Readme File for PC2 Manager

License Agreement
=================
PC2 Manager is an editor and library manager for Kurzweil PC2. The program is
freeware for non-commercial use. One reason why the program is freeware is beacause
I spent so much time creating the tool I didn't have much time left for programming
sounds. So if you want to express your gratitude mail me the sounds you have
created with PC2 Manager. Or even better make your sounds available to the
public.

If someone uses PC2 Manager commercially, i.e. sells the sounds created with the
program, I would get a free copy of each sound for my personal use.


Getting Started
===============
PC2 Manager should run on all Windows PCs. At the moment there is no installation
routine for the program and it is not needed because there are no dll's to register.
The easiest way is to copy all files in the same directory. Basically only the *.exe
file is needed, the other files are just used when converting sounds from and to K2000.
This was done so that by editing this files, the user could specify his own
conversion rules. There is an entry in the <preferences> menu where the path where
this files are can be specified. The path has to be set before doing the first
conversion, otherwise there would be error messages that the files are not found.
On the other hand, if someone just uses the library and editor features, the program
deosn't need the files and works even when the path is not set correctly or the files
are not installed.

The MIDI input and output devices should also be set in the <preferences>
menu.

The program stores the sounds in files with the extension PC2. Kurzweil
hasn't specified a file format for the PC2 since there is no storage medium
on the PC2. Because of that I used the file format of the K2000. The format
of the program objects is the same like the format used in the sysex
messages. To have something to start I have included a file which contains
the factory presets.

It is important to know that there is no way to change a single parameter of
a program via MIDI. In every case the whole program has to be sent. Fortunately
a program is so small that sending the whole program takes not so much time.
But it is not covenient to send the program every time the user changes a parameter.
This is the reason why the user have to press the <Send> button to send the edited
program to the PC2. For convenience there is a shortcut: you could click the right
mouse button inside the edit window to send a program.

You also can't hear the changes while playing a note, like it is posibble on
the K2000. A new note have to be triggered to hear the changes made via MIDI.
There is a problem if someone has the 128-voice expansion. When a program is sent
via MIDI, you can hear the changes only on every second note. These are
the notes which are played by the original PC2 engine, the notes played by
the expansion remain as before. I think the reason is the following: The
expansion, which is basically an own synthesizer, has no own memory, only a
buffer for the current program. When the user changes a program, the current
program is transfered from PC2 to the buffer. Unfortunately Kurzweil hasn't
implemented the same when a program is received via MIDI on the current
program location. You could call this a bug, otherwise it is not so
important when the user uses MIDI only for loading and saving sounds like it
was intended by Kurzweil. But in combination with the editor it becomes a
problem and I hope that Kurzweil will fix it one day. Of course there is a
workaround, but it is cumbersome: choose an other program and than skip back
to the original program number and it will sound correctly on all 128
voices.

At the right side of the editor window, for each Layer there is a radio
button and two checkboxes. The radio button is for choosing the Layer which
is displayed by the editor. The first checkbox is checked when the layer
should be edited. By this the user can choose more than one layer to be edited
(something I always missed on the K2X00s). The second checkbox is checked
when the layer should be played, otherwise it is muted. Since the muting and
unmuting is done by sending or not sending the data of this layer via MIDI,
a sound should be sent with all layers unmuted when the editing process is
finished.
