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Fender® G-DEC™ MIDI Operations Fender’s Guitar Digital Entertainment Center (G-DEC) can communicate with computers or other G-DECs via a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) connection. This document contains “how to” information for the following topics: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
PC and MAC SECTION 1 – PLAY MIDI FILES The G-DEC is the world’s first guitar amplifier that contains a MIDI synthesizer. The G-DEC synthesizer is a fully functional General MIDI (GM) wave table synthesizer and is capable of synthesizing many instruments. The G-DEC has MIDI music files built into its memory. These files are sent to the internal synthesizer when you select the front panel START/STOP button.
OUT connectors and one or two joystick connectors. Depending on the breakout cable you may also need a MIDI cable to go between the breakout cable and the G-DEC. Figure 2 soundcard MIDI/joystick breakout cable 2. USB Some newer PCs or laptops will not have the soundcard joystick connector. For these computers you can buy a USB–to-MIDI converter. An example of a USB-to-MIDI converter is the M-AUDIO Uno (see Figure 3). Figure 3 M-Audio Uno. USB to MIDI converter 3.
MAC How do I connect my computer? The most common method for getting MIDI output from a Macintosh is through a MIDI USB interface device such as the M-Audio 1x1 Uno (see Figure 1). Figure 1 M-Audio Uno. USB to MIDI converter Some PCI sound cards may also have MIDI capability for higher-end Macs but USB is by far the most common method of transferring MIDI data to and from the Mac. So, the first step is to install any drivers that may have come with your USB to MIDI converter device.
PC OK, I am connected, how do I send MIDI music from my computer to the G-DEC? A computer typically lets you direct a MIDI file to several different places. By default, most computers send MIDI data to the computer soundcard. If you were to “play” a MIDI file right now, you probably would hear audio coming from your computer speakers. We will need to re-direct the MIDI data to the GDEC.
Figure 5 USB to MIDI adapter selected as connection to G-DEC Figure 4 and 5 are probably the most confusing part of getting Windows to send your MIDI file to the GDEC. Some of the device names are not obvious if you are new to computers or MIDI devices. Again, other computer operating systems may have different ways to set the MIDI data output. Next you will need a MID file to send to the G-DEC. Where do I find MIDI files? Do an Internet search for “MIDI files.
MAC OK, I am connected, how do I send MIDI music from my Macintosh to the GDEC? First, we will need some software to play MIDI files. For demonstration purposes only, we will use the Demo version of Metro 6.2.5 SE available for download at http://www.sagantech.biz/products.htm or at the Apple website http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/metrose.html. After downloading the application, find and double click the Metro SE Demo icon.
Figure 2: MIDI Setup in Metro SE Demo application. Figure 3: Setting up for the Uno 1x1 in MIDI Setup.
Figure 4: Turning off Automatic MIDI Thru. Figure 5: Importing a MIDI file.
Figure 6: Tracks of an imported MIDI file.
PC SECTION 2 – SAVE YOUR CUSTOM PRESETS. With the G-DEC you can save up to 50 custom amp setups in the user memory area. This area contains the presets that begin with ‘U’. For instance U00 “ Rockin G DEC” can be changed and renamed to anything you like and saved in the G-DEC on-board memory. If you would like to back your presets up, or post them on the Internet to share with friends, you can use the MIDI interface to transfer this data from the GDEC to your PC.
Figure 6 Sysex / Configure window, change the circled settings Changing the delay number from the default of 60ms to 180ms helps the PC meter out the MIDI data at a slow enough pace to not overwhelm the small buffers inside the PC. Checking the “Save Dump directly to a file” box causes MIDI-OX to automatically ask for a filename. The above settings have worked well on test PCs, although your PC may be different.
Figure 7 Initial MIDI OX device window Figure 8 MIDI OX device window after devices have been selected Transferring a single preset from the G-DEC to the PC 1. In the “Sysex View and Scratchpad” window (third icon in the toolbar) go to the “Sysex/Receive manual dump” menu. You will be prompted for a filename for your preset. Enter the name and press SAVE. A window will appear indicating that MIDI-OX is waiting for a dump. 2.
Figure 9 Dump a single preset to the PC Congratulations, you have now saved a preset to the PC. Saving all presets at once Now would be a good time to preserve all of your presets. The above procedure also can be used to save all of the G-DEC user presets. The only difference is you must use the DUMP ALL G-DEC function rather than the DUMP PRST function. Try it. The Sysex Receive window should indicate a much larger dump has occurred. See Figure 10. In this example 2463 byes were received.
Figure 10 DUMP ALL example, note the bytes received
MAC Saving Your Custom Presets to the Macintosh So you’ve created some great tones with your G-DEC, saved them to your own presets, and you want to back them up or maybe share them with a friend. Well, to do this, we will dump a preset to the Macintosh from the G-DEC and all of the preset parameters will be stored in a SysEx file. SysEx stands for System Exclusive and is another file format used with the MIDI protocol that is device specific. A G-DEC SysEx file will only work with another G-DEC.
