Patch can become
out of sync another patch (usually a multi-
is if

timbral patch) sent which causes the patch to

is

change in the synth, and X-oR is unable to

duplicate the change internally. This may occur,
for example, if a multi-timbral patch uses presets
stored in the instrument's ROM, or if the
instruments Internal Bank file is not open.

The patch status also has an important function

when a Performance file is saved and later
reloaded, as described on page 45.

Editing I Since Performances consist of all the current

Performances |
Patches and Banks in your X-oR setup, the
Performance is edited simply by sending
different Patches or Banks to your instruments.
Clicking on any Patch in any open Bank or
Library window sends the Patch to the current
Module, making it part of the Performance.

Editing a Patch also edits the Patch in the

Performance. A check mark will appear beside
the name of any Patch that has been edited,
until its been stored or saved. If the Patch is

only saved with a Performance file, the check

mark will not go away, because edited patches
should be saved where they can be retrieved
individually (i.e. in a Patch file, Bank file or
Library).

The Performance Window 43

 Ideally, the contents of the Performance
window should represent the "running” state of
the MIDI system at all times. Because a Patch
(or part of a Patch) is sent to the system every
time you do anything in X-oR, such as moving a
Patch to another location within a Bank, or
selecting a Patch from a Library, the contents of
the Performance will change almost
continuously during an X-oR session. For this
reason, you should save your Performances as
soon as they are set up to your liking, since
further X-oR operations will change their
contents.

Getting and When Get Perf Patches is selected, X-oR will go

Sending through the list of Modules and ask each one to
Performance send its current Patch to the computer. If any
Patches Module does not respond, an alert box will
appear which will tell you what has happened,
and allow you to try again (Retry), to skip to the
next Module in the list (Continue), or to
terminate the Get operation (Cancel).

If programmable MIDI switcher,

you're using a
getting from your system will be
Patches
extremely easy. If you are using a manual
switcher or are patching by hand, X-oR will ask
you to connect the appropriate Machine to the
computer's MIDI input before it gets any data.
(Just one more reason to buy that
programmable switcher!) In the case of certain
oddball instruments that do not have any kind of
MIDI request messages, X-oR will ask you to
initiate a dump from the Machine's front panel at
the appropriate tima

No matter how clever a Profile is, some will be

unable to determine the mode of the Instrument
when Get Perf Patches is used. If so, the Profile
may have to assume that the Instrument is in the
mode that X-oR previously thought it was in.
You should verify the mode of such Instruments
before saving a Performance.

44 X-oR
 Send Perf Patches sends the Patches in the
current Performance to the MIDI system.
Performance Patches are also sent
when they are loaded with the
automatically
Load Performance menu item, as explained
below. Because of this, and because the
Performance should already represent the
current state of your setup, there is rarely any
reason to use the Send Perf Patches option.

Ifeither the Get or Send switches in the

Performance Enable section of the Instrument
Setup window are turned off for a particular
Instrument, the Instrument will be ignored during
the corresponding operation. See Chapter 10 for
more on these switches.

The Send Perf Patches command (as with

Load Performance below) WILL NOT send
patches which are switched out of the current
mode (marked “xxx"), or those which are out of
sync (marked "?").

Loading and Performance disk operations are handled with

Saving the Load Performance and Save Perf As...
Performances items in the File menu. If the Performance
window is the front window, then the menu
option Save Performance can also be used to
save the Performance.

A Performance file the data and

contains
comments for each Patches contained in
of the
that Performance, as well as a set of comments
for the Performance itself. When Save
Performance is selected, the current
Performance will be saved under its existing
name, unless it has not been named, in which
case a file selector will appear. All other
operations always use the file selector. When
Load Performance is selected, the
Performance will be loaded from disk and then
sent to the MIDI system.

The Performance Window 45

 If either the Load or Save switches in the
Performance Enable section of the Instrument
Setup window are turned off for a particular
Instrument, that Instrument will be ignored
during the corresponding operation. See
Chapter 10 for more on these switches.

As we have mentioned, Performances may also

refer to Bank files. For complete information on
how Bank files are treated by the Load and
Save Performance commands, see the
sections beginning with Internal Bank files, in
Chapter 6.

Patch Status The data and status of each patch is saved with
in a an X-oR Performance. The status determines
Performance exactly what will happen when the Performance
is reloaded. Patches which are switched out of

the current mode (xxx) are not reloaded at all.

All other patches have their data restored,

will

but patches which were inaudible (off) or out of

sync (?) are NOT sent. This should successfully
return the instrument to the mode it was in when
the Performance was stored, as well as restoring
all the necessary data for that mode.

Performance I When the Performance window is on top, the

Comments I
Comments option in the Edit menu allows you
to edita 255 character comment field for the
current Performance. These comments are
saved with the Performance when is saved to it

disk.

Printing A list of the contents of the current Performance,

Performances along with its comments, may be printed by
selecting Print from the Edit menu. Because
Print actually prints the contents of whatever
window is on top, the Performance window

must be the top window when printing the

Performance.

46 X-oR
Chapter 6 Banks are collections of Patches that can be
sent to a single Instrument as a group. The size
Bank of the Bank will depend on the storage capacity
Operations of the individual Instruments. For example, an
ESQ-1 Bank consists of 40 Patches, and a CZ-
101 Bank contains 16 Patches. Depending on
the design of the Profile, a single Bank may
contain Patches for only one Data Type, or for
several Data Types within a single Instrument.

X-oR has a full complement of Bank editing

features, and
including click-and-drag editing,
options for storing and retrieving all Banks
of the
in your system as a group. These features, and

most other Bank operations, are discussed in

this chapter.

Bank I Bank windows show all the Patches in a Bank

Windows |
file which apply to the current Module (i.e.
Patches of the correct Data Type). Bank
windows are sizeable both vertically and
horizontally, and may be put into full-screen
mode as well. The available space in the window
is filled with as many columns of patch names

as possible. The number of characters in a

patch name and the patch numbering style are
set by the Profile, using the format and
conventions of the given Machine.

Bank Operations 47
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12 Bnss 1 882 fllti Sax 852 Rccardion

II Ooh/lhh 861 Spectrin ! 851 Bellsinth!
It Suitir 1 B8t E.liss 2 85 t Kaadalin
IS Bottlebell 885 Hirluki 855 Spec, Junk
IS Frttltss 956 Rotrlissit B86 Res-Sjnthl BS6 Cha laice
17 Syapkinic 957 IrtiStrnj! 867 Strioiorch 857 RrcaStrnjl
IS Ph Flute 958 Suft-lellj 868 Hmsmepl 858 Syathkassl
IS HI Brins 955 Thuidtr 865 II Irms 855 Delimited
963 Glut line 818 SteMsynth 869 Faatasy
961 Cliv 1 811 Soft E.P. B61 Pipearganl
962 Tuir Su 812 Trmkine 862 FreackHorn
961 Voices 811 Ha«e»eep2 861 Uatiaetp5
964 Distiiitir Bit Baiji 861 FiaierPick
965 Hieibells 815 Sanelan 865 Top Piano
966 Pull less 816 Pick-Piano 866 Zuiul
967 Ouirtet 817 Harp 867 Softstring
96S ilirlt 818 HartamI 861 Sam LL

A Bank Window

The Bank file name appears at the top of its

window. If the Bank has been edited since it was

last saved, an asterisk will appear to the right of
the name.

Opening I Bank may be loaded into X-oR's memory

files

Banks |
Open Bank... item in the File
from disk with the
menu. When the Bank file is loaded, a Bank
window is opened names of the
displaying the
appropriate Patches Bank file. Up to four
in the
Bank windows may be open at any one time.
For instance, even if you have ten CZ-101's, you
can only open four CZ Banks. The only other
constraint is the amount of memory available to
X-oR, which is displayed in the Info menu. X-oR
can open as many as 128 Bank files at a time, if
you've got enough memory.

Initializing a I A new, empty Bank can be created with the New

Bank I
Bank item in the File menu. The new Bank
contains initialized patches (the patch
Initialization process is controlled by the Profile).

48 X-oR
Loading a As you have probably already discovered,
Patch from a clickingon a Patch in a Bank window sends the
Bank Patch to the Instrument, and loads it into the
current Module's Patch Edit Buffer in the
Performance window. We call this "loading a
Patch".

Storing a When you have edited a Patch, you may want to

Patch in a store it back into a Bank. The most common
Bank way of doing this is to "drag" the Patch from the

Performance window to the Bank window

(similar to copying a file on the GEM desktop).
To do this, click on the current Module's line in
the Performance window, and keep the mouse
button down. A dotted rectangle appears, which
you may drag across the screen with the
mouse. When you position the mouse pointer
over a location in any Bank window, the location
is highlighted. Highlight the location in which
you want to store the Patch, and release the
mouse.

When a Patch is stored, the Patch edit flag is

cleared, the Bank and if the Patch
edit flag is set,
is stored to the Internal Bank and Bank Updt is
on, the patch is sent to or stored in the
Instrument's internal bank memory. See pages
51 and 53 for more on the Internal Bank.

Update Bank I The Update Bank Patch command in the Edit

Patch |
menu a shortcut for dragging the current
is

Patch back to the same Bank location from

whence it came (the location should already be
highlighted).

Bank Operations 49
Editing Banks: Patches may be moved or copied from one
Copy, Move Bank to another, or within a single Bank, simply
and Swap by clicking on the name of the source Patch and
dragging it to the destination. Three items in the
Edit menu determine what will happen to the
original contents of the destination Patch when
a Patch is dragged from one location to another.
If Drag to Copy (the default) is selected, then

dragging a Patch will copy to the new location, it

and the original contents of the destination will

be lost. If Drag to Swap is selected, then the
contents of the source and destination Patches
will be exchanged. If Drag to Move is selected,

then dragging a Patch to another location within

the same Bank moves all of the Patches
between the source and destination, so that
none are lost; when dragging between two
Banks, however, it does the same thing as Drag
to Copy.

