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Everything Y'all Ever Wanted To Know About Organisation Exclusive (Part 2)
(Merely Were Too Agape To Inquire!)

PART ii: Martin Russ reveals even more about the uses and applications of MIDI's nigh powerful function.

Having looked at an overview of MIDI final month, the Organisation Sectional section of the Organization messages seemed to be the major place left open for existent future expansion, apart from the other undefined messages. The best part well-nigh System Exclusive is that the MIDI Specification designers cleverly defined only plenty to make certain that the few elementary rules would be used by everyone, whilst leaving plenty leeway for all sorts of unanticipated future uses. There is rather more than to this than merely a way of ensuring that the MIDI standard does not go out of appointment - System Exclusive is more similar a complete standard in its own right; hence the need for a series like this one!

THEORY: SYSTEM Exclusive

Just wait - all this from only ane bulletin status byte: $F0? Yes. Dissimilar all other MIDI messages, the System Sectional message is non a fixed length of one, two or three bytes, instead information technology is 'packeted'. A data packet is similar in some ways to the parcel that yous eagerly await for the postman to evangelize - the valuable and fragile stuff is inside, just the outside is there to protect the contents and tell the postman where to deliver it. A System Sectional message is sent in the class of a cake of information surrounded by head and tail blocks, which indicate where the information starts and stops, every bit well every bit giving additional information near the block. This is similar to the system used by trains: the engine is at the front end, the baby-sit's van is at the end, and the number of carriages in betwixt depends on how many passengers are expected.

MIDI System Exclusive	British Rail
Head	Engine
[cake of data]	[Carriages]
Tail	Baby-sit's Van

The basic format of such a packet is very simple and is given in the MIDI Specification. The Head information consists of 2 bytes - the Organization Exclusive or SYSEX status byte, followed past a data byte which is used to indicate the user's identification. The user in this case refers to the designer of the item information block - usually the manufacturer of the MIDI device, eg. Yamaha, Roland, Akai etc. The data byte is often called the Manufacturer'south Identification, just this is only partly true, equally we shall run into.

The balance of the chief block of data is not specified! The contents are left entirely to the manufacturer; although in practice near use a few variations of a standard format. The Tail information is much simpler - it consists of a unmarried status byte, called the Stop Of Exclusive or EOX. The resulting packeted message thus looks like this:

$F0 SYSEX
$ii Identification
[block of data]
$F7 EOX

Observe that the two condition bytes surround the data bytes within - in fact, the EOX ($F7) status byte tin be replaced with any other status byte except for a Real-Time message, although I accept never seen this used. Existent-Fourth dimension letters tin can occur at any fourth dimension - even inside the block of data (this is one reason why the Real-Fourth dimension messages are restricted to a length of 1 byte; it makes the task of decoding MIDI much easier). Then Timing Clock messages ($F8) or Active Sensing letters ($FE) can occur inside the block without terminating information technology - any other status message will have the same effect as an EOX byte. The setting of the most significant bit (msb) in the byte becomes very pregnant here: in status bytes it is ready to i, whilst in data bytes it is always 0. Thus, the packet is shown by the presence of 1's in the nigh significant fleck of the bytes. The stop of the packet is shown by a 1 in the virtually significant bit - the msb of the high nibble of the byte (1 byte = 8 bits; one nibble = four bits) - and a 0 in the third chip from the right: the msb of the lower nibble of the byte. Real-Time messages can exist distinguished because they have 1'southward in the msb's of both nibbles.

The msb of the status byte is thus used as a flag to indicate the edges of the data, whilst the data itself is limited to only the lower 7 bits of the byte. This inconvenience is the price paid for making the packets easy to detect and decode. With data limited to values between 0 and 127, some manufacturers split data into nibbles, but nearly choose to arrange their data into the lower vii bits. If information is not restricted to seven bits then it volition be interpreted every bit a condition byte and action taken appropriately, depending upon whether it looks similar a Real-Time bulletin or non. Some manufacturers (Emu Systems, for instance) used this approach in the early days of MIDI before the standard was really fixed, but more recent implementations have stayed inside the specification.

