THIS IS ARCHIVED FROM BRUCE JAMES' OLD WEBSITE

 

What sort of things can I do with MIDI and my RP-10/12?


Three main things that I can suggest...

  1. Exchange programs between your computer and RP-10/12. Why?

    (a) as a backup - in case your RP-10/12 falls over and you have to reset it and loose all that hard work in setting up your user programs (you can do a bulk dump that backs up all the user programs in one hit);

    (b) as extra memory - you can only store 100 to 128 users programs at once in the RP-10/12. But you are virtually unlimited to the number you can store on your computer.

    (c) to allow editing of programs on your computer using a more user-friendly, graphical patch editor such as my RPEdit program.

  2. To allow the RP-10/12 to be controlled by other MIDI devices (i.e. synths, sequencers, etc). For example, say you had a sequencer. These usually just generate a string of MIDI messages of notes, timing, etc, which can be "played" by a synth, to generate music. But MIDI can also include control messages which can be used to control other MIDI-capable devices at the appropriate time in a song. So we could, in this case, have our sequencer automatically switch from one RP-10/12 program patch to another when going from verse to chorus.

  3. To use the RP-10/12 as a controller of other MIDI devices. This is basically the reverse of 2. For example, you could set up the RP-10/12 so that pressing a switch changes a program or a parameter in a synthesier.

Obviously, it helps to learn a little bit about MIDI. Have a look around the www as there is quite a bit you can read up on there. But it would probably help if I mentioned the following... Program dumps use MIDI SysEX (System Exclusive). This is like an extension to standard MIDI which is used to allow MIDI devices do more than what standard MIDI defines. It is very specific to certain devices/manufacturers. The RP-10/12 uses it for program dumps as well as other things. All the controlling stuff mentioned in 2 & 3 above is standard MIDI and uses MIDI continuous controllers (cc's).

What you won't be able to do is generate MIDI notes from your guitar via the RP-10/12 to say play through a synth. You need a guitar to MIDI converter for that. And, no, you cannot directly record MIDI - it must be "played" via a synthesizer or soundcard (which can then be recorded).