I recently took on the monumental task of building an Android-based controller for my MU10 and I wanted to make full use of its QS300 features. I have been using XG Manager as a working reference and I noticed that it only sends QS300 parameter changes through bulk dump messages. Likewise, the only mention of any QS300 functionality in the MU10's manual is in the QS300 bulk dump table. To your knowledge, is that the limit of the MU10's configurability wrt QS300 parameter changes? I tried sending a native QS300 parameter change message but it didn't seem to work with my MU10, so I'm thinking the MU10 isn't "native" enough. I was hoping to be able to change parameters in realtime but I might be limited to sending bulk dumps every time. Not much info on this extremely niche topic, so I was hoping to defer to your expertise for any clarification! Thanks, and thank you for all your great software!
It's the same in the DB-50XG's Owner's Manual, which was my only reference when creating XG Manager.
So yes, as far as I know bulk dump is the only way to change the QS300 parameters on the DB-50XG and presumably the MU10.
It was I, in the forum post "QS300 mode requires DB50XG or compatible", who pointed out to Mark that XG Manager's QS300 support worked on the MU10. I was a regular on Yahoo! group QS300 and, when Yahoo confirmed they were closing all their groups, moved its files to https://groups.io/g/QS300 I have now confirmed via their manuals that the DB50XG and MU10 do not implement parameter changes as documented in the QS300 manual.
What I will say now is pivotal not only to the QS300 but to all Yamaha synths using 3-byte parameter addresses. Support for parameter changes requires that the exact address and data of the correct length are specified for each parameter - if they are not, then the results are unpredictable. Support for bulk dumps require only that the size and base address are correct and the checksum is verified - if not, then the changes are simply discarded, which is much easier fo code.
The other issue is that QS300 voices have up to 4 elements whereas XG voices have up to 2 elements, requiring XG/QS300 editors such as XG Manager to split a 4-element QS300 voice over 2 XG parts.
That should be group QS300 under groups.io
And that should be "do not officially implement native QS300 parameter changes".
Thanks for your expertise Greg and Mark! If I hadn't been able to experiment with the QS300 features in XG Manager, I probably never would have been aware of the full capabilities of my MU10, and would have never gotten the motivation to build this android app in the first place. The app is now approaching the point of "convenient and usable" but there is still a little work to do. Just wanted to pop back in here and say how grateful I am for all the work and research that has been done by everyone before me. While the manuals provide much of the information needed, having a working example to use as a benchmark has been invaluable in the development process and has saved me a ton of time. And that extensive list of QS300 presets is a gold mine!