Zoom MIDI implementation questions

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Julian
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:12 pm

Zoom MIDI implementation questions

Post by Julian »

Good day! New jack posting so I'll try to do well here.

I recently picked up a Zoom B3 and immediately fell in love with it. I am going to put it into the gigging rig very shortly, but I do have a concern or two about the MIDI side of things. While answering 'no' to any of the following certainly isn't a deal-breaker, there are a few things I would like to get working with my brand-spanking-new Ubuntu Studio 16... and there is exactly ZERO information about MIDI in the B3 manual or anywhere that I've been able to find on the Zoom website, which leads me to believe that any MIDI functionality might be incidental (or at least geared towards their Windows/Mac software) rather than intentional.

It didn't take awfully long to figure out the (quite logical, actually) layout of the bank/patch layout, so I can randomly access bank and patch info from my controller (a Kawai MP5). Now I'm turning my attention towards getting the Zoom to respond to tempo set/change information, which would REALLY make it shine in a band scenario!

I am trying to get this all tied together without bloating Ubuntu with Wine, so before I load that on there and try to get the Zoom software to work, I was hoping that someone here might point me to a Linux-based solution.

So getting to the point... can anyone tell me:

1. Does the Zoom respond to a global tempo setting?

2. Will the Zoom slave to an external clock?

3. Does anyone here have any information on MIDI data that the Zoom will respond to? If not, can someone recommend a good program to sniff out the CC/MIDI communication between the Zoom and Ubuntu?

Thanks for reading.
Julian
Established Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:12 pm

Re: Zoom MIDI implementation questions

Post by Julian »

Mods!

Now that I can post without approval needed, could you please move this one to a more appropriate board? My excitement got the better of me and I posted in the wrong place :/

Thanks!
Julian
Established Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:12 pm

UPDATE: Zoom MIDI implementation questions

Post by Julian »

Well, I don't know whether to keep posting here or not, but I know most communities hate repeat/cross-posting, so I'll stick with this thread even though it's in the wrong place.

I bit the bullet and installed QJackctl/Wine/Zoom Edit and Share in my other (standard) Ubuntu box, and did some playing around to figure out that apparently the global tempo setting is controlled via SysEx commands. Still don't yet know if the box slaves to an external clock yet... I know I'm moving rather slowly! I'm a newbie to EVERYTHING so I had to bone up on MIDI functionality in general.

So NOW I guess the question is can someone recommend an application that is good for sending SysEx over Jack?
tux99
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Re: Zoom MIDI implementation questions

Post by tux99 »

Why don't you ask Zoom customer support?
If anyone knows, they should be the ones.

I doubt that anyone here would know the answers to your questions as they are specific to your Zoom device, not related to Linux.
So NOW I guess the question is can someone recommend an application that is good for sending SysEx over Jack?
You can send sysex strings from command line with 'amidi', for example:

amidi -p hw:2,0,0 -S 'F0 41 10 00 00 00 0E 12 19 42 00 02 45 5E F7'
(this is a sysex string for the Roland JD-Xi, not for your Zoom, it's just an example to show you how to format the command)

with 'amidi -l' you find out what MID device to send to.

See 'man amidi' for further details.
Julian
Established Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:12 pm

Re: Zoom MIDI implementation questions

Post by Julian »

Thank you, tux, for your suggestions.

I will give amidi a shot as I have isolated the specific strings that control the global tempo for the B3, and - quite honestly - I don't know why I didn't contact Zoom support first with the other two questions :oops:
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