From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Thu Feb 05 06:01:32 2004
Subject:Re: Mapping XB-2 drawbars to a Nord Electro

Hi,

>I am wondering if anyone has had any experience mapping the drawbars
>of a HS XB-2 to a Nord Electro. I think I need to use a MIDI mapper
>here, I know that the Electro's upper drawbars transmit on controller
>#s 16-24, but I don't know what controllers my XB-2's drawbars
>transmit on, does anyone have that info? Is MIDI Solution's Mapper a
>good choice to do this sort of thing? Thanks for the benefit of your
>experience.

I've got some bad news for you: For all practical purposes, it can't be done -- at least, not without a PC/Mac and some custom software in the middle. It's not a question of mapping one CC to another one; Hammond-Suzuki does things VERY differently. AFAIK, there's no commercial hardware-based product that addresses the necessary steps to morph one style to the other. That's the short explanation.

For those of you who like the long explanation: H-S uses a very strange method of mapping the drawbars into one single MIDI CC#. They noticed that the 0-127 data of a single CC# is more than needed for nine drawbars (81 values), so they multiplexed all of the values to one drawbar! The upper manual is CC80, the lower is CC81, and the pedal (XK-2 and later) is CC82.

Here's the way that you would send 88 8000 000 to an Electro. The actual CC#'s are different for a Korg or Voce product, but the method is the same:

CC16 = 127
CC17 = 127
CC18 = 127
CC19 = 0
CC20 = 0
CC21 = 0
CC22 = 0
CC23 = 0
CC24 = 0

On H-S products (XB-2, XM-1, XK-2), each drawbar's 0-8 settings are mapped to nine consecutive values. To send the same drawbar update, you send it like this.

CC80 = 8
CC80 = 17
CC80 = 26
CC80 = 27
CC80 = 36
CC80 = 45
CC80 = 54
CC80 = 63
CC80 = 72

To map Electro drawbars to Voce, for example, we just need a "decoder ring" that says CC#16 --> CC#12, etc. To map the Electro to the XB-2, however, we need to map ALL of the drawbars to CC80 (or CC81), but only over small, specific ranges.

I hope H-S abandons this silly method on the XK-3, but history says they won't.

Regards,

-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com