FIRMWARE UPGRADE PDF

Welcome to the Vyzex MPD32 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 MPD32 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 MPD32 firmware by pressing the ‘GLOBAL’ button on MPD32’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 MPD32 version is 1.00, and this is the version that Vyzex MPD32 is certified to work with.

If you do not find any greater revision of the MPD32 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 MPD32 firmware version is released.

How do I upgrade my MPD32 firmware?

STEP 1: Sanity Check

First you should ensure that Vyzex MPD32 is correctly installed and working without issues to edit your
MPD32. Although you can use third party tools1 to upgrade MPD32’s firmware, the Vyzex MPD32 program has
the facility to download firmware upgrades to your MPD32: Obviously, if Vyzex is not able to communicate
with your MPD32 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 MPD32 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.

MPD32 now must ERASE its current firmware and be put in a special upgrade mode: This will
shut down the normal USB MIDI Ports that MPD32 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 MPD32 erase and restart procedure!

STEP 2: Erase & Restart MPD32

Now that the Vyzex MPD32 application has been closed, you can unplug MPD32’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:

MPD32 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 MPD32’s front
panel rotary encoder ENTER button, your MPD32 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 MPD32 will not
work without firmware, so once you press that button there is no turning back from the upgrade!

When you press ENTER, MPD32 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 MPD32 editor program and use it to download the new firmware file.

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STEP 3: Download the firmware upgrade with Vyzex MPD32
Vyzex MPD32 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 MPD32 that are packaged as SYX files.

If you are using Vyzex MPD32 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 MPD32.

When you launch the program, click on the splash screen to clear it away.

Vyzex will now attempt to autosense your MPD32 like it normally does at this point, and this process will not
succeed because MPD32 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 MPD32. Once again, MPD32 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 MPD32, 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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MPD32’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 MPD32’s LCD display
closely!

3. Witness the Upgrade in Progress

MPD32’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 MPD32. 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
MPD32’s front panel LCD is for.

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Now turn your attention to MPD32’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
MPD32’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 MPD32’s front panel, however you should close the program. This last step is important since
MPD32’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 MPD32 Then Restart Vyzex

Once you press the ENTER button, your MPD32 will reboot itself with the new firmware. You can now re-
launch the Vyzex MPD32 software and get back to editing presets!

This concludes the Vyzex MPD32 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 MPD32 Quick-Start, Vyzex MPD32
User’s Guide and Preset Management with Vyzex MPD32 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.

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