This archive contains sounds (Programs and Combis) for the Korg 03R/W rack mount synthesiser. The sounds are stored in system exclusive (SYSEX) format and may be downloaded to your 03R/W from any of the standard librarians, sequencers, utilities that support this format (Atari ST, PC or whatever). THE SOUNDS ---------- I created the files by converting Korg 01/W sound banks which I got from the ftp site musie.phlab.missouri.edu in directory /pub/korg/prog-combi The credit for the sound patches goes to the original authors, therefore. All I have done is hack the bytes around for the benefit of us 03R/W owners. See /pub/korg/prog-combi for readme files describing the sounds. THE CONVERSION -------------- The 01/W and the O3R/W are very similar beasts, using Korg's Ai2 synthesis to produce some very nice sounds. They differ in that the 03R/W can be bolted into a rack while the 01/W is longer and has those black and white things on the top. It also has twice as much memory, roughly. As far as the sounds go, the same method is used to produce them in each case, but the 01 has twice as many combis and programs as the 03, and the 03 can do General MIDI, which the 01 can not, I believe. To convert the 01 files to 03 format I had to, essentially, split them in half. However, life is never that simple: The 01 has 100 combis and 100 progs in Bank A of its memory. So does the 03. The 01 has another 100 progs and 100 combis in Bank B, while the 03 has 129 fixed General MIDI programs in bank G. Combis on the 01 can be made up from Programs in Program Banks A and B. Combis on the 03 can be made up from Programs in Bank A and G. So the converted Combi sounds differ from that which their authors intended in cases where they used programs from both banks A and B on the 01. Both the 01 and the 03 use a basic set of tones called Multisounds (255 of them) to create programs. A multisound gives each program its characteristic tonal quality (eg. Piano, or Piano + Violin). You can combine two Multisounds when creating a program. I am informed that some of the multisounds differ between the 01 and the 03 or are the same but have different multisound numbers. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE PUNTER! I can hear you ask. Well, you should find that a good 70% of the combi sounds are the same as their authors intended when they wrote them on the 01. The figure might be around 80% for the Programs. But Nay Nay, fret not, 'cause the remainder still sound good, even if they sound nothing like their handle. eg. there's a rather nice pad sound that's called Pluck Piano. In fact, because this 'random' element has been incorporated there's some pretty wonderful unusual sounds in there with the regular ones. I think you'll have fun exploring them. I've not had time to convert the drums or global parameters, but this should not greatly spoil your listening enjoyment. If anyone wants to do the work to re-map the multisounds properly, or to figure out where bank G programs got substituted for bank B programs, then I'm sure you will have our eternal gratitude. FOR 05R/W OWNERS.... I've seen this little fellow in the music shops and tried it out. The front panel looks so much like the 03R/W I find it difficult to believe that its not the same inside. If you want to try loading these sounds they may work... they may not!. I don't know the internal layout of the 05 but it must be very similar. If you do try you will have to edit byte 4 of the SYSEX files to subsitute the 05's device ID. The first four bytes are: F0 42 30 30 for the 03R/W FO 42 30 2B for the 01/W and will be F0 42 30 ?? for the 05R/W .... consult your manual. Use one of the many PC/ST hex editors to achieve this. Have fun! and let me know how you get on Graeme Miller (G.R.M.Miller@open.ac.uk)