IDENTIFICATION

Only one data byte is divers in the MIDI Specification - the first one, the Identification byte. Originally designed to indicate which manufacturer's instrument the System Exclusive message was coming from, information technology has been extended to embrace other uses besides. The basic idea behind this byte is to brand certain that a System Exclusive parcel is only accustomed past instruments which are capable of understanding it - usually other instruments made by the same manufacturer. Thus a Korg M1 can transmit to some other M1, but a Yamaha DX7 will ignore the information because the identification byte is the one for Korg, non Yamaha. Lists of the manufacturers' Identification numbers assigned by the International MIDI Association are regularly published: a separate console details some of the current ones.

An identification byte of $43 (hexadecimal; 67 decimal) would bespeak a packet from a Yamaha musical instrument, but it too indicates something else: it tells the machine that the data bytes that follow conform to the Yamaha format. Every bit I said earlier, the MIDI Specification itself does non lay down whatsoever format for those data bytes which follow the identification byte - the system is left entirely up to the manufacturer. In practice, each manufacturer has produced their own format specification to which their ain instruments attach. Some of these are similar, simply some employ novel ways to format the information.

The well-nigh often used basic format consists of some 'sub-status' bytes, which are used to bespeak what sort of dump follows, what motorcar it is destined for, how long the data is, etc. The block of data and then follows, usually with a checksum at the stop. The format of the information in the data block is entirely auto dependent - the only brake beingness the seven scrap limit. The format takes the following course:

Sub-Status
Number of Data bytes [block of information]
Checksum

Combining the Header and Tail of the System Exclusive bulletin format, we accept a rough guide to what a not-specific packet might look similar:

$F0 SYSEX
$two Identification
ss Sub-Status
nn Number of Data bytes
[cake of information]
cc Checksum
$F7 EOX

The checksum is a ways of determining if the data manual has been accomplished correctly. By summing the information bytes inside the cake of data, a number is obtained which volition vary if any of the bytes are corrupted. By checking the number transmitted against the sum of the data bytes which arrive, a receiving MIDI device can discover if the transmission contained errors.

So, past treating some of the other uses for System Sectional packets as if they were done by manufacturers, the MIDI standardisers have neatly integrated expansion possibilities into the system of assigning numbers. The starting time 31 numbers after zero (which is not assigned), from $01 to $1F (1 to 31) are assigned to American manufacturers, with Sequential at $01 because they were one of the founders of the MIDI standard. $20 to $3F (32 to 63) are assigned to European manufacturers with Bontempi beginning in at $20! Numbers $40 to $4F (64 to 79) are all assigned to Japanese manufacturers, with Kawai in the $40 elevation slot. The definition of a 'manufacturer' for these purposes is a company which produces a MIDI device that implements Arrangement Sectional. Interested parties can utilize to the MMA for a temporary number, and it will be confirmed if they produce a suitable product inside 12 months. I do not know what will happen when the number of manufacturers exceeds the available numbering scheme!

EXPANSION POSSIBILITIES

The expansion is catered for by using the highest numbers available. So far iii of these boosted Identification codes have been divers: $7D is the Universal Non-Commercial identification byte, designed for use by Universities, researchers, etc. No formal formats take yet been divers for this number; $7E (126) is designated for Universal Non-Real-Time messages - and this is where things like the Sample Dump Standard and the initialisation part of MIDI Fourth dimension Code are defined; finally, $7E specifies a format for the data block which is inside the packet, and this takes the following course:

$F0 SYSEX
$7E (126) Universal Non-Real-Time
<DeviceChannel>
<Sub ID 1 >
<Sub ID ii>
[block of data bytes]
$F7 EOX

This format is similar to many of the manufacturer'south formats - additional devices, channels and sub-identification bytes precede a block of data in a specified sub-format. The Device Channel in this case is used to specify which unit of measurement inside a MIDI network the data is designed for; remember that System Sectional letters are not channelised, and then this provides a channel function with 127 separately addressable items available. Device Channel 127 ($7F) is the equivalent of an Omni message, ie. it volition be received by all devices on the MIDI network. The Sub-IDs ascertain the actual role of the message. Nine Sub-IDs are currently defined:

$01 (01) Sample Dump Header
$02 (02) Sample Dump Packet
$03 (03) Sample Dump Request
$04 (04) MIDI Time Code Setup
$06 (06) Enquiry
$7C (124) WAIT
$7D (125) Abolish
$7E (126) NAK (No Admit)
$7F (127) ACK (Admit)

The first three are specific to the MIDI Sample Dump Standard, sometimes referred to as the MMA Sample Dump Standard (from MIDI Manufacturer's Association) in order to differentiate information technology from previous alternative proposals. The Sample Dump Standard was adopted in January 1986. The MIDI Time Lawmaking Setup message occupies the 4th slot, and is used to initialise the particular functioning of a device which uses MIDI Fourth dimension Code. The Inquiry bulletin is used to go information near the musical instrument.

