Profex II RAM Card

Carl Dvorcek · From: Texas, USA

For those in need, I spoke with a represtantive @ Peavey and they don't have any RAM cards for their FX units. However, I was told a Roland MC-512E would work. I ordered one from Musicians Friend ($99.00). It works great. You get a message when you turn the unit on that says "Not a Peavey Cartridge", but once you initialize it, it works fine. I had to have one to save the Newman Presets to. I downloaded the list from Jack Stoner's site and proceded to punch them in. After many days comprising a total of 13-hours and nearly 50,000 keystrokes, I got them in and saved to my card. I also uploaded them to my computer using Cakewalk Express. I also found, for BIAB users, that their "Power Tracks Pro" also does a nice job of uploading the sysex file to your computer. If anyboby's interested, I have the sysex file available (about 64K in size), that is, for those who don't have the time or patience to enter them themselves. However, if you don't know how to get the sysex file from your computer to your Profex II, the file won't do you any good.

Carl

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

CARL - I have spent about 10 hours trying to download my Profex II user settings (Jeff's 128 presets via RAM CARD) and have given up. I have CAKEWALK Home Pro #9 and I also downloaded ONXY from the internet and nothing seems to work. I had Mr.Dan Dowd walk me thru the process over the phone and still I can't get those settings to load into my computer. I read the Profex manual a million times and nothing seems to work. So what am I doing wrong or what are the steps involve in transferring from the Profex to the computer.

KEN

[This message was edited by Kenneth Kotsay on 06 July 2001 at 07:13 PM.]

Carl Dvorcek · From: Texas, USA

Kenneth: I'll take a stab at a walk through. Bring up Cakewalk and then select Tools then Midi Devices. Make sure you have the correct midi-in and midi-out devices selected for your machine. It will help to know what kind of sound card you have. Next, select View and then Sysx. In the Sysx window that comes up, select "Receive". On the window that opens next, select "You start dump on instrument". That will put it into a wait state, awaiting sysex data from your PFII. Hook up your Midi cable between your computer and the PFII. Plug marked "Out" goes to the "In" jack on the PFII and, accordingly, the plug marked "In" goes to the "Out" jack on the PFII. For first timers, it's good to hook up the cables last because sometimes Cakewalk hangs up the PFII and you can't do anything, especially if you don't have the correct in/out devices selected. Now, on your PFII, hit the Global button twice to get to the dump menu. select "Dump" and then using the up/down buttons or the Pot, set it to dump "All" presets. Now, hit the Store/Exe button. If all is well, the PFII should display "Sysex Dump In Progress" You should also see the window in the Cakewalk receive buffer counting up as it receives the sysex data. When complete, the PFII display will revert back to the dump menu. Cakewalk will wait for you to click on "Done". This will put your sysex data in Bank 0. Now all you have to do is click on "Save Bank" and name the file. Piece of cake, right? OBTW, the sysex file should be 60,043 bytes in length. Anything other than that will be garbage and you'll get a "Checksum" error if you try to send it back to the PFII. Also, I've found Cakewalk to be sensitive to other programs and will drop bits during the transfer. I usually shut down everything not needed when doing a transfer. Hope this helps.

Carl

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

CARL - Thanks for the help regarding the transfer of the Profex settings to my PC. I have tried everything you posted and here's the hang up.

When I open CAKE WALK I go into VIEW and then I hit SYSX a gray box opens that does read "CAKEWALK SYSX". There is no mention of RECEIVE listed anywhere in that gray box. There are three separate arrows and a large "x" that are in the upper left hand corner of the SYSX box which indicates the following:

Arrow Button #1 = SAVE BANK

Arrow Button #2 = SAVE ALL BANKS (actually there are 3 arrows in this button)

"X" Button = Clear Banks

Arrow Button #3 = Auto Send Banks

All these buttons are gray and they are not functional until I open the file box and open a CAKEWALK Song like, BALLARD #1. Once I have this song ready to play I can go into SYSX Box screen and a gray box opens with numbers 0 & 1 (the numbers go on & on) which tells you what is happening. The Arrow & X buttons are activated and you can now use these buttons to send etc.

