Using KS Editor 32-bit version

The user interface of KS Editor has four parts: two lists at the upper side and two trees at the lower side.

The Lists:

The lists contain banks of sounds or sequences. The left list is always for sound banks whereas the right list has a switch for setting it in sound bank mode or sequence bank mode. Actually said switch just hides the other list, its content will be remained.

Enlarging the list:

If you want to see the entire contents of a bank in one view, use the down arrow to the right of the list. This will stretch the list over the whole vertical size of the user interface. The up-arrow restores the original size. Another possibility - only if your user interface is larger than 800x600 is to maximize the application window: this will use all extra space for the bank lists.

Moving/copying Sounds or Sequences:

You can move a sound or sequence within a list using drag and drop. The selected sound will be swapped with the sound on the drop position. The same applies for sequences, except that a song cannot be swapped with a sequence. You can also drop a sound on a position in the other sound bank. This creates a copy of the selected sound on the drop position. Sound or sequences can also be dropped onto one of the trees: this also creates a copy of the selected sound or sequence in that tree, double-clicking has the same effect. Drag and drop is disabled if the sound or sequence list is empty since only complete lists can be send to your synth, you cannot send a partial bank.

Sequence memory

In the sequence bank, the currently used and still available amount of memory is displayed above the list. At the first instance, KSEditor does not know how much memory your synth has (depends on whether you have installed the memory expansion). However, after reception of a full sequence dump, KSEditor can determine from the dump the amount of memory of your synth and will store this value for future use. If you try to copy a sequence into the sequence bank whereby the sequence dump would not fit into the memory of your synth, the copy action is refused.

Pop-up menus

Both the sound list and the sequence list have a pop-up menu that is accessed by right clicking the mouse. The pop-up menu contains the commands relevant for the type of list: i.e. loading or saving lists to disk and sending or receiving them to or from your synth. Sequences can also be deleted from the list whereas sounds cannot. A special option is copying the list in text form to the windows clipboard, which can be useful if you want to print an index of the sound or sequence bank.


The Trees:

Both trees, located right under the lists, can be used for intermediate storage of sequences and sounds. You can insert as many sequences or sounds as you want. While an item is selected, its parameters can be edited in the dialog to the right of the tree. An item can be expanded according to the number of available parameters whereby additional edit screens can be addressed. Each sound has three voices and an effect, and each voice has a wave, pitch, LFO, filter, output, and three envelopes. Each sequence has eight tracks and an effect. If a track contains sequence data (note and controller events), it has a third level: "data" that shows the list of events (can not be edited though). Only the left tree has a full voice edit mode, where all parameters of a single voice are displayed in a larger dialog window if the "Voice" item is selected.

Copying parameters

Some of the items can be dropped onto other items whereby the content of the selected item is copied to the drop-on item. This applies to effects, voices, tracks, and envelopes. This copying can also be done between the two trees i.e. dragging an envelope from the left tree and dropping it onto another envelope in the right tree. The head items (i.e. the sound or the sequence) can also be dropped onto one of the bank lists.

Pop-up menus

Each tree has a pop-up menu comprising the following commands: loading or saving the selected item from or to disk, sending or retrieving the selected item (sound or sequence) to or from the synth, deleting the item or all items.

Special option: save to midi

The sequence last selected or clicked on will be converted to a standard midi file. This file can then be read by sequencer programs. ?Nine tracks are written: one tempo track and the eight data tracks. If you convert a song to midi, only the eight attached data tracks will be converted, not the song steps. Since this conversion program was based on hacking rather than documentation, there is the possibility of mistakes or there might be controller messages that I was not aware of.

If you click on the save to midi item, you will be first asked for a filename, and them prompted for an X-Ctrl number (the external controller to which the synth responds). The value of X-Ctrl can be found in one of the screens of the System-Midi button (of the KS32).

There are some interesting limitations: velocity is only stored in 5-bits, i.e. only 32 different values are possible (this can also be seen in the data view window). The maximum duration of a note appears to be 32767 clockticks.


Options: Midi configuration

The midi configuration dialog, selectable in the options menu, allows you to select the midi in and midi out interface. The program can also do this for you by clicking the button: Search KS/SQ, this will check all available midi devices for the presence of an SQ or KS32. You can also have this automatically done during each startup of the program by checking the corresponding option.

In the midi configuration dialog, you can also select the type of synth you are using. There are small differences between the SQ1, SQ2 and the KS32, namely: the modulator list, the number of waveforms, and the buttons. If - in KS32 mode - you select a waveform not available on the SQ, you will see "illegal choice". It is not recommended to send such a sound to the SQ.

Options: Virtual SQ

Buttons

This dialog shows all buttons and keys of your synth. The buttons are a kind of remote control for your synth, which is useful e.g. for starting the sequencer or selecting a particular sound that you want to retrieve. Note that the KS32 has additional buttons not available on the SQ. These buttons will not work with an SQ and can cause unexpected errors while using them with an SQ. Some additional buttons (i.e. REC+PLAY) were created for pressing two buttons at the same time because you cannot do this with your mouse pointer.

Keys

The keys allow you to play remotely on your synth (it can also be used to play any other midi out device if this is selected in the midi configuration menu). You press keys with your left mouse button, a played key will be displayed blue. To the right of the virtual SQ you will find a channel selector, that selects the midi channel used for playing, useful if you have different midi channels allocated to different tracks.

Aftertouch and Volume

Aftertouch is simulated by moving the mouse while pressing down a key: the further you move away from the key, the higher the aftertouch value. The type of aftertouch can be selected as channel pressure or key pressure. The volume is controlled by the vertical position of the mouse pointer on the key at the moment when it's pressed: the further down, the higher the volume.


Options: Global parameters

This dialog window is for editing "global" parameters (that's the term used on ensoniq's specification sheet) of an all sequence bank dump. In fact, those parameters are the sequence setup parameters of the active sequence (on your synth) so the term "global" is bit strange here. You can choose here the preset that should be displayed right after the synth has received a full sequence dump. Another parameter is the "percentage of free sequence memory", which is useful to check how much sequence memory is left: this parameter is automatically updated.


General remarks on Midi Communication

KSEditor is always ready to receive sysex data from your synth. Hence, if you press "Save to midi-sysex", the program will respond and receive the dump. There is, however, a much easier way of retrieving data from your synth by using the "Get..." menu options. The program will ask the synth to send a dump of the specified type without having to press any buttons.

Sequence sending and receiving is more complicated than sound dumping because it is a two step process. Your synth has to confirm that it's ready for reception by sending an acknowledgement message. If this message is not received, the sequence dump will not be sent. Therefore, sequence dumping requires both midi out AND midi in. This is because the size of the sequence is not fixed: if it is too big, your synth must have the option to refuse it.


Remarks on editing

Range checking

You edit a sound or a sequence that is selected in the tree. Once you change a parameter, the sound or sequence is immediately updated. All edit controls do range checking, you cannot enter any out of range values or characters in a control that requires a number. The only exception to this are the strings "KEYUP" in the wave edit screen (Delay time), "ZONE" in the output screen (KeybdScale) and "SOUND" in the track screen (Panning).

Layering

The layering in the track edit screen requires some attention. On the synth you select the first track by pressing a button and additional layers by double clicking. On the edit track screen this is slightly different. You select the first track in the same way as on your synth. You can start layering after one click on the surrounding background of the layer group: this will lock the first track (it will be grayed and disabled) and enable layering. Once you have unchecked all layers and only the first track remains, the first track will be unlocked so that you change the first track again.