Soundmondo

Did a Sync for the Piano Nord program that was in the Ranking. It showed up in the MODX but no sound was working to Audition. But it did transmit to the MODX. So I tried another performance, same thing no sound to Audition. Tried a few more with the same results and no sound. So I thought maybe something got locked or frozen. I then went and tried some performances that were in the internal MODX and found out I was not getting any sound output from any performance I tried on the MODX. No audio output for anything!

You are using the word “Audition” in capital letters leading me to believe you are expecting an [AUDITION] phrase to be stored with the Soundmondo entry— but if as you say finally “no audio output for anything”… this indicates a completely different issue. But is not completely clear… if the same author posting, might be a similar error on the poster’s part.

Any input or advise would be appreciated as I really can't use Soundmondo anymore to audition any of the performances due to losing the MODX audio output everytime. Something has gone bad either on Soundmondo, the USB connection or the MODX and not sure what else to try.

Things that can completely cause your instrument to Output 0 Volume (this includes all Factory, User, Library Performances as well as any you have “bulk dumped” from Soundmondo or MODX CONNECT):

__ [UTILITY] > “Settings” > “Sound” > Tone Generator “Volume” = 0
This Volume is the overall Output of the MODX Tone Generator, which can be turned down by playing a .mid file with a Fade Out (using Universal MIDI Volume messages). Default setting: 127

__ [UTILITY] > “Settings” > “MIDI I/O” > “Local Control” = Off
This “Local Control” Off prevents the MODX Keyboard from reaching the MODX Tone Generator directly. All keyboard/controller messages go Out via MIDI (only) and must be “echoed back” to the MODX via MIDI from a DAW MIDI Track.

__ [UTILITY] > “Settings” > “Audio I/O” > “Direct Monitor” = Off
This prevents the MODX tone generator from feeding audio to the Analog Outputs (audio is only transmitted Out (digitally) via the USB OUT - and must be “returned” to the MODX acting as Audio Interface.

Other possibilities:
__ The program posted to Soundmondo suffers from an error in capture and/or posting. Or simply a user error in posting expectations (most likely)!

Something has gone bad either on Soundmondo, the USB connection or the MODX and not sure what else to try.

Well, those are not all of the potential possibilities.

You may find it is in the programming of that particular posting. I would not draw the conclusion from one sound (or one author of sounds) on a free posting site. Everyone posting is not always sure what they’ve actually posted. The original poster can download it and it works for them but it will not work for anyone else.

As you can see many folks wind up reposting something they downloaded, edited and instead of STORING it to their local instrument, they SAVE it back onto Soundmondo to SHARE with everyone (some include their improvements, some include their errors). Some want to SAVE it to the App… called “private”, but wind up sharing it with everyone, called “public”.

Store — is act of pressing the [STORE] button on the hardware instrument
Save — is the act of creating a file (in the case of Soundmondo you can SAVE it publically which reposts it to Soundmondo, or you can SAVE it privately to your own computer, tablet or phone.

The other very common (user) error is a misunderstanding of what can and what cannot be shared on the free Soundmondo site. This is where I’d place my bet…

Since the sound is called “Piano Nord”, perhaps the poster of this created their own Nord samples (a real possibility since no Nord samples are resident in your MODX) — well, Soundmondo will capture all the parameter settings, less the Audio (Waveforms and Samples) used to be the AWM2 Oscillator…. The MIDI bulk dump protocol does not have the capability of transferring the Waveform and Sample data via .mid at a speed that would serve today’s gear.

