I now feel as if I've gone through midi programming bootcamp. And it was hell. You finally can climb the hill, if a bit out of breath, you get there and then this last bit before the summit appears. Thought you were at the summit, but there's this actual summit, through the clouds. A last negotiation: programming a tap tempo footpedal to control the J-station tap tempo function. There are no instructions. The full, complete and entire list of midi control numbers for the unit has no mention of a tap tempo. Suddenly, unbidden, in a strange exhalative murmur from the chest, an upwelling of falling tears. A sigh. It is not to be. Again, yet again, various control commands are tried. It is not to be. Possibly, somewhere out there, a message? Search the net: "tap tempo midi j-station" keywords, a forum hit. Nothing, then a post. Bad English from a German, nickname, Spacko66. Some footpedal numbers are wrong, but you're no neophyte, you recognize the mistakes; paydirt perhaps. Program in the controller numbers and values into a preset on a fresh bank, and there it is. The last effort. Send off an email to the one other guy posting your own woes. How did Spacko know that the midi note value should be 120? What's the point of 120, out of a range of 1-127? Did he find his solution on the 120th try? Is that the kind of guy he is? Perhaps he's the programmer, the original programmer, one of a team. But he's already moved on, gone analog he writes, gone tube, posting only a complete sysex file as a Christmas present, December 25, 2002. I wish Spacko well, on his further sonic journey. Released from amp modeling altogether, he's all voltage now.
Richard Gilbert
© 2003
|