9

Nonassignable and 14-Bit Controller Information
Controllers 0 and 32 are reserved for Bank Select messages, controller 1 is used as
modulation source in the router, controllers 33 to 63 work as LSB for controllers 1 to 31,
controllers 64 to 69 are reserved for pedal messages, controllers 120 to 127 are reserved
for channel mode messages.
In the MIDI specification, all controllers from 0 to 31 are known as Most Significant Byte
(MSB) controller definitions. Each of these controllers (0 to 31) also contains a Least
Significant Byte (LSB) controller definition (32 to 63). Use of this secondary LSB controller
in conjunction with the MSB controller allows for a resolution of 14 bits instead of 7 bits.
The ES2 recognizes these control change messages—the breath or expression controllers,
for example.
To explain:
• 14-bit controllers are pairs of normal Control Change (CC) messages, where the number
of the second CC message (the LSB) is 32 higher than the first CC message (the MSB).
Examples of valid 14-bit pairs are: CC1/33, CC7/39, and CC10/42.
• 14-bit controllers have a resolution of 16,384 steps, allowing very precise control of
plug-in parameters. The first CC message of a 14-bit pair (the MSB) has a coarse
resolution of 128 steps. Each of these steps can be divided into a further 128 substeps
using the second CC message (the LSB). This results in 128 x 128 = 16,384 steps.
• You don’t need to create new, or special, data types to use 14-bit controllers. The
finer resolution is achieved by complementing the assigned CC message (the MSB)
with its LSB. The CC message assigned in the ES2 can always be used alone if your
MIDI controller isn’t capable of sending 14-bit messages, thus limiting the resolution
to 7-bit = 128 steps.
The 14-bit capability is the reason why CC numbers 33–63 can’t be assigned in the
Ctrl A–F menus. Using these (LSB) CC numbers would result in changing 1/128th of the
parameter range—or put another way, 128 continuous steps out of 16,384.
ES2 Tutorial: Creating Sounds
This tutorial will guide you—from scratch—through the creation of commonly used
sounds. The “Using Templates” tutorial will also guide you through the sound creation
process, but it starts you off with a number of templates. See ES2 Tutorial: Using Templates
to Create Sounds.
To see the settings for these tutorials in the ES2 window, open the Settings menu and
choose Tutorial Settings.
111Chapter 5 ES2