My guess, since you don’t mention any other sound, perhaps the poster of the Piano Nord did not understand posting data that includes User Waveforms — while it will work for them personally, because their personal MODX has the Waveform and Samples installed in their instruments FLASH… It will NOT work for anyone else… because they DO NOT have their Waveforms and Samples. I’m guessing the Waveforms being addressed are EMPTY

On the Soundmondo sound that you downloaded you can check if this is the case as follows:

Call up the Performance
From the HOME screen > press [EDIT]
In the lower left corner tap “Common” and select “Part 1”
Along the bottom of the screen are the Elements in Part 1 in bright blue
Touch “Elem1”
You want to see the “Elem1” > “Osc/Tune” screen
This screen, at the top, will indicate the “Element Switch” status, ON/OFF, followed by the Waveform “Bank”, the “Number”, the “Category”, the “SubCategory”, and the Waveform “Name”. Check all the Elements in all of the Parts.

Rinse and repeat for each Part… if it is a 2-Part Performance check Part 2 Elements
If it is a 3-Part Performance check Part 3, and so on…

If I was a betting man, I would say, the original poster either thought they could share User Waveforms/Samples (they cannot)… and the Elements that are set to ON in your download are erroneously pointing to nothing! Thus silence.

_ Audio (Waveforms/Samples) tend to be large when compared to the parameters that make up the rest of the Performance.

It’s the only scenario that fits everything you report.

Nothing wrong with Soundmondo!
Nothing wrong with the USB connection!
Nothing wrong with your MODX!

Hope that helps. Let us know.
I’ll check this next time I’m in my studio…

Thanks BM, appreciate your thorough response.

OK, so I tried again this morning. I double checked all the settings you pointed out and everything looked fine. Did a fresh boot of my PC also. To be safe, I synced one of your Soundmondo performances and it worked fine. Tried some other performances and they also worked fine.

So, appears the culprit is that Piano Nord performance as it causes everything to get "hosed up" in the MODX. The only reason I had tried it is because it had 50+ likes so it must have worked OK at one point in time.

I am extremely pleased that everything seems to be back to normal!

Thanks,
Mark

I'm looking at the SysEx of this Soundmondo "patch" and scanning through, I see the following which looks suspect:

00000f30  00 57 72 73 68 70 20 48  69 6c 6c 73 6f 6e 67 20  |.Wrshp Hillsong |

	00000f40  53 74 79 6c 65 09 00 01  01 00 00 00 00 01 7f 54  |Style..........T|

	00000f50  7f 42 3e 40 40 4e 40 03  08 00 0c 00 00 7f 40 40  |.B>@@N@.......@@|

	00000f60  10 07 00 40 01 00 01 01  00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  |...@............|

	00000f70  00 7c 7f 7f 70 78 01 40  40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40  |.|..px.@@@@@@@@@|

	00000f80  00 40 40 00 00 36 40 00  01 0d 40 00 01 67 40 00  |.@@..6@...@..g@.|

	00000f90  00 00 30 40 01 00 00 30  40 01 40 5a 40 40 40 40  |..0@...0@.@Z@@@@|

	00000fa0  40 40 40 01 00 01 40 40  40 00 3e f7 f0 43 00 7f  |@@@...@@@.>..C..|

	00000fb0  1c 00 7d 02 31 01 00 4e  52 44 20 47 72 61 6e 64  |..}.1..NRD Grand|

	00000fc0  20 49 6d 70 65 72 69 61  6c 00 00 00 00 01 01 00  | Imperial.......|

	00000fd0  00 00 00 01 7f 00 53 42  3e 40 40 6f 40 03 08 00  |......SB>@@o@...|

	00000fe0  1f 09 00 7f 40 40 10 07  00 40 01 00 01 01 00 00  |....@@...@......|

	00000ff0  00 00 01 00 00 00 00 7c  7f 7f 70 78 01 40 40 40  |.......|..px.@@@|

	00001000  40 40 40 40 40 40 00 40  40 00 00 36 40 00 01 07  |@@@@@@.@@..6@...|

	00001010  51 00 01 67 40 00 02 00  30 40 01 04 01 51 3f 01  |Q..g@...0@...Q?.|

	00001020  49 40 40 40 40 40 40 3f  40 01 00 01 40 40 40 00  |I@@@@@@?@...@@@.|

	00001030  4b f7 f0 43 00 7f 1c 00  7d 02 31 02 00 50 69 61  |K..C....}.1..Pia|

	00001040  6e 6f 20 4d 61 63 68 69  6e 65 00 00 00 00 00 00  |no Machine......|

	00001050  00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00  00 01 7f 00 53 42 3e 40  |............SB>@|

