How to use Sy***. for dummies?

[Musicnik]

Hello everyone! I'm using my T2 for a year and it's still a great experience to play it, but I want to use ALL of its advantages, so I decided to study what is Yamaha's System Exclusive and how to use it. I haven't found any information neither on this forum nor in whole Internet. Any manuals and any simple explanations. So, whi can explain for me and for other members, who also doesn't know anything about that?
.
Thank you for advance,
Musicnik

[Jørgen]

Hi

A short primer at https://thomer.com/misc/sysx.html

More in http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/pdf/Beggar_Sy***Guide.pdf - Written for DB-50XG but it is the same concept and procedures for Yamaha keyboards.

Jørgen

[Musicnik]

Hi

A short primer at https://thomer.com/misc/sysx.html

More in http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/pdf/Beggar_Sy***Guide.pdf - Written for DB-50XG but it is the same concept and procedures for Yamaha keyboards.

Jørgen

Thank you very much, Jorgen!

[Joe H]

The most important thing to remember is that sy*** is written in hexadecimal strings. (a series of 2-digit hex values in a row)  Hexadecimal is a base-16 way of counting (increments of 16).

Our Decimal system is base-10 (increments of 10).  There are conversion charts around that show Hexadecimal values and Decimal values side by side that are very helpful when writing sy*** string messages.

There are several reasons to write sy*** strings:

1. You can send remotely a common message like Volume to just one instrument if you have many instruments in your MIDI setup
2. You can access and edit specific parameters that are not available from the front panel of you instrument.
3. You can access and edit uncommon parameters of an instrument to customized a sound or setup.
4. There are many other advantages to writing sy*** messages depending what you wish to accomplish.

Jørgen's second link will give you the basics of Yamaha sy***.  There are other MIDI manufacturers that developed more complex and harder to learn system exclusive formats.  Yamaha has made it pretty simple and easy.

Joe H

[ckobu]

With the great MixMaster program, you can see all the Sy*** controls sent by the Yamaha arranger. In addition to reading the suggested literature, this will help you more easily understand what is going on in the background.

https://youtu.be/EmR7WAjjKVI?t=57

(english subtitle)

[overover]

... I'm using my T2 for a year and it's still a great experience to play it, but I want to use ALL of its advantages, so I decided to study what is Yamaha's System Exclusive and how to use it. I haven't found any information neither on this forum nor in whole Internet. Any manuals and any simple explanations. ...

Hi Musicnik,

One of the most important documents in connection with System Exclusive Messages (also called "Sy***") is the Yamaha Data List for the keyboard concerned.

If you haven't downloaded the Tyros2 Data List yet, here is the link to the Yamaha Manual Library:
>>> https://uk.yamaha.com/en/support/manuals/index.html?l=en&c=keyboards&k=tyros2

Please have a look at the chapters "MIDI Data Format" (from page 53) and "Song System Exclusive Message List" (page 72) in the Tyros2 Data List.

In addition to Sy***, there are also so-called "Meta events" (e.g. Lyrics events in a MIDI file). In contrast to Sy***, Meta events are NOT transmitted via MIDI cables, but can only be evaluated directly by the device on which the respective MIDI file is played. (See page 73 in the T2 Data List.)


Best regards,
Chris

[pjd]

One common use for MIDI System Exclusive (Sy***) events is changing or controlling DSP effects. Here are a few articles about PSR/XG effects:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/psrtyros-xg-effects/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/xg-effects-system-mode/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tyros2_effect_diagram.pdf

The following articles don't use Sy***, but might provide some useful background information:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/psr-effects-electric-piano-1/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/edit-save-psr-effects-2/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/psr-effects-electric-piano-3/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/copy-psr-effects-part-4/

It's a case of knowing what you want to do first before diving into Sy*** messages themselves.

I keep a table of commonly used Sy*** messages templates for selecting reverb type, chorus type, etc. (Example below) Only a few bytes in a message actually change in a reverb type message, such as the specific reverb effect to be used. Then it's a simple matter of plugging in the appropriate values into the templates.

The chart at the beginning of the MIDI Data Format section (Tyros2 Data List PDF, page 53) is a fast way to convert between decimal and hexadecimal. There are also on-line conversion calculators.

Hope this helps -- pj

F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7                GM Reset
F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7       XG System ON
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 00 01 25 F7    Reverb Type
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 20 42 08 F7    Chorus Type
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 2E 20 F7       Chorus Send To Reverb

F0 43 10 4C 02 01 40 16 00 F7    Variation Type
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 5A 01 F7       Variation Connection (SYSTEM)
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 56 40 F7       Variation Return
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 58 20 F7       Variation Send To Reverb

F0 43 10 4C 08 08 07 01 F7       MULTIPART Drum set-up Part 9
F0 43 10 4C 08 09 07 01 F7       MULTIPART Drum set-up Part 10

Effect type                          Decimal Hexadecimal
-----------------------------------  ------- -----------
Delay - Tempo Delay 1    8th.        21 0    0x15 0x00
Delay - Tempo Delay 2    4th         21 16   0x15 0x10
Delay - Tempo Echo       4th         21 8    0x15 0x08
Delay - Tempo Cross 1    8th         22 0    0x16 0x00
Delay - Tempo Cross 2    4th         22 16   0x16 0x10
Delay - Tempo Cross 3    4th.        22 17   0x16 0x11
Delay - Tempo Cross 4    4th/8th     22 18   0x16 0x12