Novation A Station - Help me out of the foothills of understanding please? #265

thechildofroth · 2023-09-18T17:37:02Z

thechildofroth
Sep 18, 2023

I'd like to have a go at modifying the UltraNova adaptation to work with the A-Station but I'm having some really basic issues getting back in to understanding Sysex (before I even get to the Python stuff!)

I've got the synth manual and it's got a good breakdown of the MIDI spec: https://fael-downloads-prod.focusrite.com/customer/prod/downloads/A-Station%20User%20Guide%20-%20EN.pdf

But I can't get the synth to 'announce' itself (even outside of KnobKraft), if I manually instigate a dump from the synth front panel I can see the data arriving in KnobKraft, but I can't see anything happening when I send it anything (the midi light on the synth doesn't flash and I can't trigger it to respond with anything).

This includes when I send what I think is the dump request string from within MidiOx too: F0 00 20 29 01 40 7f 40 00 Vv Vi 00 00 F7h

So it may be that there's some more fundamental trouble shooting to be done first and any assistance I can get with this would be gratefully received! (and I will respond, unlike my A Station!)

christofmuc · 2023-09-18T21:13:14Z

christofmuc
Sep 18, 2023
Maintainer

Hm, let me see. The docs look good, they seem to be thorough, Sometimes synths need special setup/functions setup before they will respond to sysex queries. The one thing that I spot in the docs is that there is a memory protect switch.

But are you sure the synth does receive MIDI from the computer? Can you send note on/note off signals with MIDI Ox to make sure the connection in that direction is correct?

That being sorted out, your request looks good, I would assume sending

f0 00 20 29 01 40 7f 40 00 00 00 00 00 f7

should lead to a reply (same as yours without the VV Vi)

Sometimes the docs are incorrect. What do the message look like from the synth initiatiated dump? You could choose to use that sysex channel instead of the 7f.

1 reply

christofmuc Sep 18, 2023
Maintainer

oh and you could also send it back one of the received messages, it should end up in the edit buffer i.e. switch the sound. So you could confirm that sending something does actually make a change in the synth

thechildofroth · 2023-09-19T14:51:33Z

thechildofroth
Sep 19, 2023
Author

Thanks for this, really helpful!

For some reason I still can't get MidiOX to act as expected but I've managed to get a response via KK!

18:31:22.037: Out M8U XL 2 Sysex [f0 00 20 29 01 40 7f 40 00 00 00 00 00 f7]

18:31:22.088: In M8U XL 2 Sysex [f0 00 20 29 01 40 7f 00 00 11 02 00 00 30 2c 00 00 40 2e 15 40 40 42 40 40 4e 56 40 40 40 42 40 40 40 2f 40 40 47 42 3f 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 49 40 40 00 00 00 00 7f 00 00 37 29 7f 56 40 40 40 45 55 40 40 40 00 40 00 00 3c 40 00 54 7f 57 6b 2a 00 6e 7d 00 41 00 00 29 00 00 03 00 0f 40 40 40 38 03 40 00 00 00 00 00 71 74 1e 00 00 00 40 64 00 40 3e 00 40 7f 00 24 40 28 7b 40 10 00 4a 53 40 40 14 00 00 0d 00 00 00 49 00 55 f7]

18:31:22.088: Out M8U XL 2 Sysex [f0 00 20 29 01 40 7f 00 00 11 02 00 00 30 2c 00 00 40 2e 15 40 40 42 40 40 4e 56 40 40 40 42 40 40 40 2f 40 40 47 42 3f 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 49 40 40 00 00 00 00 7f 00 00 37 29 7f 56 40 40 40 45 55 40 40 40 00 40 00 00 3c 40 00 54 7f 57 6b 2a 00 6e 7d 00 41 00 00 29 00 00 03 00 0f 40 40 40 38 03 40 00 00 00 00 00 71 74 1e 00 00 00 40 64 00 40 3e 00 40 7f 00 24 40 28 7b 40 10 00 4a 53 40 40 14 00 00 0d 00 00 00 49 00 55 f7]
00 f7]

It's still not saying 'ooh I recognise a synth, but this now becomes a programming challenge for me (rather than just a basic 'oh fiddle, what have I forgotten to plug in' type challenge!)

I'm going to work my way down the rest of the script now and see what I can do - still, any pointers or advice gratefully received

0 replies

thechildofroth · 2023-09-19T15:34:56Z

thechildofroth
Sep 19, 2023
Author

Solid step of progress, the first (real) hurdle is cleared!

