To dump drum machine Alesis SR18 memory to SendSX1.40,help!

Hello,

I'm having a problem with dumping my drum machine Alesis SR18 memory to Bome SendSX1.40.
I correctly set "Opened MIDI IN" to my interface (TC Electronic Impact Twin) and it sees it.
I correctly do the simple procedure in the drum machine (SEND MIDI OUT in the System Setup, Page 17, Rec/Enter).
The drum machine sends it for a given time and after finishing, nothing happens in Bome SendSX1.40.
Nothing saved.

Why should a simple process such as saving my work be so complicated?
Do I need to become a molecular physician to be able to just save my music work in my PC?

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

BD

Hi,

I wish it wasn't complicated... and once it works, it probably won't seem complicated anymore!

Anyway, it's hard to guess what's going wrong, but in general, this is the approach:

- connect a cable from the SR18 MIDI OUT to the TC Electronic MIDI IN.
- in SendSX, select TC Electronic as MIDI IN
- start dumping on the SR18

Thanks,
Florian

PS: I moved this discussion to the SendSX forum

Thanks for your suggestion,
but it's exactly what I do letter by letter and... nothing happens in the Bome SendSX !
In fact, Alesis SR18 says it cooperates only with SysEx (soft/hardware or sequencer).
Is it the case with Bome SendSX? (SX = SysEX ?)
Or, should I set somewhere some MIDI channels to correspond?
Or, isn't it just because Bome is a "Send"-er and not a receiver?
Cause, what does "SendSX" stand for?
But then what does "MIDI IN" stand for inside it?
It's a total puzzle that makes no sense to me for the moment.
But I need a solution!

Hi,
SendSX is a SENDER and RECEIVER (despite it's name). It's relatively unlikely that SendSX does not work, it's in use by thousands of users who do it exactly the way you do it.

My next guess is that some hardware is faulty. Try with a different MIDI cable (you won't believe how many of my MIDI cables didn't work after a while!), and maybe even with a standalone USB MIDI interface, if possible -- Roland/Edirol or Yamaha interfaces have proven to be reliable. And double check that you connected Alesis MIDI OUT to TC MIDI IN. It's so easy to mess that up!

Regards,
Florian

Hi back and thanks again for your feedback.
Finally... there must be something extraterrestrial in my problem... read here please:
I borrowed a friend's Alesis SR18 drum machine (same as mine, we bought them together in the past).
I tried to dump mine to his and... 1000 thunders... it DOESN'T work!!
I use MIDI cables that work with my keyboard for inputting and playing notes in my computer software through my TC Electronic interface... so, how could they not work with the drum machines??
Is it possible that the drum machines need a different MIDI cable connections? That would be unacceptable by the common logic!
I start asking myself didn't I unconsciously pass in another dimension of the Universe...

ah, good info! when you connect your keyboard to the TC interface, then open that MIDI IN port in SendSX and play on the keyboard... can you see data coming in in SendSX?

I'll check that tomorrow, cause now my head is banging... The fact that it doesn't work between the two drum machines (exactly identical models) should mean that there must be a problem with the cables (I tried them both)... Let me see tomorrow and I'll come back.

Ok, I couldn't go to sleep before checking. So, NO nothing shows in Bome SendSX when I play my keyboard! Well, then, does that mean that the MIDI cables can have different connections??? Cause now it's clear they don't work with TC Electronic, but neither they work between the two drum machines.

Ok, finally here is the result - weird in another way.
My MIDI cables are in perfect condition, checked them with my keyboard, Bome, and even with a volt-meter.
Both MIDI cables work fine. (Yesterday night I was tired and p**sed off, so something went wrong.)
I wired both the two MIDI cables IN-OUT and OUT-IN between my Alesis SR18 drum machine
and my computer through my TC Electronic interface.
I selected TC Electronic in the MIDI IN of Bome SendSX.
That WORKED ! So it appeared recorded in Bome SendSX (with those hexadecimals)!
I saved that file.
Then I opened the saved file in the Bome MIDI Out window.
I re-wired both MIDI cables OUT-IN and IN-OUT from my PC (TC Electronic) to my friend's identical
Alesis SR18 drum machine (empty).
In Bome I selected correctly the MIDI OUT interface to be my TC Electronic.
I clicked "Send (F4)" of Bome and it sent it to my friend's drum machine.
But when finished... NOTHING comes in there !! The drum machine remains empty.
What in the world could go wrong this time??
Or would it be different if I wire ONE MIDI cable and not both cables OUT-IN and IN-OUT this time?

OK, one step at a time, it seems! glad you've found a way to get data INTO SendSX. Now for sending it back to the Alesis, you can use the same cabling.

Now for sending, some (especially older) devices cannot cope with fast sys ex dumps. Therefore, SendSX comes with the ability to throttle the rate. In the Settings, change the speed to something slower. Also you may (or may not) need to enable "split long messages". Some MIDI interfaces require it, some don't (and most work either way).

Hope that'll work, eventually!

Hail Florian, and first of all let me say, you obviously are a genius in your area and NOTHING has come to contest that so far! What I mean is that, I obviously have the ability to act like an idiot (or a genius too, for which I strongly doubt)! So, in the whole mess I simply have done mistakes one after the other due to my legendary distraction. So, in my previous tests I've obviously mis-wired the MIDI cables (with the only doubt that it might have been necessary to have plugged both cables IN-OUT and OUT-IN, so the two units "talk" to each other, maybe or maybe not?). Next, for sending back the dump out to the other drum machine, I just stupidly mistook one button! So, now it all worked exactly the way you have conceived it to work! So, you definitely deserve congratulations! And thank you for your good feedback!

I will only have one supplementary question.
Is there a way with your Bome software to "translate" the saved hexadecimal "hulabalula" into a humanly understandable form in order to divide it in different combinations or organization (e.g., take away some "songs" and keep them saved apart) and send back to my drum machine different combinations of "songs"?
Thanks again.
Bad Disciple

Hi Bad Disciple,

hahaha, thanks for taking it lightly! I'm just happy when people can get some use out of my software.

For interpreting the hulabalula, you'd probably need to talk to Alesis, or try to find out the scheme behind it. Probably someone has already decoded it and published it on the Internet?
...and keep the questions coming!

Florian

Yeah, thanks for all. I'll keep questions coming as that's the main tool for the humanity to get knowledge out of the whole mess that never stops... Cause, 2+2=4 ONLY arithmetically but not mathematically which would be 2+2+a+b+c+...=4+a+b+c+... where a,b,c,... are all possible numbers, sometimes including "0"!!

And I'll check on the Net about decoding hexadecimal hulabalula, as Alesis gives a poor-to-none info about it, together with even WRONG descriptions in their manual! But that's another negotiation for another desk.
Cool vibes, man!

Bad Disciple

I was playing with one of those drums machines some time ago, a friend lent it to me. I had not problems with it although I only used it for simple songs. It was not easy to introduce the songs and sometimes I had some missing beats. Since it is very old drum machine and it is not reported known bugs probably you are having the same problems I had.

Hello Phillipei and thanks for your feedback. Actually I didn't have a problem with the drum machine itself but with some mistaken manipulation from my side! Otherwise I never had any problem with the machine and I have introduced quite complex structures in it with time signature changes, tempo changes, drumsets, step recording etc. On the other hand, I don't see Alesis SR18 as really "old" (it came out 2008-9), so it's +/-6 years of age and is still well selling. It also depends on what one considers as value and if value is only given to "new" just because of being "new".
Best vibes.