YAMAHA SW1000XG SOUNDCARD FAQ 1 Question: What is the SW1000XG in summary? Answer: The SW1000XG is a new type of audio production card for the PC. It uses the new high speed PCI buss to allow multitrack hard disk recording and simultaneous 64 voice/32 part hardware level MIDI synthesis.
the mixing abilities of a 12-buss dedicated hard disk recorder and the effects abilities of five Yamaha 24-bit multi effects units (plus eq giving you six in total) It can best be summarized by converting its facilities into the following separate units: A Hardware 64 voice polyphonic synthesizer (which can be upgraded to hardware level 80 note poly with PLG100DX and future planned daughterboards), it has, as standard, 1267 onboard sounds (expandable to over 2300), and over 46 drum kits all of which are ful
7 Question: Is the MIDI adapter running at standard 31.25kbaud? Answer: Yes. 8 Question: The connector is quite odd (in appearance) for MIDI. Why? Answer: So was the connector on the Turtle Beach Tahiti card. It’s just a good small connector that we used to split to the MIDI i/o cable. 9 Question: What are the pin connections for this socket? Answer: A cable is supplied to fulfil this requirement. This information may or may not be in the user manual, but it will appear on the xgfactory.com web site.
Answer: MIPS speeds are for people who get off on spec sheets. We prefer to talk about real things, such as music. So if you want to read all about MIPS speeds, get yourself over to the games card site of your choice. If we started talking about the speeds the SW1000XG is getting to, it would make your eyes pop out.
25 Question: How many megabytes of samples were on the DB50XG and the SW60XG and the MU10? Answer: 4Megs. 26 Question: How many megs are on the CS1x and the WF192? Answer: Cs1x has 4.5 megs and the WF192 has 2megs. 27 Question: What are the inputs on the SW1000XG set to? Answer: -10dbv >> +9dBm(max) line level, mic switch in software such as XGEDIT provides additional input gain.
playing.;Chorus Buss - As above, but with chorus, phaser and flanger/detune style effects.;Variation Buss - As above, but can also be used as an insertion style effect for application to one channel; it has on/off in this mode. This contains a palette of over 70 effects types, including amp simulators, delays, aphex type c exciters, compressors, eq.;All of the above buss effects have individual send levels for each of the audio & MIDI parts.
Answer: Yes, and the opto isolators (for all of you who worry about this) are built into the card, so no having to go and buy expensive joystick to MIDI cables. Please note that there is no support for DOS or DOS box, as this is not a games card.
46 Question: What are the main specs for audio on the card? Answer: Conservatively stated:; S/n > 94dB; THD < 0.02%; Dynamic range >94dB;P.S. we measured these with some pro hardware (Audio Precision units), not some utility in some audio app! 47 Question: If I wished to connect the S/PDIF out to the S/PDIF Input on my Audiowerk/Darla/Gina etc card (which cannot talk over the CN Buss) can I do this? Answer: Yes, although a proper (75ohm) or equivalent S/PDIF cable is recommended.
Answer: Yes, and with the use of several other useful tools available online, you can get apps like VST running on 686p+ machines also, making, with the effects power of the SW1000XG, VST a viable option for 686p+ users at long last. 58 Question: Can I use my existing multi i/o card such as the Audiowerk8 or Gina/Darla with the SW1000XG? Answer: Happily, no problem at all; in fact we encourage this type of use.
this still fails, take the card to your local dealer. If it works in their machine fine, then your PC has a problem. 66 Question: What are the main chips on the SW1000XG? Answer: O.K from left to right:;The large chip just above the PCI connector is the XT94P21 PCI gate array custom designed by Yamaha for use on the DSP Factory and the SW1000XG, it is a common chip to both cards.
Answer: Just shut down your PC and unplug the card. Windows will then remove it from its list of active devices. Or use the Windows Add/Remove Hardware option. Other options are covered in the Windows user manual. 71 Question: How do I update my drivers from the UK website? Answer: Just download the update file and follow the simple instructions that will be both on the site and attached as readme files.
77 Question: I am running the SW1000Xg and the DS2416 in the same machine. The DSP Factory (unlike the SW1000XG) does not appear in the multimedia properties box as a MIDI device, and yet I have seen sites set up by Yamaha that claim it is MIDI compatible via software. How is this so? Answer: The low level calls made to the DS2416 through software such as Cakewalk 7.0 allows it, via its own internal API system, to enable MIDI control of some functions.
