MIDI MSB & LSB commands for Program Changes

Beejaywh

Hi Peter,

A small but hopefully useful suggestion for your next build which should be an easy thing to implement. Firstly I’ll let you know what my issue was.

I have several keyboards from Roland, Korg & Yamaha which I’m trying to automate patch changes via MIDI from ST3. I have a reasonably good understanding of MIDI but I was totally lost when reading the manuals as they were calling for an MSB, LSB & PC variable to be sent. Try as I might I could not work out how to send an MSB or LSB to my channel……until tonight after a LOT of reading and experimenting. I now know that MSB is the same as CC0,x and LSB is CC32,x . I know you can send bank selects with the PC control but even after reading your manual it didn’t make sense that this was to do with MSB/LSB as I didn’t know about the CC 0 & 32 significance.

Obviously if I had problems then I would suggest other users would too.

May I suggest two commands be added to your syntax so then when used they would actually send the corresponding CC command as by having the syntax it would be clear to even the novice in MIDI.

For example If a patch was requiring an MSB of 72, an LSB of 40 and a PC of 56 on ch1

The new syntax would read:
[midi: MSB72@1, LSB40@1, PC56@1]

This would be the equivalent of sending:
[midi: CC0.72@1, CC32.40@1, PC56@1]

I know it can currently be done the second way but as I say to anyone with less knowledge reading the keyboard manual they might, like me, spend months working it out, if they ever do. Plus it looks so much easier and neater to read.

Very best wishes, and as ever, thank you for a superb program.

Brian

peter

MSB and LSB are not really the official terms for bank select messages! MSB stands for most significant bit and LSB for least significant bit and they are used in a wide range of midi commands (CC0 up to CC63). See this table: https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/table-3-control-change-messages-data-bytes-2

It would not be right to have a MSB command as an alias for CC0 while every CC from 0 to 31 is technically a MSB message.

In any case the dot syntax for PC (example PC1.10@1) can be used for most midi gear to send bank select messages without having to worry about the CC message details. Only if you need to send an MSB value other then 0 you need to construct your program changes with the CC messages.

MXStudios

@peter I am having a related issue and need the be able to send MSB and LSB. Unless there is another way.

For me to change to "Scene 351" in my Roand RD-88, I need to send MSB - 85 and LSB -2 with a program change of 94.

How would I do this?

peter

Write it like this (I assume channel 1): [midi: CC0.85@1,CC32.2@1,PC94@1]

MXStudios

Worked perfectly! I didn't understand the ability to send multiple steps in a single MIDI block.

Thanks!

doctorvague

Thanks for this! Can't believe this isn't explained in the manual. I spent 2 long days trying to solve this before I finally found the info buried in this post. I entered in literally dozens of syntax variations that didn't work. Super frustrating. CC's finally solved it.