Casio CZ101 MIDI Guide
Originally a USENET article (from sometime in 1985, before the Great Renaming), detailing the MIDI messages available on the Casio CZ101 MIDI synthesiser.
For web publication, I have changed some of the formatting of this post, but not the content. Much of the formatting for tables relies on using monospaced fonts, so I have kept most of the post in this form.
CASIO CZ MIDI GUIDE condensed version
or: Everything you Never Wanted to Know about MIDI but are Going to Find Out AnywayTHIS IS AIMED SPECIFICALLY AT CZ101,CZ1000 and CZ5000 OWNERS.
NOTE: I beleive the data given to me by Casio to be a) correct, and b) public domain ( since they just give it to you if you are persistent enough).
Please forgive spelling, syntactic, or grammatical errors since I am trying to condense the manual as I go along...
Right, at long last, I have been able to get a reply out of CASIO UK about the MIDI standards of the CZ series of synthesizers. For those of you who know how to play your keyboard by remote control from a computer, this will be of some interest, since it covers transmission of programming information ( both to and from the CZ ), setting of the controllers you previously couldn't access like tone mix level, and other bits besides.
BASIC MIDI MESSAGES
First off, let's recap on the simple stuff. The MIDI is a digital interface to musical instruments, and relies on serial transmission of data. These data are usually talked of in terms of bytes, and I shall be using hexadecimal numbers in this posting.
There are basically two types of bytes sent over MIDI - control bytes and data bytes. Control bytes are distinguished by having values over 0x80 (80 hex, 128 decimal), and these have valious meanings:
1) NOTE ON
A note on message consists of sending a "NOTE ON" control byte, the note number you want to turn on, and the velocity at which you want to play the note. The note on control is 90 plus the channel number. So, for example, if you want to play note 32 (= hex 20) at speed 64 (= hex 40), on the midi instrument receiving on channel two, then you would send:
92 20 40 NOTE ON, channel 2 Note #32 Velocity 64
If you wish to turn two or more notes on at the same time, the control byte need not be retransmitted. Eg to turn note 35 on as well, you could send
92 20 40 23 40 NOTE ON, ch2 ---32 on-- ---35 on--
These codes can be transmitted both ways on all the CZ 101,1000,5000, but since they do not detect note velocity, it is always transmitted and recognized as 64 (= 40 hex).
2) NOTE OFF
Just send a note on message with velocity 0. Eg to turn note 35 off, send
92 23 00 NOTE ON,Ch 2 --35 off--
3) CONTROL CHANGE
There are several controls that can be set from MIDI. Just send a "CONTROL CH" byte, which is B0 plus the channel number, the number of the control that you wish to change, then the value you wish to set it to. Eg for CZ101 portamento time, send
B0 05 10 CONTROL, ch 0 --ctrl 5=16--
The controls are:
CZ101/1000 01 Vibrato on/off Send 0 for off, 7F for ON 05 Portamento time Send number 00..63 (0..99) 06 Master tune Send number 00..7F 41 Portamento on/off Send 0 for OFF, 7F for ON CZ5000 01 Modulation wheel Send number 00..7F 05 Portamento time Send number 00..63 06 Master tune Send number 00..7F 40 Sustain pedal Send 0 for OFF, 7F for ON 41 Portamento on/off Send 0 for OFF, 7F for ON
4) PROGRAM CHANGE
This allows you to change between the preset sounds ( and your internal sounds and cartridges ). Just send C0 plus the channel number, then the program number. Eg to set CZ101 on channel 1 to Synth Bass:
C1 07 PROGRAM ch 1 Program 7
Note that the preset tones are given numbers :
CZ101/1000 0..0F Preset sounds 1..16 20..2F Internal sounds 1..16 40..4F Cartridge sounds 1..16 CZ5000 00..1F Preset sounds A1,A2,A3....D6,D7,D8 20..3F Internal sounds A1,A2.....D6,D7,D8
5) PITCH BEND CHANGE
This is acheived by sending E0 plus the channel number, then two bytes denoting the new value of pitch bend. The first byte is the most significant, and the second the least significant. Note also that the lower 6 bits of the lower byte are not used, and that the central position of the wheel corres- ponds to the byte sequence 40 00.