Yamaha UK website. The use of applications such as XGEDIT allow full access to every parameter of the SW1000Xg including the voices. 85 Question: XGEDIT 2.6 has a plug in option, what is this for? Answer: This is for support of the PLG100 series daughterboards. The PLG100VH, VL and DX boards can be fitted one at a time to the SW1000XG. This option in XGEDIT allows you to select the one that you have, and make it the active board for parameter editing. 86 Question: Cakewalk Pro Audio 6.0 and 7.
controls the parameters on the card.For Emagic Logic and Logic Audio, Yamaha provide a fully functional Environment page which controls the parameters on the card. 91 Question: Will voice data made for Sondius XG be compatible with the SW1000XG? Answer: Any voices saved using the Windows VVE editor that is compatible with both Sondius XG and the SW1000XG will work happily across the two systems. This also goes for voices that support the VL70m.
100 Question: What is mix in in the Record option in the Windows mixer? Answer: This is the loopback audio input level control. As the card is re-routing the digital path from the synth and audio parts directly back in as a wave device, you may find that this is the best way to control input gain for the loopback record mode option.(if the app you are using doesn’t have an input gain control). 101 Question: Can I use Sondius-XG with the SW1000XG and will I still have the latency? Answer: Yes and Yes.
Keep your audio cable quality as high as possible; this also goes for your amplifier and speakers. Your recording quality will only be as good as the lowest component in your system. The same goes for PC's. Any PC is only as fast as its slowest part. It is no point having a state of the art computer with a 1MB ISA buss poor graphics card or slow compressed IDE hard disk. Keep a track of your system files, (system.ini, win.ini, protocol.ini, autoexec.bat, and config.sys) and make back ups of them.
4: When you are happy with both the audio recording (which you may have done with the effects processing on or off) and your midi parts, set up Cakewalk (just as an example) to record on a spare track, and set this track to be recording from SW1000 wave 2 input. 5: Now, all parts that you can actually hear will be bounced down to a stereo pair on this track.
110 Question: Can I record the output of SYXG50/Sondius softsynth down to wave (2) on the SW1000XG, thus giving me (if required) an additional 129 notes of polyphony? (This could mean that the total poly count of the SW1000XG, if fitted with a PLG100DX and SYXG50/Sondius, could reach over 200 note, although this would be CPU dependent as Sondius uses CPU power. 80 note poly, however, would not use any CPU)? Answer: Yes.
120 Question: I can hear my MIDI playback, but no audio. What may be causing this? Answer: Possible causes are . you have the volume in your multimedia control panel for playback of the SW1000 wave out set to 0, or you may be trying to playback from one of the other wave outs on the SW1000, and this output may have been left in a zero state as default.Use an app like XGEDIT to set your audio volume levels to an appropriate state for use in your Windows session.
127 Question: Will the VST mixer send out sysex to the SW1000XGs hardware mixer then? Answer: No, it runs to its own internal system, and consequently if used with the SW1000XG, can negate some of the benefits gained by having a hardware mixer device. To mix the audio in VST, the best way is to use the mixer maps provided by Yamaha, or make your own up. Using sysex/MIDI ccs to control the volume/panning etc and just use the VST mixer for channel audio eq if desired.VST4.0 has a more comprehensive approach.
Answer: Our tests showed that to run a reverb effect such as ‘Un-named reverb on a Pentium 166 machine, required around 210% of the total CPU power. (i.e. it didnt work !) Running 4 simultaneous reverbs (1 variation, 2 insertion and 1 reverb buss effect) on the SW1000XG caused almost 0% increase in the total CPU power being used at that time. The Un-named reverb result is not intended to defame this excellent application in any way at all, we are just pointing out some basic facts.
level input/output capabilities. In theory the card can support in excess of 100 tracks of audio playback through the 12 wave stream outs. 142 Question: Do any of the functions of the SW1000XG utilise the floating point maths coprocessor of the host CPU (Is my Cyrix going to slug in other words)? Answer: No, your Cyrix 686p+ will be fine, as no host FPU functions are used by the card.
Answer: Cakewalk Pro Audio version 5.0, for example, only supports a single device, and thus, only stereo operation. In the case of SW1000XG, this means it can only access a single channel-pair at a time. On the other hand, Cakewalk Pro Audio version 6.0 and higher can address multiple devices, and therefore the multiple ins and out of the card.
156 Question: Some cards will gain from the new Active X-2 specifications for off loading the CPU/DSP events from the host CPU to the card CPU, will the DSP Factory utilize this feature of Active Movie/2? Answer: No. The DSP horsepower and multiple effects are already on the card (SW1000XG as well).;One thing to bear in mind on this is that the effects on the SW1000XG are real, ready to go, on board and don’t touch any CPU at all.
one is (and it’s very good) the hardware one on our card is 100% faster at least on any machine. 164 Question: And what about audio polyphony and other settings in Cakewalk pro audio? Answer: Set audio polyphony to however many tracks you think your system can cope with. The SW1000XG supports 12 channel hardware level mixing with as many tracks as your system can provide through them.