Renaming a The name of in a Bank may be edited by

a Patch
Patch in a clicking twiceon the name, or by clicking once
Bank on the current Bank Patch location in the Bank
window.

Getting and The Get Bank and Send Bank options in the
Sending Get/Send menu are used to transfer entire
Banks Banks to and from the synthesizer via MIDI.
When you select Get Bank, X-oR will first send
the proper program change to your MIDI
switcher (if you have one; otherwise, it puts up a
prompt telling you to repatch your system), and
then send the appropriate system exclusive
request message(s) to the Machine. If no data is

received, or If the data "smells bad", an alert box

will tell you the nature of the error and allow you
to try again, or to cancel the request. The
received Bank is placed in a new Bank window.

When Send Bank is selected, the Bank in the

current (top) window is sent to the synthesizer.

50 X-oR
Saving Banks I
Banks may be saved to disk with the Save Bank
As...,and Save Bank items in the File menu.
Note that these items will only be available if the
top window is a Bank window. Save Bank saves
the Bank under its existing file name. Save Bank
As... presents a file selector, where you may
rename the Bank if you want to.

Closing Banks I
A Bank file may be closed by clicking on the
close window button in the upper left corner of
the Bank window, or the current (top) Bank may
be closed by selecting Close Bank from the
File menu. If the Bank has been edited since it
was last saved, the program will ask if you're
sure that you want to close the Bank before
continuing, since the contents will be lost when
the Bank file is closed.

Internal Bank I X-oR keeps track of the last bank sent or

Files |
received from each Instrument. (See page 50 for
more on this.) The name of the current Internal
Bank file is shown in the Instrument Setup
window. Also, the Internal Bank file for the
current Instrument has an "(i)" after its window
title. X-oR can even remember this Bank file

between sessions, by automatically saving the

Setup file when you quit, as described on page
85. This gives X-oR a reasonably good chance
of knowing what Bank file is in each Instrument,
without having to specifically get or send the
data each time you run X-oR.

Bank Operations 51
The Perf Bank I The Instrument Setup Window contains a
Switch |
switch labeled Perf Bank. With this switch on,
the name of the instrument’s Internal Bank file is
saved along with a Performance. When the
Performance is loaded with the Load
Performance command, the Internal Bank file
willbe loaded and sent to the synth, if
necessary. Obviously, this is just the ticket for
people who tend to use program changes in
their sequences. Also, most multi-timbral
instruments require the Internal Bank file to
properly recreate a multi-timbral patch.

The Internal Bank file for each Instrument is NOT

saved when the Performance is saved-only the
name of the file is saved. You must save all
edited Internal Bank files, and it’s a good idea to
save it before you save the Performance file, in
case you want to rename it!

Turn the Perf Bank switch on for an Instrument:

1) If your sequencer sends program changes to

the Instrument, or you change programs from
the Instrument’s front panel during the musical
performance in question.

2) If you are using the Instrument in multi-timbral

mode. (There are some exceptions to this rule;

for example, the MT-32, D-1 10 and FB-01 .)
Speed Issues Sending banks naturally slows down the Load
when Loading Performance command, but thanks to X-oR's
Performances logical operation, only the files which need to be
loaded are loaded, and only those which need
to be sent are sent. When X-oR first boots, you
will notice a question mark to the right of all the
Internal Bank file names. X-oR doesn't
completely trust the Internal Bank information
until a bank has been sent or received in the

current X-oR session, in which case the question

mark goes away. Therefore, the first time you
load a Performance during a session, all the
Performance's bank be sent. Thereafter,
files will

only the changes be sent. In a live

will

performance situation, you can tell X-oR to load

any Performance, and trust that it will do it as
quickly as MIDI will allow.

Bank Update |
The Bank Updt (Bank Update) feature is meant
to ensure that patches stored into the Internal
Bank file are also updated in the synthesizer's
memory. Bank Updt is enabled separately for
each Instrument using the Bank Updt switch in
the Instrument Setup window.

This feature is primarily designed to aid the

process of editing single timbres within a multi-

timbral patch. Typically, multi-timbre patches
load single patches from the synth's internal
memory. With this feature on, a single timbre
which is edited and stored into the Internal Bank
is immediately available to the multi-timbral
patch.

Example: Ina typical X-oR profile (like the D-1 10

Profile), when you store an edited (single tone)
patch (via <Control-U>, for example), the patch
ischanged in the internal memory of the synth
and the multi patch is also automatically edited
to point to the correct patch location. This type
of integration is rarely found in editor/librarian

programs, let alone a universal editor/librarian.

Bank Operations 53
 NOTE: Copy, Move and Swap operations on
the Internal Bank will not be sent to the synth. If
you are moving patches around, you may not
want to send the changes after each operation,
because in many synths, this would slow you
down too much. When you're through editing
the Internal Bank, you should use Send Bank.

Bank I When a Bank window is on top, the Comments

Comments I
option in menu allows you to edit a 255
the Edit
character comment field for the current Bank.
These comments are saved with the Bank when
itis saved to disk, and are printed when you

print the Bank.

Printing I A list of all the Patches in the top Bank window,

Banks I
along with the Bank's comments, may be printed
by selecting Print from the Edit menu. The Print
command uses the same columnar format as
the window, but it is limited to only 80 columns.
Therefore, you may need to decrease the
window size tofit all the patch names on the

page.
Chapter 7 X-oR's Library menu provides access to the
program's Patch Libraries. Libraries are similar

Using the to Banks, in that they contain collections of

Libraries Patches for a single Instrument, but they go well

beyond the limitations of individual Banks in

several ways. First of a Library can contain a

all,

very large number of Patches, which is usually

limited only by the amount of disk storage space
available. Second, Patches within the Library
can contain additional information that lets X-oR
search for Patches in a manner much like a
database. The time and date of the Patch's
creation and comments on the Patch are also
saved in the Library. One other difference
between Banks and Libraries is that each Library
only works with a single Data Type, whereas
Banks may store data from several Data Types.

An important part of X-oR's librarian is its use of

keywords. Keywords are short descriptive
phrases that you may assign to a Patch, to
describe its qualities. Once you have assembled
a Library and given each Patch a list of suitable
keywords, you'll be able to find specific patches
with considerable ease. For example, if you
want a "funky bass, that is smooth but
then you can tell X-oR to find all
distorted",
sounds with those qualities--but we're getting
ahead of ourselves. In this chapter, you'll learn
everything you need to know about using X-oR’s
librarian functions.

Creating a I If no Library exists for a particular Data Type,

Library I
use the Open Library option to create a new
one. After selecting this command, ifX-oR
cannot find an existing Library, an alert box will
ask if you wish to locate the Library, cancel, or
create a new one. Just click on New, and X-oR
will create a new Library file in the folder for that

instrument.

Using the Libraries 55

Opening a The Library for the Module currently selected in
Library the Performance window may be opened by
selecting Open Library in the Library menu.
This opens a window containing a list of the

Patches in the Library. One important point to

bear in mind is that, unlike the Banks, opening a
Library does not load the data into the
computers memory. Only the Library’s directory
file is loaded into memory. Individual Patches

are loaded from the disk as they are selected.

This means that, if you are using floppy disks,
the disk containing the Library must remain in
the drive as long as you are using the librarian,
so that X-oR will be able to access the Library as
needed.

If no Library exists in the folder for the current

Module, X-oR will ask if you would like to create
a new Library, or if it should attempt to locate
the Library file. When Locate is selected, a file

selector will appear, which will allow you to

search through all of the folders in your system
until you locate the Library. (The Library file

name is three letters--the Patch file extension-

followed by “.LIB".) If you are using floppy disks,
and the wrong disk is in the drive when you
attempt to access a Library, X-oR will also ask if

you want to locate the Library. In this case,

insert the proper disk in the drive, and select
Locate to help X-oR find the Library.

The LIBRARY I The LIBRARY window, shown on the following

Window |
page, contains a list of all or some of the
Patches in the current Library, as well as the
date and time that the Patch was stored in the
Library, and the keywords and comments
associated with each Patch.
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The LIBRARY Window

The order in which Patches are listed depends

on the status of the two switches labeled Sort
by Name and Sort by Date in the Library menu.
Sort By Date is especially handy during a Patch
editing session, since allows you to keep track
it

of the versions of the sound you're working on,

in chronological order. When selecting sounds

for use in a Performance, Sort by Name is

probably a better choice. If Show Some, also in
the Library menu, is checked, then only those
Patches found in the last Find operation will be
displayed; otherwise, all Patches in the Library
are listed.

A Library may be closed by clicking on either

Close Library, in the Library menu, or on the
close button in the upper left corner of the
LIBRARY window itself.

Using the Libraries 57

Storing The Patch that is highlighted in the
Patches In the Performance window may be stored in the
Libraries Library either by dragging it from the
Performance to the Library (anywhere in the
LIBRARY window), or by selecting the Patch-
library item in the Library menu. In either
case, the LIBRARY PATCH INFORMATION
window (described on the next page) will
appear, and after you click on OK, the Patch will
be added to the Library and directory files. Once
again, the proper disk must be in your floppy
drive if you are using floppy disks for Patch
storage.

Patches may be copied from a Bank to the

Library by dragging the Patch name from the
Bank to the Library. The settings of the three
Drag to switches in the Edit menu have no
effect on this operation.

