
== How to use Simple Sysexxer ==

Simple Sysexxer is a small tool that lets you exchange sysex data with your MIDI devices. The most important idea is to make backups of the memory of your devices. If you have spent nights over nights to get this killer sound out of your synth it will be lost as soon as its battery gets low. Furthermore it is common to share synth sounds and MIDI device settigns over the internet. You can use Simple Sysexxer to send sysex files found on the internet to your device. Please note: If the sounds are in MIDI or LIB format, Simple Sysexxer cannot handle them. Ask the author to provide his files in sysex format. If you got sysex in MIDI format, try using a sequencer like Rosegarden or MusE to send it to your device.

All this is not only valid for synthesizers but for guitar amp emulators, effects processors, MIDI controllers like faderboxes and footpedals as well.

Simple Sysexxer is ALSA only, there's no OSS support. So sorry if you are on a Debian stable server, but I guess it makes less sense to run Simple Sysexxer on such a machine ;-) .


== Basic usage ==

Receiving:

* Fire up Simple Sysexxer

* Use an external tool like aconnect on the command line or, if you prefer graphical tools, kaconnect, qjackctl or patchage to connect Simple Sysexxer to the desired MIDI port of your computer

* Start sending the desired data from the front panel of your device (see the manual)

* Sysexxer will record the data, and you can save it to disk in plain sysex format

Sending:

* Fire up Simple Sysexxer

* Use an external tool like aconnect on the command line or, if you prefer graphical tools, kaconnect, qjackctl or patchage to connect Simple Sysexxer to the desired MIDI port of your computer

* Load a file into Simple Sysexxer

* Send it to the device

Requesting:

Requesting is a convenience method for receiving data from your devices. You send a small command, and your device should answer by sending the requested packages.
Simple Sysexxer can send requests. In the source directory you will already find some request commands as plain sysex files. Place them somewhere on your hard drive and enter the path to the containing directory in the preferences.
Further requests can be found on www.sysexdb.com or created using a hex editor. Usually the documentation of your device should give you the needed commands.

== Advanced features ==

Simple Sysexxer can take a filename via the command line. Thus it is possible to configure your desktop environment like KDE to load a file into Simple Sysexxer simply by clicking on a file.

Simple Sysexxer can try to automatically connect to a MIDI in and a MIDI out port during application startup. See the preferences to set your preferred MIDI ports.


Christoph Eckert <ce@christeck.de>, April 2006