16:33:20: info Found Novation AStaton on channel 1 replying on device M8U XL 2 when sending to M8U XL 2 on channel 1

Now to work out how to instigate a full dump and poplulate patches in KK

This is the .py at the moment:

import hashlib
from typing import List

import testing

NAME_OFFSET = 15
NAME_LEN = 16
NAME_SPECIALCHARSET = ' !"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[]^_`{|}'


def setupHelp():
    return '''\
Make sure the synth is not in protected mode (Global -> Protect -> Off).
'''


def wrapSysex(data):
    return [0xf0,  # Sysex message
            0x00, 0x20, 0x29, 0x01, # Novation
            #0x40,  # Product type?
            0x40,  # Device Type (1 = Synth)?
            0x7f   # ?
            ] + data + [0xf7]  # EOX


def name():
    return 'Novation AStaton'


def isDefaultName(patchName):
    return patchName == 'Init Patch'


def createDeviceDetectMessage(channel):
    return wrapSysex([0x40, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00])


def deviceDetectWaitMilliseconds():
    return 200


def generalMessageDelay():
    return 100


def needsChannelSpecificDetection():
    return False


def channelIfValidDeviceResponse(message):
    if (len(message) > 8
            and message[0] == 0xf0  # Sysex
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x01  # Message Type ?
            and message[5] == 0x40  # Device Type
            and message[6] == 0x7f  # Channel
            and message[7] == 0x00):
        # TODO: message[11] is protection status
        # Extract midi channel from message
        return message[13] & 0xf
    return -1


def createEditBufferRequest(channel):
    return wrapSysex([0x40, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00])


def isEditBufferDump(message):
    return (len(message) > 13
            and message[0] == 0xf0  # Sysex
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x03
            and message[5] == 0x01
            and message[6] == 0x7f
            and message[7] == 0x00  # ?
            and message[8] == 0x00  # ?
            and message[9] == 0x10  # ?
            and message[10] == 0x00  # ?
            and message[11] == 0x00  # Bank number
            and message[12] == 0x00  # Slot number
            )


def numberOfBanks():
    return 4


def numberOfPatchesPerBank():
    return 100


def createProgramDumpRequest(channel, patchNo):
    bank = patchNo // numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    program = patchNo % numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    return wrapSysex([0x41, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, bank+1, program])


def isSingleProgramDump(message):
    return (len(message) > 13
            and message[0] == 0xf0
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x01
            and message[5] == 0x40
            and message[6] == 0x7f
            and message[7] in [0x00, 0x01]
            and message[8] == 0x00  # ?
            and message[9] == 0x10  # ?
            and message[10] == 0x00  # ?
            and 0x00 <= message[11] <= numberOfBanks()  # Bank number [1-4] (can be 0 for an unknown reason...)
            and 0x00 <= message[12] < numberOfPatchesPerBank()  # Slot number [0-127]
            and not message[7] == message[11] == 0  # make sure this is NOT an edit buffer
            )


def numberFromDump(message):
    if not isSingleProgramDump(message):
        return 0
    bank = message[11]
    bank = bank - 1 if bank > 0 else 0  # some program patch have bank == 0
    program = message[12]
    return bank * numberOfPatchesPerBank() + program


def nameFromDump(message):
    if isSingleProgramDump(message) or isEditBufferDump(message):
        name = ''.join([chr(x) for x in message[NAME_OFFSET:NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN]])
        return name.strip()
    return 'Invalid'


def convertToEditBuffer(channel, message):
    if isEditBufferDump(message):
        return message[:8] + [0] + message[9:]
    elif isSingleProgramDump(message):
        # Clear Bank / Slot from message
        return message[:7] + [0, 0] + message[9:11] + [0, 0] + message[13:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump - can't be converted")


def convertToProgramDump(channel, message, program_number):
    bank = program_number // numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    program = program_number % numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    if isEditBufferDump(message) or isSingleProgramDump(message):
        return message[:7] + [1, 0] + message[9:11] + [bank+1, program] + message[13:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump - can't be converted")


def renamePatch(message, new_name):
    if isSingleProgramDump(message) or isEditBufferDump(message):
        # name is alpha-num + special chars (replace everything else by '_' and pad with spaces)
        clean_name = new_name.strip()[:NAME_LEN].ljust(NAME_LEN, ' ')
        valid_name = [ord(x) if x.isalnum() or x in NAME_SPECIALCHARSET else ord('_') for x in clean_name]
        return message[:NAME_OFFSET] + valid_name + message[NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump can't be converted")


def friendlyBankName(bank_number):
    bank = bank_number + 1
    return {1: 'A', 2: 'B', 3: 'C', 4: 'D'}.get(bank, '')


