Sysex Advice

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Hi Guys

I need some advice from any of you Midi guru's

I have to reload all the internal patches on my ageing Roland D50

I have downloaded the necessary files but I gather I need to get these into the D50 by means of a Sysex dump

I watched an online tutorial which suggested that I need a USB to MIDI interface which kind of makes sense, and I've seen several suitable units online

But, I'm hoping that the solution might already exist - my Focusrite 18i20 has dedicated Midi I/O so surely it must be possible to use this as the interface?

Will there be any configuration required or will the D50 know where to look as soon as I start the Sysex transfer? (Assuming the relevant files are on my pc)

 

Thanks in advance

Jonesey

[user 905133]

3 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

But, I'm hoping that the solution might already exist - my Focusrite 18i20 has dedicated Midi I/O so surely it must be possible to use this as the interface?

Does "dedicated MIDI I/O" mean 5-pin DIN connectors (female)? If so, you can use standard 5-pin DIN cables (male-to-male).  Are the file *.syx files?

•  UPDATE: I just looked at an image of the Focusrite 18i20.  On the back there is a pair of 5-pin DIN connectors.  

Cakewalk still has a sysex module / view.  Load the file(s) into a bank; send them one at a time. 

As for configuration / settings, if the D-50 shows that the data is being sent too fast, Cakewalk settings (but you might not need them).

I have also uses MIDI-OX, but I prefer SONAR/Cakewalk.  I have used it for years to back up presets for different sound modules.

I have sent sysex to some Roland gear, but not in a while.  I don't think they had hardware switches to enable/disable the receipt of sysex data.  Also, other gear I had required software parameters to be set correctly to successfully receive sysex commands. I d not recall the older Roland gear having that.  If the sysex data/commands were properly formed, they should work.

•  UPDATE:  From the D-50 manual: "The Bulk Dump and Bulk Load processes function whether the exclusive switch in MIDI Functions is ON or OFF."

Roland sysex uses a checksum byte, but that only has to be calculated if you have hand assembled the sysex commands.  If you are restoring factory data, or a download previously sent from the Roland, you would not have to recalculate the checksum.

Edited February 27, 2023 by User 905133

[Bristol_Jonesey]

That's very useful

Thanks a lot