MIDI Support

To use fc.factory MIDI Export support, your copy of fc.factory needs to be registered.

Configuring MIDI Support

To configure MIDI support, go to the MIDI Preferences tab in the Preferences Dialog, and set up the following:

If the Device Number on the FC300 is set to  ALL then it will accept data for any SYSEX Device.

You can check that these settings work by pressing the Test FC300 MIDI Settings button. When you press this button a test message is sent to the FC300 and if the test is successful, the following dialog is shown.

If the test was not successful then the following dialog is shown.

The above steps set up the basic communication mechanism for MIDI support, and you then can set up the remaining options according to your preferences:

The Transmit Buffer Size, Transmit Delay Between Buffers and Transmit Delay Between Objects values should not require adjustment. fc.factory sends data to the FC300 by dividing the data into packets the size of which are specified by the Transmit Buffer Size value.

When fc.factory sends a packet it waits for the time period specified by Transmit Delay Between Buffers before sending the next packet, and it waits for the time period specified by Transmit Delay Between Objects after the last packet is sent. The delay parameters are specified in milliseconds.

You may need to adjust these values (smaller buffers, longer delays) if communications is not reliable, and you may if you wish adjust these values (larger buffers, smaller delays) to maximise data transfer performance. If you adjust these values, please ensure that you test the transfer to ensure it is reliable, otherwise you may risk losing data.

Note: Some MIDI interfaces do not like large packet sizes.

Importing FC300 Data from FC300 Memory

Please note that there is no MIDI SYSYEX commands that allow Patches to be requested from the FC300. Therefore the fc.factory MIDI import function requires that you initiate a manual BULK DUMP from the FC300. The FC300 does not support the export of individual patches.

You can get all the FC300 Patches into any Child Window (including the FC300 Controller Window) by selecting the Import from MIDI option on the MIDI Menu, or the     button on the Tool Bar.

When you select this option, the following dialog is shown.

fc.factory is now waiting for you to initiate the BULK DUMP from the FC300. If required you can press the CANCEL button to cancel the dump.

to initiate the BULK DUMP, follow the instructions on Page 53/54 of the FC300 Manual.

As fc.factory currently only supports Patch Mode, select PATCH from the list of data items to send before pressing the FC300 WRITE button. This is not strictly necessary as fc.factory will ignore all the other data, but if the FC300 is sending all data then the transfer will take longer.

Once data is being transmitted by the FC300, fc.factory will show the progress in the dialog box as shown below. Whilst the FC300 will transmit all data until it is finished, if you wish you can cancel the download in fc.factory.

Once all data has been transmitted, press the OK button to import the data into the current file (or Controller window) or press the CANCEL button to cancel the import.

Note if you import MIDI data into a Child Window which is opened from a data file, then the FC300 Controller Window is also updated with the Data being imported.

Exporting FC300 Data to FC300 Memory

You can export all FC300 data using the Export MIDI option on the MIDI Menu, or the     button on the Tool Bar.

You can also export a single Patch or a selection of Patches to the FC300 by selecting the required Patches and selecting the export to FC300 Memory option from the Patch's Context Sensitive Menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts for doing this.

The patches are written to the corresponding FC300 memory locations.

Note if you export MIDI data to a Child Window which is opened from a data file, then the FC300 Controller Window is also updated with the Data being exported.

Importing/Exporting FC300 Data from/to the FC300 Edit Buffer

You can also import/export a Patch to/from the FC300 Edit Buffer (Temporary Area) by selecting a single Patch and selecting the import/export to/from FC300 Edit Buffer options from the Patch's Context Sensitive Menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts for doing this.

Copying/Moving Patches

And you can also move/copy Patches between the FC300 Controller Window and Child Windows using drag and drop.

Finally you can also perform all the operations on Patches in the FC300 Controller Window that you can upon Patches in a normal Child Window.

If you have the Automatically Update FC300 after Controller Window Edit option active, when you change data the FC300 Controller Window then the changes are automatically exported to the FC300.

So you may wish to turn the Automatically Update FC300 after Controller Window Edit option off during intensive editing sessions. Once you've made all your changes you then select the Export MIDI option on the MIDI Menu, or the     button on the Tool Bar Export option to manually export the changes.

If you quit fc.factory with changes still present in the FC300 Controller Window that have not been exported, then you will be asked if you wish to export the data or not.