# TODO: current implementation is broken as 'program' is never above 128...
#def friendlyProgramName(program):
#    return "%s%d" % (friendlyBankName(program // numberOfPatchesPerBank()), program % numberOfPatchesPerBank())


def calculateFingerprint(message):
    # Skip sysex, some header bytes and patch name
    data = message[1:7] + message[NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN:-1]
    return hashlib.md5(bytearray(data)).hexdigest()


def make_test_data():

    def make_patches(test_data: testing.TestData) -> List[testing.ProgramTestData]:
        # Additional test for rename
        patch = test_data.all_messages[0]
        same = renamePatch(patch, "Cr4zy Name°$    overflow")
        assert nameFromDump(same) == "Cr4zy Name_$"

        yield testing.ProgramTestData(message=test_data.all_messages[0], name="Poppy", rename_name="Paraver", number=35)

    return testing.TestData(sysex=R"testData/Novation_Ultranova_poppy.syx", program_generator=make_patches, friendly_bank_name=(2, 'C'))```

0 replies

thechildofroth · 2023-09-19T19:46:16Z

thechildofroth
Sep 19, 2023
Author

Now seems to be working, I'm super excited, this is great software!

#   Copyright (c) 2021 Christof Ruch. All rights reserved.
#   Novation Mini/Ultranova Adaptation version 0.6 by Cedric Tessier, 2022.
#   Dual licensed: Distributed under Affero GPL license by default, an MIT license is available for purchase
#
# based on my own (partial) reverse engineering of Novation UltraNova librarian.
#
# Attempt to refactor for A Station by Rothchild 17-09-23
#
import hashlib
from typing import List

import testing

NAME_OFFSET = 15
NAME_LEN = 16
NAME_SPECIALCHARSET = ' !"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[]^_`{|}'


def setupHelp():
    return '''\
Make sure the synth is not in protected mode (Global -> Protect -> Off).
'''


def wrapSysex(data):
    return [0xf0,  # Sysex message
            0x00, 0x20, 0x29, 0x01, # Novation
            #0x40,  # Product type?
            0x40,  # Device Type (1 = Synth)?
            0x7f   # ?
            ] + data + [0xf7]  # EOX


def name():
    return 'Novation AStaton'


def isDefaultName(patchName):
    return patchName == 'Init Patch'


def createDeviceDetectMessage(channel):
    return wrapSysex([0x40, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00])


def deviceDetectWaitMilliseconds():
    return 200


def generalMessageDelay():
    return 100


def needsChannelSpecificDetection():
    return False


def channelIfValidDeviceResponse(message):
    if (len(message) > 8
            and message[0] == 0xf0  # Sysex
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x01  # Message Type ?
            and message[5] == 0x40  # Device Type
            and message[6] == 0x7f  # Channel
            and message[7] == 0x00):
        # TODO: message[11] is protection status
        # Extract midi channel from message
        return message[13] & 0xf
    return -1


def createEditBufferRequest(channel):
    return wrapSysex([0x40, 0x21, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00])


def isEditBufferDump(message):
    return (len(message) > 13
            and message[0] == 0xf0  # Sysex
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x01
            and message[5] == 0x40
            and message[6] == 0x7f
            and message[7] == 0x00  # ?
            #and message[8] == 0x00  # ?
            #and message[9] == 0x10  # ?
            #and message[10] == 0x00  # ?
            and message[11] == 0x00  # Bank number
            and message[12] == 0x00  # Slot number
            )


def numberOfBanks():
    return 4


def numberOfPatchesPerBank():
    return 100


def createProgramDumpRequest(channel, patchNo):
    bank = patchNo // numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    program = patchNo % numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    return wrapSysex([0x41, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, bank+1, program])


def isSingleProgramDump(message):
    return (len(message) > 13
            and message[0] == 0xf0
            and message[1] == 0x00  # Novation
            and message[2] == 0x20  # Novation ID1
            and message[3] == 0x29  # Novation ID2
            and message[4] == 0x01
            and message[5] == 0x40
            and message[6] == 0x7f
            and message[7] in [0x00, 0x01]
            #and message[8] == 0x00  # ?
            #and message[9] == 0x10  # ?
            #and message[10] == 0x00  # ?
            and 0x00 <= message[11] <= numberOfBanks()  # Bank number [1-4] (can be 0 for an unknown reason...)
            and 0x00 <= message[12] < numberOfPatchesPerBank()  # Slot number [0-127]
            and not message[7] == message[11] == 0  # make sure this is NOT an edit buffer
            )


