Exclusive Data Events

Im not near my MPC right now so hopefully someone can tell me this: the Akai manual mentions that in step events I can add 'Exclusive Data Events' which can the be edited, and that there is a 'send' option to transmit any changes to a sound module.

Is this also in JJOS2XL?

I figured that this might be a way to edit some options on a synth that are not reachable through the menus. Apparently each parameter can be changed by a 7 byte midi message, ending with 0xF7 but with a second-to-last byte which is the value I want to change.

Will this work for what I want to do?

Would this be a handy feature for JJ to add if its not currently possible?

On JJOS2XL:
Yes. In 'step edit' you can add 'Exclusive Data Events' which can then be edited, and there is a 'Send' option.
Can it do what you want? Possibly... I've never used sysex, but I use Program Control now and again to switch to certain programs on my outboard reverb unit.

thats good to know. hopefully once i know the byte codes for my synth i should be able to do what i want
It would be handy if the Q-links could be assigned to these type of messages, as well as midi-CCs. One to request from JJ now that he is back on the job??

managed to get this to work, so potentially any old synth can have hidden voice parameters changed by using the mpc - a pretty handy surprise

think i may ask JJ if it can be added to the q-links, its worth a try

Yes, SYSEX may be send on midi output and I'm using that feature. The only thing that I'm editing SYSEX in Cubase, but I didn't heard about editing in MPC step editor (JJOS XL)

excellent - looks like 1.34 will fix the issue i reported where the sequence has to stop running while changes to these values are sent to the module.

excellent - looks like 1.34 will fix the issue i reported where the sequence has to stop running while changes to these values are sent to the module.

That is a very cool fix. The bug stopping me from saving/restoration synth parameters on/from my MPC.
But I see that in 1.34 that was not fixed. Is it true?

objective wrote:

excellent - looks like 1.34 will fix the issue i reported where the sequence has to stop running while changes to these values are sent to the module.

That is a very cool fix. The bug stopping me from saving/restoration synth parameters on/from my MPC.
But I see that in 1.34 that was not fixed. Is it true?

i'm note sure we are talking about the same thing here? basically this is now working, though a bit differently than before. heres what i did:

create 30 midi tracks within a sequence, each pointing to the midi number of the module i want to edit (there are 30 parameters i want to change, so made sense). after naming each track appropriately, i then added a system exclusive data event to the first step of each, and set the F7.....etc string to what was required for the different parameters (back of the module manual has the hex string values).

prior to 1.34 i was then able to go into step edit, highlight the data event and using the window key reach the string. i could then edit the variable and using 'send' update the module. hitting the pads would play notes on the module so i could see how it sounded. i could also have notes sequenced but the window key giving me access to the string stopped the sequencer running.

since 1.34 i can have the sequencer running and using the recently added 'hold' option make changes with the 'send' key (there is a slight stutter but nothing major). only problem is that all my 30 events from each track are now sent at the same time if i play the sequence, resulting in the module patch basically screwing up and not sounding right. a workaround is to have the track (ie parameter) solo'd so that only it is active. i might experiment later with having the exclusive events at the start (bar 1) but the sequencer parts looping say bar 2

hope that all makes sense. its a pretty handy feature, just time consuming to set up, but the sequence can be saved

Oh... so basically I can just send an event during sequence playback, right?

resulting in the module patch basically screwing up and not sounding right

Now if I send a SYSex message, that contains a preset - whole sequence stopped for a moment and then continues to play. Thats strange, because MPC is a master and I think MPC shouln't wait for external hardware and must send SYSex in asynchronous way. I'm sure that MPC can send 500 bytes of sysex (as far as I know MIDI supports 31250 bit/s transfer rate) without holding of whole sequencer.

Anybody using MPC as storage for hardware presents in form of SYSex? How many time it takes to load a preset that typical for you? I'm talking about presets under 1000 bytes.

hmmm, not sure - the parameters i wa sending were 128bytes!

in have used the mpc to send 128 patchs to a module which were in midi format. takes a few minutes for the module to run through/update them

@rarara Out of interest what sound module are you sending all this system exclusive data to? I'm just interested in how ur working and cos I'm a gearslut and have never gotten into sysex data yet

its a yamaha TQ5, effectively a desktop tx81z/dx100. it has a few buttons for changing parameters like waveforms and brilliance but not really enough to unlock the potential, so this method removes the need for something like a behringer bcr2000.

you just need to decipher the bulk data format tables at the back of the manual

Aha.. I got ya. All those 80's devices that took away the knobs but still contained tons of functionality that was a bugger to reach.
I've got a Lexicon LXP1 that's like that.. I might have a go at sysexing it's ass! hehe... I haven't felt the need since I got the PCM70... but hey... fun is fun.

And whilst I'm at it... does anyone have sysex data info for a Casio FZ-1? A guy made a PC-only program which sends sysex data to the FZ1 which tweaks a few parameters that the normal interface can't reach.

jimmie wrote:And whilst I'm at it... does anyone have sysex data info for a Casio FZ-1? A guy made a PC-only program which sends sysex data to the FZ1 which tweaks a few parameters that the normal interface can't reach.

think your options are a) look at the back of the manual (can be tricky to decipher tho?)
b) there must be yahoo groups or the like for casios where you can post a question c) apparently if you have something like the bcr2000 it has a 'learn' facility so if you connect it up to some fz-1 software it will detect what parameters can be changed (so maybe someone on a bcr2000 forum might have the details of a fz-1 template)

rarara wrote:

jimmie wrote:And whilst I'm at it... does anyone have sysex data info for a Casio FZ-1? A guy made a PC-only program which sends sysex data to the FZ1 which tweaks a few parameters that the normal interface can't reach.

think your options are a) look at the back of the manual (can be tricky to decipher tho?)
b) there must be yahoo groups or the like for casios where you can post a question c) apparently if you have something like the bcr2000 it has a 'learn' facility so if you connect it up to some fz-1 software it will detect what parameters can be changed (so maybe someone on a bcr2000 forum might have the details of a fz-1 template)

There is no sysex information in either of the two FZ-1 manuals I have and the Casio group is inactive to say the least.
Cheers for ya help though.. I'll keep searching.