Library Whenever you save a patch in the Library, X-oR

Duplicate does two checks. First, it checks to see if a
Checking patch with the same name already exists. If it

does, it then compares the data for the two

patches. If they are exact duplicates, you will be
notified, and you will not be allowed to save the
patch. When the names are the same, but the
data doesn't match, you may choose to replace
the existing patch (Replace), add a new entry
(Add), or Cancel. If in doubt, add the patch-
you can always decide to delete later. Having
it

no restrictions on duplicate Patch names in the

Library makes it easy to work on and save many
versions of essentially the same Patch, using
comments or keywords to differentiate them.

58 X-oR
Editing Patch I All of the additional information associated with
Information I
a Patch, such as its name, time of creation,

keyword list, and a short comment, may be

displayed and/or edited in the LIBRARY
PATCH INFORMATION window, shown below.
Thiswindow appears when you store a Patch in
a Library, when you click on the currently
selected Patch in the Library, or after clicking on
Show Patch Info in the Library menu.

A File Edit Library Set/Send Options life

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The LIBRARY PATCH INFORMATION Window

The editable fields in this window are the Patch

name, the comment, and a list of up to eight
keywords. New keywords may be "attached" to
a Patch by selecting a keyword from the
KEYWORDS window. The keywords are divided
into groups, much as files in the STs disks are
grouped into folders. The KEYWORDS window
initially contains a list of these groups; clicking

on any keyword group name brings up a list of

keywords in that group, any of which may then
be added to the keyword list simply by clicking
on it. The Erase button will erase the currently
highlighted keyword from the list, and Clear
erases the entire list. Existing keywords may be
replaced by clicking on the offending keyword,
and selecting a new one.

Using the Libraries 59

Editing Patch The comment field gives you a place to write
Information something about the Patch that cant be
(continued) expressed using keywords. The comment is
edited in the same way that all text areas are in
X-oR. Note that these comments are not related
or connected to the comments saved with
individual Patch files, which are created with the
Comments menu item.

As was mentioned earlier, the keywords are

perhaps the most important feature of the
librarian, because of their use by the Find
command (described in the next section). If you
have a large Library sounds, you might think
of
that the amount of time needed to assign
keywords to all of your sounds is prohibitive, but
take it from us--the long-term payback on your
time investment will result in substantial savings
in the future (hmm... sounds more like a Banker

than a Librarian). We suggest that, when you

first add a Patch to a Library, you get in the habit

of assigning one or two keywords-probably one

CATEGORIES group and one from the
from the
INSTRUMENTS group. However, don't go
overboard on assigning subjective descriptions
of a sound's qualities to a patch. Ifs more
important that you use keywords in a consistent
manner (which may mean using fewer
keywords) than it is to come up with a unique
way of describing each Patch.

Note that the creation time and date listed for

the Patch will not be correct if your STs clock is

not set correctly! We suggest the use of a

battery-backed clock, to eliminate such worries.

Library I Programming too many keywords per patch

Keyword Tips |
withouta great deal of advance planning
inexorably (pun intended) leads to a poorly
organized Library. The last thing you want to do
is to reprogram the keywords in your Library!
 We've found that a good way to approach
keywords is on an as-needed basis; that is,
program just one or two keywords per Patch
until your becomes so big that a
Library
many patches.
particular search results in too
Then, using Show Some, go through the
offending list of patches and add one more
keyword category to each patch.

The keywords are intended to be used to help

you find a patch you are looking for, while the
comment should be used to help you recognize
a particular patch when you see in a list. This
it

is an important distinction-the keywords should

not be too distinctive, since this defeats their

purpose. Until your Library is big enough to
need them, any extra descriptive comments
should be put in the comment field.

Moving Banks the times, your patches are free to

In the spirit of
to the emigrate en masse from Bank file to Library,
Libraries attaching a common comment or keyword as
they cross the border, if you wish. For example,
we find it handy to put the Bank file name in the

comment. The only restriction is that the Library

will not accept duplicates (duplicate names are
okay, but no exact clones). The operation of this
command should be pretty self-explanatory. We
recommend programming the keywords
individually to take advantage of the keyword
search feature, but with Bank- > Library, you
can save that task for a rainy day, while you
enjoy some of the benefits of X-oR's Libraries.

Deleting a I The currently selected Library Patch may be

Library Patch |
deleted from the Library by clicking on Delete
Patch, in the Library menu. An alert box will

confirm this choice before the Patch is deleted.

Using the Libraries 61

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 Keywords are added to and removed from the
Find Keywords box using the KEYWORDS
window and the Clear and Erase buttons, just
as in the LIBRARY PATCH INFORMATION
window. In addition, two buttons labeled AND
and OR are used to set logical constraints on
how multiple keywords work together. All of the
keywords in the list, except the first, are
preceded by either and or or. If and appears
between two keywords, X-oR only finds Patches
that have both keywords; if or appears, it will
find Patches that use either keyword. Keywords
that are separated by the or statement are
evaluated together by X-oR when it searches for
matching keywords~if any keyword in an "or'd"
group is found in a Patch, then X-oR
immediately skips to the next and keyword. For
example, suppose you set up the following
keyword list:

keyboard
and soothing
or pleasant
or smooth
and acoustic

In this case, X-oR will find any acoustic

keyboard Patches that are either pleasant,
soothing, or smooth. If, on the other hand, the
keyword list read like this:

keyboard
and soothing
or pleasant
and acoustic
or smooth

then X-oR would search for keyboard sounds

that are soothing or pleasant, as well as acoustic
or smooth.

Using the Libraries 63

Searching the If you wish to search for a Patch whose name or
Libraries comments contain a particular word, enter the
(continued) text string in the field labeled Text. The case of
the text string does not need to match the text
you're searching for, and it needn't be a
complete word; for example, entering "ell" will
find the Patches "Bell", "SHELLS", etc. The text
string "anded" with the keyword list, so if you
is

don't want to search for a particular text string,

you must first clear
this field with the <Esc> key
before executing the search. If you want to
search for text only, use the Clear button to
clear all keywords before doing the search.

Once the search criteria are defined, clicking on

Search will cause a list of the Patches that meet
your requirements to appear in the LIBRARY
window. You may change the "rule" and search
as many times as needed.

There are three ways to exit the dialog box. To

create a Bank consisting of the "found" Patches,
click on the Make a Bank button (the current
Module must have a Bank file format for this to
work). The number of patches is limited to the
standard bank size, and the more patches there
are, the longer
it takes to create the bank. If you

choose Exit/Show Some, the Show Some

switch in the Library menu isturned on, and the
LIBRARY window will display only the "found"
Patches, making it easy to audition them.
Exit/Show All exits with the Show Some switch
turned off.

Note that patches listed in the FIND

KEYWORDS/TEXT dialog are sorted by name
or date, according to the setting of the switches
in the Library menu, just as they are in the main

LIBRARY window.

64 X-oR
Editing the I X-oR's keywords are contained in a file named
Keyword List |
KEYWORDS.TXT, which can be edited with any
word processor that saves ASCII (unformatted)
text files. If you feel that the keywords that we've
provided just dont go far enough, you may
modify the keyword file to meet your needs.
However, there are a few guidelines that must
be followed when editing KEYWORDS.TXT, in
order for the new file to make sense to X-oR.

First of all, keywords should be no longer than

twelve characters, and must end with a carriage
is, each keyword must be on its own
return-that
line.Group heading names are identified by a
backslash <\> before the name-for example,
\SOUND EFX. (This is not counted in the twelve
character limit.)

Most important, X-oR identifies keywords by

their group number and their position within
each group, not by their text. This means that if
you add keywords to a group, they must be
added to the end of the group, rather than
inserted in the middle. Similarly, if you add a
new group to the list, it should be tacked on at
the end. If this rule is not followed, most or all of
the keywords assigned to each Patch in any
existing Libraries will become meaningless. (Of
course, you haven't created any Libraries yet,
if

you can change the keywords in any way you

wish.) Keywords may be replaced with
synonyms ("fiddle" instead of “violin", for
instance) if Each group may
you are so inclined.
contain no more than 256 keywords, and the
maximum number of groups is 255.

Using the Libraries 65

Editing the Although you can add an awful lot of keywords
Keyword List to the list, we urge you not go overboard with

(continued) this, especially in the area of subjective

descriptions of quality (“soft", "sappy", etc.).
Keep it simple-and avoid all synonyms! A good
keyword category addition would be
"Programmer," or "Project". Your additional
keywords might be technical details on the
Patch (mode, algorithm or waveshapes used,
etc.), or any instrument types we may have
neglected to put in the keyword list.

goes without saying that, to ensure complete

It

you should make a backup copy of

security,
KEYWORDS.TXT before you start to edit it.

Library I If you're been using the Caged Artist editor/

Applications I
librarians, you're probably in the habit of storing
your Patches in Banks, and
then loading
individual Banks and Patches from them
pulling
as needed. This way of working is now as
outdated as the buggy whip, thanks to the
Libraries. We suggest that one of the first things
you do with X-oR is to copy ALL of your Patches
into Libraries (using Bank- > Library), and get in
the habit of using them regularly.

The Libraries offer a faster and more powerful

alternative to single Patch files. Library storage
is both more efficient, and faster than single
Patch storage. When you've got a Patch that
you want to save, just select the Patch-
library command to store it in the Library.
There's no need to type in a file name, and
there's no worry about accidentally erasing a
previous version.

66 X-oR
 The Libraries are also a good place to store
intermediate versions of Patches as they are
being created. Because Patches in the Library
can be sorted by time of creation (with the most
recent displayed first), it’s easy to find the most
recent version of the Patch that you've saved, or
the one before that, even if you don't give them
different names when they are saved. When
you're done, you can go through the list and
delete the bad sounds, and give slightly different
names or comments to the various good
Patches, along with appropriate keywords.

