MIDI Transpose for Hammond Sk1/2

[Bruce C]

Hi, hoping for some assistance please. I use BH and have successfully setup Patch Changes to trigger Automatically from Song Selection in BH Setlists. The Hammond Sk1/2 does not allow a patch to be stored that includes a Key Transpose. The transpose buttons on the Sk1/2 console work fine, but I want to have this done Automatically from BH Song Selection after the patch has changed.

From reading Sk manual I understand I can do this via NRPN message sent from BH to the Sk.

The relevant page of the Hammond Sk1/2 Owners manual provides the string details for Tune/Transpose Changes, but I was wondering if someone could help me understand how I input these into BH so they can execute, can I just send CC numbers and if so what and where, or do I need to enter the Hex string and if so what and where?

I could do this by trial and error but if someone knows what to do it would be much appreciated as Hex is definitely not my strong point.

Thanks in advance.

[arlo]

Please share what the manual says about data you have to send.

[Bruce C]

HI Alro,

Thanks for replying see Attachment

I believe the relevant sections is Tune / Transpose

Se example at bottom of page both NRPN and Sysex

[arlo]

The way that manual is written is really weird in my opinion ... then again I haven't seen a good explanation of how to use NRPN anywhere. If you can find out the SysEx device ID for your device, it would be easier to use the SysEx option, which seems easier to me. Otherwise I can interpret their NRPN instructions.

[Bruce C]

HI I think this is what you are after.

Hammonds manufacturer MIDI Device ID is 17 btw

[arlo]

The previous manual page you shared said you can change the transposition with this SysEx message...

F0 55 dd 10 1D 13 00 01 00 40 F7

...where dd is the device ID and 40 is the default transpose amount.

Is that ID of 17 in decimal or hex? If it's in hex you can insert it in the place of dd. If it's decimal, then you can insert its hex equivalent, which is 11.

Then I'm guessing you would increment the 40 for each half step you want to transpose by. That would go from 40 to 49 and then 4A and 4B to cover 12 half steps.

[Bruce C]

Hi Arlo,

Had a break through today. I read up on the MIDI Learn Function and also used some more in-depth forensics with the MIDI Log.

Managed to enter the NRPN data into the Hex Field after sifting through the MIDI Log and bingo it works.

The only trick which I still don't understand why but don't care is that on the Hammond SK my MIDI Channel for TX and RX is set to 3 but the log shows that the data is being transported by B2.....so I just set the x in the NRPN string to 2 and it worked a treat.

Thanks for your help.

[arlo]

In code, numbers are almost always counted from 0, so the third channel would appear as 2 (0-1-2). This is what you'll see in BandHelper's MIDI activity log or raw MIDI field. But in user interfaces and documentation, numbers are more typically counted from 1, so the third channel would appear as 3 (1-2-3).

It's a common problem with MIDI that the counting method in interfaces and documentation isn't standardized, so you might have to adjust numbers by one when looking at different products and even different fields in the same product depending on their counting method.

[Bruce C]

Hi Arlo, yes you are spot on.

I have both an Sk1 and and SK2 which I use for  different shows and have now set them up with the Sk1 on MIDI Channel 3 and the Sk2 on MIDI Channel 2 and the correct reference for the SK1 is B2 and for the SK2 B1.

Might sound a bit bizarre but as you say it is tied to the MIDI Channel assignment.

Thanks for your help it was very much appreciated.