38 User Guide Oxygen, SysEx

38 User Guide

Oxygen 88

The controls on Oxygen 88 allow assignment of either a RPN/NRPN coarse message, or a RPN/NRPN fine message, but not both simultaneously. In practical use, this means:

Assigning an RPN/NRPN coarse message to an Oxygen control allows to access values throughout the entire range of 16384 steps while skipping 128 steps with every value transmitted

(0; 129; 258; 387; 516; 645;...;16384).

Assigning an RPN/NRPN fine message to an Oxygen control allows access to the first 128 values of the entire range (0-127 of 16384).

In most cases, it is preferable to assign the RNP/NRPN coarse message, unless two Oxygen controls are dedicated to be operated together for simultaneous control of the RPN/NRPN coarse and fine parameters.

Many data sheets for synthesizers make use of NRPN messages and will give the LSB and MSB values that should be entered for Data 2 and Data 3. Some manuals may only give the hex values, but Oxygen requires the decimal value to be entered. See Appendix E for a hex to decimal conversion chart.

SysEx

System Exclusive (SysEx) messages were defined in the MIDI specification to allow control of individual devices via MIDI. The format of SysEx messages allows virtually any function to be performed via MIDI if the receiving device can read and translate the message. This allows devices to send audio sample memory data, memory dumps, controller settings, and much more. It also allows the controllers of one device to be controlled by another.

It is not possible to program your own specific SysEx message into the Oxygen controller. However, several useful SysEx messages are pre-programmed into the keyboard. They can be accessed by assigning the appropriate MIDI controller number to a control.

A SysEx message is not transmitted on any specific channel. All SysEx messages contain a Device ID, which is used to single out devices to respond to the SysEx message. All other devices are ignored. If you are using a SysEx message with your Oxygen keyboard, the Global Channel is ignored. When you press the Channel Assign key, you will enter a Device ID instead. This is indicated by the fact that the LED screen displays a 3-digit number, not a 2-digit number proceeded by a "c."

Device IDs run from 00 to 127. 127 is the default device number setting for Oxygen 88. This setting transmits the SysEx message to all devices.

It is not possible to program the controls on Oxygen 88 with your own SysEx messages, there are software applications that can receive a MIDI input signal and translate it into a different, user-specified message. You can program your custom SysEx messages into the translator software, and then translate the incoming data from the keyboard to your custom SysEx message.