Rodgers® Model "MX-200™"

Frequently Asked Questions


Q: How do I turn off the MX-200™'s internal reverb so that it sounds correct with the organs RSS?

A:

  1. Turn on the MX-200™.
  2. Rotate the TONE CATEGORY knob to the EXP position.
  3. Rotate the PART knob to " 16 ".
  4. Press and release the VALUE knob repeatedly until the small red light next to TUNE appears in the display.
    The display shows " 40.0 " unless the MX-200™ is connected to an organ, in which case the display shows the tuning status of the organ.
    NOTE: 40.0 = 440.0 Hz
  5. Rotate the PART knob to " 1 ". The display shows " r-1 ". (This means reverb is off).
  6. Press and hold the VOLUME knob and press and release the VALUE knob. Display shows "[upside-down A ] rt " = Write
  7. Release the VOLUME knob.
  8. Press and release the VALUE knob . The display shows " Sur " (Are you sure?)
  9. Press and release the VALUE knob again. The display steps through a number of different items and then finally returns to " 40.0 ".


Q: How do I perform a factory reset?

A:

  1. Start with the MX-200™ powered up. Press and hold down the VOLUME knob, and press the VALUE knob to enter the Edit Mode. The LED "dot" next to the " EDIT " stencil on the right side of the display will light.
  2. Rotate the TONE CATEGORY knob to select " CELESTE " to place the unit in the SETUP MODE . The LED "dot" next to the " SETUP " stencil on the right side of the display will light.
  3. Rotate the PART knob to "3" to select factory reset. " Fct " {Factory} will appear in the 7-segment display screen.
  4. Press the VALUE knob. " Sur " {Sure?} will flash in the 7-segment display screen as a confirmation before resetting.
  5. Press the VALUE knob once more to execute the Factory Reset. A series of LED "dots" will march across the bottom of the display area for a few seconds while the reset is in progress.
Once the factory reset is completed, the LED "dot" next to the " MX " stencil on the right side of the display will light and "001" will appear in the 7-segment display screen, indicating the MX-200™ has returned to the MX Mode.


Q: When I turn on the MX-200™, why do I hear MIDI sounds all of the time with no MIDI Couplers or Stops Selected?

A: The organ's master channels transmit MIDI note messages at all times. The MX-200™ must be sent to Preset "P01" (Page 22 of owner's manual). If the MX-200™ is set for "P02" (or incorrectly set up in the Usr Preset) the MX-200™ will respond to the note messages from the organ's master channels (which are reserved for recording and playing back of organ stop information).


Q: When I playback a sequence recorded on the PR-300™, why do I get different sounds on playback than those I selected for recording?

A: The PR-300™ sends a GM/GS reset messages every time the " Reset " or " Play " buttons are pressed. These messages will reset the MX-200™ to the "GS" Mode. To use the MX-200™ with a PR-300™, the MX-200™ must be set up to ignore the GM/GS reset messages. Do the following:

  1. Hold down the VOLUME knob and press the VALUE knob to enter the Edit Mode.
  2. Turn the TONE CATEGORY to select " CELESTE " (setup mode).
  3. Turn PART knob to " 9 " (RECEIVE GM2 ON) .
  4. Turn the VALUE knob to change the display to "OFF"
  5. Press the VALUE knob to save and exit.
The GS RESET, GM SYSTEM ON, AND GM2 SYSTEM ON MIDI messages will now be ignored.


Q: When I playback a sequence from the PR-300™, why does the display change to "GM 2"?

A: The MX-200™ is being reset by the PR-300™. See the preceding section


Q: When I play along with the Hymn Paraphrases disk, the MX-200™ plays the "wrong" sounds. Why is it doing this?

A: The Hymn Paraphrases disks were recorded using the PR-300™, and thus have GM/GS reset messages recorded on the disks. See the preceding two entries dealing with correcting this.


Q: When I select tones on my early MIDI Organ (MIDI Phase 1, 2, and early PDI® organs such as the 785, 940, 945), some MIDI couplers seem to randomly select tones from the MX Tone List as if CC32 values are being sent.

A: When the MX-200™ boots up, a default tone list is set up as shown on page 46 of the MX-200™ Owner's Manual.
The defaults on each channel are:

MIDI Channel Coupler Voice PC MSB LSB
1 GT-A (Or GT-1) Stereo Harpsichord 092 093 126
2 SW-A (Or SW-2) Orchestral Strings 116 093 126
3 PD-A (Or PD-3) Contrabass Section 124 093 126
4 CH-A (Or CH-4) Harp 100 093 127
5 GT-B (Or GT-5) - Full Chamber Strings 004 093 127
6 SW-B (Or SW-6) - Real Choir 017 093 127
7 PD-B (Or PD-7) - Bass Pizzicato 011 093 127
8 CH-B (Or CH-8) Expressimo 112 093 126
9 (Selectable by GTA) MX Piano 077 093 126

Because these organs do not send MSB or LSB messages, the coupler can only select voices from within the default "bank." Thus, GT-A, SW-A, PD-A, and CH-B can select the 128 voices associated with MSB 093/LSB 126 only (Pages 28 – 29 of the MX-200™ Owner's Manual), and GT-B, SW-B, PD-B, and CH-A select the remaining 118 voices (page 29) of bank MSB 093/LSB 127.

Q: What are those funny "hieroglyphics", which sometimes appear in the display of the MX-200™?

A: Because the screen is a 7-segment display, there are some letters, which do not "translate" well to this format. The displays, which appear as "hieroglyphs are:

WRT (Write) – The "W" appears as an upside-down "A"
VEN (Vendor) – The "V" appears as a backwards "Y"
GM2 (General MIDI 2) – The "G" is not closed; the "M" appears as an upside-down "U"
GS (General Standard) – The "G" is not closed.


