Mac I’m sure works great also.īoy, the Roland PCR-800 sure works great with the MKS-50. Note that Windows XP likely works too but I don’t have that on any computer right now. I often find turning to my Windows 98 computer works well whenever I need to work with old vintage gear. However, with the Roland MKS-50, something just didn’t quite work right. I have used loads of other synths and MIDI devices with Windows 7 so my setup is likely to be correct. I can now feel confident about creating new patches and loading up other sysex files from various resources knowing I can get back to the factory presets easily.Īs with Windows 7, I am not sure why my Roland MKS-50 wouldn’t work with it. I read on several different forums about the MKS50orig.mid file and it definitely worked great.
Many had too many tone banks or the data was not correct.
I used the MKS50orig.mid file from the zip file mainly because all of the other sysex file solutions on the net were very confusing. The MKS-50 sure sounded much better as well.
After the transfer process was complete, my Roland MKS-50 was perfect! All of the Tone A, Tone B, Patch A, Patch B, and CM presets were completely reinstalled and saved with correct names. The instructions are in the mks50factory.zip file and they worked perfectly. I installed the Free Midi Player vanBasco on Win98 to transfer the Bulk dump into the MKS-50. To later load the factory preset tones and patches, I used a Midi file from here:
Awesome! I could then make a backup of the tones and patches that were in the MKS-50 when I bought it. I installed EZalpha on Win98 which this time accepted the bulk dump that I initiated from the MKS-50 on the first go around. So I decided to use my trusty Win98 computer that I use for old synth gear. Whatever I tried, my Windows 7 computer would simply not accept any incoming MIDI Bulk Data Dumps from the Roland MKS-50. I tried all sorts of MKS-50 programs and nothing would work. I had a heck of a time getting my Windows 7 32bit computer to receive bulk dumps from the Roland MKS-50. ( P:A11 PolySynth1) Before that though, I wanted to backup what was on the MKS-50 for future reference. So I decided to load in the original factory presets. When I bought the Roland MKS-50 here in Japan it had a bunch of patches and tones that were changed from the original factory presets. Restoring Factory Presets into the Roland MKS-50 Synthesizer Module:
So far I haven’t encountered any issues, but if I do, I’ll be sure to post an update here. It’s really fun using the Roland PCR-800 for controlling the Roland MKS-50. Now you can use both the USB and regular Midi In/Out Connectors.
Check on page 76 of the PCR-800 manual for details. You must change the MIDI I/F Switch to specify whether the MIDI connectors will be used as a MIDI Interface. Note that if you also use the USB cable you will need to change a setting on the PCR-800. Connected the Roland Midi Ins/Outs to the Roland MKS-50. For instructions you can consult the PCR-800 manual. Then simply transmit one at a time to the PCR-800. You will get three midi files PG-300_A.mid, PG-300_B.mid, and PG-300_C.mid that you can import into the Roland PCR Map Editor. Download the Control Maps from the Roland website here: Roland has made available a 3 Custom Control Maps for the PG-300 that work well with the Roland MKS-50. Installed the Roland PG-300 Custom Control Maps for the MKS-50. There is now Windows 7 PCR Map Editor specified on Roland’s website, but I found the Vista version to work just fine for editing and transmitting PCR Maps.ģ. I installed the Vista version as the XP one was not accepted. Installed the PCR Map Editor V2.0 for Windows 7. Used Roland’s UpdateSMF to transmit the p00001.mid file to the PCR-800Ģ. * At entering value by the rotary encoder, the operation might cause strange value move like going reverse or skipping values. Here’s what I did to get things connected up.ġ. Of course there may be some slight differences, but for starters, I think the PCR-800 will work great.
It’s like a fully operation synthesizer now and I won’t have to mess around with software editors or spend a ton of money on the original PG-300.
Today I spent some time hooking everything up and I must say it adds a whole new dimension to the Roland MKS-50. This week I found out that the Roland PCR 300/500/800 series keyboard controllers are fantastic for controlling the Roland MKS-50. About two years ago I purchased a Roland PCR-800 with Roland PSB-100 Adapter.