The concluding four IDs are used for handshaking - specifically for employ with the Sample Dump Standard. Unfortunately, about manufacturers had already implemented their own handshaking letters inside their own formats earlier these were formalised, and then in that location are many different culling schemes used for handshaking purposes outside of the Sample Dump Standard. $7F is used for Universal Real-Time System Exclusive messages and the format is identical to the $7E format. This is used for the remaining Time Code letters in MIDI Time Lawmaking.

To summarise, at that place are two types of Identification lawmaking: Manufacturer and Universal. Manufacturer codes specify that the data which follows adheres to a item manufacturer'southward format, whilst the Universal codes are used to point certain extended functions which can exist used by anyone. The office of these extended codes is closely specified and forms an extension to the MIDI Specification 1.0. Included inside the extended codes are the Sample Dump Standard and MIDI Time Code. This gives iv broad areas of awarding:

Organization Exclusive
- Manufacturers
- Universals
- Sample Dumps
- Real-Times

SYSEX FORMATS

The MIDI Specification ane.0 uses a standard fashion of showing System Exclusive formats. The case shown above adhered to this - the sequence of bytes is shown vertically, with time running down the page. Indentation can exist used to clarify the sections inside the message. The official MIDI documentation encloses the labels for the bytes: eg.

. This format is very useful for outlining the bones class of a Organisation Sectional bulletin and is easy to annotate with comments on the correct-hand side. Unfortunately, the vertical format has the disadvantage of occupying big sections of the page, and information technology can be hard to chop-chop assimilate the similarities betwixt formats.

Because information technology is difficult to appreciate the correspondence betwixt unlike formats and System Sectional messages in a vertical form, I use a nautical chart, which can exist called a System Exclusive Nautical chart, to indicate the format of messages. Instead of being vertical, it is horizontal, and uses hexadecimal or pseudohexadecimal numbers separated by commas to show the club of the bytes. The correct-paw side is used for additional notes, much the same equally in the official MIDI Implementation Chart.

For the overview of Organisation Exclusive messages so far described, the chart would be as follows:

F0, ii, dd, F7 Manufacturer'south Packet
F0, 7D, dc, s1, s2, dd, F7 Non-Commercial Package
F0, 7E, dc, s1, s2, dd, F7 Non-Existent-Time Package
F0,7F, dc, s1, s2, dd, F7 Existent-Time Packet

NOTES
two = $00 to $7C: Manufacturer's ID
dc = device channel
s1 = sub-status 1
s2 = sub-status ii
dd = data

You volition detect that the horizontal format suits the normal reading style, and that it is like shooting fish in a barrel to run across that all four messages first and end with $F0 and $F7. This is peculiarly useful when describing the more circuitous formats used by a manufacturer, as the example System Exclusive Chart for the Lexicon MIDI Remote Controller (reviewed SOS March 89) illustrates (see separate panel).

At that place are several things to notice here: all the data is expressed in hexadecimal form; the nautical chart is divide into sections covering the reception, request and manual aspects, followed by the notes. The Filters bear witness how the incoming or approachable data is modified; for example, 'Thou' indicates that the receive MIDI channel needs to exist set correctly, whilst 'O' shows that an Omni way can exist selected to override this. Further detailed information is given in the Notes area at the lesser of the nautical chart.

Notice that the transmit and receive messages are essentially identical - showing that the Lexicon MRC will both send and receive valid MIDI Organisation Exclusive messages. In everyday linguistic communication this means that yous can connect two MRCs together and you will exist able to transfer data between them. The Bulk Dump Asking message results in a answer message supplying the appropriate data from the 4 available choices.

This is the format in which I will put all the Organisation Sectional Charts in this series. Personally, I intend to standardise all my documentation to this type of format in hereafter. Retrieve that a standard MIDI Implementation Chart would bear witness just two O's in the Receive and Transmit Arrangement Exclusive boxes, with perhaps a note giving further details. The System Exclusive Chart provides the missing information in a more usable form.