Q: What is meant by "Bank" select?

A: The original MIDI Specification had only 128 "sounds" (or "voices" or "patches," all synonymous terms) available. A later specification added the BANK SELECT, which is also known as Controller Change (CC) 00 (usually referred to as "Control Change Zero"), which is a Most Significant Byte (MSB) message (in some consoles, it is referred to as "Variation"). This added the capability to have up to another 128 "Banks" or sets of voices available to the musician. That is 128 x 128 or 16,384! We guess that was still not enough, so there was yet another "Bank" change set message added, known as Controller Change 32, or CC32, which is a Least Significant Byte (LSB) message. This adds the ability to access 2,097,152 different sounds! However, the MSB most often changes by values of "8" (0, 8, 16, 24, etc.) and the LSB currently uses only a few values … usually either side of the "0" value for rapid access (i.e., 127, 126, etc.). Also, the total number of sounds is limited by the total memory available within the sound module!

In order to access the sounds in these "alternate" banks, (i.e., actually change the current bank set), the messages must be sent in the following order (MSB) (LSB, optional) (Program Change). The LSB must ALWAYS be preceded by the MSB. Transmitting the LSB alone followed by the PC will not be recognized as a valid Bank Change.

The MX-200™ uses both MSB and LSB messages to access its sounds.

Some Caveats:

Suggetions to an organist using a T957 with an early PR-300™ (non-"S"), and an MX-200™

  1. Keep the PR300 as is in the drawer "under the dashboard". Use the included brackets to mount the MX-200™ under the opposite "dashboard".
  2. Your MX-200™ installer will need to know the following:
    1. One MIDI cable is needed, long enough to reach from the MX to the organ's MIDI port - connect the MX-200™ MIDI IN to the organ's MIDI OUT (keep the PR-300™'s 2 MIDI cables connections as is).
    2. Purchase audio "Y"-adapters from Radio Shack to integrate the audio L&R out from both the MX-200™ and PR-300™ into the organ's Audio In L&R.
    3. Route all cables from the MX-200™ into the organ's interior via the portholes under the key deck.
  3. You can use either unit, but you'll need to turn the volume slider (PR-300™) or knob (MX-200™) down on the unit you're not using. For example:
  4. You could record new sequences using organ stops and only MX-200™ voices with the following method:
    1. Before recording the sequence, press Quick Menu and turn the select knob to MIDI SETTINGS.
    2. Press Quick Menu again and turn the select knob to REGISTRATIONS. The word after "Send" will be highlighted; most likely the word highlighted is "Stops".
    3. Rotate the Alpha Wheel to change the selection to "Pistons".
    4. Turn the select knob to highlight the word after "Recv". Most likely that word highlighted is "Stp/Pstn."
    5. If it indicates "Stp/Pstn," go on to next step; otherwise, rotate the Alpha Wheel to change the selection to "Pistons" or "Stp/Pstn."
    6. Press 0 (cancel) to exit the menu.
    7. Now the organ is in a mode to only send Piston data to the sequencer. Your recording of the sequence must be done only by preset pistons (no hand-activated stops, couplers, etc). Also, playback of that sequence will only fire piston data plus note and expression data. So, each time you playback that sequence, you'll need the organ set to the same Memory Level (and if using a Smart Media Card, same Folder too) as when you originally recorded the sequence. You'll also need the organ set to Recv Pistons, or Recv Stp/Pstn.
    8. If you subsequently playback any sequence recorded on the PR-300™ using;
      1. hand- drawn stops
        and/or
      2. PR-300™ MIDI patches --

        or if you subsequently record any new sequences using

      1. hand-drawn stops
        and/or
      2. PR-300™ MIDI patches,

        you need to follow the above #a,b,c,d,e,f and adjust the parameters back to SEND: Stops, RECV: stp/pstn.

  5. Because of the Y-connections, the volume level of any MIDI sound may be too low. You may need to make adjustments to the organ's AUX IN audio settings:
    1. Press Quick Menu. Rotate the select knob to AUDIO CONTROL.
    2. Press Quick menu again. Rotate the select knob to AUX IN AUDIO.
    3. Press Quick Menu again. "Main Volume" should be highlighted. Make adjustments with the Alpha Wheel. If the setting is +6.25 and the volume still is too low, then rotate the select knob to highlight "Aux Gain Boost", and increase the number via the Alpha Wheel.
    4. Don't forget to save this setting! Press and hold SET, then press and hold 0 [cancel] until the display window indicates the adjustments are saved.

Compatible Expansion Cards

The MX-200™ is built with 2 expansion card slots. The Rodgers® card occupies Slot #1.
Slot #2 is available for any of the cards listed here, and/or any future Rodgers®/Roland® SRX expansion cards.

Currently, these SRX cards are compatible with the MX-200™:

How to find info about these cards:
  1. Go to www.Roland®US.com
  2. Click PRODUCTS
  3. Click SOUND LIBRARIES
  4. Click SRX-Expansion Boards. You'll see a screen full of the SRX cards. For further info about any of them, click CLICK FOR DETAILS.
  5. To see the Patch list (library of sounds) for that card: under Support, Click SUPPORT DOCUMENTS.
  6. Under Support Documents, click SRX-0x Patch List. A PDF file will pop up showing the library of sounds for that SRX card. This list can be printed and/or saved to your computer.
  7. Rodgers® Dealers worldwide will be the sole distributors of the MX-200™.
HOW TO ORDER the expansion cards: Currently any Roland® dealer sells them.