Creating a mixer map in Cubase for Akai S series Samplers

[blaylok]

Hi,

Has anyone here ever successfully created a mixer map in Cubase for their Akai S series sampler within Cubase either with sysex or otherwise?

I am trying to be able to control my Akai sampler via a mixer map in cubase, but have not had a great deal of luck due to the Akai nibbling problem.

quoted from a december 1999 SOS article:



Case Notes: The Akai S2000

This is a prime example of a kind of SysEx that is really not well suited to Mixermaps. The Akai SysEx documentation states that the data portion of any Akai SysEx message must be sent "...in a nibbled form, ie. each data byte is represented by two message bytes; the bottom nibble of the first containing the bottom four bits of the data byte and the bottom nibble of the second containing the top four bits of the data byte." In practice, this means that any byte must be split into two. For example: to increase a given parameter by a value of 25 (19 in hexadecimal) you have to split the byte into two characters, 01 and 09. Akai SysEx requires you to send the least significant byte first, so the data bytes of the message would be 09, 01.

However, this presents an obvious problem as far as Mixermaps are concerned: only one variable byte per object is allowed. The Akai requires all data to be sent in nibbled byte pairs. The problems arise if you want to send values greater than 15 (0F in hex). As the Akai expects to receive the least significant byte in the bottom nibble (second character) of the first byte of a pair, it completely ignores the top nibble (first character). So if you send 1A, the Akai responds as if it was 0A. And as the second byte of the pair is never sent at all, the problem is compounded by the Akai's assumption of a null second byte (effectively 00). This means that whether the value of the Mixermap object variable is 0F or 1F, the Akai will respond as if it had been sent 0F, 00. In other words, as far as the Akai is concerned, it is impossible for a Mixermap object to count higher than 15!

The conversion function 'MIDI Byte -> 2 Nibble' available in the Options menu is supposed to generate a nibbled MIDI byte pair from the single-byte variable. However, this is really intended for use in situations where values outside the range of 0-127 need to be sent, and it does not seem to solve the Akai nibbling problem - although it does alter it slightly!

What this means in practice is that you can only really create SysEx objects for parameters which have an effective range of 0-15 or less. This is quite a major limitation, but it is still possible to create some useful objects. For example, filter resonance only has a range of 0-15. Likewise you can set a Multi Part to any of the 16 MIDI channels via SysEx, as MIDI channels are counted starting from zero. And these aren't the only possibilities.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/a ... /mixer.htm

any help would be greatly appreciated,

thanks

[mal7921]

Hi,

Has anyone here ever successfully created a mixer map in Cubase for their Akai S series sampler within Cubase either with sysex or otherwise?

I am trying to be able to control my Akai sampler via a mixer map in cubase, but have not had a great deal of luck due to the Akai nibbling problem.

quoted from a december 1999 SOS article:



Case Notes: The Akai S2000

This is a prime example of a kind of SysEx that is really not well suited to Mixermaps. The Akai SysEx documentation states that the data portion of any Akai SysEx message must be sent "...in a nibbled form, ie. each data byte is represented by two message bytes; the bottom nibble of the first containing the bottom four bits of the data byte and the bottom nibble of the second containing the top four bits of the data byte." In practice, this means that any byte must be split into two. For example: to increase a given parameter by a value of 25 (19 in hexadecimal) you have to split the byte into two characters, 01 and 09. Akai SysEx requires you to send the least significant byte first, so the data bytes of the message would be 09, 01.

However, this presents an obvious problem as far as Mixermaps are concerned: only one variable byte per object is allowed. The Akai requires all data to be sent in nibbled byte pairs. The problems arise if you want to send values greater than 15 (0F in hex). As the Akai expects to receive the least significant byte in the bottom nibble (second character) of the first byte of a pair, it completely ignores the top nibble (first character). So if you send 1A, the Akai responds as if it was 0A. And as the second byte of the pair is never sent at all, the problem is compounded by the Akai's assumption of a null second byte (effectively 00). This means that whether the value of the Mixermap object variable is 0F or 1F, the Akai will respond as if it had been sent 0F, 00. In other words, as far as the Akai is concerned, it is impossible for a Mixermap object to count higher than 15!