Library Each Library is made up of two files: a Library

Techno- which ends in a .LIB extension and contains
file,

details the actual Patch data, and a directory file, which

ends in .DIR and contains the additional
information on each Patch, such as keywords,
comments, etc. Both of these files should be in
the data storage folder specified for the
Instrument inthe setup program. (You normally
wont need to worry about this, since X-oR
automatically places these files in the correct
folder when they are created.) If you move these
any reason, be sure
files for to move both of
them together.

Libraries are automatically shared between all

compatible Data Types (compatibility is

determined by the Profile). Therefore, as a

general rule, you should only have one Library
per Data Type. If you are using a hard disk,
there should be no problem. However, if you are
using floppy disks, you may need to create
multiple Libraries, due to disk size limitations. In
this case, you should be very careful to NEVER
CHANGE DISKS when the Library is open,
since this could theoretically cause your Library
to become garbled. (Actually, X-oR uses a
Library protection scheme which practically
eliminates catastrophic Library errors, but
Murphy says that it will happen to someone,
someday; hence this warning. In most cases, an
error message will occur.)

Using the Libraries 67

X-oR expects to find the Library for each Module
in the folder where that instrument's Bank files

reside. If you change this folder using the file

selector, X-oR will be unable to locate the
Library. In this case, just use the Locate option
to put things back the way they belong.

The number of patches in a Library is limited to

32,768 (try to contain yourself)! Directory entries
currently use about 80 bytes each (although this
may be programmable in the future), plus patch
data,so your Library directory file reaches 2.6
if

megabytes or so, it may be time to clean out the

less useful patches.
Chapter 8 X-oR contains a complete, full-featured patch
editor for nearly every device it supports. Each
Patch Editing Profile contains the necessary information:
parameter names, ranges, etc. X-oR uses
sliders, envelope graphs, and text-based objects
to edit individual parameters. Also included is an
arsenal of tools that generate Patches through
various algorithms such as combination and
randomization, and tools to edit Patches on a
larger scale. In this chapter, we'll cover all
aspects of editing Patches in X-oR.

Opening a Patch editing a special window called

is done in

Patch Edit the Patch Edit window. To open a Patch Edit

Window window for a specific Module, first select that
Module in the Performance window, then pull
down the Edit menu and click on Patch Edit
window. (Pressing <Control-E> will also open a
Patch Edit window for the currently selected
Modula) Once this is done, a window similar to
that shown below will appear.

A File Edit library Set/Send Options Iifo

ESQ-1 Patch Edit Window

Patch Editing 69
The Patch Edit I Each Patch Edit window consists of the
Window |
standard GEM window elements (move bar,
resize button, etc.) along with three special
types of data entry devices, which we call
"Parameter Objects." Sliders are used to edit
continuously variable parameters (usually
numeric parameters), text boxes are used to
choose a parameter value by name from a list,
and envelope graphs are used for the graphic
display and editing of envelope generator (EG)
parameters. Depending on the specific details of
the machine and the design of the Profile, any or
all of these elements may be present for any

particular Module.

The full button, which is a standard component

in most GEM windows (including those in X-oR),
is especially helpful in the Patch Edit window,
because it lets you see a much larger section of
the Patch than the default window does. Click
on the icon the upper right corner of the
in

window to make the window fill the entire

screen, or to shrink it to its original size.

In some Modules (especially effects devices),

changing a parameter may cause major
changes in the layout of the Patch edit window
itself. The parameter in question is usually a
mode or algorithm of some sort; and the change
in layout reflects changes within the actual
Instrument. Some Profiles may also contain
objects (either sliders or text boxes) that are
used to switch between multiple, identical
sections within a Patch--for example, partials in
a Roland L/A synth, or program numbers in a
program map. In this case, changing the setting
may change some of the values shown, without
changing the layout of the display.
|
Each a Patch edit window consists of a
slider in
slider icon,a label for the slider at the top, and
the current value of the slider at the bottom. The
value display is somewhat limited, and doesn't
always coincide with the display used in the
Machine. In most cases, the numbers will be the
same, but in some instances, they will not match
up. For example, in the DSP-128, one algorithm
has 261 different delay times spread over 1800
ms., with varying increments in different ranges.
In X-oR, the only way to accurately show such a
parameter is with a text box, but text for the 261
delay times would waste a great deal of
memory. In this case, a slider was decided to be
a better method of entry for the delay time, so
the delay times must be shown as a number
from 1 to 261

Because of the length of the sliders, it is not

always possible to obtain the vertical resolution
needed to adjust some parameters with full
precision. In this case, you can fine tune the
slider setting by clicking above or below the
slider handle (but inside the slider box), which
raises or lowers the value by one.

If a Machine is capable of handling parameter

changes at a reasonably high speed, the

Machine will be updated as soon as the
parameter value changes (i.e. MIDI data will be
continually sent as you move the slider). With
slower Machines, the change will only be sent
when the mouse button is released. This
function is controlled by a switch in the Profile
(one for each Data Type).
Text Boxes |
Parameters that are better displayed in text
format (such as LFO or oscillator waveshapes,
modulation sources or destinations, etc.) are
handled in X-oR with an object we call a text
box. Each text box contains a label or name,
two arrows for incrementing and decrementing
the parameter, and a text field that shows the
current setting of that parameter. As you may
have guessed, clicking on either arrow changes
the setting in the text box.

If you click anywhere else on the text box, such

as on the label or the selection itself, a pop-up

parameter select window will list the available
options. A parameter change message, or in
some cases the entire Patch, will be sent to the
instrument as soon as you select an item in this
window. To leave the window, click twice on the
same item, click outside the window, or press
any key.

Envelope I The envelope graphs allow you to both view and

Graphs |
edit each of a Module's envelopes. The small
square boxes in each envelope represent the
movable points of that envelope, which may be
edited by dragging these boxes around the
display. The Profile for each Module knows the
limits for each of these points, so that it is
impossible for you to move any envelope point
to a location that doesn't correspond to a valid
envelope setting in the Module. In fact, the
quickest way to learn about the possible shapes
that can be created with any particular envelope
generator is to just grab each point in the
envelope and yank it every which way. Some
envelope graphs may also have a horizontal
dotted line through the middle of the display,
which indicates that the envelope can produce
both positive and negative values (the dotted
line usually represents zero).

72 X-oR
 One important point about the envelope graphs
is is, the actual
that they are not "to scale"; that
envelope times are not proportional to the
length of each segment in the graph. In some
instruments, slight changes an envelope point
in

may make huge changes in the envelope time or

level, especially in the upper end of most time

ranges. The graphs will tell you a lot about the

shape of an envelope, but you should always
rely on your ears for fine-tuning envelope
settings.

Most envelopes can also be affected by other

parameters that aren't easily represented in the
envelope graph. These parameters affect such
things as the modulation of envelope levels or
times by key number and/or velocity, the overall
envelope level, etc. These functions will vary
from one Module to the next, but the Profiles will
normally place relevant parameters near the
envelope graphs, for easy identification.

Storing Edited I When a Patch has been edited, a check mark

Patches I
willappear beside its name in the Performance
window, and an asterisk will appear beside its
name in the Patch Edit window. These will
disappear when the Patch is stored in a Bank,
when it is saved to disk, or when a new Patch is
selected.

Patches may be stored in a Bank by dragging

the Patch name from the Performance to a Bank
window, or by using the Update Bank Patch
command (discussed on page 49). Patches may
be stored in Libraries either by dragging the
Patch name from the Performance window to
the LIBRARY window, or with the Patch-
library menu item, as explained in the
previous chapter. Remember that when a Patch
is stored in a Bank, it is not automatically saved

to disk, unlike Patches that are stored in a

Library.

Patch Editing 73
Patch Name The name of the Patch in the Patch Edit window
and may be edited by selecting Name Patch from
Comments the Edit menu, or by clicking briefly on the
current Module in the Performance window. A
dialog box will appear, where you may edit the
existing name, or enter a new name.

When the Patch Edit window is on top, the

Comments option, also found in the Edit menu,
lets you enter a set of comments that will be
saved with the Patch if it is stored separately to
disk, as described later in this chapter. Note that
these comments are not included with the Patch
when it is stored in a Bank or Library.

Getting and Individual Patches may be transferred to or from

Sending your MIDI system with Get Patch and Send
Patches Patch, in the Get/Send menu. When Get Patch
is chosen, X-oR switches in the Instrument (or

asks you to do it manually), sends a system

exclusive request message for the current
Module, and waits for an answer. If the MIDI
data that comes back is garbled, orif no data is

received,an alert box will tell you what has

happened, and allow you to try again or to
terminate the operation.

Send Patch sends the current Patch to the MIDI

system. Because Patches are sent to the system
each time they are edited or selected, there is
rarely any reason to use the Send Patch option.

Loading and Patches can be individually loaded and saved to

Saving disk, using the Load Patch and Save Patch
Patches As... items in the File menu. Clicking on either
will bring up a file select box, which allows you
to specify the file name to load or save.

74 X-oR
 Under most circumstances, you probably won't
be using individual Patch files, since the best
way to organize a collection of Patches is in a

Library. Patch files are included to ensure

compatibility with earlier Caged Artist editors,
many which allow individual Patches to be
of
saved, and to allow you to store Patches which
require longer comments than those permitted
in the Libraries. You might use these options to
keep individual backup copies of some special
Patches.

Initializing I If you like to create your patches from scratch,

Patches |
this command is for you. Most X-oR Profiles

include patch initialization routine which

a
makes a generic patch with parameters set to
nominal values. If the Profile doesn't include this
routine, the initialized patch will generally consist
of zero or minimum value for all parameters.

