Can I query A Sysex?

Question

My device uses sysex for controller changes it has a GET and SET sysex command for each control. I have a MDP controller panel that implements changes to the parameters via knobs with individual SET sysex commands. So far, so good.

Now, I would like to have the MDP knobs' value change on pgm change. I have a pgm up and pgm down button on my MDP control panel. When one of these two buttons is hit, I would like each knob on the panel to do a GET and have its value updated. So I want to send the GET seqeunce for each knob and set the knob accordingly.

Is this possible?

Comments

We're assuming simple bidirectionality: messages in and out should be the same. For your case, the ways to handle it are:
1) you could have a supercontrol that is the GET sysex, and could spin the set sysex
2) you could use a MIDI translator like  MidiBridge or MidiFlow

Thanks!

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Admin, This wouldn’t work if you need to set individual controls. The best would be to set up something on the template level that would say:  Get message header for template. If this is set on control level then when preset is called (Up/Down) a control that has option "GET value” set would REQUEST via Sysex it’s own value. We have to remember that MDP shouldn’t be ONE-way communication solution. The reason to use MDP in the first place is to send commands to a device that does not provide the interface or has quirky interface (as stated in MDP functional description) so WHY limit the MDP to ONE-WAY communication limiting the retrieval functionality? It is soo IMPERATIVE to also GET a state of a control from a device so we know how all these parameters are set. What do you think ? One of the reason why I still use the silly isotonik Novation Circuit editor to get a STATE of a preset.

Of course this was a problem when I worked with hardware MIDI Controllers, it would be too tedious to get the state from a machine. But now MDP is an IPAD app we have a lot more power a lot more options why not take it to the next level ?

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Thanks for jumping in bladuck. I agree... I ended up punting on the project after a lot of work getting the write functionality up because the querying capability of MDP even after the new update which I was anxiously awaiting was insufficient. The supercontroller setup is just too kludgy and the data query for this device is too deep to just use it as is. I did get program up and down working but the panels I had developed had a bunch of other controls like gains, tempos, etc.

I have had some additional success with Lemur which is deeper in query capability but it still feels like putting a square peg in a round hole, still. I'd honestly love a tool that had this type of capability implemented up front to the point where I could focus on building the interface but not do tons of low level coding.. As you note, it seems like most of the tablet based MIDI tools think of MIDI as a write-only interface to gear but it is and always has been two way.

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Thanks guys, loving the conversation here and learning about what your needs are. Please note that SOME of this conversation is going on here: http://mididesigner.com/qa/5098/patch-dump-sysex-parse-into-knobs-etc  

At the same time, what I'm mostly focused on is whether there's an easy way to get you guys what you need. "Getting State from a Device" is such a vast and amorphous problem, given that every single MIDI manufacturer does their own thing. But anyway... for this particular question, @fraggen, what do you need? One additional message per control that's its query message, and another message that it responds to that is NOT the message it send out?

Thanks!