def numberFromDump(message):
    if not isSingleProgramDump(message):
        return 0
    bank = message[11]
    bank = bank - 1 if bank > 0 else 0  # some program patch have bank == 0
    program = message[12]
    return bank * numberOfPatchesPerBank() + program


def nameFromDump(message):
    if isSingleProgramDump(message) or isEditBufferDump(message):
        name = ''.join([chr(x) for x in message[NAME_OFFSET:NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN]])
        return name.strip()
    return 'Invalid'


def convertToEditBuffer(channel, message):
    if isEditBufferDump(message):
        return message[:8] + [0] + message[9:]
    elif isSingleProgramDump(message):
        # Clear Bank / Slot from message
        return message[:7] + [0, 0] + message[9:11] + [0, 0] + message[13:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump - can't be converted")


def convertToProgramDump(channel, message, program_number):
    bank = program_number // numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    program = program_number % numberOfPatchesPerBank()
    if isEditBufferDump(message) or isSingleProgramDump(message):
        return message[:7] + [1, 0] + message[9:11] + [bank+1, program] + message[13:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump - can't be converted")


def renamePatch(message, new_name):
    if isSingleProgramDump(message) or isEditBufferDump(message):
        # name is alpha-num + special chars (replace everything else by '_' and pad with spaces)
        clean_name = new_name.strip()[:NAME_LEN].ljust(NAME_LEN, ' ')
        valid_name = [ord(x) if x.isalnum() or x in NAME_SPECIALCHARSET else ord('_') for x in clean_name]
        return message[:NAME_OFFSET] + valid_name + message[NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN:]
    raise Exception("Neither edit buffer nor program dump can't be converted")


def friendlyBankName(bank_number):
    bank = bank_number + 1
    return {1: 'A', 2: 'B', 3: 'C', 4: 'D'}.get(bank, '')


# TODO: current implementation is broken as 'program' is never above 128...
#def friendlyProgramName(program):
#    return "%s%d" % (friendlyBankName(program // numberOfPatchesPerBank()), program % numberOfPatchesPerBank())


def calculateFingerprint(message):
    # Skip sysex, some header bytes and patch name
    data = message[1:7] + message[NAME_OFFSET+NAME_LEN:-1]
    return hashlib.md5(bytearray(data)).hexdigest()


def make_test_data():

    def make_patches(test_data: testing.TestData) -> List[testing.ProgramTestData]:
        # Additional test for rename
        patch = test_data.all_messages[0]
        same = renamePatch(patch, "Cr4zy Name°$    overflow")
        assert nameFromDump(same) == "Cr4zy Name_$"

        yield testing.ProgramTestData(message=test_data.all_messages[0], name="Poppy", rename_name="Paraver", number=35)

    return testing.TestData(sysex=R"testData/Novation_Ultranova_poppy.syx", program_generator=make_patches, friendly_bank_name=(2, 'C'))

0 replies

christofmuc · 2023-09-20T07:21:11Z

christofmuc
Sep 20, 2023
Maintainer

Awesome progress! Great to hear it works - if you're ok with it, I'll add the adaptation to the next regular Orm release? I will also have a look at the code and check. Do you have a syx file that we can include as test data, to make sure I don't accidentally break the adaptation in the future when changes to the Orm happen?

0 replies

thechildofroth · 2023-09-20T15:36:12Z

thechildofroth
Sep 20, 2023
Author

I'd be delighted to see it included in the main release (after you've had a good check and ensured I've not actually broken anything!

I understand the K Station is functionally identical to the A Station so it should work for both of them.

What do I need to do to generate the syx file (or what do you need in it)? More than happy to provide what ever is needed (as i'll be fishing for help with the bigger project of making it work with my SY85 next ;-))

0 replies

thechildofroth · 2023-09-22T19:30:03Z

thechildofroth
Sep 22, 2023
Author

Re testing, I think I'm in the wrong folder?

I get to this bit

pip` install -r `.\adaptations\requirements.txt

and it says it can't find the relevant folder - what am I missing?

0 replies

christofmuc · 2023-10-08T18:27:24Z

christofmuc
Oct 8, 2023
Maintainer

I went through the code, and generally it looked good. Did a few tweaks and hope it still works with the real device. I'll release it together with the 2.0.8 finished hopefully today!

0 replies

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Novation A Station - Help me out of the foothills of understanding please? #265

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