The conversion function 'MIDI Byte -> 2 Nibble' available in the Options menu is supposed to generate a nibbled MIDI byte pair from the single-byte variable. However, this is really intended for use in situations where values outside the range of 0-127 need to be sent, and it does not seem to solve the Akai nibbling problem - although it does alter it slightly!

What this means in practice is that you can only really create SysEx objects for parameters which have an effective range of 0-15 or less. This is quite a major limitation, but it is still possible to create some useful objects. For example, filter resonance only has a range of 0-15. Likewise you can set a Multi Part to any of the 16 MIDI channels via SysEx, as MIDI channels are counted starting from zero. And these aren't the only possibilities.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/a ... /mixer.htm

any help would be greatly appreciated,

thanks

I'm not aware of any specific ones, but then I've never owned an Akai sampler. On the Cubase review pages, there is a link to a zip file of what was at the time, every official mixer map released for Cubase (Plus a few more) so that may be worth looking at. Also the mixer maps for PC and Mac versions up to and including Cubase VST were compatible, so there may be one available from the PC or Mac community.

Do note though that Cubase versions SL/SX onwards can import these mixer maps, but the files for these later versions of Cubase cannot be used on the Atari series.

[mal7921]

Hi,

Has anyone here ever successfully created a mixer map in Cubase for their Akai S series sampler within Cubase either with sysex or otherwise?

I am trying to be able to control my Akai sampler via a mixer map in cubase, but have not had a great deal of luck due to the Akai nibbling problem.

quoted from a december 1999 SOS article:



Case Notes: The Akai S2000

This is a prime example of a kind of SysEx that is really not well suited to Mixermaps. The Akai SysEx documentation states that the data portion of any Akai SysEx message must be sent "...in a nibbled form, ie. each data byte is represented by two message bytes; the bottom nibble of the first containing the bottom four bits of the data byte and the bottom nibble of the second containing the top four bits of the data byte." In practice, this means that any byte must be split into two. For example: to increase a given parameter by a value of 25 (19 in hexadecimal) you have to split the byte into two characters, 01 and 09. Akai SysEx requires you to send the least significant byte first, so the data bytes of the message would be 09, 01.

However, this presents an obvious problem as far as Mixermaps are concerned: only one variable byte per object is allowed. The Akai requires all data to be sent in nibbled byte pairs. The problems arise if you want to send values greater than 15 (0F in hex). As the Akai expects to receive the least significant byte in the bottom nibble (second character) of the first byte of a pair, it completely ignores the top nibble (first character). So if you send 1A, the Akai responds as if it was 0A. And as the second byte of the pair is never sent at all, the problem is compounded by the Akai's assumption of a null second byte (effectively 00). This means that whether the value of the Mixermap object variable is 0F or 1F, the Akai will respond as if it had been sent 0F, 00. In other words, as far as the Akai is concerned, it is impossible for a Mixermap object to count higher than 15!

The conversion function 'MIDI Byte -> 2 Nibble' available in the Options menu is supposed to generate a nibbled MIDI byte pair from the single-byte variable. However, this is really intended for use in situations where values outside the range of 0-127 need to be sent, and it does not seem to solve the Akai nibbling problem - although it does alter it slightly!

What this means in practice is that you can only really create SysEx objects for parameters which have an effective range of 0-15 or less. This is quite a major limitation, but it is still possible to create some useful objects. For example, filter resonance only has a range of 0-15. Likewise you can set a Multi Part to any of the 16 MIDI channels via SysEx, as MIDI channels are counted starting from zero. And these aren't the only possibilities.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/a ... /mixer.htm

any help would be greatly appreciated,

thanks

I'm not aware of any specific ones, but then I've never owned an Akai sampler. On the Cubase review pages, there is a link to a zip file of what was at the time, every official mixer map released for Cubase (Plus a few more) so that may be worth looking at. Also the mixer maps for PC and Mac versions up to and including Cubase VST were compatible, so there may be one available from the PC or Mac community.

Do note though that Cubase versions SL/SX onwards can import these mixer maps, but the files for these later versions of Cubase cannot be used on the Atari series.