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iPad and MIDIDesigner Pro 2 brings new life to old groove boxes.
By chance, I have recently picked up a few old groove boxes, including Yamaha AN200, DX200 and a Roland D2. I messed around with CC control and a few different MIDI controllers but they seemed limited in what I could do, until I broke out MIDIDesigner on the IPad and really dug into the SYSEX of each device. I am blown away by what I can do. Not only do I get real time SYSEX control, even of the Roland, which is a pain due to checksums, but I can couple CC to SYSEX through supercontrols and get fancy real time control using my hardware. Now, The D2 has become a JV-1080 but with far fancier control routings, including modulating through the waveform banks like a wave table, the AN200 is totally opened up much like an AN1x, actually easier because I have one knob per function plus supercontrol macros, and I can do crazy control of FM on the DX200. All this of course, could be done on computer before, but what blows me away is how easy it is on the iPad, how fun it is to play, and the experience of creating a new physical instruments, which I don't get from a computer editor. It really turns old gear into something new. I'm interested in what others have done.
Comments
I use midi designer to control Geist on pc. Works really well. Those presets sound interesting, might have to look into a d2.. Sound good!
This is inspiring. Thank you. I have a Roland Juno 2 that requires sysex that my Novation controller can't send. Sounds like a need to spend an evening with MIDI Designer. Are there any templates out there that you'd recommend as an example/starting point that does the CC->sysex transformation?
Also, do you happen to know if MIDI Designer supports something like importing a text file to generate a set of controls instead of what always feels like endless tapping in most MIDI control apps?
Trying to make my Novation X Station 25 work with the Roland is why I went to MIDIDesigner. The older Novation controllers don't allow the checksum byte, so it's a no go for any Roland gear unless you use CC only, but older Roland stuff has limited CC mapping.
There are a lot of templates out there, I haven't tried many of them because they are for gear I don't have, so I am not sure how deep some of them go. I will post mine when I am done in a few days.
But it's really easy. To pass CC to a SYSEX control in MIDIDesigner Pro, you first make a control like a knob that transmits SYSEX. Then you make another control, say knob, or button or whatever, make it a Supercontrol, with the SYSEX knob as the subcontrol. You make the supercontrol receive MIDI CC. Instant CC to SYSEX. Nothing to it. This has allowed me to use the X-Station after all, because after I have made the D2 template, I can now map the X-station panel through MIDI learn in MIDIDesigner, using a generic CC template on X-station.
As far as text input, I don't know the answer. You can copy/paste text files for large lookup tables assigned to controls, something unfortunately you have to do for Roland waveform banks because Roland uses two bytes for pointing to the table and ignores the second nibble. Who knows why.
There is a fair amount of clicking making a template but MIDIDesigner lets you easily duplicate controls or even whole pages of controls, so it's actually really quick and easy. It's worth it.
Very cool!
cool - thumbs up
That's great what you're doing @locosynth
I'm surprised that Novation doesn't allow this...
I think many of the older midi controllers should be able to do it. My Edirol PCR does. (Roland)
I used to control Elektron drum machines with it. I mean complete control.
PCR can do Sysex [FO...F7] ...Free messages[...] up to 24 bytes, system realtime, etc....
It's been ages ago I did this....
I posted the AN200 layout which uses all SYSEX.
http://mididesigner.com/qa/5263/yamaha-an200-plg-100an-an1x-editor
I somehow missed your reply to me above @locosynth. Glad this thread bounced back up! Thanks for the information. Sounds pretty straight forward and like I just need to devote a night to it.
@soundklinik the newer Novation controllers can do it. The older one we're talking about (x-station) can send sysex—it just can't send strings long enough for some devices like most Roland gear because they require an extra couple of bits.
I just realized I can probably cut this down to half a night. Find an existing Alpha Juno template and then simply set add super controls to map to my Novation controls. Officially excited.
This is fantastic! Thanks so much for doing this locosynth - I've been keeping my old AN200 around, as it really is a great synth, but partially crippled by some of the parameters being hidden.
Not to be greedy, but do you think you might add control for the effects at some point too (especially the delay?)
Roy
I'm working on it now.
that's great man - just your template a quick try this morning on my AN200 - works perfectly! Thanks so much - gonna revive my use of this old beast!
Could you share your roland d2 template? I would love to be able to tweak the settings from ipad.