Thanks. How about System Exclusive?

[Byron G. Jacquot]

>But I already got into these specs last year. I can just rewrite that part.
>I'm more looking for details about system exclusive, timecodes, and really
>silly details...

All of that is in the big MMA book.  Most of what you're mentioning is in
the end of chapter 2.

Time code breaks down into a couple of classes:
MIDI clock, which is fairly easy to generate or sync to.  To send it, you
need a timer of some sort, plus means for starting and stopping.  To sync to
it, just watch for clock ticks (F8h), plus start, stop and continue.

MTC, or MIDI time code, is much hairier.  It's derived from video/film
standards (such as SMPTE), sending information about 25/30 frames per
second.  Making raw MTC isnt too hard, but generating a tempo from it can
take some work.

>The only thing i can find which covers this subject is the manuals of my
>(modern)Roland equipement (A90 and JV1010), as part of the midi
>implementation appendix, which gives my quite a headache...
>I do know however that sysEx is different for every company (or even every
>unit), but i'd stilll like to see more.

Sysex is left for the instrument manufacturer to define for each instrument.
It's designed to carry info that only makes sense within a given instrument.
This means that there aren't really any rules as to the format of the
messages, you can do it so it makes sense to you.  If you need some simple
parameter editing, you could define a simple message type with the standard
sysex header, 2 bytes of data, and an end message.  The first parameter
could indicate which value you wish to change, and the next could be the
value that parameter should assume...of course, if you send data longer than
7 bits, you'll need a scheme to break it into 7-bit chunks.  But that scheme
if something you can decide on for yourself, I think.

you might go to a library and flip thru any MIDI books they have.  I know
the level some of the are written at can be insulting at times, but there
are often gems of insight buried in those pages.

If you want to see particular sysex implementations, you might write to some
manufacturers and ask for their sysex documentation.

Byron Jacquot