Quick Start

  1. When you start the program for the first time, it will prompt you to configure your MIDI connections to the TX81Z. The ports need to match your cable connections, the transmit channel must match the basic receive channel on the TX81Z, and the receive channel must match the transmit channel on the TX81Z. See MIDI Setup for a more thorough explanation.

  2. Go over to the TX81Z unit and configure its MIDI settings on the front panel so the editor will work with it. System exclusive messages absolutely must be turned on and program change messages should be set to "com" or "ind". This is particularly important if you want to store patches using the TX81Z Programmer. Both of these settings are set in single utility mode.

  3. Next, you'll want to load the TX81Z data into the editor. In the main window, click the Retrieve Snapshot Data button. When the Select Data dialog box appears, click the Check All button and click OK. The program will then request all the bulk dumps the unit is capable of sending and load them into the snapshot. See The Snapshot for more information about snapshots.

  4. Save the snapshot to disk and, for safety's safe, make a backup. I highly recommend doing this, since this is a powerful editor, built for convenience, so the tradeoff here is that it can be very easy to accidentally wipe out all of your custom patches on the unit if you are not careful. It's a good idea to read through the main window, snapshot and libraries sections of the manual before using this program.

    You'll want to make a file that will always be in sync with the unit, so that you don't have to retrieve the data every time you run the program. Of course, you don't have to do it this way, but that's how I do it, so that's what I'm going to recommend.

    Click on the disk button at the top of the main window and click Save As... to save the file. This will be your scratch file.

    Now click the disk button again and click Save Copy As.... Save it under a different name. This will be your backup in case something valuable gets overwritten in the snapshot.

    To restore a backup use the Load Copy menu item to load the backup into the snapshot, then use the Transmit Snapshot Data button to transmit to the TX81Z.

  5. Now you're ready to go in safety. You can edit a snapshot item by clicking on it and clicking the Edit Item button. You can create libraries of snapshot items by selecting them and clicking one of the Add To Lib buttons. Read the rest of this manual for details. :-)