Product Dev - Add Bank Change MIDI Receive!

Forum for AX series synths and keytars and all things for those who love that "on the shoulder" look.
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Mercuriari
Posts: 4
Joined: 03:01, 19 April 2012

Product Dev - Add Bank Change MIDI Receive!

Post by Mercuriari »

Please give us a system update with Bank Change MIDI Receive so I can select the later half of my synth's patches from another device. I actually like the sounds in the Ax-Synth and use them in performance and in the studio. I can't store a patch in my sequenced songs to select Ax-Synth patches (beyond 127).

It's silly in this day and age to put a powerful synth engine in a keyboard and not have adequate bank change reception.
fuzztone
Posts: 10
Joined: 17:05, 6 August 2014

Re: Product Dev - Add Bank Change MIDI Receive!

Post by fuzztone »

Should work - see p. 40 of the owner's manual. How are you structuring the bank select command?
Are you sending it out on the AX receive channel. AX default is Ch 1 but some controllers refer to it as Hex 00. Channel 16 is 0F Hex. My MFC-10 foot controller calls it C0 to CF.
Check your owners manual Tone List on p 37. Use your sequencer, foot pedal or other MIDI controller to send the following mssage
CC0, data 87; CC32, data 1; PC 6 on Channel 1.
CC0 says, hey you synthesizer; 87 means, synthesizer Roland AX Synth; CC0 means, do some thing on this bank; 1 means on bank 2 (i.e., tones in AX Families 5-8); PC 6 locates the tone you selected (1-128) in this bank, so 6 is the (6+1) tone in this bank, which our table tells us is tone 7, family 5, Juno Brass.
Always remember the offset. See the MIDI Implementation chart. Voice 1 is PC 0. Bank 1 is CC 0, data 0.
The format is Program Change on Channel #; MSB; make and model#; LSB; Bank#; PC#.
There are shortcuts to voices in the Current Bank. Sometimes you don't have to enter the MSB. HTH
Ammo
fuzztone
Posts: 10
Joined: 17:05, 6 August 2014

Re: Product Dev - Add Bank Change MIDI Receive!

Post by fuzztone »

Okay, since no-one's listening, I'll use this forum as a sketch pad. Since I last posted, things have become clearer. I bought a nice controller, the Roland A-88 keyboard. I have been using the Roland XV-2020 as a sound source, so to test this I just used the MIDI Thru from the XV into the AX-Synth. This puts the AX into the same circuit. Without changing anything, I can play the A-88 and sound comes out of both. Then when I try and change patches using the A-88's Function button and the Program Change command (located on the key F#2),l followed by a numeric value (values 0-9 located on keys D3-B3), followed by Enter (located on the key C4), no sound comes out of the AX-Synth. Why do you suppose? This is because the controller keyboard has remembered that I am sending commands specifically to the XV. When the AX gets the commands, it changes to an unknown patch and doesn't know how to render the sound. How do I fix this? Easy.
First, make the A-88 send commands to the AX.
Press Function, MSB, 87, Enter.
From now on the commands will be received by the AX Synth.
Choose a Tone that you want to access. There are 256 tones, and they are in two banks of 128 tones. There is no tone number zero (0) but Program Changes begin at 0. So you must subtract 1 from the PC number shown on page 37-38 of the Owner's Manual.
I choose the AX Vibe which is #28 in the Organ/Clavi family, and it has a PC of 92. Well, first I subtract the offset of 1 (or just make a spreadsheet with the correct PC #s) and get 91. But I must make sure I specify the right Bank. In the columns to the right of the Tone name, there are columns marked CC00 and CC32. Well, I've already put in the CC00, which is the MSB of 87 above. So now I
Press Function, LSB, 1, Enter.
From now on my Program Changes will be sent to Bank 1, which consists of Families 5-8. To access my desired Tone, I
Press Function, Program Change, 91, Enter. This is the AX Vibe.
The A-88 controller will continue to send PCs to the AX in Bank 1 until I change it. And I will need to do that if I want to access, say, Sitar which is #31 in the Lead Guitar family (4), PC#127. To access it,
Press Function, LSB, 0, Enter. Function, Program Change, 126, Enter.
Just takes practice.
fuzztone
Posts: 10
Joined: 17:05, 6 August 2014

Re: Product Dev - Add Bank Change MIDI Receive!

Post by fuzztone »

But I don't want to have sounds coming out of both the AX and the XV at the same time. I want to quickly move between them. For this I will use MIDI Channels. I will leave the XV receiving on Channel 1 and change the AX to receive on Channel 2. On the AX is
Hold down Shift. Press TX On, 2, Write. Release Shift. The 2 is the low C# on the AX.
Now on the A-88 I can go from Channel 1 to Channel 2 by pressing
Function MIDI Channel 1 (low C# on the A-88), or
Function MIDI Channel 2 (low D).
Even better, the A-88 has a Dual/Split Function which has dedicated buttons. One Channel is output from the Lower button and the other Channel is output when the Upper button is lit. When both are lit, both channels are sent, and both synths respond.

All this experimenting just goes to prove that the AX Synth does respond to Bank Select commands. It just takes some research and tweaking to figure it out.
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