I just bought a BCF2000 to control my SQ5 but I’m facing a problem.
When I transform a simple action from the BCF into a Control Change to the SQ5 with a simple SYSEX message, everything is fine (like mute / unmute). But as soon as I want to include a variable so that the faders of the SQ5 follow the BCF, I’m lost.
If I understand correctly, there are 2 variables (value coarse and value fine) to include in the SYSEX message, but only one variable from the BCF? What code should I enter to overcome this problem?
If anyone has an example of coding for a functional round trip between BCF2000 and Allen SQ5, I would be happy!
The below is an example that I did for a small MIDI device that you could model. Basically we use CC36-39 as faders 1-4 (Translators 0.0-0.3).
We then track mutes of track 9, 13 and 7 with buttons (Translators 0.4-0.7).
Finally we use CC32, CC33 and CC 35 to control Pan for track 9, 13, and 7 respectively.
In all cases we just plug in the required SQ5 value into local variables oo,tt,pp and qq. This is done in the rules of each translator.
Translator 0.1 sets the A&H global MIDI channel to 1 so if you are using a different global channel you would need change the value there.)
I set my aliases up as follows. Note that for running on my PC, I’m using Remote Direct MIDI. Once you get the project working and upload to your BomeBox, you could then set up the alias to your local SQ5 connection and then use the project without a computer attached.
You can learn more about aliases from this tutorial.
I finally got to test it and after a few failures, it works. The fader steps are not very fine, but that must be due to the BCF2000.
However, I wanted to give feedback so that the BCF faders move when I move the SQ5 faders but this step is causing me problems. I tried to do the reverse encoding but for now it is a failure. Maybe you have some advice to give me?
Hopefully your SQ5 sends MIDI when you move the faders on the screen. Can you capture these messages using Bome MIDI Translator Pro? It should be an easy thing to do reverse translation but each fader has a different NRPN number that will be sent so I need to look at the one you are looking for.
As far as precision, you might get better precision if you put your BCF2000 into Mackie MCU mode as it will use Pitch bend instead of CC and pitch this will have either 10 or 14 bit resolution depending on the MCU implementation of the BCF2000.
Of course doing this will break the VPOT translators so we would need to circle back on those as well as in MCU mode they will be relative rather than absolute encoders and the LED feedback spec for V-POTS is quite different.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
I added another preset (SQ5 to Controller) for return values.
The single translator there should do the reverse translation for you.
Note that at the preset level, we set the input for ‘My-SQ5’ and output for ‘My Controller’
For more information about device selection, see this tutorial.
I added aliases and assigned them as follows:
The rules of the translator look for a CC on the desired MIDI channel and the NRPN incoming pattern. It then also looks for the target L-R fader number. The outgoing message is the same CC incoming message that we set up in translator 1.0.
Here are the ruled (with comments)
// look for Channel NRPN
// Mask Command nibble
rr=oo&240
//Look for CC (0xb0)
if rr!=176 then exit rules, skip Outgoing Action
// Mask MIDI channel -
rr=oo&15
// Look for SQ MIDI CH defined in Init preset
if rr!=ga then exit rules, skip Outgoing Action
// target fader (zero based)
uu=0
// look for fader number 1 (0)
rr=tt-64
if rr!=uu then exit rules, skip Outgoing Action
