Output Gain

XFM2 output can be really hot.

When both units are pumping all 64-voices, with effects enabled and all, a ton of sound is stacked. The gain staging in the synthesizer is designed to avoid clipping in most heavy-load use cases.

However, this leads to users who just want to play with one unit, or a few voices to get a somewhat low-ish output level. Here are a few options:

1- Use the OUTPUT parameter (411), which ranges from 0-255 and adjusts the overall output level of the program.

2- Send MIDI Volume (CC7) to 127. As per the MIDI specification, XFM2 will default to CC7=100 on power-up (this allows the MIDI volume to make a program louder). So if you never send a CC7, you are “wasting” some volume range.

But sometimes those options still don’t result in the wanted output level. So in this new build, I have added a new ‘GAIN’ parameter (412) which will set the output even higher. Valid values are:

0 = 0dB (no change)
1 = +6dB
2 = +12dB
3 = +18dB

This might simplify the program level adjustments.

This feat and the MIDI Out still need a few regression tests, but they seem to work nicely so far.

Binaries are here. I have included both the “.bit” file, which can be loaded into XFM2 with Adept as to test it without overwriting the flashed version (will not persist on power-off), and the “.bin” file to load as a persistent image via XLoad -img.

Also included is the updated spreadsheet with the GAIN parameter. Enjoy!