173 Question: Does the SW1000XG support A3d or other games based surround sound systems? Answer: NO. IT’S NOT A GAMES CARD !! 174 Question: What editors are available for editing the VL daughterboard? Answer: There are several on the internet, and all are free. There is the expert editor from the ART wind site (see Sondius-XG home page for more info on this), and also the Yamaha VVE visual editor. 175 Question: Where can I get the full version of XGEDIT95? Answer: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/shop.
So now you know that all sysex starts with f0 and ends with f7 The next digit in our stream is 43 (hex) This is the manufacturer ID for Yamaha (the other manufactures all use a different number) And again this is common to all XG units The next digit is 10, this is the device id number, again this can be common to all XG units Then we have 4C which again is pretty much found in all Yamaha XG units and signifies that the main body of the sysex data is about to being So if you stick to F0,43,10,4c,your data g
This string forces the synth to switch to TG300B mode and reset all parameters to their GS defaults (XG synth TG300B mode is an emulation of the Roland GS format). The string should be included in all GS files after the GM reset. You cannot send an XG reset and a GS reset in the same file, as the last one sent will be the mode the synth works in (you can't run XG and TG300B at the same time - see notes elsewhere in the file on ways around this with the SW1000XG).
application such as MIDI-ox, which monitors the output of any application (in conjunction with Hubi’s Loopback), and thus provides an easy way to see what XGEDIT is sending out when you select various functions. 184 Question: Can I do things like master volume fades and master effects (globally) to all parts then just by assigning all of the wave channels to be under control of a single MIDI channel? Answer: Yes.
Sustain Portamento Sostenuto Soft Filter Resonance AmpEG Release AmpEG Attack Low Pass Filter Cutoff Portamento Control Part Reverb Part Chorus Part Variation Bn,40,xx Bn,41,xx Bn,42,xx Bn,43,xx Bn,47,xx Bn,48,xx Bn,49,xx Bn,4A,xx Bn,54,xx Bn,5B,xx Bn,5D,xx Bn,5E,xx Harmonic Content Brightness Effect Depth 1 Effect Depth 2 Effect Depth 3 Note: n=Midi channel number in Hex 0 - F (1 - 16) xx = Data value in Hex RPN/NRPN Controllers Parameter Vibrato Rate Vibrato Depth Vibrato Delay Filter EG Depth (SW100
191 Question: In Cool Edit Pro and SAW Plus (and any other app that supports multiple wave devices), do you have any suggestions for ideal configurations for the audio parts? Answer: Yes. In device selection, for example, in Cool Edit Pro and SAWPLUS, select SW1000 wave out 1-6 for outputs 1-6, and then for inputs, select SW1000 Wave input 1 as your primary record source, and wave input 2 for track that you may use as bounce tracks.
201 Question: Where can I get to hear the SW1000XG in my country? Answer: Please telephone one of the numbers in our ‘Where to go section’, and they will give you more info on where you can listen to the SW1000XG in your country. 202 Question: Can I run the SW1000XG if I have MSIE4 installed in Windows 98? Answer: Yes, but remember that IE4 and especially the active desktop tend to want a lot of CPU cycles.
AX bays. So over the CN connector buss, individual wave channels can be routed to specific busses on the DS2416. 209 Question: Where will I be able to buy the PLG100 boards? Answer: Most Yamaha dealers worldwide should have them available. Check out the Where to go page at http://www.yamaha.co.uk/ for more info. 210 Question: Can I make up my own cable to run several PLG100 series daughterboards directly off the SW1000XG? Answer: Not as yet.
220 Question: The specs say the SW1000XG has four audio record channels, but I only see a stereo input. Where are the other two inputs? Answer: These are internal loopback record inputs, and not physical connectors. This is explained in the FAQ further down. 221 Question: Do some voices use more than one element (as was the case on the DB50XG)? Answer: Yes, some voices use up to two elements.
Answer: Indeed. (DB50XG/SW60XG/Mu50/Mu80 and Cs1x users will at this point be saying ...’What high pass filter ? ) 231 Question: Can the DSP effects on the SW1000XG cause popping and clicking due to gain increases? Answer: Any effects processor can do this, especially with feedback/delay effects, and things like guitar amp simulators. Just be careful and monitor your input gain levels when re-recording with effects on.
