Batch Convert DX7/DX7II Files

The Batch Convert DX7/DX7II Files Wizard is found on the Tools menu.

This feature is only available if your copy of sy.factory is registered.

The Batch Convert DX7/DX7II Files Wizard provides a means for you to convert several DX7/DX7II SYSEX files and convert them to SY77 JNN format files. Please read the DX7 Notes Section for information on the conversion process

The Batch Convert DX7/DX7II Files Wizard has two pages to navigate through:

Select Source Directory Page

The Select Source Directory Page is shown below

This page has the following options

Source Directory

You can type the name of the source directory in this control.

Or if you click the [...] button to the right of the line, this will bring up a file selector dialog.

Scan Subdirectories

If this control is checked, then the Batch Converter will also include any subdirectories that it finds within the source directory when looking for files to convert.

If this control is not checked then any subdirectories in the source directory will be ignored.

Ignore File CRC Errors

If this control is not checked then any errors detected during file loading will halt the conversion process.

If this control is checked then these errors are ignored, but are logged if logging is enabled.

It's recommended that this option is set, as there are many DX7 files on the Internet with checksum errors

Select Destination Directory Page

The Select Destination Directory Page is shown below

This page has the following options

Destination Directory

You can type the name of the destination directory in this control.

Or if you click the [...] button to the right of the line, this will bring up a file selector dialog.

Create Log File

If this control is checked then a log file is created in the destination directory.

This log file is called "Log File.txt", and can be opened with any text editor

Using the Batch Converter

The converter is a simple "Wizard" and you can step through the choice pages using the Prev and Next buttons, or exit the Wizard using the Cancel Button

Select the source and destination directory options and once that is done click on the Finish button to start the Batch Convert Wizard.

The Wizard will not allow you to select a directory that doesn't exist, and the source and destination directories must be different to prevent you from accidentally overwriting the source DX7 files.

Once the Wizard starts, the progress of converting files is shown in the information pane.

There is a progress bar that shows the progress for all the files that the converter has detected.

The Wizard also shows how many file CRC errors have been encountered (assuming you have set the options to ignore File errors).

You can cancel the conversion at any time by pressing the Cancel button, but you may need to wait for sy.factory to finish the current conversion before the batch conversion is cancelled.

Once completed, a summary results page is shown that summarises the conversion.

The Wizard can be dismissed by clicking the Close button.

You can check the results of the conversion by opening the Log File.txt file (assuming you left logging enabled).

The log file is a simple text file that lists each source file and whether any errors were detected.

All errors are preceded by ** (two stars), so you can use your text editors find/search facilities to look for ** to quickly find any errors.

DX7 Conversion Notes

Like any conversion where the Voice Architectures are different, perfect conversion results cannot be guaranteed. I had a further challenge because I sold my DX7II a number of years ago as the SY77 (and my FS1R) made it redundant! So I haven't had a reference DX7 to compare the results against. However I have used the DX7 import features of fs.factory (which use the FS1r's built in DX7 conversion feature) to create files to check the SY conversion against.

The FS1r is actually a better architecture to map DX7 voices onto, as it is much closer to the original DX7 architecture than the SY series. So I was happy to use it as a reference.

Of course I haven't checked all the thousands of DX7 files that I have. I wrote a scanning program to find 10 examples of each DX7 algorithm and that gave me a list of files to focus testing on to ensure that all algorithms were covered. Once I was happy with the converter I then did some random sampling of files to check the results.

While the SY77 is very obviously based on the DX7 6 Operator implementation, it is quite different in a number of areas, the key ones being:

There is a preference setting in the Voice Preferences Tab in the Preferences Dialog which, if checked, will add a little reverb, delay and chorus to the converted voices to make them a little less dry. If this option is not checked then the SY77 Voice Effects section is disabled.

DX7II Conversion Notes

If a SYSEX file contains DX7II information (64 Voices, 32 Performances), a file containing the voices is created with a J01 extension, and a file containing the performances (based on the referenced voices) is created with a J02 extension. A dialog will be displayed to let you know that a J02 file has been created when you open a single DX7II file. The Batch Converter will write a line to the log file to indicate that a J02 file has been created for a file being imported.

Voices in the J01 file are Single Element AFM Poly Voices. Voices in the J02 file are Dual Element AFM Poly Voices, created to match the type of DX7II Performance (Single, Dual, Split), including settings like key range, layer balance, layer detuning, etc.

Multis are not used on the SY because there are only 16 of them and you can only play a single channel from the keyboard at the same time, and you can't enter a lot of the DX7II Performance info into them. So a Multi cannot really be used for a DX7II Performance, and a Dual Element AFM Voice approach was more appropriate. However I wanted to access both Performances and individual voices from a DX7II file, and creating two files, one for the Voice bank and one for the Performance bank, seemed the best solution.