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From: burger@convex1.tcs.tulane.edu (rodney lim)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth,comp.music
Subject: Re: opinions wanted: "Xor" vs "MIDI Quest"
Message-ID: <6570@rex.cs.tulane.edu>
Date: 8 Mar 91 21:01:29 GMT
References: <b1vm8p.lfj@wang.com> <1991Mar7.022847.26622@riacs.edu>
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Organization: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Lines: 44


   I just got MIDI Quest not too long ago for my PC, after I had read the 
Electronic Musician review that gave it a 10, but right before Keyboard's
scathing review (which says a lot given the usual nature of their reviews). 
If that review had come out a month eariler, I could have saved myself a
lot of grief.  As mentioned by another poster, the manual is user-illiterate.
Also, the characters displayed on my screen look so small and compressed, I
just about have to squint to read them.  You almost need a magnifying glass
to read the (non)help files.  Another annoyance is that if you're working in
the ESQ1 editor, the whole screen isn't shown; you have to scroll back and
forth if you want to edit parameters at the top and bottom of the screen (I
don't know if this is also true for the other templates.)  And if you don't
have a mouse, you're going to lose patience quick because keyboard control is
pretty cumbersome and slow.  And the biggest problem I'm having with it right
now is that I can't get it to receive patch data over MIDI from my D-50 without
running into a MIDI communication error.  The manual says it's a problem with
not having up-to-date software in my D-50, which brings up two questions:

       --How do I find out what O.S. my D-50 is running under? 
                                and
       --How can I contact Roland to upgrade to the current O.S.?  Do they
	     have a phone number?

Thanks in advance.
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 |  ____   | |   / \   = |          The Rodman           |    = = =          |
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"You're a bright kid.  You'll figure it out." -- The Hitcher to the Soul Man.