242 Question: How much hard disk space will the bounce use? Answer: !0.5mb approx. per stereo minute at 16 bit 44.1kHz. 243 Question: What is the main advantage of the SW1000XG having a hardware mixer and effects set over other cards? Answer: Just ask your CPU!. The hardware mixer and multi effects busses will run just as well on a P166 as they will on a Quad Pentium 2/400 (that’s if Win98 supports multiple CPU’s). The hardware mixer and effects do not access or indeed use any CPU power at all.
card (i.e. the SW1000XG), therefore, it may not sound at its best on a standard card (have you ever heard VL without effects..!). In other words, forget about it! 251 Question: Can the PLG100 series cards be fitted to the DSP Factory system? Answer: No. 252 Question: Is the PCB multi layer to keep the noise level down? Answer: Yes, as are the PCB’s for the DSP Factory and the DB50XG. 253 Question: How close to a full VL synth is the PLG100VL board? Answer: It is a full Vl70m synth.
Answer: No, they are distinct and separate tone units. However, you can play a MIDI part using voices (such as drums) from the TG300B side of the card, record them using the loopback feature , and then combine them with the XG voices in MIDI. 263 Question: Can the PLG100Vl board save custom voices (full VL edits) and also user voices (as the VL70m can)? Answer: Yes, but save the edits as sysex set-ups, as the PLG100DX has no on board nonvolatile RAM to save voices.
Answer: No. The SW1000XG does not as yet function as a sampler. You can, however, use applications like Awave to convert SF2 data into wave file and integrate the sounds with any cheap DLS compatible games card such as the WF192. 273 Question: The DSP Factory is controlled at low level via specific applications software. Do I need special software for the SW1000XG? Answer: No.
work as it should in some cases, there are only a couple of alternatives. One is if your BIOS allows you to set fixed IRQ numbers for the PCI slots, . The other is to physically rearrange the cards. This may be necessary anyway. Check that the PCI slot you are using is not shared though, and if possible, try not to use too many PCI cards that hog tons of the PCI bandwidth anyway.
Zero host CPU used in synthesis systems.
boards), to secondary wave buss Yes (to multiple busses) PCI Plug & Play Yes Yes No of effects Types >70 (5 parallel busses) 40 (2 parallel busses) THD via 0.02%link to AX44 (20-20khz) 0.02% (core card) 0.01% AX44 (20-20khz) fs=48khz Freq. Response 20Hz 20kHz 20Hz 20kHz Wordclock support Out (SPDIF) and master clock out, from CN connector In & out (CN connector & SPDIF) Sample Rates Supported 32/44.1/48khz 32/44.1/48kHz Internal (30.08-50.
287 Question: What version of Direct X should I have installed? Answer: The SW1000XG does not use Direct X. For software such as Steinberg Rebirth, the emulated Direct Sound drivers will kick in, and the SW1000XG will run happily. If you have Direct X5.0 or higher, then great, though the SW1000XG won’t use it! 288 Question: Does the SW1000XG support sampling either in hardware or via DLS? Answer: Not as yet, and DLS is more for toy games cards anyway.
295 Question: Can I combine the SW1000XG with any low cost digital i/o card to give me the elusive digital in? Answer: Yes, if that is what you need. 296 Question: DSP Factory can apply its effects using its buss routing to previously recorded audio tracks, therefore locking the effect to the track and freeing up the effects busses to do other things. Can the SW1000XG do this? Answer: Yes, using the SW1000 wave 2 input system (loopback mode).
Answer: This is because there are three independent MIDI ports built in to the card. Port 1 supports channels 1-16, port 2 supports MIDI channels 17-32 and port 3 is for external control. 307 Question: Can I still run 32 parts of XG when I have the PLG100VL fitted? Answer: Yes, but 1 channel will also be fed to the PLG board. This is user controlled. 308 Question: Will the PLG100DX board only run on MIDI channel 1? Answer: No,.
minimum for Win98). Some Applications software such as VST recommends more for all soundcards);P166 or higher for general use (Please consult your software manuals for more info);PLG100 daughterboards - An SW1000XG card.;On the RAM front as a rough guide:;Apps that use audio only (Cool Edit Pro etc), get 32megs or more in your machine if you can.;Apps that combine MIDI & audio (Cakewalk /Logic etc), get 32-64megs if you can.;Cubase VST, get as much RAM as you can (especially with version 4.0 on the way).
Answer: Yes, and no CPU power is used at all................ Try doing that with an Active Movie plug in on a P166!! 330 Question: So I can mix and match any effects in any order really? Answer: Yes, so long as the buss you use has the effect you want in it. 331 Question: Can each audio part have separate effects send levels and dry/wet balance? Answer: Yes.
