General: Stylus RMX Troubleshooting

Why don't the Sound Menu elements play when I click them? 
Sound Menus aren't grooves. They are filled with numerous one-shot samples that are designed to be played and sequenced from MIDI like a traditional sound module. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Sound Menus chapter. 

Why doesn't RMX automatically just start and stop with my song when I hit play/stop on my sequencer? 
If you'd like Stylus RMX to automatically start and stop with the host transport, turn on the "Host Sync" button in the footer. 

NOTE: Host Sync is designed primarily as an audition tool and is not meant to be used for programming drum parts.

I can't see the name of a file that I made in RMX, what can I do to see it? 
Names of files used by RMX (parts, multis, etc.) are limited to 32 characters. So, if a file doesn't appear in RMX or can't be accessed or saved, check the file name length. 

How can I audition RMX elements in sync with an existing song? Do I have to drag & drop MIDI files every time? 
It is not necessary to drag-and-drop a MIDI file just to audition a groove in sync with a song. If a song is playing, there are two ways to do it:

• Click on the name of the desired groove in the Elements column in the Browser and the groove will start playing in sync with your song. Clicking the name again will stop it. 
• Press the Play buttons in the Footer and the grooves will start playing in sync with your song. 

NOTE: Keeping HOST SYNC on near the large Play and Stop buttons allows you to audition the loops you select by simply pressing play on your sequencer or host. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Footer and Browser chapters. 

I hear a delay from the time I play a note until I hear a sound. Why? 
By default, the Stylus RMX Trigger Mode is set to "Next Beat". This ensures that any grooves you play in Groove Menu mode will be in time with anything else that is playing in your song. If you'd prefer to trigger sounds immediately, set the Trigger Mode to "Immediate". 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Trigger Modes chapter. 

Why doesn't RMX respond correctly when I change the time signature in the host? 
Most of the grooves in RMX are audio loops that are in 4/4 time. However, the time signature of any 4/4 groove in Stylus RMX can be changed to another time signature using the controls on the Time Designer page. Also, the grooves can be edited in your host to play back in other time signatures. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Time Signatures chapter. 

What does the Settings button in the browser do? 
The Settings button determines if parameters are to be reset to default settings whenever you select an element in the browser. If it is on, the parameter settings will be reset whenever you make a selection. If it is off, any changed parameter settings will be retained. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Browser Settings Button chapter. 

How do I locate RMX's version number? 
Pop up the Utility Menu by clicking on the disk icon button in the lower right corner of the interface. The version number will be displayed at the end of the menu. You can also Right-click->Properties->Version (on Windows) or Command-I (on Macintosh) on the plugin file to see the version number. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Utility Menu chapter. 

Why do some Suites only have a single element and others have many? 
There is no rule regarding the minimum number of Elements in a Suite. Sometimes the method used in creating the groove didn't allow the possibility of including the individual audio components as separate elements, so only a single mix is provided. Oftentimes, the musical complexity of a groove element dictates how many alternate versions can be presented. 

Performance is sluggish in RMX. Is this normal? 
No. It's possible that you don't have enough RAM installed in your computer. We recommend that you have at least 2GB of RAM for multitimbral use. Your processor speed should be at least 1GHz or more for multitimbral use. 

Whenever I stop my sequencer, the Part 3 Mixer Level fader resets to zero. When is this bug going to be fixed? 
It isn't actually a bug in the plug-in, but an error with an older version of the default.mlt_rmx setup patch file which had a MIDI Learn error: Modulation Wheel was inadvertently assigned to the Mixer Level fader for Channel 3. This would result in this fader frequently being reset to zero by many sequencer applications which often send out a reset command for Mod Wheel. 

Simply install the latest updates to correct this issue. 

I can't see the name of a file that I made in RMX? What can I do to see it? 
Names of files used by RMX (parts, multis, etc.) are limited to 31 characters. So, if a file doesn't appear in RMX or can't be accessed or saved, check the file name length. 

I'm not able to use Drag and Drop on the Macintosh. 
Go to: /Users/"Your user name"/Library/Application Support/Spectrasonics

Get information on the Spectrasonics folder by highlighting the Spectrasonics folder, holding the Apple key and pressing Command-I (Get Info). Under Ownership and Permissions (Sharing and Permissions), please make sure that the Spectrasonics folder and the support folder within the Spectrasonics folder have Read and Write access. 

Is there a way to drag all the MIDI files of a multi at once? 
No. Not all hosts are able to handle drag and drop of multitrack MIDI Files, so we did not implement this type of single MIDI file for an entire Multi. 

How do I turn the RMX playback into an audio track? 
In most hosts, you can bounce, freeze or send the audio output of RMX to the input of an audio track in your host and record the audio from RMX. This is a great way to capture all the nuances of changes that you make to grooves in real time. The resulting audio file is easy to edit in the host after the recording is complete. 

Is it necessary to bounce tracks to audio? 
No. But the reasons that you may wish to do this are if you would like to free up the CPU and Memory used by RMX, edit the tracks you've created in RMX as audio, or to archive the song in a universal way that will allow other collaborators to mix it, etc. 

I'm having problems when using very large audio buffer sizes. What's happening? 
If you are hearing distorted audio when you have your audio buffer size set to a very large value, try reducing it to 4096 or fewer samples. 

Why doesn't RMX sustain loops with my sustain pedal? 
RMX keeps the MIDI sustain pedal (CC#64) free for user MIDI Learn assignments. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the MIDI Learn chapter. 