Practice: LOOKING AT Organisation Exclusive

All this theory has probably fabricated your head spin. The all-time cure for confusion is a few down to world examples. In order to undertake some applied work, you will need some means of looking at the MIDI data - either the two Atari ST programs which I am about to describe or ane of the alternative MIDI monitoring devices described last month and this month. The other necessity is a MIDI instrument which uses System Exclusive dumps. Virtually all current instruments which have MIDI In and Out sockets will implement some sort of System Exclusive office.

Before doing anything else, read the manual(s) for your equipment. Nigh people ignore the pages at the dorsum of the transmission describing the MIDI Arrangement Sectional formats, etc. You will need to discover out how to send and receive Arrangement Exclusive majority dumps of sounds, patches or patterns, by pressing buttons on the front end panel controls. We will look in detail at the uses of these dumps next month - for now, we are more concerned with condign familiar with this aspect of the MIDI device, and the analysis of the MIDI information which results from using it. These skills will be needed over again and again in the rest of the series.

I have written ii programs for the Atari ST which are designed to brand looking at Organisation Sectional messages easy: System Scope and SANE.

The Arrangement Scope utility program which accompanies this commodity.

SYSTEM SCOPE

The Aqueduct Telescopic program from Part 1 displayed whatever MIDI information from the Channel messages, and ignored the Organization messages. The System Scope program does exactly the opposite - it just looks at the System messages, taking no notice of anything happening on the Channel side of things. Splitting the functions in this way helps to reduce the amount of information displayed, and focuses our attending on the specific expanse of interest.

System Telescopic works with both high and medium resolution monitors. MIDI messages trapped in the current version include:

- Bulk Dumps
- Manufacturers, Sample Dumps, Universals, Real-Times
- MIDI Fourth dimension Code
- Start, Stop, Continue
- Active Sense
- Tune Request
- System Reset
- MIDI Clock
- Song Pointers
- Song Select
- Certain Non-System messages: All Notes Off, Reset Controllers, Plan Changes, Controllers (detects them on whatsoever channel)

The support for MIDI Time Code is express by the fourth dimension bachelor for processing - there is not enough fourth dimension in the chief loop to decode each of the nibbles into a time display. Instead you lot go a fourth dimension indicator, like the Clock and Agile Sense indicators, to prove the presence of MTC. Because of the requirement to trap as much of the incoming majority dump information as possible, a software MIDI 'Thru' has not been implemented in this program. Equally a upshot, information technology is a MIDI Sink and then cipher useful comes out of the MIDI Out, ever!

The SANE System Exclusive Analyser program which accompanies this article.

SANE

SANE is a rough acronym for System Sectional ANalyser, with some rearrangement of the letters (SEAN does non accept the same consequence!). Why another program? It turns out that the use of Organisation Exclusive in practice can be more complicated than I have and then far outlined.

Some manufacturers split up and then send their Organisation Exclusive information in modest parcels rather than i long packet; other manufacturers send several sets of dissimilar packets for different types of data all within the context of a single System Exclusive dump. Both of these approaches tend to make the System Scope and some Generic Bulk Librarians like Hybrid Arts' GenPatch ST more difficult to use. SANE was adult in order to accept advance warning of these multi-packet dumps.

By sending a System Sectional dump to an Atari ST which is running SANE, you can see how many packets are sent, together with their length in bytes. For example, early MIDI devices similar the Yamaha DX7 Mk1 synthesizer can ship a bulk dump of all the voices in its internal retention, and this is sent as a single file of 4,104 bytes in this example. In contrast, the recently released Yamaha YS100/200 synthesizers send multi-parcel dumps of up to eight separate (and different) packets for a bulk dump of the internal memory. Each bundle has its own Header detailing the contents of the information which follows - they can be considered as being 8 separate System Exclusive packets. Generally, equally manufacturers have become used to the idea and applications of MIDI, the corporeality of provision for dumps, letters and parameter control has increased enormously.

When System Scope receives a Arrangement Exclusive multi-packet, it pauses after the first consummate parcel it detects. To view the side by side packet you just press the spacebar or the mouse button. Unfortunately, whilst the program is paused, the MIDI buffer fills very rapidly and some data may be lost. I am withal working on this trouble and later versions of the System Scope should provide ways around it.

