Overview
manikk u800 is a programmer for the Roland JX-8P, JX-10 and MKS-70 synthesizers.
It is connected to the PG-800 connector on the synthesizer (NOT MIDI).
The u800 has five main modes:
- Parameter edit mode
- Load user patches (34), presets (3×34) and randomize patch
- Save user patches (34)
- Macro M1
- Macro M2
The two macros can change up to 5 parameters at once with the value potentiometer.
To the left you will find the parameter buttons. The buttons to the right are the mode-buttons. The leds to the right are the value visualization leds.
NOTE 1: The u800 can only send data to the synthesizer. It can NOT receive data. Therefore it is best to start with a “known” state, where the u800 and the synth are in sync. You can either use the “Send All” function on the u800 or “Load” a patch from the u800 memories to get into this synced and known state.
NOTE 2: Make sure the EDIT-slider on the synth is set to zero when using the u800. The EDIT-slider can else sometimes send its value to the parameter that is set with the u800 and “competes” with the value that you set with the u800 value knob. When set to zero, this behavior will be avoided or minimized.
Parameter types
To change a parameter, you press the parameter button, then use the potentiometer or the Inc/Dec buttons to change the value.
The synth parameters can be grouped into groups with different behavior and value visualization:
Selectors
These parameters have only a few selectable values. The selected value are visualized by a single led to the right. The Inc/Dec buttons are best when editing these parameters. Examples of parameters are Wave, Range, Chorus.
Value parameters
These parameters can have a value between 0 and 127. Use the potentiometer or Inc/Dec buttons to change the value. The value is visualized by 1 to 16 leds that lights up like a bar. A small value have few lit leds and a high value have many lit leds. The Inc/Dec buttons can be used to fine adjust the value, but you may have to press the buttons multiple times before you see a change in the visualization leds.
Tune parameters
These parameters can have a value between -12 to 0 to +12. The zero value is indicated by a single lit led at the bottom. For each positive value upwards, leds are added above the bottom led, until max 13 leds are lit. Negative values are indicated by lighting leds from the top to the bottom. -1 are indicated by the top led lit and -12 are indicated by the 12 leds from the top are lit. This makes it simple to see if tuning is at center, negative or positive.
Mode and Dyn
These are special parameters. They are controlling the envelope modes and dynamics. To edit an envelope mode or dynamics curve, you must first select an envelope-amount parameter. A dashed line is printed at the bottom left on the front panel to help indicate these relationships. First press an Env-button, then press the Mode or Dyn button.
Mode selects which envelope (1 or 2) and the direction (positive or negative going) of that envelope when used to modulate any of the Env-amount-parameters.
Dyn selects the dynamic curve for the envelope-amount-modulation.
To select the envelope modulation amount parameter, just press any of the Env-buttons at the bottom left, without pressing the Mode or Dyn buttons.
DCO1 Env and DCO2 Env have separate envelope amount parameters, but they share the same Mode and Dyn parameters. When you press the Mode or Dyn button when editing DCO1 Env or DCO2 Env, both DCO1 Env and DCO2 Env leds are lit to indicate this shared behavior.
Envelope parameters
The programmer have two Envelopes, 1 and 2. Select which envelope to edit with the Env 1/2-select-button at the top. Then use the Attack, Decay, Sust, Rel and Keyf to select the parameter for the selected envelope number.
Main mode buttons
Press any of the 4 buttons at the top right to enter or leave the different main modes. The 2 macros have their own macro value, visualized as a normal value parameter. In load mode, the value visualization leds indicate patch banks.
Send All
Press and hold the Load button (long press).
Use this function to make sure that all parameters inside the u800 is sent to the synth. It is a good practice to start with this before creating any sounds that you want to save.
If you change presets on the synth, then the u800 and the synth will not be in sync anymore.
Always use the programmer as the master when editing sounds.
Factory reset
Press hand hold the Save button (long press).
The Save-button is blinking. Use the Inc/Dec buttons to select a reset-level then press Save-button again to execute.
- 0 = No reset, exits without any reset
- 1 = Reset macros and the led dimmer value
- 2 = Resets everything from level 1 and also all user patches
Led dimmer
Press the Save button, then use the potentiometer to set the dimmer level. Press the Save button again to save the dimmer level and exit this mode.
Load
Press the Load button.
In this mode you can load user defined patches, presets and randomize parameters. Use the potentiometer or Inc/Dec buttons to select banks or the random function. The visualization leds indicate the selected bank:
- 0 = User defined patches (34)
- 1-3 = Three banks with presets (3×34)
- Noise = Random functions
Press any of the 34 parameter buttons to load a patch in banks 0-3. The last loaded patch is indicated by a blinking led.
In random mode, you can randomized different groups of parameters. These are indicated by the lit parameter-leds. The blinking parameter will randomize all parameters.
Save
Press the Save button. Now all the 34 parameter buttons will blink. Press any of these 34 buttons to choose a slot to save your user defined patch. The saved patches can then be loaded in bank 0 in load mode.
NOTE! To make sure that you really save the patch that you are hearing, first make sure to sync the u800 with the synth before you start editing and saving patches. You can sync the u800 and the synth with “Send All” or loading a user defined patch or preset.
Macros M1 and M2
Press the M1 or M2 button to enter any of the the Macro modes.
A macro is used to change multiple parameters at once with the potentiometer. You can add up to 5 parameters to each macro. It is also possible to adjust the parameter range for each of the added parameters in the macro.
To add a parameter to the macro, press any of the parameter buttons (except mode and dyn). Now that parameter button is blinking to indicate the macro parameter in focus. If you click on another parameter, the blinking focus will be moved to that button. You can add up to 5 parameters. When 5 is added, no more can be added and you must first remove parameters to be able to add any new.
To remove a parameter, click on a lit parameter button. It will start blinking to indicate that it is in focus. Click it again to remove it.
You can change focus on all active parameters by clicking on any of the steady lit parameters. If you click on a blinking parameter, it will be removed from the macro.
To set the range for a parameter in a macro, first make sure that the parameter is in focus and the parameter led is blinking. Then set the potentiometer in the wanted level 0% to 100%. Now press the Inc-button to make this pot-level the maximum level in the custom range. Press the Dec-button to make this pot-level the minimum level in the parameter custom range.
It is possible to set inverted ranges by setting the minimum at a higher level than the maximum (swapping the min/max).
When you add a new parameter to a macro, a full non-inverted range is applied. When you remove a parameter, the custom range is lost.