[sdiy] MIDI CC LSB as another controller

[rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk]

Hi All,

Many thanks for your very useful replies about this.

I've included Olivier Gillet's reply below, that was sent to me 
directly and copied to the list but didn't seem to get broadcast or 
archived!

Best regards,

-Richie Burnett,


On 2013-08-15 13:55, Olivier Gillet wrote:
> There are a bunch of mainstream synths doing it - Waldorf Blofeld,
> Access Virus, some Elektron and Novation products (in particular the
> Drumstation and Machinedrum which are in the same category as your
> project)... I reluctantly did it for my synths too - which originally
> were NRPN only. Almost everybody who asked for this had the following
> reason: Ableton Live does not handle SysEx and NRPN.
> 
> Most control surfaces provide both a 14-bit and a 7-bit mode - which
> can be used to individually addressing the MSB/LSB pairs. So they
> won't have any problem driving your product. Regarding sequencers,
> 14-bit is actually the exception, not the norm. For example, I don't
> think one can visually edit (as "hyperdraw" automation curves) 14-bit
> data in Logic recorded as MSB/LSB pairs. One would have to edit both
> curves simultaneously :(
> 
> I don't know what's the position of the MIDI committee on this (would
> be worth asking here: http://www.midi.org/cgi-bin/forum/forum.pl/ [2])
> - the fact that Dave Smith is avoiding it in his product might be a
> sign that it's not kosher. It's a difficult dilemma indeed to decide
> whether you'll play by the book or come up with something compatible
> with whatever incomplete/idiosyncratic implementation of MIDI the vast
> majority of your users will be using.
> 
> On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 1:32 PM, <rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> Does anyone know if it is acceptable to use MIDI CC numbers 32 to 63 
>> (decimal) as additional normal-resolution MIDI controllers?
>> 
>> The MIDI standard says "Controller numbers 32 through 63 are reserved 
>> for optional use as the LSB (least-significant byte) of MIDI 
>> controllers 0-31."
>> 
>> I know that their use for adding resolution to CC's 0-31 is optional 
>> and understand how this works, however, I would rather use these 
>> numbers as 32 seperate additional single-byte controllers in my 
>> project.
>> 
>> Is this practice...
>> 
>> 1. Acceptable under the MIDI standard?
>> 
>> 2. Likely to work most of the time, but not recommended!?
>> 
>> 3. Likely to cause sequencers to balk as they frantically try to pair 
>> up MIDI CC's that they think represent low and high bytes of the same 
>> variable? :-(
>> 
>> 4. Implemented by any mainstream manufacturers?  Like Novation MIDI 
>> control surfaces, etc.?
>> 
>> My project potentially has a lot of tweakable parameters, and I'm 
>> sure things like this are really meant to be controlled via NRPN's or 
>> SysEx.  However, I can't help feeling that just using a whole bunch of 
>> MIDI CC's would transfer the control movements quicker, and would be 
>> easier for the end-user to edit control automations in a sequencer 
>> package?
>> Am I right?
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> -Richie,
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> 
> 
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