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              Dr. T Sysex - A MIDI Data Dump Utility

        For use with Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer

                          By Jim Johnson 

As anyone who has read my work probably knows,  I have a very soft 
spot in my heart for Dr. T's KCS, and since I started using the ST 
version,  I've been almost completely happy with it.  The one weak 
point,  I've  felt,  has been the lack of a good (or even  a  bad) 
system exclusive dump feature.  While the KCS can send sysex  data 
with the single byte event type,  sysex data cannot be recorded  - 
it can only be typed in by hand. Ugh.

Enter  Dr.  T  Sysex.  This little program simply  records  system 
exclusive dumps as they are sent to the Atari,  and then  converts 
them to a .SEQ (single sequence) file for use by the KCS.

The  program was written in Megamax C,  and conforms to  the  file 
format  for .SEQ files as shown in the KCS Programmer's  Reference 
Guide,  which  can be obtained direct from Dr.  T's for a  nominal 
charge.  Normal MIDI data such as note messages,  clocks,  and the 
like  are stripped out before the file is saved,  so the  sequence 
contains only valid sysex data.   

To save as sysex dump as a sequence,  you must be able to initiate
a sysex dump from the front panel of your synthesizer.  This means 
Casio and many Roland instruments which require handshaking  won't
work with this program. The other limitation is that dumps must be 
less than 32K bytes long.  Most data dumps should fit within  this
limit;  I  may   increase  this and rerelease  the  program at
somelaterdate. 

After  you  double  click on DRTSYSEX.PRG and  pay  homage  to  my 
programming  skills by reading the title alert  box,  the  program 
will indicate that it is ready to receive a MIDI data dump.  After 
you start the dump and the synthesizer or drum machine has stopped 
sending data,  click on OK if you're sure everything is that  way, 
or REDO if you think you might have blown the dump.  A file select 
box will appear at this point; name the sequence, and you're done.
 
There are a couple of tricks to using the resulting sequence  from 
within  the  sequencer that I've picked up as  well.  The  program 
automatically puts one time step between every ten data bytes,  so 
that  the program doesn't have too much data to deal with on  each 
time step.  Some sysex messages, however, are actually composed of 
two or more separate messages,  and you might need to put a little 
more delay between individual messages - but not too much, as most 
instruments  will only wait for a certain amount of  time  between 
messages before they decide that the line is dead.  As an example, 
my ESQ1 won't recognize data dumps unless I put six time steps (at 
60 BPM) between the SEQUENCE DUMP ALERT and the SEQUENCE DATA DUMP 
messages that make up a sequence dump. Experiment, as always.

You  might  also need to disable MIDI CLOCK OUT on  the  KCS  when 
sending sysex dumps. Theoretically, MIDI clocks shouldn't screw up 
a  sysex message,  but they do on my ESQ1 - so why risk  confusing 
the synth needlessly, hmm? (This might also be tempo dependent - I 
haven't checked, though.)

I have found no problems with this program,  but you might. Please 
report any bugs to me on PAN,  GEnie, or Compuserve - I'm JAMOS on 
the first two and 70461,10 on Compuserve. 

                          Happy Dumping!