As far what you have indicated related to "RECEIVE" there is nothing like that on my screen or with my version of CAKWALK Home Pro 9 that I can find to date.

The HELP part of CW does mention in length about SYSX and how to do different things with it. There must be 15 different HELP areas that I can utilize regarding SYSX.

I also took Jack Stoner's advice & downloaded ONXY and had no success using it to transfer those Profex settings. Dan Dowd walked me through different areas of my PC to see if the MIDI settings, port settings, soundcard settings etc. were all working, everything was running great regarding my PC.

Also when I hit SEND on the Profex, no data is being received at all in CAKEWALK or my computer although the PROFEX does indicate "SYSX DUMP IN PROGRESS".

As I have said I've done everything you have indicated and I read the Profex manual & followed it each step and nothing is happening with CW, I don't know where those Profex settings are dumping to.

One other thing in CW, if you go into OPTIONS & GLOBAL the MIDI Tab box has this "ECHO" box not checked. This box has something to do with SYSX but what?

Any suggestions

KEN

[This message was edited by Kenneth Kotsay on 08 July 2001 at 08:36 AM.]

Carl Dvorcek · From: Texas, USA

Ken, you have me at a loss. I'm using Cakewalk Express 8. I've never seen Home Pro #9. I've heard of Home Studio 9 but don't know anyone who has it. I'll check around though. As far as the "Echo" box, don't worry about that. It simply echo's received sysex info to midi output devices. If you're using a controller to drive other midi devices it might come in handy but has nothing to do with receiving sysex info.

Carl :>(

Carl Dvorcek · From: Texas, USA

Ken: I just went to Cakewalk.Com and downloaded their trial version of "Sonar". I supposedly has all the bells and whistles of previous versions including Pro and Home Studio. I followed the same procedures for receiving sysex data and it worked fine. Again, Im at a loss as to what your problem is. Sorry,
Carl

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

CARL - I also have CAKEWALK EXPRESS #8 in my older Compaq and I'm getting the same results as on my newer Compaq that has, CW HOME STUDIO PRO (I made a mistake in my last post about the version name I have).
There is no "RECEIVE" dialog box in either of the two CW that I have loaded. Carl, when you open your SYSX button and SYSX appears how does it displayed on your computer screen?

When I try to dump the presets from the Profex into either computer nothing happens. When I have the SYSX dialog box open in CakeWalk and there is no activity. Like I said previous, when I click on the SYSX button in VIEW an all gray SYSX dialog box appear and everything is grayed out, you cannot activate anything in that box. This is in both computers. I might have to seek help from the CW Company. Another thing that might be happening is in the PROFEX itself. I going by the manual and even the PROFEX tells me it's dumping. On Sunday I had a friend over who tried for 3 hours and no results and he does computer programming for a living. He thinks I'm missing a soundcard driver.

Another area that might be causing the problem is the MIDI cable itself. I purchased the cable from, MARS MUSIC, it came with CW EXPRESS #8.

SO there you have it, I never in all my life in using computers had such an unsolved problem. All I want to do is save Profex II settings to my computer. What a trip.

KEN

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

The ProFex will dump whether there's anything connected or waiting for the dump, so it's not a ProFex problem. It sounds like you don't have the MIDI drivers set up in Cakewalk but I don't know anything about that program.

Carl Dvorcek · From: Texas, USA

Ken, Jim is right. You don't need anything hooked up to the Profex to get it to attempt a preset dump. It would be nice if we were talking the same software. Try starting a new project and name it something like "Profex.wrk". To this point I have assumed you had a project established. With Cakewalk's Sonar (and I assume Home Studio), when you select View Sysex, a window pops up and there is a "Red" arrow pointing down. Clicking on it will open a window with the 256 empty banks displayed and options to send, receive, load, etc. sysex. If you have Cakewalk express, when you select View Sysex, a window drops down displaying all 256 empty banks with a side bar with all the options such as send, receive, load, save, etc... All of this should happen when you select view sysex. Drivers are not an issue if you don't get the aforementioned screens. Once you get the correct screen then you need the correct driver established to have any communication occur. Have you tried reloading the software? You have an option during install, to install or not install Sysex associations. Again, leave your midi cable disconnected until you get one of the afforementioned screens. If all else fails, I'd be happy to talk to you over the phone about it to see if we can't figure out what's wrong. Let me know.