HIGHEST 7F 40 HIGHER CENTER 40 00 LOWER LOWEST 00 00
So, to bend the instrument on channel two UP by about half its maximum amount, send
E2 60 00 BEND channel two ---1/2 up--
6) AFTER TOUCH
Is not supported on the CZ101/1000/5000. Sorry!
7) MODE CHANGE
This is very similar to the CONTROL CHANGE message, and can be regarded as a special case.
OMNI ON send E0 + channel, 7D, 00 OMNI OFF send B0 + channel, 7C, 00 POLY ON send B0 + channel, 7F, 00 POLY OFF send B0 + channel, 7E, 00
OMNI mode plays any MIDI data received at the MIDI IN plug on the back of the machine, regardless of channel. POLY mode is equivalent to the SOLO button on the front panel. With the CZ101, for instance, POLY OFF ( =SOLO ) allows the synth to be used as four monophonic synthesizers under remote control.
LOCAL ON send B0 + channel, 7A, 7F LOCAL OFF send B0 + channel, 7A, 00
Local mode means that the keyboard is "connected" to the sound producing part of the CZ within the machine itself. With LOCAL ON ( the default setting ), playing the keyboard both sends note messages out of the MIDI port, and also makes sounds at the same time. If you want to do wierd things like keyboard splitting, LOCAL OFF will allow you to see what the keyboard is doing without the CZ making any sound at all. You could then act on that information and send the keyboard a command depending on the keys that has nothing to do with them, eg program change or pitch bend. The possibilities are endless !
SEQUENCER MESSAGES
The CZ5000 has its own internal sequencer, which can be controlled by:
F8 Clock byte: transmitted 24 times per quarter note ( crotchet ) FA Start: same as pressing the PLAY button on the front panel FB Continue: continue song where last stopped FC Stop: stops song play at current position FD Active sense: basically, a cry of "Is there anybody out there?" If no reply is received within about 1/3 second, it shuts the voice off.
SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE MESSAGES
At last, the really meaty stuff. :-)
These all have the basic form:
F0 machine ID some bytes F7 SYS EX MESSG YES, YOU DO THIS END OF SYS EX
Ok, so not very specific, bu that was deliberate to allow manufacturers to use all the lovely bells and whistles they put on their machine over the MIDI !
Since these are usually controlled by computer, I have set them out as a computer/synthesizer dialogue. Note that the computer MUST wait for replies before proceding, or all will fail !
Here we go, then
1) SET BEND RANGE
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 40 data F7
Eg to set bend range to 8 on channel 4, send
F0 44 00 00 74 40 08 F7
2) KEY TRANSPOSE
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 41 data F7
Data is as follows:
Key: G A A# B B# C C# D E E# F F# Data: 45 44 43 41 41 00 01 02 03 04 05 06
Eg to set key on channel 0 to C#, send
F0 44 00 00 70 41 01 F7
3) TONE MIX
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 42 data F7
The data is 00 to turn tone mix off, or 41..49 for mix level 1..9
Eg to set tone mix on channel 0 to 7, send
F0 44 00 00 70 42 47 F7
4) ASK ABOUT PROGRAMMER ( Send request 2 )
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 19 00 CZ101/1000: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 30 Computer: 70+channel 31 CZ101/1000: data1 data2 F7 Computer: F7
data1 is the program selected ( see PROGRAM CHANGE )
data2 returns the vibrato/portamento on/off setting:
data2 00 10 20 30 Vibrato OFF OFF ON ON Port'o OFF ON OFF ON
Eg an exchange such as
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70 19 00 "Want data on channel 0" CZ101: F0 44 00 00 70 30 "Gotcha.. data ready" Computer: 70 31 "Ok, give it to me" CZ101: 27 30 F7 "Internal 8, v on, p on" Computer: F7
REMOTE PROGRAMMING
The send request 1 and receive request 1 messages.
These dump a lot of data across the MIDI, which is the same for both messages, except that the data go the other way. The exchanges are:
Send request
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 10 program CZ101/1000: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 30 Computer: 70+channel 31 CZ101/1000: tone data F7 Computer: F7
Receive request
Computer: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 20 program CZ101/1000: F0 44 00 00 70+channel 30 Computer: tone data F7 Cz101/1000: F7
The program byte is the same as that set by the PROGRAM CHANGE function, with the addition that you can request the temporary sound area as well ( number is 60 ). This is the area that is used if you have altered a preset and not saved it into internal memory.
