I’m feeling a great sense of accomplishment today. Last night I sorted out an aspect of my MIDI/synth adventures that I’d been avoiding: sysex.
Sysex is short for “System Exclusive” and basically refers to the language spoken by a given synthesizer or other MIDI device. It allows communication with that device. In my case, I was trying to take some cool sounds created by other people on the web and import them into my machine–a Korg MS2000R–so I could play around with them.
With relatively little research, some menu diving, and some trial and error, I managed to get my PC talking to the Korg and got the sounds loaded up in about an hour. Not only that, but now I understand how to save sounds that I create on the Korg to an external file so I can hang on to them or share them with other people.
A small but important victory in my quest to master the machines.
I should mention a couple of helpful websites that made figuring this out a lot easier:
The Korg Forum (scroll down to find the MS2000)
This discussion thread on Gearslutz about the MS2000
This page full of apps designed specifically to support the MS2000
If you find this post because you’re searching for help with your Korg MS2000(R/B/etc.) those are good places to get started. Good luck.