The Yamaha OS cannot load Typhoon disks at all, and Typhoon cannot directly load native TX16W disks. Thankfully, Typhoon 2000 can import native TX16W disks to some degree, although more slowly than loading Typhoon disks.
The process to convert native Yamaha TX16W disks to Typhoon disks isn’t obvious, so a step-by-step guide is presented here, along with additional potentially helpful information.
TYPHOON 2000 IMPORT FEATURE
Hint: Before starting, create an adequate supply of blank TX16W-formatted disks! Saving to Typhoon format after importing will avoid long import times in the future.
– Boot the Yamaha TX16W with the Typhoon 2000 operating system
– Insert a Yamaha TX16W format disk containing native Yamaha TX16W data
– Press “System Setup”
– Press “Utility”
– Press “8” to change the Utility menu to “8.Import”
– Press “>” twice to select “Go”
– Press “Enter” to begin the Import process
– When Import process is complete, insert a blank formatted diskette
– Press “<" twice to select "Utility" from the menu
– Press “2” to change the Utility menu to “2.Save”
– Press “>” twice to highlight the save method field
– Press “3” to select “All”
– Press “>” once to select “Go”
– Press “Enter” to begin the Save process
TYPHOON 2000 IMPORT DETAILS
The Import Routine
The import function can be found as the last utility under System Setup / Utilities. Simply insert a floppy containing Yamaha setup files and the possible selections will automatically pop up. When importing, Typhoon will first load all the required waves for the setup. After the waves have been imported, Typhoon may ask you for specific files (such as the filter file). If you are not sure of where they are stored, just try the different floppies.
The items from the Yamaha setup will be converted to their respective items in Typhoon. Performances become performances, voices become voices, waves become waves and timbres are converted to groups (splitpoints are not created). The names are shortened to eight characters and often you will find some “slack” items, such as “INIT PERF”. (Remember that the Yamaha system stores unused performances and voices as well as used ones.)
The import routine will do its best at translating all the parameters from the Yamaha format, but some things are difficult or simply impossible to convert. Pay special attention to the following cases:
Alternating voices. Alternating voices cannot be supported because there is no easy way to recreate this effect in Typhoon.
Pitch and filter envelopes, LFOs and other modulations. These modulations could be emulated by defining entries in the modulation table. However, since at most eight of them can be defined this way we would run into trouble deciding which modulations to include and which to ignore. End of story: The only modulation currently converted by the import routine is the pitch bender.
Pitches of waves. Typhoon will try to figure out proper pitch settings for the waves by looking at how they are used in the Yamaha timbres. If a timbre places a wave at a single key, the wave is considered to be unpitched. Otherwise the pitch is found using a combination of the different pitch and tune parameters for the voice and timbre. Most often this is correct but sometimes it can be way out of line.
Stereo performances. Performances constructed for stereo playback are not treated differently from other performances. The voices and waves of these performances will not be converted to true stereo voices and waves (i.e. some voices play the left channel and others the right channel). Thus, perfect stereo phase-synchronization is not achieved unless you reconstruct these performances from scratch. (Hint: use the wave edit function “join” to create a stereo wave from two mono waves.)
Velocity response curves. The response curve parameters in Typhoon are totally unlike the ones in the Yamaha OS. Some curves, albeit really weird ones, cannot be recreated in Typhoon at all. Typhoon will try to convert the velocity curves that can be recreated in Typhoon. If a curve cannot be translated, a default velocity setting will be used.