SENDING PACKETS

Connect your equipment then that the MIDI Out is connected to the MIDI In of the Atari ST (or your alternative MIDI monitoring device) and run the System Scope program. In normal circumstances the System Scope will non display anything - if a MIDI clock is running or Agile Sensing messages are being sent then y'all will see this indicated. If non, the plan will wait for some System action - playing notes will not generate a display. (Some messages associated with Channel action are shown in some cases to extend the versatility of the System Scope, simply they need not concern usa here.) A drum machine or sequencer makes a good tester for the Existent-Time department of the System Scope - pressing the pulsate machine/sequencer'southward Kickoff/Play push should ship a Outset message ($FA). Depending upon the manufacturer'southward estimation of the MIDI Specification, the MIDI Clock messages ($F8) will either start at this signal or volition accept been sent all the time that the drum auto/sequencer has been continued. Some drum machines and sequencers also ship Song Position Pointer and Vocal Select messages, and these volition be displayed equally they occur.

Once you accept verified that all is well, you tin send a dump to the ST. A new window volition open on the screen, and this volition fill up with a listing of the System Exclusive data which has been received, in both Hexadecimal and ASCII text versions. The Header information will be decoded if the format is 1 that the Organisation Scope program recognises, otherwise it volition substitute a generic format.

Pressing the spacebar will show the side by side System Exclusive message (if at that place is i). Otherwise the program will just look for more System messages. A screen dump to your printer (press ALT + Assist) will provide a hard copy of the screen contents at any time. You lot can use this to verify and familiarise yourself with the sorts of messages that your equipment sends - some instruments include ASCII text in the Header to identify the contents, whilst others need to be decoded with the help of the MIDI pages in the owner's transmission. Sometimes the information in the transmission is non upwards to appointment and yous may find that some of the dumps are different to those listed - the System Scope will help you lot discover and certificate these additions. The accompanying 'Example Dumps' panel shows some typical examples of the sort of dumps you may come up beyond.

CONCLUSION

I encourage y'all to endeavour and look at dumps from all your equipment - the more you look at System Sectional letters the easier it volition be to sympathize them. Familiarity volition help equally nosotros keep with more utilities, and feeling at home with Manufacturer Identifications and formats will become essential when we use System Exclusive to perform editing! This is the groundwork which nosotros will aggrandize upon in the next few articles, and so a piddling time spent learning now will repay itself several times over when we start doing the more exciting stuff (the skills are likewise very valuable for MIDI troubleshooting in full general).

Next month I will explore uses for the letters described this calendar month - the sort of things y'all read almost merely are never sure how to do! Another couple of very useful utility programs will extend the capabilities of those already described. Meanwhile, printing those MIDI dump buttons, detect, compare, verify and larn - the practical work is all part of the fun!

DISK Information

The programs referred to in this article are bachelor on 3.v" deejay (for the Atari ST only now). Channel Telescopic is split up and costs £vii, whilst MIDI Utility, System Scope and SANE take been bundled together on 1 disk (along with extra programs for Function iii of the System Sectional serial), and costs a mere £7.

SOS Software, (Contact Details).

Dec	Hex	Manufacturer
one	$01	Sequential
two	$02	IDP (MIDI Controllers etc)?
3	$03	Octave-Plateau/Voyetra
4	$04	Moog
v	$05	Passport Designs
6	$06	Lexicon
vii	$07	Kurzweil
8	$08	Fender (Blush, Polaris)
9	$09	Information Stream Inc?
10	$0A	AKG Acoustics?
11	$0B	Voyce Music (MIDI Controllers)
12	$0C	General Electro Music (Organs)?
13	$0D	ADA Indicate Processing
14	$0E	Alesis
15	$0E	Ensoniq
16	$x	Oberheim
17	$eleven	Apple Estimator?
eighteen	$12	Simmons
19	$thirteen	Mimetics?
twenty	$14	Fairlight
21	$15	J.L Cooper Electronics
22	$16	Lowry (Organs)?
23	$17	Linn
24	$18	E-mu Systems
25	$19	Harmony Systems?
26	$1A	ART
27	$1B	Baldwin (Organs) & Keyboard Technologies Inc
28	$1C	Eventide
29	$1D	Inventronics?
xxx	$1E	Fundamental Concept?
31	$1F	Clarity (FM Macro Controllers)
32	$20	Bontempi
33	$21	Siel
34	$22	SynthAxe
35	$23	IRCAM
36	$24	Hohner
37	$25	Crumar
38	$26	Solton (Organs)
39	$27	Jellinghaus Musik Systeme?
forty	$28	CTS/CTM?
41	$29	PPG
42	$2A	JEN?
43	$2B	Solid State Logic
44	$2C	Audio Vertriebel - Peter Struven GMBH?
45	$2nd	Hinton Instruments
46	$2E	Soundtracs
47	$2F	Elka
48	$30	Dynacord
54	$36	Cheetah
64	$40	Kawai
65	$41	Roland
66	$42	Korg
67	$43	Yamaha
68	$44	Casio
69	$45	Moridaira?
70	$46	Kamiya Studio
71	$47	Akai
72	$48	Japan Victor Visitor (JVC)
73	$49	Meisoshsa
74	$4A	Hoshino Gakki?
75	$4B	Fujitsu Electronics?

