sysex dump - microkorg to mpc1000

whenever i send a single program sysex dump via midi to the mpc it locks up for a couple seconds, the beat stutters if one's playing. then when i play the sequence back and it hits that sysex spot to send that program, it stutters again.

So, instead of having that as part of the seq, i made a seperate one just for the sysex dump/send back to the mpc to avoid this. However, tonight i sent one and while recording it, the mpc froze. it's been frozen for about 10 minutes. I'll see if it arises tomorrow but I'll probably have to restart it.

is this just the nature of sending more data over the midi line? it's only one sound i'm sending and not the whole bank.

turn the soft thru to off on the mpc just while you are sending the dump. i had midi soft thru on mpc turned to as track so it was maybe not only sending the sysex to the mpc but the mpc was in turn sending the sysex back during the dump causing sporadic behavior.

after sending the sysex single program dump i turned soft thru back on to as track and it worked great.

this was on the microkorg by the way.

hi there!
I tried to dumb sound banks from Roland D-50 to mpc1k running OS3.08, what a freezeup!
The files seems to be recorded, but when I bulk dumb them back to my D-50 " midi error " appears on the synth...
The soft midi thru is off.
My plan was to store synth sound banks on the hard disk or a CF-card from my D-50, Yamaha TX802 and Alesis Ion.
I reinstalled Akai OS2.11 and behold! It now works!!
I suspect JJOS has too much going on, to handle large sysex files on the side...
Newer JJOS does seem to freezeup as well with large sysex files.
Has anybody else tried to bulk dumb sysex synth banks?
/jocks

I've bulk dumped the entire microkorg synth bank and individual programs. Bulk dump takes a bit to send of course and to send back to the micro.

Sometimes it records the individual dumps just right so when you are playing back there is no stutter. That is rare though. I'm on jj os2.

I wish it wouldn't stutter cos that really fracks up a song when everything halts for two seconds while the data sends back to the microkorg. Can't trust that feature live at all. Program changes are lame b/c there is an equal amount of lag when switching them on the microkorg (problem with the microkorg here). Plus, sysex will guarantee that the sound you dumped will always remain part of the song whereas a program can be accidentally overwritten and lost forever. I refuse to buy any new midi synth gear that doesn't do single program sysex dumps.

But how important is this problem? How many mpc users actually dump midi data? I would give what money I could for this to be fixed AND if an externally controlled multitimbral mode were added.

hi gojsse, it's great that your korg synth work with OS2!
old synths like the D50 are sensitive to the size and number of buffers for sysex dumps. in order to make it work in Atari emulator STEEM v3.2, some adjustments were needed. I remember that issue with my Atari as well.
My sound banks are currently in a Atari software format, so I need to transfer them over to the synths and then save a backups that are available outside the Atari environment. I don't need real time bank dumps in song arrangements.
regards,
jocks

my 2000xl never handled sysex well also, used to crash it everytime. i was a bit of a noob back then and was trying to sequence automation on my juno 106.

man does midi need to get replaced by something superior!
sorry for off-topic, but i can't believe everybody (including me of course) is still using a system from the eighties to make music in 2008.
this feels like a state-of-the-art-dualcore computer with the only ability to save everything on a punchcard.
man does midi need to get replaced...

and now back to the topic.

hi!
I found the most stable way of "one way" dumping sysex sound banks from D-50 to mpc1k:
Note:you need to use the same midi channel on both machines when you send sysex files back to any synth!
1. go into TC and select note value: off, disable midi soft thru in mpc1k midi/sync setup, to avoid midi echo problems.
2. select step edit and press rec button
3. go into "one way" data transfer mode hold data transfer and press bulk dump, followed by enter.
4. only record ONE sysex file dump into a sequence. mpc1k doesn't separate sysex files in sequence tracks totally. If you record several dumps into separate tracks and mute then you'll still have trouble with midi error. I deleted a bad dump on one track and lost partial files in another track! So make a sequence for each sysex dump!

the transfer back to D-50 will be much slower this way, but more stable.

Best of luck!

So what happens if tc is set to 1/16 or anything but off? maybe that's why my mpc stutters when sending back the data.

gojsse wrote:So what happens if tc is set to 1/16 or anything but off? maybe that's why my mpc stutters when sending back the data.

more likely that the mpc stutters because sysex dumps are way denser that usual midi streams....and its rare for them to be handled in addition to usual midi track info........and more usual to do dumps at the ned of a session, saving or backing up changes etc

id avoid recording them into the first bar of the seq, let the mpc get up n running b4 recording or sending dumps......

btw. is it just for saving setups? or are u attempting realtime patch change info in the form of sysex's in order to get the microkorg to be modified during a performance?

midi has been succeeded by OSC, manufacturers just gotta embrace it.

gojsse wrote:So what happens if tc is set to 1/16 or anything but off? maybe that's why my mpc stutters when sending back the data.

The transfer back to D50 was faster in realtime sysex recording, but less stable.
I didn't try realtime recordning with other TC settings than 1/16 or off, it true...
I can accept the slower transfer back from step recording.
I know that some synths can transfer selected patch as sysex in realtime when you press a patch button, and those files are much smaller than a "all patch banks" transfer.
I will try out a single patch transfer realtime recording later this week in mpc1k.
at the moment I'm transfering old c-lab creator songs from an Atari, midi track by track to mpc1k.
I takes forewer...