Answer: Select the Media player and select ‘Wave’ as the option. Then load up any good 16 bit stereo sound (44.1k) and press play. Make sure the audio out is connected to your speakers or amplifier, and press play. Check your cables to your amplifier, and check also that Windows is not reporting any conflicts with your soundcard in the device manager. 339 Question: What is the CN102 connector on the SW1000XG? Answer: This is the digital buss connector to the DSP Factory card system..
353 Question: How many MIDI channels does it support? Answer: 48 (32 Internal and 16 external). 354 Question: When I plugged a synth into the external port of my AWE32 with the DB50XG fitted, the same sounds that were played by the DB50XG were played by my synth. Will this happen on the SW1000XG? Answer: No, the ports are independent.
When IRQ steering is enabled the BIOS still assigns IRQ's to PCI devices, and even though Windows has the ability to change these settings, it generally does not. PCI bus IRQ steering gives the operating system the flexibility to reprogram PCI IRQ's when it rebalances Plug and Play resources. Without PCI bus IRQ steering, Windows can only rebalance Plug and Play ISA IRQ's to resolve resource conflicts.
NOTE: PCI bus IRQ steering is disabled by default in OSR2. If you are using OSR2, and IRQ steering is disabled, verify that the Use IRQ Steering check box is selected on the IRQ Steering tab. IRQ Steering may be displayed as disabled in Device Manager for any of the following reasons: The IRQ routing table that must be provided by the BIOS to the operating system may be missing or contain errors. The IRQ routing table provides information on how the motherboard is configured for PCI IRQ's.
371 Question: Is the SW1000XG a 32 bit device? Answer: Yes, the PCI architecture is 32 bit, but, as with almost every soundcard in the world (aside from DS2416), playback of 32bit audio files is not possible.
accordingly at the correct PCI2.1 spec buss speed. If possible please use a PCI slot that adheres to the PCI2.1 spec. 384 Question: How do I test for full duplex in Windows 95? Answer: Two easy ways:;One is to use an app like Cakewalk Pro Audio/VST/Cool edit/Saw etc. The other is, using Sound Recorder, open up a file at 44.1k/16-bit; whilst playing this file, open up another instance of Sound Recorder and record another at the same freq. and bit rate.
391 Question: What is chorus? Answer: An audio effect that duplicates a sound, slightly changes and delays it, then overlays it on top of the original to add complexity and character. 392 Question: What is dB? Answer: Decibel: Most commonly seen in its abbreviated form: dB. A decibel is a unit that measures the strength of a signal on a Log scale.
generator, filter, modulation, and other parameters which can be applied to the basic waveform.Furthermore, up to four elements, each with its own wave and a complete set of editable parameters, can be assigned to each voice. The strength of AWM synthesis lies not only in its outstanding sound quality (it uses 16-bit, 44.1 kHz samples), but also in its extraordinary ability to shape and control the sound of the samples.
Answer: Yes, so long as they have an external or battery power supply coming into them, as the pro level 48v phantom supply required by most professional condenser microphones is not supplied by either card. (A good example of a mic that has battery operation like this is the AKG C1000, although any good dynamic or condenser mic is fine with the SW1000XG) This also means that many of the very cheap SoundBlaster style microphones will not work, as they use power also (although not pro level).
Answer: Yes, but it won’t sound anywhere near as good if you have used XG properly. The fact is that XG has way more effects and controllable parameters than any of the other GM synths and GS synths out on the market. 415 Question: Will the files I create on the SW1000XG playback on other XG devices? Answer: For this please use XGEDIT, which has options to save MIDI files as XG level 1. This way, you are guaranteed that what you will hear is what the other person with a lower spec XG unit will hear.
such as byte merging, may be absent. The connector may vary according to the voltage the card uses (3.3 or 5v; some cards can cope with both) The DS2416 and the SW1000XG both require 5v. 424 Question: What is PCI plug and Play? Answer: PCI Plug and Play is a system intended to make fitting of expansion cards easier (yes, really!). In this context, ISA cards are known as Legacy Cards, and are switched as normal to make them fit in. Have as few of these as possible, as accesses to them are slow.
432 Question: As there is no CD audio input on the card for sampling, is it possible to find applications software that will ‘rip’ audio from a CD, and save it to hard disk? Answer: Yes. Lots of apps will do this, just search the net. 433 Question: Are there any good starting points for XG songs, i.e. in the form of templates? Answer: Yes. Two good ones are the Yamaha Hypergrooves sets (volume 1&2), and also the Twiddly bits volume 8 programmers kit for XG.