The tone data is a sequence of 256 bytes containing a LOT of info. Now Casio have done a lot of funny things with these, like splitting bytes in half and encoding things in weird ways so please bear with me.
To keep everything this side of infinite length, I shall adopt the same strategy as the manual, which is to write data in bytes, although they are transmitted in half- bytes. For example, me writing a byte as 5F requires you to transmit or receive as 0F 05 ( weird, huh ? ). This will obviously save a lot of space.
So, here goes again :-)
There are 25 distinct sections within
1) PFLAG
Looking at bits,
OCTV controls octave range: 00=octave 0, 01=+1, 10=-1
LS is the line select: 00=1, 01=2, 10=1+1', 11=1+2'
So, for Octave +1, line select 1+1', PFLAG=00000110 = 06
2)PDS
For detune +, PDS is 0, for detune - it is 01
3)PDETL,PDETH
Two bytes controlling the depth of the detune.
The first byte is the FINE data.
The second contains both the octave and note data:
4) PVK
This is the vibrato wave number, encoded as follows
5) PVDLD,PVDLV
This is the vibrato delay time, transmitted in three bytes.
For delays in the range 0..31, just transmit 00..1F, 00, 00..1F eg for delay
of 12, send 0C 00 0C. This is convenient since it saves me typing in another
column of boring numbers ;-)
6) PVSD,PVSV
Again, here comes another table for conversions. The first column (0..24) is
omitted since the only difficult thing needed is to add 01 00 20 to each entry
( The first few go 00 00 20, 01 00 40, 02 00 60, ... 06 00 E0, 07 01 00, ..)
7) PVDD,PVDV
These are again encoded as three bytes in a most obscure way. Below 32, the
encoding is 00..1F, 00, 01..20 eg for depth 13, send 0D 00 0E.
8) MFW
These two bytes transmit the waveform for DCO1, and also the modulation ie
ring, noise or none.
So, for instance, to set first = 4, second= 2, ring modulation, we have
9) MAMD,MAMV
These two bytes set the DCA1 key follow:
10) MWMD, MWMV
These two bytes set the DCW1 key follow
11) PMAL
This sets the position of the end step on DCA1. Step 1..8 gives bytes 00..07.
12) PMA
This consists of 8 repetitions of Rate,Level.
Given that you wish to set rate r, the data you need to send is
Conversely, if byte=0, rate=0, if byte=7F, rate=99, otherwise
Add 80 hex if the level will be coming down on this step.
The level goes up linearly, with 0 being 00, up to 99 is 7F, so that
and
except at byte=0 where level=0, and byte=127, where level=99
In all these conversions, fractional parts are ignored, so a result of
byte=24.6987 would be taken as byte=24.
13) PMWL
End step number for DCW1. Same as PMAL
14) PMW
This sets the steps in DCW1, and consists of 8 repetitions of Rate,Level.
The format is similar to PMA, so that you add 80 ( 128 dec ) to the rate if
the level is coming down this step, and that you add 80 to the level if you
wish to set a sustain point. The level data is handled the same as PMA, but
for some strange reason the rate data is encoded differently.
So
and
except where byte=8, level=0, and where byte=77, level=99
15) PMPL
Another end step setting, this time for DCO1. Same as PMAL and PMWL
16) PMP
Another envelope setting, this time for the DCO1 rates and levels. Again uses a
completely different encoding scheme.
and
except where byte=00, rate=0, where byte=7F, rate=99
For the level, level data 0..63 translate as bytes 00..3F, and level data
64..99 translate as bytes 44..67.
17) SFW
These two bytes set the waveform for DCO2. They use the same format as MFW
does for DCO1, except that the modulation bits are ignored ( it is best to set
these bits to zero , just in case ).
18) SAMD,SAMV
19) SWMD,SWMV
20) PSAL
21) PSA
22) PSWL
23) PSW
24) PSPL
25) PSP
All the above use the same formats as their counterparts for the first set of
DCO,DCW,DCA, and perform exactly the same functions on the DCA2,DCW2,and DCO2.