These accept been obtained from a variety of sources. The allotment of System Exclusive ID codes is made past the MIDI Manufacturers' Association (the MMA) on a temporary basis for the kickoff twelvemonth, followed by ratification when a MIDI product is released - this means that the names tin modify on a yearly basis. Because of this we cannot guarantee that any of the numbers shown with a'?' are current, although the rest should be reasonably reliable.

- Elka's CR99 MIDI Disk Recorder [reviewed SOS April 89] looks at first like a hardware version of GenPatch or the even so-to-be-revealed-in-this-series Movie programme, just it has one very useful characteristic which makes information technology special. Unlike most generic MIDI data recorders, the CR99 records timing information equally well as MIDI data direct to floppy disk. This ways that yous tin utilize it as a device for storing both Organisation Exclusive information and 'live' performances. To all intents and purposes it behaves as a tape recorder of whatsoever MIDI messages, except that it uses a 3.v" disk instead of reels of magnetic tape for storing the information.

Elka-Orla UK, (Contact Details).

- Hinton Instruments' MIDIC processor provides a sophisticated and capable intelligent MIDI interface and event processor in a pocket-size and very robust box. You can utilise the RS232 serial communications standard to control it from nigh any computer. MIDIC has been successfully interfaced to computers every bit lowly equally the BBC B or Apple Two to powerful professional workstations similar Suns, with everyday computers like Amigas, IBM PCs, Apple Macintoshes and Atari STs (honest!) somewhere in-betwixt! MIDIC frees the controlling figurer from most of the hard work of controlling MIDI events because information technology has an on-lath microprocessor which does the filtering and controls the data buffering. The computer you connect via the RS232 cable but needs to tell MIDIC what to do and information technology will and then get on with it.

Hinton Instruments also brand a broad range of other indispensible MIDI gear - if you always wanted to know who was the source of the MIDI processors used by top-notch studios and research institutions, then yous demand wonder no longer! Hinton instruments are also the manufacturers of the 4 footswitch/Sync 24 expansion unit of measurement for the excellent Trackman sequencer [reviewed SOS Dec 88] for the Atari ST.

Hinton Instruments, (Contact Details).

- Kawai's Q80 hardware sequencer has facilities which enable it to exist used as both a MIDI Monitor and a MIDI Data Recorder. The System Exclusive data recording style copes with handshake transfers from instruments like the (marvellous) K5 additive synth - handshake capability is commonly restricted to software like GenPatch ST.

Kawai UK Ltd, (Contact Details).

- HyperCard is a program for the Macintosh from Apple tree Calculator. It lets anyone program a computer to do all sorts of interesting things by creating 'stacks' of screens containing buttons, scrollable text, graphics etc, likewise as program commands in a programming linguistic communication which looks more like English than almost whatever other reckoner linguistic communication, eg:
go the reply
put information technology in field id "consequence" of card id "summary"
on opencard
play "harpsichord" C5
finish opencard

HyperMIDI is a 'stack' of cards and programme segments designed to make integrating MIDI into your HyperCard surroundings like shooting fish in a barrel. Information technology comes with a comprehensive transmission (as does HyperCard itself, and there are lots of HyperCard books for more item near stacks, etc) and shows some useful techniques with examples. (HyperCard is now supplied with any new Macintosh or can be obtained from any authorised Apple dealer at very low cost).