	00001060  40 32 40 03 08 00 0c 00  00 7f 40 40 10 07 00 40  |@2@.......@@...@|

Pulling something specific out of above:

f0 43 00 7f  |@@@...@@@.>..C..|

	00000fb0  1c 00 7d 02 31 01 00 4e  52 44 20 47 72 61 6e 64  |..}.1..NRD Grand|

	00000fc0  20 49 6d 70 65 72 69 61  6c 00 00 00 00 01 01 00  | Imperial.......|

	00000fd0  00 00 00 01 7f 00 53 42  3e 40 40 6f 40 03 08 00  |......SB>@@o@...|

	00000fe0  1f 09 00 7f 40 40 10 07  00 40 01 00 01 01 00 00  |....@@...@......|

	00000ff0  00 00 01 00 00 00 00 7c  7f 7f 70 78 01 40 40 40  |.......|..px.@@@|

	00001000  40 40 40 40 40 40 00 40  40 00 00 36 40 00 01 07  |@@@@@@.@@..6@...|

	00001010  51 00 01 67 40 00 02 00  30 40 01 04 01 51 3f 01  |Q..g@...0@...Q?.|

	00001020  49 40 40 40 40 40 40 3f  40 01 00 01 40 40 40 00  |I@@@@@@?@...@@@.|

	00001030  4b f7

... and a little easier to read the non-data part:

f0 43 00 7f 1c 00 7d 02 31 01 00
Address H=31, M=01, L=00 which is the Performance Part bulk dump area for Part 2.

... and data portion:

4e 52 44 20 47 72 61 6e 64 20 49 6d 70 65 72 69 61 6c 00 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 01 7f 00 53 42 3e 40 40 6f 40 03 08 00 (... and so on)

First part has text: "NRD Grand Imperial"

That's just the Part name. Where's that waveform pointer at? It's actually part of the element section - not here. But I'm going to be looking at Part 2 since that's what I would suspect would have custom waveforms at the least.

So I'm looking for address H=41 M=01 L=00

Medium (M) = 01 means element #1 Part #2.

Here's that:

f0 43 00 7f 1c 00 6b 02 41 01 00 01 09 00 00 02 01 01 00 40 00 40 40 00 00 53 01 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 7f 7f
... and so on

The bolded part is data.

Byte 0 = 01 (element switch) which is on. OK
Byte 1 = 09 (wave select) which tells your synth where the waveform is stored. 9 means Library Slot #8. Big fail here. The only valid waveforms for Soundmondo have to exist in presets. This byte HAS to be 0 for Preset. That is, unless you can somehow get the same Waveform the original author has loaded into HIS/HER own instrument's Library slot 8 loaded into your own Library Slot 8. Soundmondo doesn't deal with waveforms except allows for using references to preset (internal) waveforms only. Anything else is going to result in "garbage". Because you very well could load some random library into slot 8 and have some random Waveform into the same slot which would sound like ... well, some random wrong sound unless you got very lucky.

If 50 people liked this - then I think they liked more of the idea and didn't actually try it. Some people are collectors and do not play what they download. Who knows. This particular soundmondo entry is pretty much a paper weight for anyone other than the original author.

As mentioned previously:
__the original (Soundmondo) poster either thought they could share User Waveforms/Samples (they cannot)… and the Elements that are set to ON in your download are erroneously pointing to nothing! Thus silence.

A Soundmondo user can privately post data that utilizes Flash Board Waveform data (because their personal instrument contains their personal Waveform list to reference) - you cannot share data that contains pointers to non-existent data.

Thanks BM for the extra efforts and looking at the Piano Nord performance. Appears it is bad as suspected. It also caused me some some major issues as I indicated earlier.

Mark