This concludes what I hope has been an informative article ( if rather a long
one :-) ).
Sec# Length Symbol Contents
(bytes)
1 1 pflag line select data, octave range
2 1 pds detune up or down
3 2 pdl,pdh detune range
4 1 pvk vibrato wave number
5 3 pvdld,pvdlv vibrato delay time
6 3 pvsd,pvsv vibrato rate
7 3 pvdd,pvdv vibrato depth
8 2 mfw dco1 waveform
9 2 mamd,mamv dca1 key follow
10 2 mwmd,mwmv dcw1 key follow
11 1 pmal end step number of dca1 envelope
12 16 pma dca1 envelope rate/level
13 1 pmwl end step number of dcw1 envelope
14 16 pmw dcw1 envelope rate/level
15 1 pmpl end step number of dco1 envelope
16 16 pmp dco1 envelope rate/level
17 2 sfw dco2 waveform
18 2 samd,samv dca2 key follow
19 2 swmd,swmv dcw2 key follow
20 1 psal end step number of dca2 envelope
21 16 psa dca2 rate/level
22 1 pswl end step number of dcw2 envelope
23 16 psw dcw2 rate/level
24 1 pspl end step number of dco2 envelope
25 16 psp dco2 rate/level
0000 00 00
Not used OCTV LS
FINE: 0..15 16..30 31..45 46..60
Byte: 00..0F 11..1F 21..2F 31..3F
OCT: 0 1 2 3
NOTE: 0..11 0..11 0..11 0..11
Byte: 00..0B 0C..17 18..23 24..2F
WAVE NUMBER: 1 2 3 4
Byte: 08 04 20 02
Delay Bytes Delay Bytes Delay Bytes
25 19 00 19 50 32 00 4B 75 4B 00 DF
26 1A 00 1A 51 33 00 4F 76 4C 00 E7
27 1B 00 1B 52 34 00 53 77 4D 00 EF
28 1C 00 1C 53 35 00 57 78 4E 00 F7
29 1D 00 1D 54 36 00 5B 79 4F 00 FF
30 1E 00 1E 55 37 00 5F 80 50 01 0F
31 1F 00 1F 56 38 00 63 81 51 01 1F
32 20 00 21 57 39 00 67 82 52 01 2F
33 21 00 23 58 3A 00 6B 83 53 01 3F
34 22 00 25 59 3B 00 6F 84 54 01 4F
35 23 00 27 60 3C 00 73 85 55 01 5F
36 24 00 29 61 3D 00 77 86 56 01 6F
37 25 00 2B 62 3E 00 7B 87 67 01 7F
38 26 00 2D 63 3F 00 7F 88 58 01 8F
39 27 00 2F 64 40 00 87 89 59 01 9F
40 28 00 31 65 41 00 8F 90 5A 01 AF
41 29 00 33 66 42 00 97 91 5B 01 BF
42 2A 00 35 67 43 00 9F 92 5C 01 CF
43 2B 00 37 68 44 00 A7 93 5D 01 DF
44 2C 00 39 69 45 00 AF 94 5E 01 EF
45 2D 00 3B 70 46 00 B7 95 5F 01 FF
46 2E 00 3D 71 47 00 BF 96 60 02 1F
47 2F 00 3F 72 48 00 C7 97 61 02 3F
48 30 00 43 73 49 00 CF 98 62 02 5F
49 31 00 47 74 4A 00 D7 99 63 02 7F
Rate Bytes Rate Bytes Rate Bytes
25 19 03 40 50 32 09 E0 75 4B 1C E0
26 1A 03 60 51 33 0A 60 76 4C 1D E0
27 1B 03 80 52 34 0A E0 77 4D 1E E0
28 1C 03 A0 53 35 0B 60 78 4E 1F E0
29 1D 03 C0 54 36 0B E0 79 4F 20 E0
30 1E 03 E0 55 37 0C 60 80 50 23 E0
31 1F 04 00 56 38 0C E0 81 51 25 E0
32 20 04 60 57 39 0D 60 82 52 27 E0
33 21 04 A0 58 3A 0D E0 83 53 29 E0
34 22 04 E0 59 3B 0E 60 84 54 2B E0
