ppc documentation Jun 05 2008 by Jan Eidtmann
Orbit or Carnaval owners: Please let me know if you have any kind of problem! I can not test ppc with either of these devices as I only have a Planet Phatt unit! If it works as expected I would like to hear about that too. Thank you. ")
Installation
The usual ./configure; make; make install procedure. ppc comes with a debian/ directory, so you can create your own Debian package too.
Connect
Make sure your synthesizer is connected bidirectional and switched on. Start ppc and select the MIDI-device that the synthesizer is connected to. Check the Device-ID setting (right of the MIDI-device selection) and make sure it's the same as the one of your device (check the Master menu of your synthesizer if unsure). Click the "Connect" button.
On it's first run, ppc will download some informations from your device. This will take round about 2 1/2 minutes (2.6MB data). Informations include:
Preset names
Instrument names
Preset data for all presets
Once the download is finished ppc is ready for use.
Note: All files are saved into ~/.ppc/. Instrument names are saved to ~/.ppc/instruments_DEV_ID, preset names to ~/.ppc/presets_DEV_ID and preset-data files to ~/.ppc/preset_data_DEV_ID/NNN where DEV is the alsa MIDI device, ID the device-id, and NNN is the preset number respectively.
This means you can use ppc together with multiple devices (one instance for each device).
Using ppc
Main-window
The Main-window is where you select the preset for all 16 channels as well as their volume, pan and mix-out. When you click one of the 16 channel buttons, ppc will update and show the preset, volume, pan and mix-out for this channel.
At the very bottom of the Main-window is an expander labeled "Master". Here you can edit the master settings of your device.
Changing parameters in the Main-window does not require an explicit save (settings are saved immediately in the device and therefore kept even when you switch the device off). However, you probably need different master setups, one for each of your songs. This is what the "Save Master" and "Load Master" buttons are there for (next to the "Connect" button). Click the "Save Master" button now, choose a filename, and click "Save". Now change some parameters in the Main window (anything). Now click the "Load Master" button. Navigate to the file you saved before and click "Load". All your previous settings have been restored.
Note: you can use this to send other types of sysex data to your device (tuning tables, program maps ..).
Preset-editor window
The "Edit" button toggles the Preset-editor.
The Preset-editor is where you can experiment, where you can create sounds mankind probably haven't heard yet.
How the Preset-editor works
The Preset-editor always shows the parameters for the current preset. This means, when you switch a preset, or switch a channel (which also switches the preset), the Preset-editor will load the parameters for this preset. And that means: if you have made changes to the preset, all your changes are lost! This is because the Planet Phatt/Orbit/Carnaval devices have only one edit buffer which is for the current preset (the preset shown in the display).
Remember: Only one preset at a time can be edited and changing the current preset erases the edit buffer.
You probably noticed the "Lock" button in the Main window (next to the "Edit" button). This button, when engaged, disables those control widgets of the Main window, which would switch the current preset.
Make your changes permanent
When you are happy with what you hear, you probably want to make your changes permanent. To do so, switch to the "Save" tab of the Preset-editor. Saving a preset is easy: just follow the steps in the frame which is entitled "Save". After you hit the "Save" button, your changes have been made permanent. That means, the preset is loaded and saved into your device, and the corresponding preset-data file is updated on your harddisk (~/.ppc/preset_data_DEV_ID/NNN).
