Hi everyone.
I have a quite recent (2018) Dexibell Sx 7 piano module. Dexibell is part of the italian Proel company.
Their midi implementation charts are very poor (only few realtime messages) but i would like to control some deeper things, like controlling some of the internal menu and effects parameters with my controllers (possibly with the help of midi translators).
In order to do so i think i would need to have access to the exclusive data parameter send ( exclusive, id, ch no, funct no, group no, etc etc etc) along with the internal section’s set up addresses etc. Am I correct with my assumptions?
I attach the only midi implementation charts available online (the operator’s manual is impossible to be attached but can be found easily online) for reference to understand what i’m saying a bit better.
What i ‘m asking is if it would be possible to accomplish such tasks in any other way (is there a way to reveal such info without the help ofthe company - they just say it can’t be done, but the same was told to me by other comoanies in the past for things that could be achieved with work arounds)?
Thanks in advance
OK, the two midi documents you attached look perfectly fine to me.
The BIG problem from YOUR point of view is that the MIDI implementation for this device is VERY (as in EXTREMELY) limited. Seems fairly reasonable for a digital piano mind you, then, this is NOT a full-blown Synth. The idea is that everything is already there in the samples, and who do you think YOU are to even think about messing with those??
Joking aside, it's all down to money, and costs, and market size. They've designed a product for a specific market, and they've gone for a price point that they hope will allow them to sell enough to break even. They're clearly not aiming at the knob-twiddlers, there's enough REAL SYNTHs on the market for them.
The extra costs involved of designing all the RAM/ROM, with the published map of all the addresses, and the programming interface (that's in effect what all the SYSEX stuff is) will add TOO MUCH to the cost, therefore the price, when most of the target market will NOT be interested.
Look at the Midi Imp Chart, the single page table which is a summary of what the device will do re MIDI. There is a section re SysEx. Two explicit 'X' for Send and Receive, i.e. Totally NOTHING. This device seems to be 100% SysEx FREE! I suggest you study the controllers, and test them, and see what they can do indiv and in combinations. I suspect that there will be nothing in the box to communicate with, hence any SysEx data will be totally disregarded.
Sorry to be bringing you bad news.
Geoff
I had suspected it Geoff. And to tell you the truth i was not expecting since all its competitors in the same price range (yamaha cp 4, kawai mp 7, roland rd 800, casio px 5s, studiologic numa piano, kurzweil pc 7 etccetc) have excellent sysex implementation.
What to say…of course i complained to them and asked firmware update….let’s see. It costs a lot. Over 1000 euros new. So it’s not normal.
Thanks for the time you took to help me. I do appreciate it. Always fantastic midi knowledge in here.
Cheers
BUT - it's not JUST the price range, it's how many they think they might be able to sell. The extra cost may be fixed, but divided by the number of units it could be viable. The names you mention could all easily sell many humdereds, maybe thousands. Dixibell, how many? A hundred, or two hundred? Their production set-up might then struggle to make that many (no plastic, I read?)
Any sort of Mfg - it sure helps to be one of the 'Big Boys'!
Geoff
Construction wise is absolutelly fantastic. Full lightweight sturdy aluminum.
They have cut on normal midi out (for god’s sake just midi in and thru- only usb midi in-out which is not very reliable). They haven’t got great drivers, no frequent firmware update and they have a slightly under-serviced feature.
I mean the facility to be able to load your sounds (excellent sounds -huge or smaller samples- in their propriatery format but also in sf2 format for other things) could be expnded ( maybe wav or smthng) since it’s one of their best selling points.
1.5gb of space to load your sounds and have them at your disposal is not a little thing. Along with fantastic multisampled pianos (they take most part of the 1.5gb ram if you want to use them). The new model i think, has 3gb ram for the same things + organ functions.
But in general they haven’t thought about it very well. They think that their target group is the average piano bar player….wrong. This guy goes straight to Nord because of weight. And if not to Yamaha because of habit and marketing. And if he chose Dexibell he will go for the keyboard versions and not the rack.
Rack are for touring musicians and studios. And these guys know their midi.
They sell expensive and it’s not a small company. It’s Proel. Years and years in other parts of the prongear business.
Anyways they may change their firmware soon and add things. Otherwise it will just be used for pianos, or sold.