PCG Tools for Korg Pa600

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:00 am

I am the developer of PCG Tools, which is a free application for managing PCG files. More info can be found at http://pcgtools.mkspace.nl.

Currently I support a variety of workstations/synths, like Kronos, Oasys, M3, M50, Kross, Krome, Triton, Karma, Trinity etc.

However, to add support for arrangers, I need a so called MIDI Exclusive document. If you read so far and you know more about this, can you give some more information about this?

(I noticed for the old i/iS/iX series, such documents are available, but I cannot find anything for Pa50, 60, 80, 500, 600, PA1X, PA2X and PA3X).

MamieNova · Post by **MamieNova** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:18 pm

Hello Michel,

There will probably be many interested people out there for such a tool for PA. So thanks a lot for paying attention to this need.

There are very few details about the PA Midi SysEx implementation.

Do you need basic sysex question/answer strings, like identification or specific ones, that we don't even know if they exist ?

Just for better understanding, beyond the MIDI exclusive, why don't you consider directly the PCG files ? They are (a bit) cyphered but some people managed to use them as far as I know. You probably already faced this issue on other Korg keyboards, don't you ?

Sorry for not being able to help more.

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:35 pm

MamieNova wrote:Hello Michel,

There will probably be many interested people out there for such a tool for PA. So thanks a lot for paying attention to this need.

There are very few details about the PA Midi SysEx implementation.

Do you need basic sysex question/answer strings, like identification or specific ones, that we don't even know if they exist ?

Just for better understanding, beyond the MIDI exclusive, why don't you consider directly the PCG files ? They are (a bit) cyphered but some people managed to use them as far as I know. You probably already faced this issue on other Korg keyboards, don't you ?

Sorry for not being able to help more.

Thanks for the big reply.

Actually I only need to know several (not even that many) parameters of the PCG file. However, those files are proprietary and I don't want to ask Korg too many detailed questions. Therefore, I mostly make use of MIDI system exclusive documents, which are a big help (and fragments are 1-1 equal to the PCG file).

I'm not intending to add real MIDI connection into PCG Tools (btw, that would be great, but very time consuming).

And yes, I have this problem with almost all PCG files. Most recent PCG files have a very clear structure, the older one a bit less good, but MIDI sysex documents are mostly easier to find (and less difficult because of the simpler structure).

But for PA series/arrangers, neither sysex documents NOR PCG information is available.

sridharar · Post by **sridharar** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:37 pm

Hello Michael

This is terrific news that you are getting ready to include support for PA600.

Sorry I have not been able contribute much to your project so far as I have made little progress inferring the structure of PCG files using Hex Editors.

Br Sri

sridharar · Post by **sridharar** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:40 pm

Hello Michael

This is terrific news that you are getting ready to include support for PA600.

Sorry I have not been able contribute much to your project so far, as I have made little progress inferring the structure of PA600 files using Hex Editors.
[QTP files were quite easy - and posted a note on that].

Br Sri

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:12 pm

sridharar wrote:Hello Michael

This is terrific news that you are getting ready to include support for PA600.

Sorry I have not been able contribute much to your project so far, as I have made little progress inferring the structure of PA600 files using Hex Editors.
[QTP files were quite easy - and posted a note on that].

Br Sri

I will try at least ... depending how difficult it will be to extract information from the PCG (or relevant) files for a PA600.

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Fri May 09, 2014 11:04 am

I made a poll at
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... 472#593472 ... please leave a message (or respond to this email) if you want PCG Tools support for your synth!

PCG Tools is a free librarian / list generator, see more info at http://pcgtools.mkspace.nl