Hello K5 uses

Hello,




   I got a K5M from Ebay about two weeks ago and have started 
exploring it.  I suspected that I would have to write a primitive 
editor so I downloaded, printed, OCR'ed, and corrected the SysEx 
information that is posted as JPGs in the file section.  The ASCII 
file result of the K5 SysEx is in the file section now.


   My experience with voice editor programs on the web has been really 
poor.  Since this is such a specialized field with few adherents and 
having each type of synth require a seperate editor, there are very 
few editor programs for a given synth.  Plus they rarely work now 
because the operating system and the standard MIDI interface has 
changed so much since the late 1980s.  Plus, they never have the 
source code included, so they can't be fixed even for such minor 
things like having the MPU-401 port address changed to 300h from 330h 
(where it conflicts with modern on-board PC soundchip MIDI). Truely 
frustrating!


   Given the experience with other editors, I suspected that there was 
only one chance in a hundred that any Atari ST program would still 
work even partially.  But I actually got the STeem Atari Emulator to 
run the program called Caged Artist K5 Editor.  It took a long time to 
figure out how to set it up so that all the pieces work together, but 
now it does (more or less).


   Another ST program in the files area called K5_Pro doesn't work at 
all.  It gives the message box [Error - Try Removing GDOS] when run 
with STeem.


   Please let me ask some questions to the other K5 users here-


   


   - STeem crashes every time I try to exit from using the Caged 
Artist K5 editor.  I just reboot the PC, but is there any way to avoid 
this?


   


   - Is there any way around the error message box in STeem when using 
K5_Pro?


   


   - Is there any way to turn off the Active Sensing transmission of 
the K5M?  A tone module should never send 0xFEh Active Sense messages 
because it never controls the other devices on the MIDI bus.  Active 
Sense tranmission is always enabled on the K1M also, so this is 
something that must have slipped by the Kawai engineers when they 
pasted the K5 firmware into the K5M.  It is really annoying because I 
sometimes monitor the MIDI stream with a MIDI-to-RS232 convertor to 
see what is really going on there and all the useless 0xFEh bytes clog 
up the results.


   


   - Will standard generic old PCMCIA cards work in the K5 card slot?  
Do they need any special formatting?


   


   - Are there any examples of source code available that show how to 
send and receive MIDI data from the MPU-401 clone that is built into 
the joystick port of every sound card?  I've seen some scattered 
references to the complex API code that can access this undiscovered 
PC treasure but nothing that clearly explains how to work with it for 
home programmers with moderate experience.


   


   - Is there any source code available for a K5 SysEx editor?  I did 
an editor for the K1 and put its Turbo C source into the KawaiSynths 
Yahoo! Group file section.   Since there are so few interested in any 
particular tone module, it seems sad not to share what work was done 
to develop for it in the distant past.


   


   - Is there any way to dampen the buzz that comes from the chassis 
of the K5M when it is turned on?


   


   Replies, answers, and random comments would be welcome.


   


   Thank you,




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