Addition for Articulation maps

[Promidi]

You know what would be awesome?  If  Articulation Maps could contain SYSEX strings.  Also NRPN and NPN values would be awesome as well.

[msmcleod]

2 hours ago, Promidi said:

You know what would be awesome?  If  Articulation Maps could contain SYSEX strings.  Also NRPN and NPN values would be awesome as well.

CbB currently doesn't support SYSEX to VSTi's at present, but NRPN / NPN should work fine with Articulation Maps - they're just a specialised CC.

In the MIDI spec:
CC #98 = NRPN (LSB), #99 = NRPN  (MSB)
CC #100 = RPN (LSB), #101 = RPN (MSB).

Within the Articulation Map editor, you should use CC #99 for  NRPN, and CC#101 for RPN,  using an event type of "CC" for 7 bit values, and "CC 14 bit" for 14 bit values. 

When choosing "CC 14 bit", CbB will automatically split the value up into CC #98/99 for NRPN and CC#100/101 for RPN ( the same goes for CC's #0 .. #31 ).

As far as SYSEX is concerned, at the time it was deemed largely unnecessary due to the vast majority of users being likely to use VSTi's / sample libraries with keyswitch support, or failing that, mapping across MIDI channels.

In any case, for hardware synths, you can normally work around this by using the existing SYSEX bank functionality and sending the SYSEX out either on project load, or at the start of the project. 

This is how I did things in the past when my rig was all hardware.... I'd send the SYSEX out on project load to configure my synths with the correct sounds / MIDI channel mappings etc, and from then on everything could be done using standard MIDI messages.

There wouldn't be a huge amount of work to support SYSEX in Articulation Maps, but it's certainly not insignificant. SYSEX support for VSTi's would be a bigger job though, as all the existing SYSEX functionality would need to be updated to handle VSTi's that may/may not support it.  We'd only consider doing this work if we felt enough users were going to benefit from it.

[Promidi]

Very good points.  I do indeed use a Hardware synth (Yamaha SW1000XG) that excepts Sysex strings.  For a while now, I have indeed been making extensive use of SYSEX banks.  These work really well

I also have written many Studioware panels that themselves contain sysex.  (Please don't ever drop support for opening these in CbB - and CAL scripts).

I can see where you are coming from in in regards SYSEX in Articulation maps - and I am agreeing there.  I can also see the issue you would have for the various Chase modes for articulation maps that contain SYSEX strings.  Some SYSEX strings can be quite long and the synths need time to process some of them.

Also, there has to be enough people who would use the feature to warrant the amount of work put into it.  I am going to have to concede that I am very much in the minority.   Therefore, I am happy to continue using Studioware panels.

As regards NRPNs and NPNs.  I keep forgetting that they are simply combined standard controllers that can be added to Articulation maps.  So in essence, in a round about way, NRPNs and NPN functionality in Articulation maps is already there  -just not as direct entries.  For those I will just continue to use standard PRV NRPNs and NPN controller lanes (with the right INS file) - the names are all there in my case.  The main thing I use NRPNs and NPNs for are setting pitch bend range and adjusting individual drum parameters in XG.

A big thanks to the developers for fixing the pitch bend ranges in Articulation maps BTW - that was much appreciated.
 

[msmcleod]

26 minutes ago, Promidi said:

Very good points.  I do indeed use a Hardware synth (Yamaha SW1000XG) that excepts Sysex strings.  For a while now, I have indeed been making extensive use of SYSEX banks.  These work really well
 

Aha... yes, I use SYSEX for my XG synths as well.  I've got 3 x XG units in my synth rack atm... the MU10, MU100R, and my Korg NX5R has an XG daughterboard in it too. I also use SYSEX for my Roland CM-64, as it can't hold patches after it's powered off.

I actually use my MU10 as a mixer/fx unit for my Kawai K1R and Yamaha TX81Z - they're connected to the two analog inputs on the MU10, and I use SYSEX to control the stereo chorus/reverb level on them ( the MU10 is sitting next to the CM-64 in my rack ).

Everything in my rack is connected to the Fostex DCM100 which is controlled by a MixTab: