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SP6 and other, editing with Soundtower – Question on FX

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MiNukurz
(@minukurz)
Posts: 15
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Using the Soundtower PC Editor, as I look at Program Common/ProgFX, I see various programs have effects in Insert FX, or Aux1FX, or Aux2 FX.

a) I recall seeing somewhere that the effects included in Insert FX are globally available to any zone, where Aux1 or Aux 2 effects entries only apply to the program being edited
??or do I have it backwards??

b) If I'm adding an effect intended only for the program being edited, I anticipate I could put them all in Insert FX??
- any reason why I might want to put some in Aux1 or Aux 2??

c) If I'm adding an effect in a program (ex; an EP), but want the effects (lets say its 4 EQ controls) to be applied to all the zones, I would anticipate putting it in the Insert FX chain - correct??

d) In this case I would anticipate that in the Editor, there is some place where I can identify which Zone has the Insert FX that take priority over all zones
?? - ex: in a Multi that has EP, I might want to have it's Insert FX (and control assignment) apply to all 4 zones

 
Posted : 22/11/2019 3:20 pm
neilcrewe
(@neilcrewe)
Posts: 13
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The SP6 is very similar to the Forte SE. If you download the Musician's Guide for the Forte SE, it has a good description of the effects (and other parameters)

 
Posted : 23/11/2019 10:11 am
wildbill
(@wildbill)
Posts: 39
Trusted Member
 

Using the Soundtower PC Editor, as I look at Program Common/ProgFX, I see various programs have effects in Insert FX, or Aux1FX, or Aux2 FX.

a) I recall seeing somewhere that the effects included in Insert FX are globally available to any zone, where Aux1 or Aux 2 effects entries only apply to the program being edited
??or do I have it backwards??

b) If I'm adding an effect intended only for the program being edited, I anticipate I could put them all in Insert FX??
- any reason why I might want to put some in Aux1 or Aux 2??

c) If I'm adding an effect in a program (ex; an EP), but want the effects (lets say its 4 EQ controls) to be applied to all the zones, I would anticipate putting it in the Insert FX chain - correct??

d) In this case I would anticipate that in the Editor, there is some place where I can identify which Zone has the Insert FX that take priority over all zones
?? - ex: in a Multi that has EP, I might want to have it's Insert FX (and control assignment) apply to all 4 zones

a) You have it backwards. Insert fx apply to a specific program. In program mode, aux. fx apply to all midi channels, and in multimode, aux. fx are available to each program in specific amounts.

b) In program mode, the aux. fx apply to all layers. If you want an fx only to apply to a specific layer, you can use a layer fx.

c) It's quicker/more efficient to use aux. fx to affect all layers or zones than to use multiple insert fx.

d) On the Multi FX Edit page there is a box called " AuxFX Ch ".
From the manual: "The Aux FX Channel determines the MIDI channel that will be used for the Aux 1 and Aux2 FX Chains.

Best to read through the manual fx sections a few times, and also try stuff out on the keyboard itself with the manual at hand. I've got a PC4, not an SP6, but I'm sure they're very similar. If you haven't downloaded a manual yet, find it here: http://kurzweil.com/product/sp6/downloads/

 
Posted : 23/11/2019 4:18 pm
MiNukurz
(@minukurz)
Posts: 15
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Bill and Neil, thanks for the suggestions, and clarification on Insert FX vs Aux1/2 FX.

Editing of FX on the SP6 needs to be via the editor, since front panel controls only allow turning on/off of FX for a Multi/zone. The problem then becomes that although the SP6 editor software seems to generally reflect functions on the SP6, the Soundtower editor documentation that is suggested for use with the SP6 PC editor is that originally created for the PC3.

There are a fair amount of differences between board controls and functions (from PC3 to SP6), and the description of functional use in the Soundtower PC3 documentation when applied to SP6 editor is essentially - quite lacking.

As an example, page 10-10 of the Soundtower PC3 editor documentation states:
"..When ‘Setup FX’ is selected, a window appears that displays all of the Effects parameters,
where you can modify existing preset effects or create new ones
. ..";
.. along with one screen shot that does not apply to the SP6 editor (that's it !!)
- not only is the Setup function not applicable to SP6, Forte, PC4, Artis (now called Multi on these boards), as you can see by editor documentation text above, it tells you nothing about use.

I did discover that the board documentation that seems to be most descriptive in regards to use of FXs in Multis is in the manual for the PC3LE (even though it's discussed under 'Setup' vs. 'Multi') .
Pages 7-59 thru 7-65 go into a fair amount of detail regarding differences in Insert vs Aux FX and also as you (Bill) noted on using AuxFX channel to set zone control priority on use of FX. It will take a bit of reading and 'imagineering' to sort it out but I think that PC3LE PDF will be the best resource on this question.

 
Posted : 26/11/2019 7:54 pm
wildbill
(@wildbill)
Posts: 39
Trusted Member
 

Sorry about that. I thnk the SP6 is like the PC3le - "limited editing". You can pick fx, but there's no deeper editing.

http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/forte ... isons/311/

 
Posted : 26/11/2019 8:49 pm
neilcrewe
(@neilcrewe)
Posts: 13
Active Member
 

I have the SP4, which has basically the same electronics as the PC3LE, without the controllers (Faders, buttons,etc). Using the Soundtower editor I can do almost anything you can do on the PC3LE.
I assumed that the SP6, which is very compatible with the Forte SE, could do anything the Forte SE could do, using the Soundtower editor. I may be wrong in that, but I may be right!
The Soundtower manual is junk, but there's lots of good stuff in the user manuals for the other boards, as you've discovered.
Looking at the Forte SE manual quickly, it doesn't look like you can edit effects, but you can modify effect chains.
I hope they've fixed some of the bugs in the editor by now!

 
Posted : 30/11/2019 7:34 am
MiNukurz
(@minukurz)
Posts: 15
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

I have been loading in various PC3 and Forte programs many from this forum and tweaking them to work on the SP6, assigning controls, in some cases pulling a layer off one program to add to another, adding effects, etc.

For the most part on SP6 it appears that you need to do most of this with the editor. The editor seems to provide extensive access to the VAST system and editing...the issue of course is that the latest editor documentation is for the PC3, and when something is hanging up, for the most part the screen shots, text description in the PC3 Soundtower PDF are not useful when trying to use that info against the SP6 editor application.

The application seems to have some occasional issues, one that I seem to be able to repeat and will likely identify to Kurzweil and Soundtower shortly. Also, every once in a while, I'll get some program/sound where I want it, then click 'Write', and essentially have an undesired program sound written to that destination ID on the SP6 - I find myself needing to back ALL user sounds every day that I edit. One general issue is that in many cases the application may not report back a problem when editing/writing, but won't allow that change to work, or be saved - then you have to dig around and try to figure out if something does not look right (by comparing to other working program screens).

I do want to recognize that the VAST system is quite extensive and the there is certainly a lot of work been put in to the editor APP to provide access to board 'innards' - having to figure out how the editor APP works without updated documentation is a key issue.

Part of SP6 marketing states "..Get deeper into editing your SP6 using free external software editors for Mac OS X, Windows PC and iOS* device.." - this feature is only effective if the documentation is adequate and actually reflects the editor application.

 
Posted : 30/11/2019 8:07 pm
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