From EH@Ranger.enet.dec.comTue May 30 10:15:00 1995 Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 01:12:32 -0500 From: Eirikur Hallgrimsson To: atomic@netcom.com Cc: analogue@hyperreal.com, electronica+@andrew.cmu.edu Subject: speaking of weird boxes.... I scored a Beetle PR-7 today. In re the EH FA, there's a great article on vintage stomp boxes in the current Guitar Magazine. I got a Beetle PR-7 today. Yup, the fabled programmer for the TX-7. My TX-802 mostly understands the emitted sysex. Talk about weird topology: You plug your keyboard, and the input and output of the module into this (I'll need a merger to keep the Studio 5 connected). It needs this because it actually downloads the patch from the module so that it can display the parameters as you edit. It's kind of cool to edit things on the TX-802 with it. For some things the TX-802 gets all excited and puts up one of its graphic displays (the ones you hope you don't see, normally--they are deep in the periscope editing menus). The TX doesn't understand some high-level stuff like poly/mono modes and portamento..... Maybe there's something special that would make it do so, but perhaps not. The whole point of compatibility was being able to do voice dumps and accept continuous controllers. So, he says....anybody got a manual for one of these things? I'm sure Beetle is RIP, but I'd be happy to be wrong about that and get a phone number. It has a port for a DX-7 memory cartridge. I can't find mine at the moment, but I'll give it a whirl. Serial number 10001. It may be serial number 1, actually. It only has one wire on the main PCB. Eirikur, who went to the Guitar Center Mem. Day. sale, with no expectations. It has a cool whistling vacuum fl. display, too. Shades of the DSS-1 (or K2K). Eirikur Hallgrimsson eh@ranger.enet.dec.com Generic Epistemologist Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire. ...I've seen scarier secret police agencies than his completely destroyed by a Czech hippie playwright with a manual typewriter. --Bruce Sterling