Sysex BOSS ME5

By cross, 6 May, 2019
Forums
General discussion

Hi there,

Found my way here via Roland Clan and bwalk.com.au. Love the MIDI Tools application by the way!

I'm writing a puredata script to try and change the parameters on my old BOSS ME5 effects unit. (The MIDI Tools app has come in very handy!)

I'm succesfully connecting to the unit, sending some sysex and getting changes in the sounds. 

I can't quite follow the notes in the ME5 manual though. I think I've got the header part of it correct - F0 41 00 1F 12 ....

And I've setup the script to generate the correct checksum.

Would you mind helping me a little to decipher the address mapping of the parameters?



 

Mark van den Berg

5 years 8 months ago

I assume you're referring to pp. 62-63 of the ME-5's Owner's Manual.

As stated under "Data set ... DT1 12H", an ME-5 address consists of two bytes, the first being the MSB (most significant byte), the second being the LSB (least significant byte).

The starting address of an ME-5 parameter setup is calculated as specified under "Parameter base address".
For instance, "Memory parameter 2" (GROUP 1, BANK 1, NUMBER 2) starts at 10H 20H.

As specified under "Parameter offset address", each parameter setup consists of 26 bytes, at offsets 00H-19H.
For instance, the MASTER LEVEL parameter of each setup is at offset 19H within that setup.

So to calculate the address of each individual parameter, you have to add the parameter offset address to the parameter base address.
In practice this means that you have to add the individual parameter's offset to the LSB of the base address.
For instance, in "Memory parameter 2" the LSB of MASTER LEVEL is 20H+19H=39H, and its full address is 10H 39H.

So for instance to set Memory parameter 2's MASTER LEVEL to its maximum of 70 (46H), you need the following SysEx message:
F0 41 00 1F 12 10 39 46 71 F7
(I used the "MIDI System Exclusive messages" window in MIDI Tools to generate this message (including the checksum!): "Edit" -> "Insert Roland".)

Hope this helps,
   Mark.

Hello,

I'm working on a similar project with Max8, if you want to modify the master level of the preset you've selected on the ME-5, you don't need to use the address of the preset in the SysEx message.

Here's how to build the message:

“”F0 41 00 1F 12 “ to begin, then “00 19” for the parameter address (“ 00 19” for master level, “00 18” for the reverb/delay fx level etc), the value of the parameter, for the check sum you can put any value between 00 and 7F, then F7 to finish.

F0 41 00 1F 12 00 19 46 02 F7 for maximum and F0 41 00 1F 12 00 19 00 02 F7 for minimum

 

For the Fx on/off value, you need to add every bit value according to his state and its row, on=1 off=0, BIT0 is multiply by 1, BIT1 by 2, BIT2 by 4, BIT3 by 8 and BIT4 by 16.

If comp and eq are on with the rest off, the value of fx on/off is 1x1+0x2+1x4+0x8+0x16=5

F0 41 00 1F 12 00 00 05 2 F7

 

Has somebody found what sysex message to send for a bulk dump request to the ME-5 in order to get all the values of the selected preset without going to MIDI mode, dc, write on the ME-5?

 

I'm also interested to know the message for writing the preset after modifications.

Have a nice day