Quick Help - CVs for MS Stereo Configuration

From MS Firmware 5.29 onwards, Stereo channel selection is possible on MS and FS sound decoders from Zimo.

Each playable sound, and many of the automatic sounds have CVs to allow choice of which speaker to send that sound to. Initial choices of channels are as follows:

VALUE	CHANNEL CHOICE
0	Both channels (default)
1	Speaker 1 only
2	Speaker 2 only
5	Speaker 1 when in FWD direction, Speaker 2 when in REV direction
6	Speaker 2 when in FWD direction, Speaker 1 when in REV direction
8	Random - either Speaker 1 or Speaker 2

All of the CVs to choose channel are in the PAGED ranges, which involves first setting CV#31 and CV#32. These values are remembered by the decoder until you change them back again, so it is important that you set these both back to ZERO once you are done with the PAGED CVs.

By PAGED CV, we refer to the NMRA standard mechanism for providing many more CVs that would normally be possible - the normal range is from CV#1 to CV#1023.

With CV#31 and CV#32 set, whenever you read or write CVs in the range #256 upwards, you will actually be accessing the PAGED CVs. With CV#31 and CV#32 set to ZERO, CVs from #256 upward are just the standard NON-PAGED CVs.

The table below lists the CVs for channel selection for all the different features in the MS decoders. We define the CV# in 3 parts - the value for CV#31, followed by the value for CV#32, followed by the individual CV# within that page, so CV#145.3.257 means you must first set CV#31=145 and CV#32=3 then you can access CV#257 within that page.

CV#	DESCRIPTION
CV#145.3.257	User sound on FKey0 channel selection
CV#145.3.258	User sound on FKey1 channel selection
CV#145.3.259	User sound on FKey2 channel selection
CV#145.3.261	User sound on FKey4 channel selection
CV#145.3.260	User sound on FKey3 channel selection
CV#145.3.262	User sound on FKey5 channel selection
CV#145.3.263	User sound on FKey6 channel selection
CV#145.3.264	User sound on FKey7 channel selection
CV#145.3.265	User sound on FKey8 channel selection
CV#145.3.266	User sound on FKey9 channel selection
CV#145.3.267	User sound on FKey10 channel selection
CV#145.3.268	User sound on FKey11 channel selection
CV#145.3.269	User sound on FKey12 channel selection
CV#145.3.270	User sound on FKey13 channel selection
CV#145.3.271	User sound on FKey14 channel selection
CV#145.3.272	User sound on FKey15 channel selection
CV#145.3.273	User sound on FKey16 channel selection
CV#145.3.274	User sound on FKey17 channel selection
CV#145.3.275	User sound on FKey18 channel selection
CV#145.3.276	User sound on FKey19 channel selection
CV#145.3.277	User sound on FKey20 channel selection
CV#145.3.278	User sound on FKey21 channel selection
CV#145.3.279	User sound on FKey22 channel selection
CV#145.3.280	User sound on FKey23 channel selection
CV#145.3.281	User sound on FKey24 channel selection
CV#145.3.282	User sound on FKey25 channel selection
CV#145.3.283	User sound on FKey26 channel selection
CV#145.3.284	User sound on FKey27 channel selection
CV#145.3.285	User sound on FKey28 channel selection
CV#145.3.326	Switch/reed input IN1 channel selection
CV#145.3.327	Switch/reed input IN2 channel selection
CV#145.3.328	Switch/reed input IN3 channel selection
CV#145.3.329	Switch/reed input IN4 channel selection
CV#145.3.33	Random sound Z1 channel selection
CV#145.3.331	Random sound Z2 channel selection
CV#145.3.332	Random sound Z3 channel selection
CV#145.3.333	Random sound Z4 channel selection
CV#145.3.334	Random sound Z5 channel selection
CV#145.3.335	Random sound Z6 channel selection
CV#145.3.336	Random sound Z7 channel selection
CV#145.3.337	Random sound Z8 channel selection
CV#145.3.338	Drive sound 1 channel selection
CV#145.3.339	Drive sound 2 (articulated steam) channel selection (not implemented in 5.29)
CV#145.3.340	Idle background sound channel selection
CV#145.3.341	Change Direction sound channel selection
CV#145.3.342	Brake Squeal (come to halt) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.343	Thyristor (electric) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.344	Set-Off (e.g. starting whistle) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.345	Blow-Off sound channel selection
CV#145.3.346	eMotor (electric/diesel) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.347	Tap Changer (electric) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.348	Turbo (diesel) sound channel selection
CV#145.3.349	Electric Brake sound channel selection
CV#145.3.350	Cornering Flange sound channel selection

Only a few of the Zimo MS range actually physically have 2 speaker outputs, at the time of writing this includes MS950, MS990 and MS420.

Most Zimo MS/FS decoder only physically have a single channel speaker output, but channel selection is still potentially useful even in mono set-ups because equalizer settings can be defined for each channel separately - you may wish to apply higher bass response to some sounds than others, so this gives you that possibility. Graphic Equalizer settings are also accessed via PAGED CVs, applying up to 6 stages of filtering:

Please refer to Zimo documentation for futher details on values and meanings of these CVs.

6 filters are available in total, and CV#145.2.512 decides how many filter stages apply to channel #1 and how many to channel #2. For example, CV#145.2.512=2 means that filters 1-4 apply to channel #1 and filters 5-6 (2 of them) apply to channel #2. So effectively, the value in this CV determines how many of these filters apply to channel #2, starting at the end and working backwards.

CV#	DESCRIPTION
CV#145.2.257	Stage 1 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.258	Stage 1 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.259	Stage 1 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.260	Stage 1 Filter Gain (128 no change)
CV#145.2.261	Stage 2 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.262	Stage 2 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.263	Stage 2 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.264	Stage 2 Filter Gain (128 no change)
CV#145.2.265	Stage 3 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.266	Stage 3 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.267	Stage 3 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.268	Stage 3 Filter Gain (128 no change)
CV#145.2.269	Stage 4 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.270	Stage 4 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.271	Stage 4 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.272	Stage 4 Filter Gain (128 no change)
CV#145.2.273	Stage 5 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.274	Stage 5 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.275	Stage 5 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.276	Stage 5 Filter Gain (128 no change)
CV#145.2.277	Stage 6 Filter Type (see table below)
CV#145.2.278	Stage 6 Filter Frequency (128 mid)
CV#145.2.279	Stage 6 Filter Q Factory (128 mid)
CV#145.2.280	Stage 6 Filter Gain (128 no change)

FILTER TYPE CV VALUE	DESCRIPTION
0	None
1	Low-pass
2	High-pass
3	Band-pass
4	Low-shelf
5	High-shelf
6	Notch
7	Peak
8	Gain

Bit#7 of the Filter Type CV causes inverting of the phase shift.