The VL70m Expert Editor (Version 1.4)

The Yamaha VL70m is a physical modelling synthesizer that is exceptionaly good at realistic emulations of acoutstic instruments, particularly woodwind instruments. When controlled with a Woodwind Controller like the Yamaha WX5, the results are incredible. Yamaha didn't produce a decent PC patch editor, so a bunch of WX enthusiasts wrote their own.

Yamaha recently introduced a couple of very cheap PC products that use the same synthesis system, the SY-XG100 (a softsynth) and the SW192XG soundcard. (There are also a few soundcards out there that are actualy SW192XG clones. There's also the SW1000XG, which is a pro-quality soundcard that you can add a VL daughterboard to) The problem is that these products (obviously) don't have the front panel display and buttons of the real VL70m, and don't come with any utilities to emulate them. I've added some stuff to the Expert Editor to make it function as a rudimentary 'front panel'. My approach assumes you mostly want to play non-Yamaha patches live using something like a WX5; an alternative approach is provided by XGEdit. Note, if using this editor with a real VL70M, it's probably best to turn off all the options.

This is the long-awaited 'grand unified' version that merges my librarian and 'front panel' improvements with the latest version of Aaron and David's release.

The full list of new features since version 1.32 is:

  • A 'MIDI Thru' option
  • An option to send a bank select and patch change message at startup, to put the SY-XG100 out of XG mode
  • An option to listen for patch change messages and download the relevant patch within the currently open library on receiving one.
  • An option to remember the last selected patch and automaticaly download it at startup.
  • It will remember all settings/MIDI ports when you quit the program.
  • The list of patches in a library now has numbers next to the patches.
  • 'Save' and 'Save As' now work like every other Windows program. (N.B. IT NO LONGER SAVES THE LIBRARY WHENEVER YOU WRITE A PATCH BACK!)
  • There's now a normal 'Edit Menu' for copying patches between libraries. You can select multiple patches from the list using shift and control as per windows-normal.
  • When you switch between patches, all the edit windows update.
  • You can now have more than 10 MIDI devices.
    • Read the FAQ/Instructions

    Download the changed files (for existing ExEd users)

    Download everything.

    Links:

     Yamaha :
        VL70m
        SY-XG100

    Aaron and David's version of the ExEd (There are also some other VL70m utilities here)

    XGedit

    Windsynth.org (Information about woodwind controllers, and some excellent patches for the VL70m)