Select a Lyric Line Number greater then 127 with MIDI

[garysn]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently testing Bandhelper and I'm really impressed by the incredible amount of features.

At the moment I'm trying to select lyric lines via MIDI.

This works fine when I use MIDI SONG SELECT or MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE, but with both commands I'm only able to select the first 127 lines of my lyrics.

Is there a way to address lines with higher line numbers?

Why not use MIDI SONG POSITION instead of MIDI SONG SELECT? This would allow to address 65536 different lines?

Kind regards
  garysn

[arlo]

It would be easier to extend the program change function to support bank numbers, where bank 0 = 0-127, bank 1 = 128-255, etc.

Can you say more about what you're doing and why your lyrics are so long?

[garysn]

Hi Arlo,

thanks for your fast reply.

We use a kind of "extended" chord pro format for our lyrics.

Chord Pro is very compact and shows only what chords are used, but there is no exact chord length information.

So we have extended the chord pro idea and add exact timing information to our lyrics. (see attached video - sorry for the bad qualitiy, but I had to shrink it due to upload restrictions)

The problem in adding these additional information is, that all lyrics get at least twice as long as usual. But therefor we are able to see exactly what's going on.

The lyrics in the video are "animated" with your automation tool, but I would like to change this to MIDI because for me this is much easier to handle.

Kind regards
  garysn

[arlo]

Thanks for the explanation and example. Would it work for you if BandHelper supported incoming bank+program changes for this? In other words, can you send bank+program changes from your MIDI file?

[garysn]

Hello Arlo,

I have just checked this in my software.

Among other things, I have the option of sending the following midi commands:
CONTROL CHANGE
PROGRAM CHANGE
SONG SELECT
SONG POSITION

Using the BANK SELECT variant, I would probably have to send the following sequence to select e.g. lyric line 130 in my document:

CONTROL CHANGE #0  VALUE: 0 CHANNEL: 1
CONTROL CHANGE #32 VALUE: 1 CHANNEL: 1
PROGRAM CHANGE     VALUE: 2 CHANNEL: 1

Is this correct?

I have to specify a channel for each send operation. This information should then presumably be ignored on receipt?

So, If everything is correct that I have assumed, then I should be able to use your suggestion.

Of course it would be much easier (for me) using SONG POSITION,
I would then send the command SONG POSITION MSB: 1 LSB: 2 CHANNEL: 1, and that's it.

But if the other solution is easier for you to implement, then I'm happy to use it. 

[garysn]

Hi Arlo,

What do you think, is there a chance that you can implement the control change message solution in one of the next releases?


Kind regards
  garysn