I've finally figured out how to get my old midi format stuff into the xp-80 and then get that extracted onto different "phrase tracks."
Now my problem is that I can't change the sounds to those I want. I've tried changing the parts of a patch, but they don't stick.

Also.

Can I use more than one drum patch at a time?

Can I sequence using "layered" instead of "single" patches, and how?

Are you saving to disk as "Song and Sound" as opposed to "Song only"? If you save as song&sound any part changes you make will be saved.
You can only use 1 drum kit, but you can devide it among different tracks. It will all come from midi channel 10, but it can play on several tracks.

You can record layered performances. Just pick which layered perf you want to use and start recording. If you want to isolate any track, you need to put it in single. For instance, if you used a layered perf, but wanted to add drums, put it in single, record the drums, then put it back in layer.

Hello!
I have the same problem. There are very good MIDI tracks for the computergame "Ultima8". I wanted to change those MIDI's to SVQ-files with better (not GM) sounds, but when I save that, only the new bank was stored. So the song has used the userbank instead of the GM bank, as it should, but the patch numbers haven't changed. I don't know how to do that!

okay, I'm not sure about this but my best guess is that the midi tracks contain sysex info that is not stored in banks but as raw information in the track. try opening the midi files into something like cakewalk and check if there's any GM-mode sysex messages and program select messages. this might cause your inconvenience.
you could also check this by altering patches and see if they change once you start the song or once the part starts playing. this is a clear indication that the sequence contains any of the formentioned messages.
good luck and keep us informed about the results or progress.
Bas

[This message has been edited by Bungle (edited 11-21-2001).]

There are so many questions here and so many people saving songs in so many possible (and unidentified) ways that's it's difficult to see through the thicket.

But my impression is that you (i.e., everyone) needs to go into microscope mode and delete any GM-mode sysex messages that might be there (the message that tells the synth to go into GM mode). Then you won't go into GM mode to begin with. If you're getting .mid files off the net, you probably can just do a global sysex erase for the whole tune, since it's just excess baggage once you leave GM mode.

Then go into each individual track and change the bank select messages = the controller messages that actually call up the patches. The possible messages are:

CC 0
CC 32
PG

Some GM files only have PG, others have CC 0 and CC 32 as well.

Delete the CC 0 and CC 32 messages only if you want all your patches to come from your user bank (or from any *one*, single bank). If you want patches from *other* banks as well (e.g., Preset, expansion boards), you must retain the CC 0 and CC 32 (+PG) and change them to correspond to the banks in which the patches reside which you want to call up into a particular performance part.

The manuals are pretty clear on that point, but if you have questions, there's also an explanation in Roland's Supplemental Notes.

You can also generate the CC 0 + CC 32 + PG automatically and record them into your song by simply pressing the patch button for the patch you want while the sequencer is recording (it's the bank-select version of Transmit Edit). The bank select messages are automatically generated.

All this changes if you are using Song + Sound as your save method instead of Song Only, as FAEbGBD mentioned above.

I'm just unsure how people are actually saving their songs. But I hope this helps.

Wer sonst welche Fragen hat, naja, nur los . . .

Hey, wait a minute . . . who's that?