35 23 05 20 60 3C 0E E0 85 55 2D E0
36 24 05 60 61 3D 0F 60 86 56 2F E0
37 25 05 A0 62 3E 0F E0 87 57 31 E0
38 26 05 E0 63 3F 10 60 88 58 33 E0
39 27 06 20 64 40 11 E0 89 59 35 E0
40 28 06 60 65 41 12 E0 90 5A 37 E0
41 29 06 A0 66 42 13 E0 91 5B 39 E0
42 2A 06 E0 67 43 14 E0 92 5C 3B E0
43 2B 07 20 68 44 15 E0 93 5D 3D E0
44 2C 07 60 69 45 16 E0 94 5E 3F E0
45 2D 07 A0 70 46 17 E0 95 5F 41 E0
46 2E 07 E0 71 47 18 E0 96 60 47 E0
47 2F 08 20 72 48 19 E0 97 61 4B E0
48 30 08 E0 73 49 1A E0 98 62 4F E0
49 31 09 60 74 4A 1B E0 99 63 53 E0
Depth Bytes Depth Bytes Depth Bytes
25 19 00 1A 50 32 00 4F 75 4B 00 E7
26 1A 00 1B 51 33 00 53 76 4C 00 EF
27 1B 00 1C 52 34 00 57 77 4D 00 F7
28 1C 00 1D 53 35 00 5B 78 4E 00 FF
29 1D 00 1E 54 36 00 5F 79 4F 01 07
30 1E 00 1F 55 37 00 63 80 50 01 1F
31 1F 00 20 56 38 00 67 81 51 01 2F
32 20 00 23 57 39 00 6B 82 52 01 3F
33 21 00 25 58 3A 00 6F 83 53 01 4F
34 22 00 27 59 3B 00 73 84 54 01 5F
35 23 00 29 60 3C 00 77 85 55 01 6F
36 24 00 2B 61 3D 00 7B 86 56 01 7F
37 25 00 2D 62 3E 00 7F 87 57 01 8F
38 26 00 2F 63 3F 00 83 88 58 01 9F
39 27 00 31 64 40 00 8F 89 59 01 AF
40 28 00 33 65 41 00 97 90 5A 01 BF
41 29 00 35 66 42 00 9F 91 5B 01 CF
42 2A 00 37 67 43 00 A7 92 5C 01 DF
43 2B 00 39 68 44 00 AF 93 5D 01 EF
44 2C 00 3B 69 45 00 B7 94 5E 01 FF
45 2D 00 3D 70 46 00 BF 95 5F 02 0F
46 2E 00 3F 71 47 00 C7 96 60 02 3F
47 2F 00 41 72 48 00 CF 97 61 02 5F
48 30 00 47 73 49 00 D7 98 62 02 7F
49 31 00 4B 74 4A 00 DF 99 63 03 00
First byte Second byte
000 000 0 0 00 000 000
First=1 000 0 00
First=2 001 0 00
First=3 010 0 00
First=4 100 0 00
First=5 101 0 00
First=6 110 0 01
First=7 110 0 10
First=8 110 0 11
Second=1 000 1 0 00
Second=2 001 1 0 00
Second=3 010 1 0 00
Second=4 100 1 0 00
Second=5 101 1 0 00
Second=6 110 1 0 01
Second=7 110 1 0 10
Second=8 110 1 0 11
NO MODULATION 000
RING MODULATION 100
NOISE MODULATION 011
100 001 1 0 00 100 000 = 1000 0110 0010 0000 = 86 20
Key follow: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1st byte: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
2nd byte: 00 08 11 1A 24 2F 3A 45 52 5F
Key follow: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1st byte: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
2nd byte: 00 1F 2C 39 46 53 60 6E 92 FF
Byte= 119 * r / 99
r= ( 99 * byte / 119 ) + 1
Byte= ( 127 * level ) / 99
Level= ( 99 * byte / 127 ) + 1
byte= ( 119 * level / 99 ) + 8
level= ( 99 * (byte-8) / 119 ) + 1
byte= ( 127 x rate / 99 )
rate= ( 99 x byte / 127 ) + 1