Bc2000 (for the BCF2000 & BCR2000)

So I’ve been looking into getting a template of sorts put together for the JD-Xi for awhile now on the BCR2000 and I believe I’ve done everything in my personal know how on how to get this working. It looked like it someone tried to do it here too, but it kind of just never finished I guess?

I’ve started by reading up on how I had to communicate with the JD-Xi online and also through Roland’s “JD-Xi’s Midi Implementation Chart” pdf. I was thinking just nrpns would do the job, but to get real control, I found I needed to use sysex to access everything. I then went through the process of learning how sysex messages work for the JD-Xi and I think I have a pretty fair grasp of how they are assembled from the midi implementation chart. I decided a good test to just see if this was going work was to assemble a sysex code for the JD-Xi’s Digital Synth Partial 1 Filter Cutoff and assign it to an encoder on the BCR. I put that together and using BC Manager, I assaigned it to an encoder to test it out. I gave it a try and nothing happened? No lights on the encoder I assigned the sysex code to even lit up as I rotated the encoder. I assumed I just got the sysex wrong. I decided I’d hook my JD-Xi up to a midi monitoring software on my computer to check if I could get the actual sysex code and compare it to the sysex code I made from the implementation chart. I got the sysex from the JD-Xi and surprise, surprise. I was wrong. I knew what I did wrong though if I did need to go back and use the implementation chart again for other controls. I took the actual sysex code for the Digital Synth Partial 1 Filter Cutoff and put it back into BC Manager and reuploaded it to the BCR and to my surprise. I got the same results! Nothing happened on the encoder! No lights no output to the JD-Xi from the BCR. Nothing.

Does anyone know what might be happening? I’m almost positive at this point this no longer a mistyped sysex issue. I believe it’s something wrong with either BC Manager not programming the BCR correctly (or something of that sort?) or the BCR2000’s fault. I have no idea why the encoder won’t turn on. BC Manager looks as if it’s sending the data. I’ve read that the BCR should be have to handle sysex so I don’t know what the issue is here.

Here is the sysex code for the JD-Xi’s Digital Synth Partial 1 Filter Cutoff:

F0 41 10 00 00 00 0E 12 19 01 20 0C val cks-1 F7

This is the BCR readable equivalent:

$F0 $41 $10 $00 $00 $00 $0E $12 $19 $01 $20 $0C val cks-1 $F7

Hey Pat!

Thanks for the reply, I read somewhere online that the details about checksum for the JD-Xi didn’t matter? Maybe I was wrong though.

I did give it a shot though and I’m not sure if it worked. I’m still having that issue where when I upload the sysex to an encoder on BC Manager to the BCR the encoder doesn’t seem to do anything. No lights when I turn it, no output when I’ve got it hooked up to the JD-Xi. Nothing. So I don’t know what that issue’s about.

Nick

Hey Pat!

Thanks for quick response. I realized that when I tried that sysex code I didn’t switch it from “U-3” mode to the usual “S-3” I do my testing with the JD-Xi with. I did give that quick shot today though and sadly it didn’t work still. No lights. No output on the encoder.

I decided to take a look into BC Manager a bit more because I do not think this is a sysex issue. I have been usually entering this sysex data into BC Manager by opening up the “BCR:2000 Layout” page and entering the sysex into a Custom Output from a selected encoder that I want the sysex to be assaigned to. I decided to look a bit deeper into BC Manager though and checkout (as the BC Manager manual calls it) “The Elements Window”. It shows me not just the sysex code I’ve entered on the encoder I’ve chosen (aswell all of the other controls on the BCR), it also allows me to adjust how the LEDs work, the resolutions of the encoders and much more.

I’ve found from working on the Elements Window, the resolution colum gives an error after entering the custom output for the JD-Xi sysex, as well as having the status of the LEDs turned off for the given encoder that that sysex was assaigned to. To remedy this I changed the resolution to the standard setting of 96 and set the LEDs to “1 or 2 dots” (it does display “INVALID” in the LED spot though, however it does still seem to work oddly?) I also changed (specially for this sysex parameter for the Filter Cutoff) Value 2 to 127 and set the “Show Value” to Yes so it would display the encoders current value on the BCR’s display when it’s being moved.

I sent these modified parameters over to the BCR from BC Manager and to my surprise, it worked! I could control the JD-Xi’s Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 Filter Cutoff! And for good measure I gave a shot at controlling Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 Filter Resonance as well and that worked too!

On a side note as well, I did try using my original sysex instead of the one with the adjusted checksum and it still worked as well. I didn’t try other values so I don’t know if other values won’t work, but I dont think the JD-Xi bothers with specific checksums.

I will be trying to put together some kind of template for the JD-Xi and the BCR2000 now that I have starting of it working. I don’t know how long that will take (there’s a ton of parameters in the JD-Xi!), but I’ll try my best to make it as soon as possible!

Thanks a bunch for your help Pat!

Update:

So I started making a template for the Digital Synth 1 Partial 1. Figured i'd start from square one. I've got a layout that9;s looking pretty fair so far and I've started to do some minor testing of the layout to see how it's all working and it looks like I've run into a road block. I seem to have an issue with the partial selecting. So far, I've just assumed I could map the main controls to Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 of the JD-Xi and when selecting different partials, those same controls would just "remap" to the selected partial(s). This isn't the case as I've found. I can't quite think of a alternative though besides making individual presets for all of the partials and their controls individually in BC Manager for The BCR, but that would just just take up so many preset pages.

Is there a way to have the main controls "remap" based on which partial(s) is/are selected? It would really cut down on how many preset pages are needed to make this template.

If it's any help, I did map the sysex code for the Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 Selects and Switches. Here they are (in BC Manager format):

Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 Select 1:

$F0 $41 $10 $00 $00 $00 $0E $12 $19 $01 $00 $1A val cks-1 0 $F7

$F0 $41 $10 $00 $00 $00 $0E $12 $19 $01 $00 $1C $00 cks-1 0 $F7

$F0 $41 $10 $00 $00 $00 $0E $12 $19 $01 $00 $1E $00 cks-1 0 $F7

Select 1- $1A $1C $1E

Select 2- $1C $1A $1E

Select 3- $1A $1E $1C

(I could not get the Partial 3 Select to work for some reason though?)

Digital Synth 1 Partial 1 Switch 1:

$F0 $41 $10 $00 $00 $00 $0E $12 $19 $01 $00 $19 val cks-1 0 $F7

Switch 1- $19

Switch 2- $1B

Switch 3- $1D

Nick