SOS Shareware for HyperMIDI (Disk 54) (Contact Details).

Lexicon MRC V2.0

Function	Bulletin				Filters
RECEIVE
Electric current Setup	F0,06,04,0n,	ct,	h,b,data,sum,	F7	M O
Stored Setup	F0,06,04,1n,	ct,p,	h,b,information,sum,	F7	K O
Setups in 1 motorcar	F0,06,04,7n,0,	ct,	h,b,information,sum,	F7	Grand O
All Setups	F0,06,04,4n,		h,b,data,sum,	F7	M O
Bulk Requests	F0,06,04,3n,e,	ct,p,		F7	1000 O
TRANSMIT
Current Setup	F0,06,04,0n,	ct,	h,b,data,sum,	F7	U R
Stored Setup	F0,06,04,1n,	ct,p,	h,b,data,sum,	F7	U R
Setups in i auto	F0,06,04,7n,0,	ct,	h,b,information,sum,	F7	U R
All Setups	F0,06,04,4n,		h,b,information,sum,	F7	U R
	(Sent on current organization channel)

Notes:

06	=	Lexicon ID
04	=	MRC ID
north	=	MIDI channel 0-15
ct	=	Occctttt
c	=	machine, 0 = LXP
t	=	machine type, 0 = LXP1
ane	=	PCM, 0 = PCM70
two	=	synthesizers, 0 = DXTX6
iii	=	Data Protocols, 0 = GMIDI
h	=	high byte count of all information bytes (7 bits)
b	=	low byte count of all data bytes (7 bits)
sum	=	checksum of nibblised data bytes
p	=	setup 0-31
e	=	event
60	=	current setup
61	=	stored setup
64	=	all setups
66	=	setups in i automobile
Grand	=	MIDI channel 0-fifteen
O	=	Omni On/Off
U	=	User initiated
R	=	Responds to Dump Request

Here are some excerpts from typical dumps (in hex), showing some approaches to the sending of System Exclusive messages. Recollect that the first byte is the F0 System Sectional byte, followed by the Manufacturer'southward Identification. The third byte is unremarkably of the form On, where n is the MIDI Channel-1. Equally a rough guide, the fourth byte is an indication of the model or type of instrument.

Kawai R50 drum machine:
F0,40,0n,21,02,02,12,[mixer data block],22,xiii,[MIDI key mapping block],23...

NOTE:
21 = all data dump format
02 = pulsate machines
02 = R50

Each divide block of information is surrounded by a linked pair of markers, each $x apart: eg. $12 and $22 for the mixer cake. Another approach would exist to transport a carve up System Exclusive message for each of these blocks, equally with the Roland D50:

Roland D50 synthesizer:
F0,41,0n,xiv,12,00,00,00, [Upper Partial-1 block],ss,F7
F0,41,0n,14,12,00,00,40, [Upper Fractional-ii cake],ss,F7
F0,41,0n,xiv,12,00,01,00, [Upper Common block],ss,F7
...etc for other Partials and Patch memories...

NOTE:
14 = D50
12 = DT1, Data Transfer in Ane-Way Style
ss = checksum

Here separate blocks are used to send information virtually small sections. Each complete bulletin is less than 256 bytes to avoid whatever potential problems with Real-Time letters occurring in a long System Exclusive message. The iii bytes after the $14, $12 Header are the 'address' of the data which follows - Roland apply a form of memory-mapping where this is the arrow to the retentivity field surface area in which the data belongs.

Korg M1 synthesizer:
F0,42,3n,xix,23,F7

This is the 'Data Load Completed OK' bulletin. Other messages tin can replace the 'function lawmaking' byte ($23 in the example shown), for example:

MIDI In Error (information length wrong?) = $26
Data Load Error (retentivity protected, perhaps?) = $24
Write Completed (information write by MIDI) = $21
Write Error (problem with information writing?) = $22

Each of these vi-bit messages is used to convey acknowledgements and problem reports back to the device sending the data - this handshaking tends to exist manufacturer specific, hence it is in the form of short Organisation Exclusive messages.

Audio On Sound - Copyright: SOS Publications Ltd.
The contents of this magazine are re-published here with the kind permission of SOS Publications Ltd.

Audio On Sound - May 1989

Donated & scanned past: Mike Gorman

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Source: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-system-exclusive/4558

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