Transplanting I X-oR has a special editing function that allows

Sections |
you to copy entire sections of a Patch from one
Patch to another (or within the same Patch).
This operation, which we call transplanting, is
found in the Edit menu under the names
Transplant- > Patch, Transplant- > Bank, and
Copy The
Section. precise transplant
capabilities any particular Machine will
of
depend on both the design of the Machine itself,
and the Profile.

Transplant- > Patch is used to copy one or

more sections from a Patch in a Bank or Library
to the current Module's Patch, and is most
useful for creating new Patches by combining
sections of different Patches. This option only
works when at least one Bank, or the Library, is

open.

Patch Editing 75
Transplanting Transplant- > Bank copies sections of the
Sections current Module's Patch to every Patch in a
(continued) specified Bank. A new Bank is created.
Transplant- > Bank is handy if you want to copy
certain performance-related parameters (such
as pitch bend range, DX-7 function parameters,
etc.) to all the Patches in a Bank, though it can
also be useful for creating new Patches (more or
less randomly)on some instruments. At least
one Bank must be open before Transplant-
>Bank will work; doesn't operate on the
it

Library.

Copy Section is used to copy sections of a

Patch within the current Module's Patch, and is

therefore useful for duplicating envelopes,
modulation routings, partials, etc. Copy Section
is available at all times.

After clicking on any of these items, a dialog box

much like that shown below will appear.

Transplant- > Patch for CZ-101

76 X-oR
 The window in the left half of this screen lists the

Patches available in the Bank or Library. When

Transplant- > Patch is selected, this window
allows you to select the source Patch (or
"donor", if you will) for the transplant. The more
button allows you to cycle through all the open
Banks, as well as the Library, if that is open.
When Transplant- > Bank is used, the more
button is used to select a Bank to be copied to,
but the window is otherwise not used. (The
Library is not a possible destination.) This
window does not appear at all when Copy
Section is selected.

Three boxes labeled From, Sub-Section, and

To determine the section of the Patch that will
be transplanted. The contents of the From box
will vary from one Module to the next, and the
contents of the other two will change depending
on the item selected under From. If the
instrument’s Profile knows how to break the
selected section down into smaller chunks (for
example, sections of a partial in the D-110
editor, as shown above), then the Sub-Section
box will list them. Finally, the To box lists all of
the instrument's sections that are identical in

structure to that chosen in the From box-for

example, all envelopes if Envelope 1 is

selected, or all LFOs if LFO 3 is chosen.

In the Transplant- > Patch and Copy Section

windows, the transplant operation specified by
the From, Sub-Section, and To boxes is
executed each time you click on the Do button.
The new Patch is sent to the instrument after
each transplant is completed. You can do
multiple transplants in a single session in this
window by changing the source and destination
sections between each click on the Do button.
Use the Undo button, if necessary, to undo only
the most recent transplant operation. When
you're done transplanting, click on Exit to leave
the window.

Patch Editing 77
 In the Transplant- > Bank dialog, only a single
transplant operation can occur each time the
command is chosen. After you click on OK, the
new Bank will be created, and the dialog box will
disappear.

Ifa particular Profile Data Type does not support

Banks, the Transplant- > Bank option will not be
available for Modules of that Data Type.

Blend/ I The Blend/Mingle item, in the Edit menu, is

Mingle |
used to create a new Bank of Patches by
combining different aspects of two existing
Patches. After you click on this item, the
following dialog box will appear:

HIW/HIIIHE PATCH EIQMTR

[Ulliritta

linfail Hiaqlel
rZid Source—
I
Rudon jjj]
12-String
I
Rondo* Millie I

Blend/Mingle for M-1

Blend/Mingle always combines parameters

from the current Module's Patch (the 1st
Source) with another Patch that may be
selected from any open Bank or the Library (the
2nd Source). As with the Transplant functions,
you may step through the open Banks and the
Library by clicking on the more button. The
resulting Patches are placed in a new Bank,
which will be generated when you click on OK.

78 X-oR
 w

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ujqjjjo6|v aqj uj pajoaias aq Abuj sjajauiBJBd
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Blend/ The buttons labeled Data to Use determine
Mingle what parameters will be blended or mingled. The
(continued) Raw Data Bytes method simply treats each
individual byte that makes up the Patch as a
separate number when blending or mingling.
This is a fairly crude way to perform this
operation, and can even be risky for some
Machines, since it is possible to create data
values that have no meaning to the synthesizer.
However, it can result in some very interesting
sounds, especially on Machines in which each
parameter is stored in a separate byte, such as
the DX-7 and the D-110. If All Parameters is
selected, on the other hand, X-oR first converts
the raw data into the individual instrument
parameters (just as it does when you edit a
Patch in the Patch Edit window), and then
blends or mingles the resulting data. Depending
on the instrument, this may result in more
interesting and useful sounds than the Raw
Data Bytes method, and is not prone to
problems caused by bad data values. If Masked
Parms is chosen, only those parameters that
have been selected for randomization in the
Randomize w/Mask window (described in the
next section) are affected; the other parameters
are always copied from the 1st Source. Masked
Parms is especially effective if there are certain
aspects of the 1st Source Patch that you would
like to retain, for example, a waveshape
selection, or oscillator fine tuning. The names of
the two Patches to be blended or mingled are
always combined using the raw data bytes in the
Patch, since this results in very interesting
names for the new Patches.

80 X-oR
When blending or mingling, the Library is often
the best source for the 2nd Source, especially if
you have used keywords that tell you something

about the parameters used in the Patch. For

example, suppose that your DX-7 Patches all
have a keyword or comment that describes the
algorithm used. In this case, you could use Find
followed by Show Some to limit the Library
display to only those Patches that use a
particular algorithm, and then use one of those
as your 2nd Source. Patches created with this
kind of care have a much better chance of being
useful.

You may sometimes find that a Bank is

generated which the sound never approaches
in
that of the 2nd Source. Unless you use Raw
Data Bytes, only the parameters shown in the
Patch Edit window are eligible for blending or
mingling. Therefore, some Profiles aren't able to
blend or mingle Patches without using
fully Raw
Data Bytes.
Randomize I This command, found in the Edit menu, creates
w/Mask I
a new Bank of Patches by randomizing certain
selected parameters. After you click on
Randomize w/Mask, the following dialog box
will appear:

Randomize w/Mask for TX-81Z

The Source Patch is the current Patch, and

cannot be changed. The parameters available
for randomization are shown in the Randomize
Mask box. Any parameter that is highlighted will
be randomized when you click on OK. Each
Profile contains a default mask, which allows
you to randomize only those parameters that we
feel are best suited to randomization; however,
you can change these settings freely if you'd
like.

The buttons at the bottom of this window set the

amount of randomization. If Gradual is selected,
then the lower-numbered Patches in the Bank
willhave a low percentage of randomization,
and the higher-numbered Patches will be more
randomized.

82 X-oR
Chapter 9 The Options menu and the System Parameters
window (which is accessed via the Options
System menu), contain parameters that influence the
Parameters operation of X-oR in a global sense (i.e. they

apply to all Modules and all Instruments). These

include settings for your MIDI switcher, the
Mouse Play and MIDI Merge features (both
described in Chapter 4), the screen colors, and
other options. These parameters may be saved
to disk in a configuration file (XOR.CFG), which
is loaded when you first boot X-oR.

The System The System Parameters window is opened by

Parameters choosing System Parameters in the Options
Window menu. This window contains Global parameters
which either wouldn't fit in the Options menu, or
which aren't the type of parameter one would
need to change very often.

The System Parameters Window

System Parameters 83
Editing in the Most parameters in the System Parameters
System and window (and Instrument Setup window) can be
Setup edited in several ways. First, select the
Windows parameter to be edited by clicking on its value,
which is then highlighted. Then, use either the
slider, the numeric keys, and/or the < + > and
<-> keys to enter the value. There is a shortcut
for "grabbing" the slider: just click on a
parameter (or any neutral place in the window)
and drag the mouse past the current vertical
position of the slider to grab it.

MIDI Switcher I MIDI Switcher Channel

Parameters I
This is the channel on which your MIDI
switcher/patcher receives program changes. If
X-oR will assume that you don't
this is set to off,
have a switcher, and will issue a message telling
you to repatch your system as necessary before
it attempts to get information from any Machine.

Default Switcher Pgm

This is the switcher program that you normally
use either for sequencing or keyboard playing. It
must connect the STs MIDI output to the MIDI
inputs of all Machines that you intend to edit
with X-oR.

MIDI Switcher Delay

This is the amount of time, in milliseconds, that
X-oR will wait between sending a program
change message to your MIDI switcher, and
sending any system exclusive data. If you're not
sure how long your MIDI switcher needs to
settle after receiving a program change
message, set this to zero, and then increase it if
any of your instruments have problems with
"Get" commands.
Changing I
B/W
Colors I
Colors
If you're running X-oR with a color monitor, you
may want to define your own color scheme.
Using the Colors parameters, you can adjust
the proportions of red, green, and blue
in each

of the four colors used by X-oR. In

monochrome, the B/W switch lets you select
black letters on a white background, or vice
versa.

If you use the Atari Control Panel desk

accessory, it will force itsown color scheme on
you and lock ours out, so we suggest you avoid
its use when you're using X-oR--unless you
really like radioactive green.

Automatic I Save Setup at Exit causes X-oR to

Setup Save I
automatically save changes to the Instrument
Setup whenever you exit X-oR, (including To
KCS in the MPE). This saves all of your channel
assignments, and the names of the last bank
downloaded to each instrument (the Internal
Bank). The next time you boot, X-oR will have
valuable, up-to-date information about your
setup. You should definitely take advantage of
this feature if you have a hard drive. If not, you'll
have to make sure your boot disk is in the floppy
drive when you exit.

