Roland RD88 - CC Parameters? What are they?

[EastCan]

I am trying to assign parameters to the control knobs, so that they control various things.  I have watched videos on how to go through the menu and get to the screen to assign CC numbers to the specific knob.  But, iin the menu I have to choose from many CC numbers.  I figure these numbers refer to a specific parameter (that's my educated guess anyways).  But other than CC number, I have no idea what it refers to.  It just says something like CC:16, for example. But what does CC16 refer to?  What parameter?  What am I missing here?  I am a newbie at all theses settings and diving deep into the rd88. Thanks

[Ibarch]

CC numbers refer to a type of MIDI message. There are 4 main groups of  messages, not just in the RD-88 but common to all MIDI devices. 

1. Notes on/off when a key is played

2. Control change (CC) when a controller is moved, such as a mod wheel, fader, dial 

3. Program Change (PC) when changing scenes and patches. 

4. SysEx (system exclusive) general data that is specific to a particular manufacturer and device. 

 

Back to CCs. Specifically MIDI assigns a different numbers to identify different controllers your keyboard may have, with a range from  0 to 127. 

Some of these CC numbers have become standard across the industry to refer to a particular thing. Examples are 

1.    Modulation

7.    Volume

10.  Pan

64. Hold/sustain pedal

 

The RD-88 has a defined a number of these CC messages, mostly following a combination of industry and Roland standards. They allow control of the keyboard and the current sounds and scene whilst you are playing. 

 

So if the keyboard receives a CC7 message it will turn the volume of the current sound down. Each CC message has a value which ranges from 0 to 127. For CC7 volume, 0 would be off and 127 would be full volume and it can also be set to any value in between. 

 

The RD-88 allows you to assign different CC numbers to the 8 rotary dials, so that you can choose what you want to control on the sound. For some of the synth sounds, it is possible to assign a dial to control the cutoff frequency or resonance for example. Not every tone responds to every type of message so you may need to experiment to see what works and what doesn't. 

 

You can use CC numbers that are not assigned to anything else to program yourself. Some settings can be linked to any CC number and you can then assign a contoller to control that CC number. So, this may let you use an expression pedal to change a specific setting by assinging the CC number to the pedal. 

 

You can also program other devices like a sequencer to send MIDI data to the RD-88, which includes the CC messages as well as the other types of MIDI data. 

 

 

 

 

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, Ibarch said:

17 hours ago, EastCan said:

It just says something like CC:16, for example. But what does CC16 refer to?  What parameter?  What am I missing here? 

Some of these CC numbers have become standard across the industry to refer to a particular thing. Examples are 

1.    Modulation

7.    Volume

10.  Pan

64. Hold/sustain pedal

 

The RD-88 has a defined a number of these CC messages, mostly following a combination of industry and Roland standards.

 

Right... and they can be found at the end of the downloadable RD88 MIDI Implementation doc.

 

[Greg Mein]

Great thread!

I'll be looking at this soon as I go back to revisiting our duo backing track system. For the last couple of years we've been doing a full band but we'll be staying out of state in Jun-Jul and will need our backing track system up and running again. My wife bought the RD88 last year and I'll want to control patch changes and so forth with a USB cable from my MBP/828x/Digital Performer setup.

[Greg Mein]

So I'm wondering, has anyone got to the point where they change Scenes and/or Favorites remotely from a DAW? Is there a sysex to change between these modes?

 

For example Korg/Roland keyboards traditionally required a sysex message to change between Combi/Program mode or Performance/Patch mode. I don't believe I needed to do that on my Roland FA-08 but I lost a lot of the info I had when a HD crashed a while back.

 

I have the USB driver for the RD-88 installed on the gig MBP and I've checked the Menu/System/MIDI and believe all should be good there. I have the manuals and I'm still looking at them but I'm in a bit of a crunch for time, I need this setup going by June and I've still got plenty of other things I gotta do so anyone that can provide info would be greatly appreciated 😀

 

ETA: Thinking a little deeper it occurs to me that favorites are not like a separate bank, it's probably not necessary to try and access Favorites as they're just a storage method for scenes that have already been created.

 

ETA: Disregard this post, I've figured it out.