Figure 8: SysEx Librarian waiting for SysEx messages from an external device. Figure 9: SysEx Librarian waiting for SysEx messages from an external device. After clicking “Done” on the message window, a new file called “Untitled” will appear in the main application window showing Fender as the manufacturer containing 3 messages and 62 bytes as shown in figure 10. If you would like to rename the file, click on the “Show File” button in the lower right corner of the main application window.
Figure 10: SysEx Librarian showing the dumped preset. Figure 11: SysEx Librarian showing the renamed preset SysEx file.
PC SECTION 3 – SENDING PRESETS FROM A PC TO THE G-DEC Sending a preset from the PC to the G-DEC. Please be sure that you backup all of your presets before you try the next two steps. Transferring a preset from the PC to the G-DEC is very simple. In the MIDI-OX “Sysex view and scratchpad “ window, select “File / Send Sysex File.” You will be prompted for the name of a preset file. Choose a file with a single preset in it. This would be a function created by the DUMP PRST function.
MAC SECTION 3 - SENDING PRESETS FROM A PC TO THE G-DEC Loading A Custom Preset into the G-DEC So, now we need to learn how to load a preset into the G-DEC. Let’s say you received a custom preset in a SysEx file from a friend. For demonstration, we will just load the file we just created in the dump back into the G-DEC. First, make sure the file you want to send is highlighted as shown in figure 11.
SECTION 4 – UPGRADING G-DEC SOFTWARE From time to time Fender may release newer versions of G-DEC software. These upgrades will be transferred from your PC or MAC to the G-DEC. Exact procedures for these upgrades may vary and exact instructions will be included with the upgrades when they appear. In general the process will be very similar to the process used for preset downloads, except that it will use the G-DEC AMP UPDATE function.
52 6F 63 6B 69 6E 20 03 47 20 44 45 43 1C 71 30 7F 2A 1C 0C – – – - Preset Name ASCII Character (R) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character (o) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character (c) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character (k) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character (i) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character (n) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character ( ) using MSB 0 Packed most significant bits for subsequent 7 bytes (000 0011) Preset Name ASCII Character (G) using MSB 0 Preset Name ASCII Character
The checksum value is calculated with the following data: 08 21 41 02 00 00 00 00 52 6F 63 6B 69 6E 20 03 47 20 44 45 43 1C 71 30 7F 2A 1C 0C 01 72 30 00 78 02 05 3B 31 55 2B 60 7C 35 6E 64 00 00 F7 – End of System Exclusive Message End of preset section System Exclusive End of File Message F0 – Start of System Exclusive Message 08 – Fender ID 21 – Device ID (Omni) 41 – G-DEC ID 02 – Function ID (One Preset Message) 7B – End of System Exclusive File Byte F7 – End of System Exclusive Message AmpTypes: 0 - TW
0 - NONE 1 - FULL BODY 2 - FULL STACK 3 - RAZORS EDGE 4 - BRIGHT LITE 5 - BASS BOOST 6 - NU METAL 7 - SUPER BRITE 8 - ACOUSTIC MIDI Patterns: 0 - 1 DROP 1 - 16 HATS 2 - 32 HATS 3 - 4 BEAT 4 - 5 ON 4 5 - 50 SHUF 6 - 80 FUNK 7 - 80S HOP 8 - AERWALK 9 - BALLAD 10 - BEASTLY 11 - BOSSA 12 - CHICAGO 13 - CLAVE 14 - CLASSIC 15 - COUNTRY 16 - DBLKICK 17 - DBLSHUF 18 - DISCO 19 - DR HOP 20 - DRIVE 21 - EURO 22 - FEVER 23 - FIESTA 24 - FUNK 25 - FEELIN 26 - GRIND 27 - GRUNGE 28 - HALVES 29 - HARDROC 30 - HAZE 31 - H
69 - WALTZ 70 - WESTERN FX1 (Modulation/Dly/Stompbox): 0 - NONE 1 - MONO DELAY 2 - TAPE DELAY 3 - STEREO TAPE 4 - DUCKING DLY 5 - REVERSE DLY 6 - AUTOPAN DLY 7 - SINE CHORUS 8 - TRI CHORUS 9 - SINE FLANGE 10 - TRI FLANGE 11 - PHASER 12 - TREMOLO 13 - RINGMOD DLY 14 - PITCH SHIFT 15 - TOUCH WAH 16 - FIXED WAH 17 - VIBRATONE 18 - AUTOSWELL 19 - ALIENATOR 20 - RESOLVER 21 - FUZZ 22 - OVERDRIVE 23 - TWAH FUZZ 24 - FUZZ DELAY 25 - OVRDRV DLY 26 - CHORUS DLY 27 - FLANGE DLY 28 - PHASER DLY 29 - ALIEN DELAY FX2