Saving X-oR's The settings in the Options menu, the System

Default Parameters window, and the Instrument Setup
Options window are all saved to disk by the Save
Default Options command in the Options
menu. This command saves X-oR's system
parameters in a file called XOR.CFG, and the
current Instrument Setup in a file called
XOR.SET. Both are automatically loaded when
the program boots. XOR.CFG also contains the
location and size of each window on the screen,
so you should move them to your favorite
positions before selecting Save Default
Options.

System Parameters 85
i,aSed >(UE|q smi Buipesj noA sjb AqM
Chapter 10 The Instrument Setup tells X-oR what
instruments you have in your setup (i.e. what
Instrument Profile to use), how these instruments are
Setups connected to computer (MIDI channel,
the
switcher connections, etc.), and some of your
preferences about how X-oR should interact
with each instrument. The X-oR setup
(XOR.SET) file contains all this information,
which is loaded when you start X-oR.

This chapter explains how setups are created

and and what the Instrument Setup
edited,
parameters each do.

Using the I X-oR only needs to know one thing about your
Setup Editor |
MIDI setup before you start the program;
namely, what instruments you are using.
Instruments can only be added to or deleted
from the setup by X-oR's separate Setup Editor
(ED_SETUP.PRG). Everything else in the
Instrument Setup can be edited from within X-
oR. As with Profiles and the Profile Editor (E-oR),
the Instrument Setup is established outside of X-
oR to eliminate extra clutter, confusion and
program overhead.

As of this writing, the Setup Editor can only be

executed from the Desktop, and not the MPE.
After you double click on the ED_SETUP.PRG
icon, the following screen will appear:

Instrument Setups 87
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Setup Editor
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The Instrument Setup Window

Thiswindow is the Instrument Setup window,

which forms the heart of the Setup Editor. Each
line contains the specifications for a single
Instrument. Instruments areadded and removed
from the list with items in the Edit menu. A
similar window is used within X-oR itself for
editing the Instrument Setup during X-oR
operations.

The File Menu |

The Setup Editor's File menu contains items for
loading, saving, and creating setup files. When
you select either Save or Save As..., the setup
information will be saved In a file with the
appropriate name (always with the .SET
extension), and the system parameters will be
saved in a file named XOR.CFG. Note that we do
allow you to save the setup file under a different
name, although X-oR always uses the one called
XOR.SET. You could rename files outside of X-
oR if, for whatever reason, you have two
different setups that you use with one computer.

88 X-oR
The Edit Menu I
The Edit menu contains items for editing the
Instrument as well as the bootup comments.
list,

These commands are only found in the Setup

Editor. The line on which a parameter is
highlighted (we'll call it the "current line") is

important to several of these operations, and

can be changed with the up and down cursor
keys.

Add Instrument attaches an Instrument

specification to the end of the Instrument list.

Insert Instrument inserts an Instrument at the

current line. The last Instrument deleted (if any)
will be one way to make a copy
inserted. This is
(Delete, or to undo a Delete
Insert, Insert),
Instrument command. If no Instrument has
been deleted, a blank Instrument will be
inserted.

Delete Instrument deletes the Instrument on

the current line. You can move an Instrument by

deleting it, then inserting it elsewhere.

Boot-up Comments is used to edit the file

BOOTUP.TXT, which contains the comments

that X-oR displays at the beginning of a session.
This file can also be edited with an external text

editor, if you'd prefer using real word processing

software.

Choosing a I The .XOR File column shows the name of the

Profile i
Profile used for each Instrument. A different
Profile may be chosen by clicking on the current
Profile name, after which a file selector will allow
you to select a Profile. Click on OK to copy the
Profile name into the Setup.

Instrument Setups 89
Default I The Default Storage Path is the drive and folder
Storage Path |
used to store data files (Patches, Banks,
Libraries) for an Instrument. Primarily a
convenience feature, it keeps you from having to
deal with the file selector as much. Ifs also used
to find Bank files during a Load Performance
command. When working with a hard drive, we
suggest that you create a separate folder for
each Instrument in your system (except for
duplicates, which probably should share a
folder). The Default Storage Path is changed by
clicking on the Instrument's current path (this
should be "A:\" for blank Instruments), and then
choosing the folder with the file selector, as if
you were going to open a file from that folder (to
be able to do this, you must have already
created the folder outside of the Setup Editor).
Click on OK to copy the folder name Into the
setup.

From within X-oR, an Instrument's default

storage path is updated whenever you open or
save any data file for the Instrument. Therefore,
once you've successfully loaded or saved a file,
use the Save Default Options command to
make the change permanent.

Instrument The Setup parameters listed here are common

Setup to both the Setup Editor and X-oR. They are
Parameters edited by the techniques discussed in the
Chapter 9.
 ,

SysX Chnl
This is the Machine's basic MIDI channel,
system exclusive channel, unit I.D., instrument
number, or whatever the manufacturer has
chosen to call it. The value can range from 1 to
128. Remember that MIDI channels may only
range from 1 to 16, and that many Machines
may also permit fewer than 128 distinct units.
You should also be aware that some folks
number their units starting with 0, rather than 1

so need to mentally subtract one from the

you'll
value here to match that on your Machine's
display. For example, the Emu Proteus can be
set to any unit number between 0 and 15, which
corresponds to 1 to 16 in this field.

It is possible for X-oR to treat two Machines of

the same model as two separate devices, as
long as the SysX Chnl for each is different, and
ifthe Machine actually supports multiple units.
(TheAlesis HR-16, Oberheim Matrix-6, and early
DX-Ts, for example, do not.) You can also treat

two Machines separately, even if they

identical
share a single unit number, if they are set up
with different switcher programs, which are
discussed in the next paragraph, and if
Sw./Send is set to on.

Recv Chnl
This is the channel on which the Instrument
receives MIDI note, controller, and program
change messages. However, this Recv Chnl
only comes into play when a Instrument
receives these messages on a channel other
than the SysX Chnl, and only if this channel is
not programmable via MIDI. For example, if a
Module's receive channel is programmable via
MIDI, and the X-oR Profile is smart enough to
know this, it may take complete control over the
Receive Channel, setting it according to the
Patch data (in X-oR, any module may control the
receive channel of any other module within the
same Instrument).

Instrument Setups 91
Instrument When you change the Recv Chnl in X-oR, you
Setup willsee the Module Receive Channel in the
Parameters Performance window change for Modules that
(continued) are affected. If the Recv Chnl is set to the
Receive Channel is in a neutral state (no channel
is specified).

The Recv Chnl settings directly affect the

Mouse Channel, which Is used in X-oR's Mouse
Play and Merge features. For more on the
Mouse Channel, see Chapter 4.

Swch Prg#
This is the program in your MIDI switcher that

connects the specified Machine to the

computer's MIDI input. If you aren’t using a
switcher, or if you don’t have a program that will
connect a particular Machine to the STs MIDI in,
set this to off, and X-oR will issue a prompt
telling you to repatch when it needs to get data
from a new Machine. See Appendix 2 for more
on how to set up a switcher.

Sw./Send
This parameter, which is an abbreviation for

“Switch to Send", X-oR that the Instruments

tells

switcher program must be selected each time

data is sent to it. Normally, X-oR only calls up
this program when getting data from the
Instrument. However, If you have two Machines
that are identical, and which don’t have a unique
system exclusive channel, one of them must be
switched out of the system any time you edit the
other.

Also, since manufacturers aren't perfect, you

may find certain bizarre cases in which one
Instrument's data causes another instrument to
complain about an over-stuffed buffer, or it may
even crash unceremoniously! Turn Sw./Send
on for such special cases, but if you don’t have
any trouble, leave it off. (There are a few
Instruments which must be switched to do
"hand-shaking" when you send certain data to
them, but this is handled by the Profile.)

92 X-oR
 Another example in which Sw./Send can be

useful is when two Machines are hooked

together in overflow mode, and the overflow
mode neglects to pass System Exclusive data.
To correct for this, you'll need to have both
master and slave connected to your switcher.
Both units are treated as one X-oR Instrument.
In the default switcher program, master and
slave will be "daisy-chained" together to take
advantage of the overflow mode. However,
when switched, X-oR sends to both units
directly, to ensure that each holds the same
data.

Bank Updt
The Bank Updt (Bank Update) parameter
enables a feature which automatically transmits
any changes to the Internal Bank file. See
Chapter 6 for a full explanation of this feature.

Instrument Setups 93
Instrument Performance Enable Switches
Setup These four buttons, labeled Get, Send, Load,
Parameters and Save, tell X-oR how to treat the Instrument's
(continued) data when it is dealing with a Performance or all
Banks. Normally, each should be set to on, but
if you don't want a particular Instrument to be

included in one of the Performance operations,

you can turn it off here. For example, if you have
a particular Machine whose output must be
manually patched to the STs input, and if you
hardly ever need to get data from it, you might
set Get to off for each of that Machine's
Instruments. If you want an Instrument's Patches
to remain unchanged when you load a new
Performance, set Load to off. Because each
Patch or Bank is automatically sent as it is

loaded, the new Patches for that Instrument will

not be sent. For this reason, it is rarely

necessary to turn Send off. Similarly, we
recommend you always leave Save turned
that
on, to ensure that your Performance files will
contain all the appropriate data. (You might
want to set Save to off if you have an Instrument
that has a particularly large Patch that is rarely
changed, in order to save memory.)

Perf Bank
This parameter (which would be called
Performance Bank Enable we
could fit it on
if

the screen) controls the saving and loading of

banks with Performance file. If Perf Bank is on,
the name of the current Internal Bank will be
saved along with a Performance. When the
Performance is reloaded, the Internal Bank file
will also be loaded and sent to the Instrument.

Chapter 6 contains more detailed information.

94 X-oR
 The Instrument Setup Window in X-oR

Instrument In X-oR, the Instrument Setup window is

Setups in opened from the Options menu. Changes to the
X-oR setup file are saved by the Save Default
Options command, also in the Options menu,
as described in Chapter 9.

