Changing Fanton XR Patches/Performances from Mainstage 3.3

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sax2themax
Posts: 2
Joined: 12:09, 14 June 2017

Changing Fanton XR Patches/Performances from Mainstage 3.3

Post by sax2themax »

Hey folks,

This is my first time to use this forum. I'm a fairly experienced Mac user, but not quite so experienced with MIDI. I'm using Mainstage 3.3 on El Capitan with my Akai EWI, using breath controller patches with ES2, Kontakt, Korg Legacy M1, and now my Roland Fantom XR as an external instrument. I'm having problems with Mainstage properly sending sysex commands to the Fantom. Here's the scenario:

The Fantom is connected to my Macbook Pro through a MOTU Audio Express. All works quite well, until I want to change banks. All my patches are in the User Bank, both from 1-128, and from 129-256. Additionally, I have Performances in the User Bank.

What works: I can easily select patches on the Fantom from Mainstage, as long as they are located in the first 128 slots of the User Bank, which is MSB 087, LSB 000. This works flawlessly using the standard MIDI Output screen in the channel strip inspector.

What doesn't work: When I try to access the patches in slots 129-256, (MSB 087, LSB 001) or any Performances it fails. I have tried using the standard method by selecting the MSB and LSB along with patch number from the inspector. I get a MIDI activity light on my interface, and also on the Fantom, but it doesn't switch patches.

What I have tried: As mentioned above I have used the Channel Strip Inspector to manually assign the MSB, LSB, and patch numbers. I have adjusted the Channel Strip MIDI In channel from 1, to 16, to 1-16. (The Fantom receives Performance changes on 16.) I have scoured the Fantom Owners Manual to make sure that everything that should be enabled at the system level is indeed enabled and set correctly. I have done a lot of research online and found info that the only way to get the Fantom to work is via sysex. So here's what I did next. I used Sysex Librarian from Snoize and turned on Transmit Patch Edit on the Fantom. Then I opened Sysex Librarian, pointed it to the correct MIDI ports, and used the Record One choice while changing a patch in the problem area and recorded the output. I also recorded changing modes from Patch to Performance, and from Performance to Patch. When I replayed the resultant files back to the Fantom, it responded flawlessly and immediately switched to the correct patch/performance. Thinking I had it solved, I then went back to Mainstage, and chose to send the file to the Fantom from the Channel Strip Inspector on the MIDI Out tab, and disabled sending MSB/LSB/Patch #. Again, the interface and the Fantom flashed, but no patch change! This is from the very same file that Sysex Librarian saved and sent with good results. One note on this test is that Sysex Librarian saved the files with a .syx extension. Mainstage would not let me choose the files with that extension. Seeing that Mainstage used the term "MIDI file", I changed the extension to .mid and then Mainstage allowed me to select the file to send. Another thought is that Mainstage is sending the data too rapidly for the Fantom to respond? Again, I'm a sysex newbie.

My thus far conclusion is the something is happening within Mainstage to either corrupt what is sent, or somehow filter some of it. Perhaps though it's something with the file that Mainstage doesn't like, or changing the extension is causing a problem. I'm VERY new to sysex, so there you go! ANY help or insight on this problem would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug
sax2themax
Posts: 2
Joined: 12:09, 14 June 2017

Re: Changing Fanton XR Patches/Performances from Mainstage 3

Post by sax2themax »

As a follow up to my original post, I have solved the issue of switching banks in Patch Mode from Mainstage. I revisited the process of capturing .mid files from Sysex Librarian, and found that when properly saved as .mid and NOT as .syx, the Fantom switches banks in Patch mode flawlessly. I still cannot, however, get the same results with switching from Patches to Performances and vice versa. Any insight on what I need to do there would be most appreciated.
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