K2500 Companion From C.K. Haun and Ravenware Software Requires a Macintosh and OMS (or FreeMIDI with OMS emulation). Welcome to the K2500 Companion! This is your connection between your Macintosh and your K2500. The K2500 Companion reproduces your K2500 front panel on your Mac (either 68K or PowerMac), allowing you to click all the buttons and spin all the dials without ever having to touch the front of your K2500. It also includes a ribbon controller, an X-Y controller, and NOW a list of Objects (programs, songs, etc.) that are installed on your K2500! Why? A few reasons. One, the K2500 panel buttons are notoriously touchy, this saves wear and tear. Two, isn't it nicer to be able to hit the letter 'C' on your computer keyboard instead of 1-1-1 on your Kurzweil? Hit '+10' on the alpha wheel thing instead of carefully clicking 10 times? How about always hitting "Esc" for exit? And "return" for enter? Very intuitive and easy! How to use it; When you launch the Companion, you'll see a screen that represents your K2500. The first thing you need to do is select your K2500 from the popup menu in the lower left (I'll selected automatically in a future version). Now do whatever you want! All the buttons and knobs are live, and you'll see the K2500 screen on the computer screen (highlighting will be in an upcoming release). Pretty strightforward. Ribbon If you want to use the Ribbon controller, select "Ribbon Controller" from the "Window" menu. The ribbon will appear. It will send controller messages to whatever synth is selected in the Control window, so you can use this to ribbon control other synths. Select the MIDI channel you want to send pitch bends to with the arrows in the lower left corner. If you click past 16, the display will show an 'M', that means the companion will send to all 16 MIDI channels at one. Pretty neat. Preferences and such I want this to be the most comfortable it can be for you, so there are many user-configurable interface controls. One of the most interesting allows you to re-lay out the control panel. When the control panel window is frontmost, hold down the command and option keys. The movable controls will now be outlined, and you can drag them to whatever location you wish. The companion will remember the placement. If you mess it up, or put a control off-screen, just select "Reset Control Positions" from the Control Panel submenu under the Companion Tools menu. Open the Preferences dialog by selecting "Preferences" from the Edit menu. Here you can specify your SysEx Device ID, change the display color, and control other options. Things that aren't there yet The keyboard just sends middle C. Making a keyboard is *SO* tedious that I'm ignoring it for now. MIDI logging is not in the version I'm posting. Do you want it? CK@Ravenware.com The Companion is "Buy my CD" ware. If you use it and like it, go to the releases page at WWW.ravenware.com and order!