Instrument Setups 95
HO-X 96

Abm iet|t H paiuBM am asnsoaq >|UE|q s| aEed sim

Chapter 11 As good as is by Itself, X-oR really starts to fly
It

when you use in a multi-tasking system, such

it

X-oR and the as Dr. Ts Multi Program Environment (MPE).

MPE Multi-tasking systems let you use your computer
as the central control panel of your entire
system, without resorting to less effective desk
accessory programs, or rebooting your
computer each time you want to move from the
sequencer to the patch editor/librarian. The
MPE beats the pants off of basic "switcher"
programs, because it gives X-oR full access to
sequencer data structures, and lets you play
sequences from within X-oR. In this chapter,
we'll cover all aspects of using X-oR in the MPE.

Memory and I One fundamental aspect of all MPE programs is

the MPE I
that they stealmemory from the MPE host
program's sequence storage area, both for
program code and data storage. The amount of
memory needed by each program is stored in a
file with a .INF extension. X-oR uses a file called

XOR.INF for this purpose. Most other MPE

programs have a fixed amount of memory that is
allocated to the program, but because X-oR is
intended to be tailored to each MIDI system,
we've also given you the ability to alter its .INF
file, to allocate just the right amount of memory

needed for your application. This way, you can

be sure that you have enough memory to load
multiple Banks, without wasting valuable KCS
data space.

X-oR and the MPE 97

Memory and The program XOR_MEM.PRG used to change
is

the MPE X-oR's memory program, which

allocation. This
(continued) can be executed either from the Desktop or as
an MPE module, displays the current memory
allocation value in terms of Kbytes, and accepts
a new value. After you click on OK, it saves the
modified copy of XOR.INF under its original
name, and saves the original copy as XOR.INX,
so you can restore it simply by changing the
name if things somehow become totally
bollixed.

While the operation of XOR_MEM.PRG is very

straightforward, there is unfortunately little that
we can give you in the way of advice on the
actual numbers to be entered in this program.
The amount of memory that you will need for X-
oR depends on how many Instruments you plan
to use, and how many Banks you want to open
at once, as well as the sizes of their Profiles and
Bank files. The amount of memory that you'll
actually have available depends on the size of
your computer, the presence of any desk
accessories, the size of your sequences, and
several other factors. You will have to find a
balance between all of these factors when
allocating memory to X-oR.

The best way to determine the amount of

memory you need is by trial and error. Since
XOR_MEM.PRG will run in the MPE, it's easy to
do this, although you'll need to reload X-oR each
time you change the size. Start with 200K as a
default (or 400K in a 2 Megabyte ST~this should
do for all but the largest of setups). Load X-oR
into the MPE. If you get an 'Insufficient memory"
message, or X-oR won't load, you'll need to
increase the memory allocation. Otherwise,
check the Info menu in X-oR to see how much
memory is left for Bank and Library files. Try
opening Bank files for all your Instruments-only
by playing with X-oR will you be able to decide if
there is enough memory for you.

98 X-oR
 A second MPE programs is
consideration with
the size contained MPE hosts .INF file
in the
(KCS.INF), which tells the MPE host (KCS) how
much space to reserve for MPE resource files.
The default .INF file supplied with the MPE host
program should reserve plenty of space for use
with X-oR, but you want to use X-oR with other
if

programs (especially the Copyist), you may

need to increase this number, or if X-oR is the
only GEM program you are using, you might
want to shrink it, to make better use of your
computer's memory. See the MPE host
program's manual for more information on the
.INF file.

MPE Mouse I The MPE supports three additional Mouse Play

Play Options I
Options, which the right mouse button can be
in

used to play music within the sequencer. If

you're searching for a choice voice to use with a
certain sequence, these options will let you
ponder each potential perfect patch as the
particular piece plays.

The three additional MPE Mouse Play Options

are chosen from the Options menu. When the
Mouse Play Option is Play Sequence, a right
mouse click will play the current track, song, or
sequence, depending on what KCS mode you
were last in. If Play Range is selected, then the
right mouse button will play the range that is
highlighted on the KCS Edit screen, if one
exists-otherwise, it is identical to the Play
Sequence option. Finally, if Play Cue is

selected, sequencer will play all tracks

the
starting at the current cue point (in TRACK
mode), or the current cue sequence (in OPEN
mode), or from the song cue point (in SONG
mode). If the cue point in any mode is set at the
beginning of the song, then the Play Cue option
will play the entire piece of music, which makes

It the most useful Mouse Play option in most

situations.

X-oR and the MPE 99

 All of the keys that control sequence playback
are available when playing a sequence with the
mouse. Playback can be stopped by pressing
<F1> or the left mouse button, or can be
restarted by pressing the right mouse button or
the < Space bar>. The <Esc> key will pause
the sequencer, and the <,> and <.> keys will
also change the tempo.

Using X-oR Since Dr. Ts introduction of the MPE, other

with Other publishers of Atari ST software have released (or
Systems at least announced) their own multiple program
operating systems. Several of these attempt to
allowall programs to run, while others allow only

well-behaved GEM programs to run. In either

case, X-oR qualifies. Some of these systems
even allow you to record X-oR output into a
sequencer as the sequence is running. As of this
writing, we have had success running X-oR in C-
lab, Steinberg, and Intelligent Music systems, as
well as the forthcoming "MIDITasking" system
from Atari, which we at Dr. Ts and Caged Artist
hope will become the standard for the ST.
Check the README.DOC file on the X-oR
program disk for the latest information, or
contact our user support personnel for more
details.

100 X-oR
Appendix 1 This program and the associated documentation
are copyright 1989 and 1990 by Robert Melvin.
Service and This program is licensed to be used on a single
Support machine. It may
not be copied without explicit
written permission. If the program is transferred
to another party, all backup copies must be
transferred at the same time, or destroyed. This
must be transferred if you
notice of copyright
transfer the program, and your license to use
the program is terminated on transfer.

The diskette on which the program is furnished

warranted for ninety (90) days from the date of
is

delivery. The program is not guaranteed to meet

your requirements, and operation of the
program is not guaranteed to be uninterrupted
or error free. In no event will Robert Melvin or
Dr. Ts Music Software be liable for any
damages, including any lost savings, lost
or other incidental or consequential
profits,
damages arising out of the use or inability to
use this program, even if we have been
advised of the possibility of damages. Dr. T's
Music Software and Robert Melvin shall not
be responsible for any damages claimed by
any other party, resulting from the use or
attempted use of this program. All warranties
implied are with Dr. Ts, not your local dealer. If
problems arise, call Dr. Ts directly.

Service and Support 101

Copy The disk containing X-oR is copy protected, and
Protection must be inserted in drive A when running the
and Backups program from either the hard or floppy disk. We
regret the necessity for copy protection, but
experience has shown this to be the only way to
deal with unauthorized distribution of our
programs. Software "piracy" is a crime and
deprives your fellow artists of their rightful
income. Because of this problem, we are much
more fun to deal with if we have your completed
warranty card in our hands when you call for

technical support.

A singlebackup disk will be sent to you, at no

charge, when you send In your warranty
registration card. You must Include either your
completed warranty card or your diskette serial
number and a copy of the sales receipt with
your request for a backup. There is a $15 charge
for the replacement of program disks that
become defective more than 90 days after the
date of purchase. We will only send one backup
disk to each customer, and you will be required
to return either your backup or original disk
when ordering updates or replacement disks.

When disks for replacement or

returning
updates, please send the disk by UPS,
Federal Express, Express Mail, or some other
service that will allow you to trace the
shipment. We're sorry, but we cannot be held
responsible for packages sent via regular US
mail.

Dr. Ts make improvements

reserves the right to
to the program without notice, and to make
what we consider to be reasonable charges for
updates.

102 X-oR
 <

What To Do If If you have problems with X-oR that you are

Problems unable to solve with the help of the manual, Dr.
Arise Ts maintains a customer service line staffed by
experienced MIDI musicians. We are happy to
help you with questions regarding X-oR and any
of our other programs, but due to the incredible
variety of MIDI products available today, we
cannot answer questions regarding other
manufacturer's hardware or software,
including questions on the basic operation of
GEM, the Atari ST, or any other computers or
musical instruments.

3-
When calling Dr. Ts for customer service, there
4-
5-
are a number of things that you can do to help
us help
6- you, which can also save you money on
your long distance bill. Here Is a check list of
things to have ready when calling Dr. Ts:

1-Your diskette registration number

2~Your manual
-Computer turned on and X-oR booted
-Any data related to the problem
Information on your computer’s disk
configuration, monitor type, printer type, etc.
Paper and pencil

When you call us, we will walk you through the

program and ask you questions about what
happens, so is very important that you have
It

this material at hand when calling. If you don't

have this ready, we will ask you to call back later
with the required information. After you've
completed the checklist, call us at ( 64 7) 2 1 4-
4542 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern
Standard Time, Monday through Friday.

'^(bl'r) uss- 14 58

Service and Support 103

X-oR Support I The Dr. T Group on the Berklee Mac
User's
on Dr. Ts BBS |
User's BBS has an entire X-oR file section. You
can download the latest Profiles, fixes, and
updates as they occur. You can "talk" with other
X-oR users, and, if you have a X-oR related
problem or question, Dr. Ts product support
specialists and X-oR's author, Bob Melvin, are
routinely on-line to provide answers to the
toughest of questions. The Berklee Mac User’s
BBS phone number is (617) 739-2366.

