VX Series and Receptor

[philosorhymes]

I am happy to announce that the new CME VX Series range of keyboards work with receptor; This might seem like too simple information but it is nice to know before you buy so. Thats why I am filling you all in.

However, the full advertised feature set (from CME) is not completly stable, and it the nature of malfunctions varies depending on luck; there have been reports of some units working and some not working, I myself had to return the first one I got because there were faulty keys and non-functioning buttons there has also been a long list of people who have not been able to get the audio and MIDI working via plug and play. For Receptor Users Audio is not a problem since we use our trusted outputs from receptor, but to be fair, I think the windows OS is partly to blame. For Example, I have a laptop and a Desktop PC, on my desktop the VX's MIDI appears in the assignable MIDI list (still no sign of AUDIO) but on my laptop the MIDI just doesn't appear neither does the AUDIO, even though Windows reports it as installed.

However, good old receptor, I plug it in and it just works. Using the VX7 I was able to play, control zones, send and program changes to the receptor (these are the most important I guess ) It has aftertouch too although I have not tried this out.

The general keyboard is OK, not fantastic but I think that is more to do with the velocity curve settings, but CME are listening to customers. They have just released a firmware upgrade which seems to stablise a few things and it comes with a nice new feature where you can download customised Velocity Curves to the keyboard thats got to be good.

Again the firmware update seems to sometimes not complete, by not complete I do not mean left completely stuck in the middle of nowhere, but more that it leaves some things in a weird state, but if it doesn't work first time normally a second re-install fixes the problem.

There, nice overview of the VX series. Let me know if you have specific questions and I will try them out as soon as I can get the time and give you feedback.


Phil

[richwhite9]

I'm looking at the UF-70 or VX-7. How easly is it map the sliders to a NI B4II on a Receptor and save that drawbar mapping.

[thesoundsmith]

UF70 currently does not properly save settings. CME will release an update (in a month or two) After that, though, the drawbars map easily and work fine while you have that setup active but when you change patch, most of the important functions - keyboard channel, drawbar status, etc. do NOT restore. Also, the keyboard, mod wheel, pitch wheel and foot pedals all must map to the same channel. This means when I use the UF70 as a lower manual controller for B4II, I can map the drawbars to control the lower manual on channel 1, and the board plays on channel 2, the volume pedal will not control the B4, nor will the mod wheel work the Leslie. M-Audio have done a MUCH better job implementing the controller functions, but CME have done a much better job selecting the keyboard to build in - if we had the CME keyboard on the M-Audio controllers, I'd be a VERY happy camper, instead of the frustrated musician who realizes he had better playability with a Roland D70, Voce organ module and Korg 01W/FD...

[Bryan@MuseResearch]

We just got a couple of VX8's at Muse Research, and Phil's right, they absolutely do work. I wish they had a "save" button (argh!) but I absolutely LOVE the fact that you can program the drum pad buttons (the BIG 1.5 inch square buttons) to send MIDI PROGRAM CHANGES! Talk about a way to select snapshots on stage without having to fumble with little buttons!

I'm hoping they update the software to let you create your own names of presets, once they do that, this is an ideal companion piece to Receptor!

Cheers

Groovology

[philosorhymes]

I wish they had a "save" button (argh!) but I absolutely LOVE the fact that you can program the drum pad buttons (the BIG 1.5 inch square buttons) to send MIDI PROGRAM CHANGES! Talk about a way to select snapshots on stage without having to fumble with little buttons!

Groovology, all your settings will be saved across reboots, if you specifically want to save your settings all you do is press the Master button and scroll to a different Master preset, it will then ask you if you want to save your settings and then give you the option of saving it to one of the master presets and then that's it done. I think there are about 20 settings, this means you can change your keyboard settings completely with these master settings. Cool eh!

As the pads are velocity sensitive, I think it is much better to do program changes from the F1-F9 buttons. This means you can use the pads for more musical oriented stuff, but the beauty of this beast is that any button can do almost anything, there are few limitations, but then there are also some quirky things; For example, they changed the Standard MIDI CC147-148 to have expression data rather than the standard toggle note on/off. That was very frustrating, since that is the MIDI CC I use to trigger stylus patterns.

Anyway as I say, you can get round most things, and having loads of master presets lets you reconfigure everything in a split second. Nice touch, I only wish the plug and play and audio worked better, I'd route everything through my computer and then use one of the four MIDI outs to go to receptor, that would mean I could have my laptop and my receptor all working together. No extra sound card needed!

Nice.

[philosorhymes]

I'm looking at the UF-70 or VX-7. How easly is it map the sliders to a NI B4II on a Receptor and save that drawbar mapping.

Hi Richwhite, you can programme the sliders to any MIDI CC you wish to, I have B4 II so perhaps I can try that tonight, but I am pretty sure it will work, this keyboard is very easily configured.

Phil

[thesoundsmith]

For example, they changed the Standard MIDI CC147-148 to have expression data rather than the standard toggle note on/off. That was very frustrating, since that is the MIDI CC I use to trigger stylus patterns.

Midi ccs above 127 have no 'standard' setting, the Axiom also uses these numbers to produce alternate control functions, but they are not the same settings. If you are using software that expects these codes, then yo may have an issue, but it's not like the guys that map cc112 to volume, for example. Note on-off is not a cc, it's a different header number - I forget which, don't have the spec at hand.

[derhamm]

I'm using a VX6 with my Receptor Pro. Really digging it. Has anyone had any luck getting the motorized faders to slam to position when changing patches in B4? That was one of my reasons for buying this board but haven't found an easy way to do it. I'm missing the "drawbar" button that my CME UF6 had as well. Anyone found a one button way to switch from controlling multiple channels on the Receptor with the faders to controlling drawbars in B4 on one channel?

[thesoundsmith]

derhamm, have you tried connecting via USB rather than MIDI - or vice versa - you need to get the midi info from B4 back to the VX, if you have not set Receptor up to do this (and frankly I don't know if you can or not at this point) it can't happen.