Vyzex MPD24 Firmware Upgrade PDF 1

FIRMWARE UPGRADE PDF Welcome to the Vyzex MPD24 Firmware Upgrade PDF. This is the very first release of the software, so please remember to check back at the Akai Professional website (www.akaipro.com) for updates to the program and to this document.

Why do I need to upgrade my MPD24 firmware? Periodically, Akai Professional’s engineers come across ways to improve their products: This can be in response to feature requests, it could be in performance enhancements or it could also be to apply bug fixes. When this occurs, the updated firmware is released from the Akai Professional website in the form of a downloadable archive that users unpack and download to their instrument according to the instructions supplied with the firmware file. When you update your product’s firmware to the latest version you get the best possible feature-set coupled with the most stable and reliable operation, so it’s almost always a good idea to upgrade your product’s firmware when a new release becomes available. You can find out your current MPD24 firmware by pressing the ‘GLOBAL’ button on MPD24’s front panel and then the ‘>’ key 10 times until you see ‘Ver X.XX’ in the LCD display. As of the writing of this document, the current MPD24 version is 1.00, and this is the version that Vyzex MPD24 is certified to work with. If you do not find any greater revision of the MPD24 firmware available from the Akai Professional website, don’t worry: This simply means you don’t need to upgrade your firmware and can forget about this PDF document until such time as a new MPD24 firmware version is released.

How do I upgrade my MPD24 firmware?

STEP 1: Sanity Check First you should ensure that Vyzex MPD24 is correctly installed and working without issues to edit your MPD24. Although you can use third party tools1 to upgrade MPD24’s firmware, the Vyzex MPD24 program has the facility to download firmware upgrades to your MPD24: Obviously, if Vyzex is not able to communicate with your MPD24 beforehand it is likely that the problem will also be present for the upgrade attempt. You should quit any MIDI port using music software you have running before you launch Vyzex MPD24 to begin the upgrade process – This will avoid any possible conflicts between Vyzex and your other MIDI software.

1 like Jamie O’Connell’s MIDI OX on Windows XP/Vista or SNOIZE’s SysEx Librarian on Mac OSX…

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Now unzip the downloaded firmware update to your computer’s desktop and confirm there is a SYX file inside. Always read the accompanying doc or text file for special information regarding the new firmware, and if everything is in order you can proceed with the update. Extract this SYX file to your desktop.

MPD24 now must ERASE its current firmware and be put in a special upgrade mode: This will shut down the normal USB MIDI Ports that MPD24 presents to your computer’s operating system and will open up a specialized USB MIDI Port to receive the update from Vyzex. Always close the software before proceeding with the MPD24 erase and restart procedure!

STEP 2: Erase & Restart MPD24 Now that the Vyzex MPD24 application has been closed, you can unplug MPD24’s USB cable and reconnect it while holding down three of the five front panel transport bar buttons at the same time. The buttons to hold down are <<, STOP, & REC as shown here:

MPD24 will now power-up displaying the following on its front panel LCD display: Upgrade ERASE OK? PRESS ENTER This is your last chance to change your mind about upgrading the firmware: Once you press MPD24’s front panel rotary encoder ENTER button, your MPD24 won’t have any firmware until you load the new version, so be sure you are ready before proceeding. It may be stating the obvious here, but your MPD24 will not work without firmware, so once you press that button there is no turning back from the upgrade! When you press ENTER, MPD24 will display ‘ERASING OS’ momentarily and then will inform you it is ready to proceed with the update by displaying the following on its front panel display: Upgrade 00 SEND SYSEX Now it’s time to re-open the Vyzex MPD24 editor program and use it to download the new firmware file.

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STEP 3: Download the firmware upgrade with Vyzex MPD24 Vyzex MPD24 has the ability to download any standard SYX file to your instrument. While this feature is normally used to restore preset backups made with other third-party MIDI utilities such as Midi OX or SysEx Librarian, it also works to send firmware updates to MPD24 that are packaged as SYX files. If you are using Vyzex MPD24 in its default configuration, it will still work to download SYX files without any changes to the program preferences. There will be some dialogs to dismiss however and operations to cancel when the program fires up. This will not affect the firmware update procedure.

Launch Vyzex MPD24. When you launch the program, click on the splash screen to clear it away. Vyzex will now attempt to autosense your MPD24 like it normally does at this point, and this process will not succeed because MPD24 is now dedicated to upgrading its firmware:

This is not an issue, so there’s no need to worry about it. Next, Vyzex will attempt to upload the current data from your MPD24. Once again, MPD24 will not respond since it is awaiting firmware from you. Press the ‘Cancel All’ button to exit from the transfer screen.

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You should now see the Vyzex GUI appear with an empty bank loaded:

If you are following along with your MPD24, you are now ready to choose the firmware file.

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2. Open the MIDI->Transmit MIDIX (.SYX) File Dialog

When you select the MIDI->Transmit MIDIX (.SYX) item from the application’s menu, a file dialog will open prompting you to select the firmware SYX file. If you’ve followed the earlier instruction and already extracted the SYX upgrade file to your desktop you are mostly there: Click on the desktop icon to Navigate to the file and click on it to select it as shown:

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MPD24’s display should now read ’00 RECEIVING’. It’s time to give it something: Click the Choose MIDIX File to Send? Dialog’s ‘Open’ button (shown above) to proceed and watch your MPD24’s LCD display closely!

3. Witness the Upgrade in Progress MPD24’s typical firmware file is quite large by SYX standards, and will take some time for your computer to send to the instrument: Once Vyzex has sent the firmware message out however, your computer’s OS takes over the task of piping the data into MPD24. Unfortunately Vyzex does not get any feedback from the OS when this happens so there is no status bar to display in the software’s GUI. Not to worry: This is what MPD24’s front panel LCD is for.

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Now turn your attention to MPD24’s LCD display: It should be actively spinning along, reporting the current status of the update. When the download completes successfully you will see the following message on MPD24’s front panel display: Upgrade XX DONE PRESS ENTER Where XX could be any number depending on your firmware upgrade level. Before you press the ENTER button on MPD24’s front panel, however you should close the program. This last step is important since MPD24’s update USB MIDI Port will be disconnected as soon as you press enter, and you don’t want Vyzex running when this happens. You may have to select ‘No’ from a dialog and wait a few more seconds but Vyzex should shut down eventually.

If you get any error messages and the firmware upgrade fails, do not worry. You can always try again from the Erase and Restart step on page 4. If you still can’t get the firmware upgrade to take, please contact Akai Tech Support for additional help (http://www.akaipro.com).

4. Reboot MPD24 Then Restart Vyzex Once you press the ENTER button, your MPD24 will reboot itself with the new firmware. You can now re-launch the Vyzex MPD24 software and get back to editing presets! This concludes the Vyzex MPD24 Firmware Upgrade PDF Manual. As mentioned earlier on, it’s a good idea for you to also read the companion PDF manuals like the Vyzex MPD24 Quick-Start, Vyzex MPD24 User’s Guide and Preset Management with Vyzex MPD24 for a more complete view of how the editor operates. Just as with this document, these PDFs are also accessible from the program’s Manuals pull down menu.