It is to me! My understanding is that you can utilize MIDI to do many things other than have keyboards and sound modules communicate. You can have stage lighting or fx changed at a particular time in a song or program... or a spot speaker turn on or off, just to name a few... via MIDI and sysex. Usually the sysex info is embedded in the SMF, in the form of something like this:

F0 26 7B 33 00 0E 01 F7

Does anybody know what this means? Does the first 2 digits mean this and the next 2 digets mean that??

Glenn

Glenn,

My understanding of the SYSEX commands are hex data values, sent via midi, to set/alter parameters or functions of a HW/SW device. This can be a synth, or lighting equipment, etc.
The data is usually sent in bulk to perform things such as reset, reassignment of a channel, general initialization commands to factory defaults.

Each manufacturer will have specific data values to control internal functionality. In your example below:

F0 26 7B 33 00 0E 01 F7

F0 - Data is to be sent

F7 - Finished sending data

The values in-between are hardware specific. Generally, the 2nd pair of digits identifies the hardware manufacturer. I believe Yamaha used 43.

Anyway, most of this information will be supplied in the operations/technical manual of the equipment.

Hope this helps...

Mark

Probably a google search for 'sys-ex tutorial' would find you a lot of information.......

Plus, in most Roland MIDI addenda in their Parameter Reference manuals (should come with most Roland keyboards), there is a section where they explain what the different bits and bytes do, and how to program your own.

Try this, it was the first to come up in Google http://www.2writers.com/eddie/TutSysEx.PDF#search=%22sys-ex%20tutorial%22

Here a past doc on using sysex http://web.archive.org/web/20021001211500/http://server.ats.com.au/~jonescnt/sysexman.htm

Sysex is very much model specific. You can look at the sysex chart in your keyboard manual that will tell you more about what your keyboard recognizes and what values to send.

Often keyboards also use a checksum in the sysex data totalled from the rest of the MIDI data in the sysex message. This is something a human can't really do unless the sysex data is very small .... but often it isn't. Fortunately computers are good at that sort of thing.

Thanks... it's still a foreign language to me, but these documents should help.

Nobody learns a foreign language overnight, but you DO have to study and practice. Without those, forget about it!

Is anybody here utilizing sysex messages to either enhance or simplify the playback of SMFs? ... while performing?

On my PSR3000 I have embedded SysEx on a couple of midi files to call up delay-line or heavy distortion effects blocks. I worked out the hex by hand, but then again I'm a computer geek by profession!

Trouble is I use the registration memory to call up suitable keyboard voices and sometimes the registration setting nukes the FX parameters set up for the song which is playing.

I think this is to do with the FX associated with the voices.

To stop this happenning I now have the "Freeze" button selected almost permanently and I can't say I've noticed any deterioration in the quality of the voices that I play on the keyboard.