Carl

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

CARL - Thanks again for the help. Last night I was on the phone with Dan Dowd who had his Cakewalk opened on his computer, I also had my PC opened to CW. He described the SYSX screen with the red arrow pointing down like you just decribed in the last post. I DID NOT have this red arrow pointing down on my CW screen. All I had was three arrows pointing up and one X. That's it, no red arrow at all like your's and Dan's. What I might have to do is call CW and get some help from them or re-load CW "HOME STUDIO #9". This version cost me about $90.00 at MARS MUSIC. CW EXPRESS cost me $28.00 at MARS and it came with a MIDI cable.

I'll get back to you all most likely tomorrow night. I'll reload CW #9.

This SOB is not going to defeat me.

KEN

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I have Cakewalk Express and under Tools it lists Midi Ox. If I click on that, it brings up Midi Ox so I can do Sysex commands.

I had Midi Ox installed on my PC before I installed CW Express and apparently it detected the Sysex software and installed a link to it.

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

JACK - I downloaded MIDI OXZY also and still my PC is unable to receive the Profex settings.

Here's what I get when I open the program MIDI OXYZ.

OPTIONS
SYSEX VIEW AND SCRATCH PAD

Now once I am inside the SYSEX VIEW menu drop down box the following appears in black print and I can activate the following function:
LOAD FILES (ALL BLACK PRINT, I CAN ACTIVATE THIS FUNCTION)

then the next function on the list which is all gray and you cannot activate it is:
SEND SYSEX (ALL GRAY, CANNOT ACTIVATE)
SEND/RECEIVE SYSEX(ALL GRAY, CANNOT ACTIVATE)

---------------------------------------------

DISPLAY WINDOW -
SAVE AS
SEND SYSEX (ALL GRAY, CANNOT ACTIVATE
SEND/RECEIVE SYSEX(ALL GRAY, CANNOT ACTIVATE)

---------------------------------------------

I reloaded CAKEWALK again and same result.

Could it be I'm missing a driver of some sort or maybe this version of CW can't receive SYSEX files like the Profex settings.

So there you have. So far four people have helped me out with this problem, all very, very good relating to computers and CAKEWALK.

I'm not giving up on trying to solve the problem of not receiving those Profex settings.

thanks JACK for your help.

KEN

Kenneth Kotsay · From: Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida

CARL - Read the previous post that I sent to JACK STONER. I have two questions,
#1 Maybe the version of CW I have is unable to receive SYSEX files from the Profex

#2) I'm I missing a driver somewhere.

CARL -I need your e-mail address.

My e-mail address is : kjkzip@bellsouth.net

This silicone machine is not going to defeat me and if I have to I'll weld that Profex card to the hard drive.

KEN

[This message was edited by Kenneth Kotsay on 11 July 2001 at 05:28 PM.]

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Ken, it sounds to me like the MIDI is not properly enabled (or installed).

Go to Control Panel and then Multimedia (on Windows ME) and check the MIDI portion to make sure it's set up.

I'm not there to see what you have, but the MIDI "devices" need to be installed and enabled or you can't use MIDI input/output via the MIDI/joystick port on your sound card. Some SoundBlaster cards also have a SoundBlaster setup to enable that port.

Once the MIDI I/O port is enabled, you should be able to use the software to do what you want. You're better off getting someone there, that can work directly with your PC, to make sure the hardware is setup correctly. Once that's done then you can continue with using the software to do whatever you want to do, such as dumping the Profex II memory to the PC.

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