Problem sending SysEx data to keyboard :)

[purple]

(: Hey y'all! I finally started playing keyboards again, with a band, after years away from it, and I need to back up my keyboard memory so I can fill it up with programs for the new band! Looks like I've been able to do the bulk save from the keyboard into a Metro MIDI track, but I can't get it to send the data back to the keyboard successfully to verify it!

Roland XP-10 keyboard is receiving MIDI notes from Metro correctly - the little keyboard display on the left edge of the track window plays through the XP-10 successfully. The MIDI track display is full of appropriate-looking sysex data packets, but when I play it back to the XP-10, the MIDI interface shows the data being sent, but the XP-10 shows no response - no sign of "hearing" it... Help!

Steve

[Jerm]

Hello Steve,

The keyboard on the left is in the graphic editor, not the tracks window.

The most likely reason your synth is not accepting sysex is because it is in write protect mode. Most synths have to be manually configured to accept sysex.

Have you looked at the Roland XP-10 manual?

[purple]

Hello Steve,

The keyboard on the left is in the graphic editor, not the tracks window.

The most likely reason your synth is not accepting sysex is because it is in write protect mode. Most synths have to be manually configured to accept sysex.

Have you looked at the Roland XP-10 manual?

(: Thanks Jeremy! Right, graphic editor...

Yes, I had read the manual and turned on the "receive sysex" flag, so there must be more to it...

I just tried doing a MIDI backup for my Alesis SR-16 drum machine in a similar way. I got a little farther, but still had some similar problems...

Once again, I easily managed to get the data *into* Metro (after increasing the sysex buffer size - the SR-16 sends one big message, while the XP-10 sends lots of little packets.)

However, when I tried to send it back, I got problems... Key information is that I *did* see a flicker of "receiving MIDI sysex" (or some similar message) for a *fraction of a second* on the SR-16 - which I *didn't* ever see on the XP-10.

It appears that Metro may be only giving the sysex packet the amount of time it shows on the track listing to send - a small fraction of a beat - trying to send 35k in one 32nd note??... or maybe there is another explanation for why I only saw the short flicker of "receiving MIDI" - it took at least a minute or so when sending to Metro originally.

So two questions come to the surface
1) what is the speed or timing with which Metro sends sysex data out?
2) why do I see a (brief) acknowledgement of data being received on the SR-16 but none for the XP-10?

Steve

[Jerm]

So two questions come to the surface
1) what is the speed or timing with which Metro sends sysex data out?
2) why do I see a (brief) acknowledgement of data being received on the SR-16 but none for the XP-10?

I successfully send/receive sysex with Metro almost every day. I know there are at least a couple of problematic drivers. The best way to see exactly what is going on is with an excellent utility called 'MIDI Monitor'. One problem I do have using the MOTU MIDI express XT's driver, is that if it is configured to receive sync it will not send sysex correctly. I have solved this problem by using MOTU's clockworks utility to switch of realtime messages (sync) when not using them. What is your MIDI interface?