How do you replace a particular sound in a groove with a different sound? 
There is no automatic slice/sound replacer in RMX. However, it's not difficult to do. There are different ways to approach this situation. (In this example, let's say we want to replace a kick drum): 

First way...

• On the groove that has the kick drum you'd like to replace, create an Edit Group that contains all the Kick Drum slices and Mute that Edit Group, so that the kicks don't play anymore. 
• Then you can go to another Part, load a Sound Menu with Kick Drums and play or program the kick where it's supposed to go. Once you've got the timing of the groove, you could switch Kick Drum Sound Menus or play different MIDI notes within a Sound Menu to hear different kicks. 

Second way.... 

• Drag-and-Drop the MIDI file of the groove onto your sequencer track. Find the Kick Slices. Move them to another track and use them as the timing template for the kick drum track (make sure you put them all on the same MIDI note). 
• Now, you could load a Sound Menu on another part as described above OR: you could load a second RMX instance and put it into Kit Mode. Then you could trigger that second RMX with the Kick Slices you moved. Kit mode is setup to respond to the General MIDI spec, so the Kick Drum sounds appear on notes B0 and C1 (assuming C3 as middle C). The cool thing about Kit mode is you can load up all 8 Parts with Kick Drums and all the Kick Drum sounds from all 8 parts will appear on notes B0 and C1, so you can make huge, fat-sounding 8-Layer drums while still only playing one MIDI note. Also remember that you can easily add custom FX to each drum sound. 

What are the differences between Parts and Patches? 
A Part is a single channel of RMX. There are eight Parts in RMX- each one functions exactly the same as the others. 
It is possible to save all the parameters of RMX as a Patch, so that they can be recalled later. Patches are useful when you want to save the current state of the Instrument. Loading a previously-saved Patch overwrites all previous settings. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Utility Menu chapter. 

How can I create my own patterns or modify the ones that come in the core library? 
There are several ways to do this: 

• In Slice Menu Mode, the individual slices of any Groove Element can be used as a Sound Menu. This allows you to create your own rhythm patterns using the individual Slices of a Groove Element. 
• Edit the MIDI file of an existing groove to create a new rhythm pattern. Drag-and-drop the MIDI file onto a MIDI track in the sequencer and then move the individual MIDI notes around to create a different feel. You can also use the Quantize feature of the host to change the feel of the groove. 
• Kit Mode is a global mode that turns RMX into a General MIDI compatible drum sound module. 
• Kit Mode offers thousands of individual drum hits that can be loaded quickly into a General MIDI compatible kit. 
• The Chaos Designer's main purpose is to modify grooves. There are many tools at your disposal dedicated to altering the sound and pattern of grooves. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Groove Control™ chapter. 

How can I change the order of the FX in the Rack slots? 
Changing the order of FX is easy and can be done a couple of ways: 

• You can Copy FX Patches and Paste them into different FX Slots. 
• You can Save FX Patches and reload them into different FX Slots. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the FX Page chapter 

Nothing happens, or an error message appears, when I select "Help" in RMX. 
This may be due to an unusual character in the name of one of the folder containing the SAGE folder.

For example: /Hard Drive/Spectrasonics*/SAGE 

The solution in this example would be to remove the * character. 

The audio unit version of RMX will not load, either crashing or displaying no graphics. 
This may be due to having a duplicate version of the RMX audio unit created with the VST-AU adapter from FXPansion. The solution is to remove the version created by the VST-AU adapter. 

MIDI Learn doesn't seem to work, how do I find the source of the problem? 
Use the "MIDI CC" setting of the value display in the footer. That will show you exactly what CC and channel are transmitted to Stylus RMX. With that, you can verify whether any MIDI information is being transmitted to RMX when you adjust your controller. 

When I select the "User Libraries" directory in the browser, another library is selected instead. 
This is a sign that the first suite in that category is corrupted. Locate the User Libraries folder (in the SAGE Libraries folder under your SAGE folder) and temporarily remove the first (alphabetically) folder you find in that folder. Restart Stylus RMX and you should then be able to select your User Libraries directory. 

MIDI Learn templates are adding to the current assignments instead of replacing them.
To ensure the previous MIDI learn assignments are cleared when loading a MIDI learn template, choose "Clear All" from the MIDI learn menu prior to loading the template. 

Why does output A sound quieter than outputs B-H? 

The RMX master fader is applied only to output A. Outputs B-H are intended to be mixed in your host instead of in RMX, so they bypass the master fader. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Multiple Outputs chapter in the Reference Guide.

Should I use separate outputs to send to my host or use RMX built-in mixing facilities? 

For most applications, it really isn't necessary to use multiple outputs and host mixing/processing - since the built-in mixing and signal processing inside RMX is so extensive. The reasons you might need separate outputs would include 5.1 surround mixing, special external plug-ins or hardware signal processors you would like to use with RMX, and using your host's control surface for mixing RMX tracks instead of the onscreen faders or a MIDI controller. 

The output assignment of the Mixer page isn't working correctly. What's going on? 

First, be sure that you have the multiple outputs routed in your host correctly. 

NOTE: it may be that there are Output assignments for Edit Groups within the part that are overriding the Part Output assignments on the Mixer page. Check the Edit Group settings. 

REFERENCE: For more info, read the Edit Group Outputs chapter in the Reference Guide.