Korg Forums

austingreen · Joined: 04 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

Hello! I need some help understanding the sysex chart on the FM. According to the midi info am I crazy to think that all the programming parameters all available for real time control through sysex? If so I'm hoping to make a template for the ipad to program and see all the parameters at once.
Can someone show me what a sysex message would look like for the FM? From there i can make one for the rest. For example to adjust the algorithm I'd use: F0 43 00 00 86 F7 or F0 43 01 00 01 1B 86 F7 ??
I've made one for the DSS-1 but someone had done the hard work for me and I found online a chart with all the sysex translated into the actual strings for me (here's his great dss-1 site: glenstegner.com/dss1/home.html) Comparing the DSS-1 chart with his list got me as far as using a hex calculator for the last bit.
The part that confuses me the most is the 1 voice vs 32 voices. What 32 voices? It looks easy enough to plug the number from table 1 or 2 into hex and change the Data area for each parameter but what should be Format, MSB, LSB? And is Global Midi Channel 00 work as omni or channel 1?
Whew that's a lot of questions.. thank you for any help y'all can provide!

OpAmp · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:56 pm Post subject:

Hi,

You would need to send F0 43 10 01 06 xy F7 to adjust the algorithm, where xy takes a values from 0 to 31 (0x00 to 0x19). Your byte taking the value 0x86, corresponds to 134 in decimal or the algorithm byte. However 0x86 is an invalid byte in SysEx messages. Because the MSB of the byte is one. So that bit, you need to move to the previous byte (which becomes therefore 0x01).

You can try it, but I doubt it will work. Though it is an official DX7 Yamaha message, but as far as I see, the Volca FM does not implement this type of SysEx parameter changes. It only supports the Yamaha voice bulk dump format of Yamaha, meaning you download all parameters for a program at once. (No real time control thus...) In Yamaha terminology, a voice is in fact a program (not to be confused with the voices/notes at once in the Korg terminology). So the bulk dump with 32 voices, is used to update all the programs at once.

As all parameters fit into one byte, there is not really an issue on LSB/MSB (meaning if your value is 10, then send 0A and so on.) Typically if a value would be spread over 2 bytes, the first byte would contain the MSB part. (See the 0x86 story).

No idea on the channel number, but that should not be too hard to figure out. Although both Yamaha and Korg documents suggest the channel should be set to 1 (corresponding to 0x00 in SysEx).

Bye.
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OpAmp · Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:45 pm Post subject:

Hi,

Me once more. What I forgot to mention, get the MIDI implementation document (text file) from the Korg website. It explains the MIDI CC# messages that the Volca FM responds to and this for sure allows real time control.

One of them lets you control the algorithm: Bn 30 vv (n is the MIDI channel of the Volca FM minus 1, vv sets the algorithm number.) Unfortunately, you need to look up in the documentation the vv that corresponds to the algorithm number of your choice, it is not a one-to-one mapping. The 32 alorithms are spread over the range of vv values from 0-127...

Have fun!
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microKORGXL, Kaossilator Pro, monotribe, SQ-1, volca fm, Kross 88 BK
Alesis SR18, Akai Miniak, Fender Strat, Line 6 Spider II 112, Zoom MS-50G

austingreen · Joined: 04 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

Cool man thank you very much for the explanation! Finally someone was able to give me a definitive answer. So I was just wrong that all parameters can be controlled via midi, sysex or cc. Just the knobs on the front panel are mapped to cc's. I understood most of the midi chart, just not that the sysex was for preset transfer and thus the two tables for 1 voice or all 32. Makes perfect sense now.
What doesn't make sense is the absence of more midi control. How much more coding would be required to map all the parameters to cc's? Its so great to have this amazing sounding engine in a little package but it would be nice to have access to the deep engine so we can make midi controller templates, like on an ipad. Is there some memory limitation they're up against where that extra code would take up too much space? I understand there's only so much memory on the device but is it completely full already?

Spheric El · Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:05 pm Post subject:

Maybe its down to how much time the team would need to develop the code or something?
Some machines just don't have CCs.It's annoying and can't understand it myself.

asb2m10 · Joined: 01 Oct 2016 Posts: 1

OpAmp · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 4:30 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I'm not sure I understand your question.

As far as I know, Korg only adds in the MIDI implementation text only the official Yamaha DX7 SysEx messages to dump complete programs to the FM. It does not mention the real time parameter update messages from Yamaha. So they won't work.

Korg did on the other hand map some knobs to MIDI CC messages. They wil work fine to some extent.

Good luck
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microKORGXL, Kaossilator Pro, monotribe, SQ-1, volca fm, Kross 88 BK
Alesis SR18, Akai Miniak, Fender Strat, Line 6 Spider II 112, Zoom MS-50G

ghostly606 · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:32 pm Post subject:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but...

How did Coffeeshopped manage to make an iOS editor (Patch Base) specifically for the Volca FM if you can't have realtime controller over sysex?
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OpAmp · Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:26 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I did not look to the iOS editor (no Apple products here...), but there are only 2 options according to me:
1. He uses the Volca FM specific CC messages (but this does not allow to modify all parameters - only the ones really mapped on knobs of the Volca FM)
2. He does an upload of the full program each time (which is using the Yamaha SysEx message) and this aallows to modify all parameters. However, I doubt it is realtime, meaning, you may hear a glitch in the sound at the moment a new patch is uploaded.

Bye
_________________
microKORGXL, Kaossilator Pro, monotribe, SQ-1, volca fm, Kross 88 BK
Alesis SR18, Akai Miniak, Fender Strat, Line 6 Spider II 112, Zoom MS-50G