104 X-oR
Appendix 2 In the standard "working" setup configuration,
shown in the diagram on page 106, the master

MIDI Switcher controller is connected to the STs input, whose

Programming output isconnected to the inputs of all MIDI
instruments in the system, via a switcher or thru
box, or the thru ports on individual instruments.
When MIDI merging (echo) is turned on in X-oR,
this configuration allows your entire system to
be controlled from the master keyboard. If you
have a MIDI switcher, this is the “default switcher
program", the program X-oR selects any time it
is not getting system exclusive data from an

Instrument.

The second diagram shows how you would

typically wire a system with a programmable
switcher. Whenever X-oR needs to establish
communication with an
exclusive, bi-directional
Instrument, sends a program change message
it

to the switcher. We've already discussed these

programs in Chapter 2, but there are a few
points that are worth clarifying. First, in each
program except the default switcher program,
the output of the ST should be connected only
to the input of the instrument in question. This is

absolutely essential in a "switch to send"

situation if you have two instruments of the
(i.e.

same type which don't have a unique unit

number or system exclusive channel), since
they will both receive dumps intended for either
if they are both connected to the ST
simultaneously. It is also a good practice even if
you don't have any identical instruments, since
many instruments choke on system exclusive
messages that are intended for other machines,
even though the MIDI spec says they shouldn't.

MIDI Systems 105

 Default Switcher Program

Likewise, each program should connect only the

instrument in question to the STs MIDI input, as
shown in the diagram on page 108. (If your
switcher doesn't have MIDI merging, this
condition is always satisfied.) If not, any time
you play a key on your keyboard during an
editing session, or touch a knob on some other
instrument, you run the risk of corrupting the
data being sent to the ST.

106 X-oR
 MIDI Switcher Connections

Finally, make sure that any special data

processing features, such as merging,
transposition, or filtering are turned off in each of
these programs. Merging is especially
dangerous, since it can result in MIDI feedback
loops that can be a nightmare to debug. Data
filtering could prevent some messages from
getting to your instruments in certain rare
instances.

If you have instruments working in overflow

mode (such as a Matrix 6 and a Matrix 1000, or
an ESQ-1 and an ESQ-M), they should be
connected through the switcher, so that the
overflow connection is programmable. X-oR
may even require this type of connection to
work properly, as discussed on page 92.

MIDI Systems 107

 Switcher Program for Rack Module #3

Not Enough If your MIDI switcher have enough

doesn't
Inputs, You inputs for your system, you can extend its
Say? capabilities with a manual switch box. The
manual switcher should be connected between
your master controller and the programmable
switcher. The input that connects the master
controller and the “smart" switcher should be
selected most of the time, and the other inputs
of the "dumb" switcher should be connected to
the instruments that you are least likely to get
Patches from.

108 X-oR
 A better solution you run out of inputs is to
if

obtain another programmable switcher.

Switchers can be cascaded, although not as
efficiently as you might hope for. We
recommend that you connect the second
switcher as if it were an instrument, using an
input and output on each switcher to connect
the two together. This arrangement allows you
to connect any two instruments in your system
together. However, each new 8 by 8 switcher
only nets you 6 more inputs. One potential
problem to watch out for: Does your switcher
pass the program change which switches it? In
this case, one hopes that the answer is yes,
because the same program change must be
able to switch the second switcher.

Suggested Several manufacturers make programmable

MIDI MIDI switchers, all aimed at systems of varying
Switchers sizes. For most systems, a simple 8 by 8
switcher, such as those made by 360 Systems,
JL Cooper, and Digital Music Services, is

probably adequate. If you have a larger than

average system, or if you're looking toward
expansion, KMX makes a particularly fine 15 by
16 switcher, and JL Cooper also has a 16 by 20
unit (quite expensive). There are too many
options to mention them all, but basically all the
switchers we have encountered have worked.
As far as features go, MIDI merging often comes
in handy, but the other bells and whistles are

optional.

MIDI Systems 109

•0BbcJ jje| A||Buoiiu0iu| >|UB|q S|m
Appendix 3 For those hardy souls who wish to take the
creation of new Profiles onto themselves, we
Creating and offer a separate Profile development system,
Editing known as E-oR. This program gives you
Profiles complete control over all aspects of the Profile,
including the specifics of system exclusive
communication, data packing and interpretation,
and the placement of controls on the screen.

One point that we

cannot overemphasize is that
the Profile editor not intended for the casual
is

user. The various manufacturers of MIDI

equipment all use an incredible variety of
techniques for communicating with their
instruments, which range from the
straightforward to the incomprehensible.
(Actually, we could tell you some hilarious
stories about certain instruments, but we don't
want to step on anyone's toes.) Suffice it to say
that, without a good understanding of the nuts
and bolts of MIDI transmission and some
experience with computer programming, the
most you'll be able to do with the Profile editor is
change the appearance of things on the screen,
or set up new "sections", in existing Profiles.

Before you dive into E-oR-land, here's a few

words of caution:

1) At this writing, E-oR is by no means a

finished product! In its current state, It wont be

useful to every X-oR user.

2) Our product support specialists are NOT

equipped to answer ANY E-oR questions!!! THE
ONLY HELP AVAILABLE IS "ON-LINE" via Dr.
Ts affiliated BBS (see Appendix 1).

3) ALWAYS back up Profiles before you

attempt any modifications with E-oR. ALWAYS!

Creating and Editing Profiles 111

4) We strongly recommend that only people
with experience in some form of computer
programming (and with complete Sys-Ex
documentation for their Instrument), attempt to
mess with XORCL, X-oR's Control Language.

5)The manual for E-oR Is contained on disk only

(EORMAN.TXT), so you'll need to print out.
It

Read all of It! Profiles, like the instruments they

serve, can be very complex.

Now that we've totally scared you off, we must

say that not everything In E-oR Is difficult: some
Profile screens are simple, like choosing
sections for the Transplant commands. The
parameter object page easy to understand,
is

and reorganizing the layout of an edit screen is a

useful and not too difficult task which requires
no Sys-Ex documentation (as long as you're not
adding or deleting objects).
 1

Index I
A
Auto Channel Select 36

B
B/W 85
Backup disk 4, 102
Bank Updt (Bank Update) 49, 53, 93
Banks 8, 47
closing 51
comments 54
editing 50
getting and sending 50
name 48
opening 48
printing 54
saving 51
Blend/Mingle 78
Boot-up Comments 26

c
Close Bank 51
Close Library 57
Colors 85
Comments 46, 54, 74
bootup 26, 89
in Library Patches 60

Control keys 1
Control panel 85
Copy Section 75
D
Data Types 6, 8, 47, 55, 78
Default parameters 85
Default Storage Path 25, 90
Default Switcher Pgm 25, 84, 93, 105
Delete Patch 61
Desk accessories 12
Device number 91
Drag to Copy 50
Drag to Move 50
Drag to Swap 50

Index 113
 E
ED_SETUP.PRG 22,87
Envelope editing 72

F
File menu 29
Filter Program Changes 38
Find 62
Floppy disks 18
Format 30
Function keys 36

G
Get Bank 50
Get Pert Patches 44
Get/Send menu 44, 74

H
Harddisks 12,16

Instrument number 91
Instrument Setup window 84, 88
Instruments 5

K
KCS 97
KCS.INF 99
Key disk 12
Keywords 10,55,59,60,62
editing 65
KEYWORDS.TXT 65
L
Libraries 10,55
57
closing
creating 55
files 67

opening 56
Patch names 58
searching 62
storing Patches in 58
window 56
Library menu 55

114 X-oR
 Library Patch Information 59
Load Performance 45

M
Machines 5
Memory 97
Menus 10
Merge 37, 38
Merge Options 37, 83
MIDI feedback loops 38
MIDI receive channel 36
MIDI Switcher Channel 25, 84
MIDI Switcher Delay 84
MIDI switchers 20, 84, 92, 105, 109
Modules 5,7, 10,36,41
Mouse Channel 31 36, 37, 92
,

Mouse Key Shift 35

Mouse Mod Controller 35
Mouse Play 33, 83, 99
Mouse Play Options 34
Mouse Scale 35
Multi Program Environment (MPE) 16, 31, 97

N
New Bank 48
o
Open Bank 48
Open Library 55, 56
Options menu 34, 36, 37, 38, 83, 85

P
Panic 39
Patch Edit window 69
Patch- > Library 58
Patches 7
editing 69
gettingand sending 74
loading and saving 74
names 50, 58, 74
storing 73
storing 58
in Libraries

Perf Bank 94
52,
Performance Enable switches 26, 45, 46, 94

Index 115
 Performances 9, 41
comments 46
editing 43
getting and sending 44
loading and saving 45
printing 46
Playing the KCS 99
Playing the mouse 33, 83, 99
Print 46, 54
Profiles 4, 5, 17, 18. 19, 25, 89, 104
editing 111
Program changes 38

Q
Quit 30

R
Randomization 78, 82
Randomize w/Mask 82
Rechannelize 37
Recv Chnl (Receive Channel) 24, 91

s
Save Bank 51
Save Default Options 85
Save Performance 45
Save Setup at Exit 85
Send Bank 50
Send Perf Patches 45
Sequencers 97, 100
Sequences
playing from X-oR 99
Show Patch Info 59
Show Some 57, 64
Sliders 71
Solo 37
Sort by Date 57
Sort byName 57
Stuck notes 39
Sw./Send (Switch to Send) 24, 25, 91, 92, 105
Swch Prg# (Switcher Program) 24, 92
System Exclusive channel 24, 91
System Parameters window 83

116 X-oR
 T
Text
editing 11
Textboxes 72
To KCS 31
Transplants Bank 75
Transplant- > Patch 75

u
Unit number 91

w
Warranty registration 4
Windows 10
x
.XOR files (Profiles) 5, 17, 19, 89
XOR.CFG 85
XOR. INF 97
XOR. SET 85, 87

Index 117