And now I’m stumped again. I tried a direct midi connection to my Roland Alpha Juno and now the midi learn function doesn’t seem to be picking up anything when I adjust parameters on the synthesizer, despite not making any changes like memory protect or any other midi menu functions on the synth. there is a chance that because I had Ableton open and I was using the Electra to pass midi notes data through it to the synth that it somehow overtook the ability of the device to detect the changes in sysex data, but I have no idea why that would be.
Do you have a monitoring tool on the PC that allows you to see the MIDI messages sent back an forth?
In my unboxing enthusiasm, in the web app I had set controller/router/midi control to ‘drop’ (IIRC) so it wasn’t listening. Maybe that’s it?
Yes, sorry missed this in your last message!
Not sure if that screenshot will appear, but monitoring the midi input of the Alpha Juno through the MRCC to my PC shows sysex messages being sent when I adjust the filter cutoff on the synth. I’m a bit confused about why these messages show that they’re coming from channel 0, rather than channel 2 which is what I have the Alpha Juno set to.
Sysex is not channel dependent.
If i want to find out if my E1 is properly receiving and responding to sysex, I route the traffic first via the pc into the E1, and vice versa. So my midi-ox is in between both parties, taking care what is sent out by one is transmitted to the other. Then I can really see what goes on between both devices. Is a good way not to have to guess about actual messaging.
Once all works as designed, i make direct routings.
The view you show, demoes the Juno is transmitting. That is one quarter of the traffic only. Do you have proof the E1 receives those messages? And the other way round?
Gotcha, I’ll try to create a routing in a moment that allows this program to see the messages to and from the E1 as well.
Now for what might be a question I won’t like the answer to; if sysex messages are not channel dependant, will it even be possible to control multiple synthesizers that send and receive sysex messages for their synth engine at the same time using the Electra 1 and midi router combo in the way I’m trying to use it?
This is possible because sysex is manufacturer, instrument and device specific (2nd 3rd 4th Byte of the sysex bytes)
This is very good to know! But also makes me mildly concerned that the midi indicator light on my Waldorf Micro Q lit up every time I made a parameter adjustment on the Electra while testing the Roland D-550 preset yesterday 
I’m starting to suspect the MRCC is really garbling these sysex messages somehow.
Typically a sysEx header will allways have these 4 parts:
- the identification of the manufacturer / brand
- the identification of the make / model / type
- a device ID
- the command
The sysEx device ID is meant to differentiate between multiple physical devices, in case you have more than one of the same brand and model. Each manufacturer has its own way to make this differentiation.
Be aware: the meaning of “device” for sysEx is not the same meaning as “device” for the Electra One.
- With some (like Waldorf) this is done by setting a sysEx deviceID on the synth (default value = usually 0). So, if you have two microQ, be sure to set each to a different deviceID, so then they will know what sysEx request is from them or not. Value range then is 0…127.
- With others, the deviceID can be assumed equal to the base MIDI channel the synth is set to. In that case you might not be able to set it yourself. This works well, unless you decide to set two exactly the same models on the same MIDI channel, and then excahnge sysEx messages with them… avoid these situations. Value range then is 0…15.
There is no fixed rule, you need to check the sysEx guide for the synth to figure it out, or check for something called ‘deviceID’ or ‘sysEx ID’ on your synth’s global, config or utilitiy settings.
@WYRaM418 and I had a session to get things going yesterday. We got Alpha Juno and MicroQ working. Direct connections. Alpha Juno worked through MRCC (patch dumps are around 60bytes), MicroQ worked when connected directly to E1 but not via MRCC (patch dump is around 400bytes).
1 Like
Hi just to clarify something: I had to step out for the day after we spoke yesterday but the Micro Q preset did not work when connected directly to the Electra one, I didn’t get to try that until this morning and the patch request button in the preset causes the Electra one to freeze when connected directly. The patch request actually did work while the synth and Electra were connected via the MRCC, but I was not able to use the individual patch parameters to make changes to the synth in real-time. I’m going to test a few more things with this preset plus the Roland D-550 preset and report back soon!
ohh, I misunderstood something then. I am sorry. I thought we got to the point where you confirmed you were able to sync your e1 with microQ - the patch requests. Note, individual parameter changes are not supported. It can be done but it is not implemented in that preset. If you need more assistance, just let me know.