Changing patches headless with MIDI?

[Stooovie]

Hi, I'm a total N00b, goal is to just plug my Nektar LX88 keyboard and play, sort of what I can do with FluidPi/Squishbox running headless.

Is there a way to just be able to change patches with MIDI CCs (preferably 112/111), and/or knobs? The Nektar sends MIDI at channel 16.

I did look around trying to find out but I failed, you guys are way too far ahead :) Any tips? Thanks!

[diyelectromusic]

There are a few options really, but nothing exactly what you're asking for:

1. Use "MIDI buttons" to set up certain MIDI note or CC events to control the UI of MiniDexed, but that will require a display to be able to see where you are in the menu structure...
2. Use MIDI Program Change messages. There is an option to recognise programs 1 through 128 and map these onto the first four banks.
3. Use MIDI BANKSEL and Program Change messages to select any of 16384 banks installed and then any of the 1 to 32 voices within them.

We don't currently have a simple "voice up/down" MIDI message, but you might be able to program your controller to output some combination of BANKSEL and Program Change. I had a quick look at the spec, but I must admit I didn't spot how to do that directly, but it looks very configurable!

Kevin

[probonopd]

Hi @Stooovie, welcome. Great point.
When you are saying "patch", this could mean two things:

• Voice: one voice is what runs on one Tone Generator (TG) (a.k.a. "one DX7 instance")
• Performance: up to 8 voices plus effects (a.k.a. "similar to a TX802, a.k.a 8 DX7 modules plus effects")

Currently we are switching voices upon MIDI Program Change messages, based on which bank (cartridge) is loaded via MIDI Bank Select (MSB+LSB).

I assume what you are asking is to switch performances in a similar way.
I agree that this would be a very useful capability.

It is still not entirely clear to me how this is handled by "real" instruments like the TX802.

The TX812 is essentially a collection of TX7-like modules with no concept of performances as far as I know. That is how MiniDexed originally started out.

Later we added performances, vaguely similar to the TX802.

Looking at the TX802 Owners Manual on page 32, there is a diagram that suggests one can change both voices and performances via MIDI. Page 31 mentions a "prgram change sw". It seems that depending on whether the user has pressed the "PROGRAM SELECT" (Performance Mode) or the "VOICE SELECT" (Edit Mode) phyiscal button on the device, the same MIDI CC commands either switch programs or voices.

But is that good? It means that you have to select this on the device itself and can't seem to switch these modes via MIDI.

Or are there SysEx messages to switch between Performance Mode and Edit Mode?

How do other instruments handle this?
Are there any kind of conventions?

If we cannot find out how other instruments do this, then I could imagine to do the following:

• Add a menu "MIDI CC Mode" containing "Performance" and "Voice"
• When set to "Performance", MIDI Program Change messages change performances
• When set to "Voice", MIDI Program Change messages change voices (as it is now). The setting should be persisted in minidexed.ini
• We introduce (define) a MiniDexed proprietary MIDI SYSEX for switching between "Performance" and "Voice" (for those who want to do the switching without menu diving)
• While we are at it, we might want to consider MiniDexed proprietary MIDI SYSEX for just about everything else in minidexed.ini

[diyelectromusic]

Well if someone can verify that we can enable performance mode from MIDI using the sequence I posted below, then I'll have a look at allowing program change to be either performance or voices.

In fact, I can look at it regardless and make it a UI/config setting, but I'd still like to know if it was possible over MIDI! :)

But I don't know if what you're asking is for voice changing within a single TG (which we can do as per my first post) or "performance" changing for the whole multi-TG instrument (which we can't yet).

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

This is from the DX7II FD/D Advanced MIDI Applications manual... but not having a real DX7 (any version), I'm not sure if this helps in the context of the question or not...

In the MIDI Technical Data and Charts supplement, under Program Change, it just lists "Program Number" but then later on in the Reception Data section is shows the following:

From the "Quick Reference Guide", we can see there is a UI setting for Performance or Program:

But what I'm curious about now, is the PPCMOD entry in the "System Setup Parameters" section of the MIDI Techinical Data...

And this entry, which implies all the front panel switches have a MIDI SysEx code... if I read this correctly?

But either way this is going to take some decoding... MIDI specs for vintage synths aren't the easiest things in the world to read :)

Update: Ok, so I think it is saying to change PPCMOD:
F0 43 1n 19 4A 0m F7 where m = 0 for OFF, 1 = Normal, 2 = Programmable

So this doesn't switch between normal and performance mode, so the only option might be the "remote switch" which I think is 41 in that figure... So this might turn on performance mode:
F0 43 1n 1B 29 7F F7

And this might turn it off:
F0 43 1n 1B 29 00 F7

But confusingly the SysEx parameters are shown as binary variables, but I think all the values are given in decimal! Hence 0x29 = 41 I think is the right switch to use...

Anyone have a DX7 II and MidiOx and want to try it!?

Another Update: Ok, so this, confusingly, implies it is 0x18 not 0x1B...

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

I have a speculative branch that adds program up/down and tone generator up/down buttons and MIDI buttons to MiniDexed if anyone fancies giving it a go: https://github.com/diyelectromusic/MiniDexed/commits/ProgramButtons

Setting the following in the minidexed.ini file for this build would do what you were asking I think:
MIDIButtonCh=16
MIDIButtonNotes=0
MIDIButtonPgmUp=112
MIDIButtonPgmDown=111

It defaults to the Tone Generator selected by the UI (or TG1 is nothing is selected), but the TG can be changed by adding
MIDIButtonTGUp=
MIDIButtonTGDown=

A different update might be able to look at making Program Change with either voices or performances... watch this space...

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

Latest version now allows choice of either Voices or Performances for Program Change messages...
Set PerformanceProgramChange=1 to switch to choosing Performances.

But I'm getting stuck notes when playing Performances, so don't know if my RPi 3 just isn't up to more complex sounds - any thoughts? I'll try with the latest proper release just to be sure.

Update: Ok ignore that - seems to be an issue with my Aturia MiniLab... other USB and serial MIDI is fine.

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

Now all included in #500

[probonopd]

Posted a build for testing at #500. Would be great if you could give it a try @Stooovie. Don't forget to edit the minidexed.ini file as needed.