Frequently Asked Questions

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VASTprogrammer

Frequently Asked Questions

What is VASTprogrammer?

VASTprogrammer (VP) is an exciting new program that allows you to interact with your Kurzweil K2xxx synth from your PC or Mac. It uses the Kurzweil control paradigm but in a much more useful and expanded way than you have ever seen before. VP is a Java program developed by Michael Warpenburg (a.k.a. Warp), that allows users to interactively develop Setups, Programs & other types of objects on Kurzweil K2xxx series machines. Users interact with the machine(s) in real-time using VP, and as such can also use it as a general control user interface (UI) in a performance setting.

What Kurzweil machines will be supported?

All VAST series machines (K2xxx) are supported. If some feature does not work properly on a particular model-type please let me know and I will fix it.

Will you support Mac?

It uses the Java VM so it should be portable. I have gotton some enthusiastic volunteers who have offered to do Mac testing. There are Mac users using it now, in fact there are even some Linux users using it.

When will there be a GA release?

It depends on how beta testing goes. I expect sometime in early summer 2006.

What does the beta kit include?

It is a zip file containing a JAR file and a few other things. It is very easy to install.

How much computing power is required?

Any modest PC or Mac will do fine.

What about the MIDI interface?

You need a good MIDI interface (not necessarily an exotic or expensive one). I have discovered that some MIDI interfaces have problems with the large SysEx messages that the Kurzweil and VP transmit between one another (particularly fetching graphics from the Kurzweil), these tend to be hobbyist-oriented interfaces built-in to sound cards and such. Most midi interfaces work with no problems.

What does it cost?

It is free of charge.

Can I view more than one screen at a time?

Indeed! The top screen always shows the current state of the Kurzweil like you see on the hardware front panel; the bottom panels show other screens from any layer. So, you can simultaneously view any 2 screens and usually more because some screens share the same tabbed page on the bottom.

Is VP hard to learn to use?

Absolutely not! It is based around the natural interface found on the hardware; if you can use the hardware interface then you are 90% of the way towards mastering VP.

How do you navigate screens and fields?

You can navigate fields and screens the "old" way using virtual buttons on the top panel... but you won't want to, there is a better way.

You can click on any screen or any field on any screen and VP immediately (and probably much faster than you can) navigates to that field and is ready for input.

Once you nav to the correct field you can type in your value the "old" way using the buttons... but you won't want to, there is a better way.

If you have a mouse wheel then you can just scroll to select values. If not, you can hold down the SHIFT key and click on the "left" half of a hightlighted field to decrement the values. If you click on the "right" half of a highlighted field it increments the value. You can click away as fast as you like; VP quickly executes your every wish in a heartbeat.

Double-clicking on a highlighted field executes the Edit function.

How do I get started?

The best place to go is Getting Started with VASTprogrammer.

Look Inside

Program Object

Setup Object