Data Formats - Kurzweil K2600 Musician’s Reference

System Exclusive Protocol
K2600 System Exclusive Implementation

Data Formats

K2600 SysEx messages are subdivided into Þelds that contain data in different formats. The
various Þelds are shown in the Messages section below. Within a message, any Þelds for values
that can be bigger than 7 bits are broken into 7 bit chunks. Thus two MIDI bytes gives 14 bits,
three bytes gives 21 bits. The signiÞcant bits are right justiÞed in the Þeld. All bytes in a Þeld
must be present no matter what the value is. For example, an object type of 132 would be split
into two MIDI bytes in a type Þeld as 01 04:
decimal:
binary:
binary encoding for type(2) field:
decimal encoding for type(2) field:
Object name Þelds are sent as a string of ASCII values in a name Þeld, with one MIDI byte of
zero as a string terminator. For example, the name Glass Kazoo would be sent as follows:
hex encoding
for name field:
Data sizes and offsets are sent in the size and offs Þelds.These values refer to quantities of 8-bit
bytes in the K2600Õs memory, which is packed in the data Þeld.
Binary data in the data Þeld are sent in one of two formats, according to the value of the form
Þeld. If the form Þeld equals zero, the data are transmitted as 4 bits or one ÒnibbleÓ in every
MIDI byte. If the form Þeld equals one, then the data are sent as a compressed bit-stream, with 7
bits per MIDI byte. The bit-stream format is more efÞcient for data transmission, while the
nibble format is easier to read (and write software for).
For example, to send the following four K2600 data bytes,
hex:
decimal:
binary:
eight MIDI bytes are sent in ÒnibbleÓ format:
hex
decimal
binary
Þve MIDI bytes are sent in bit-stream format:
hex:
decimal:
binary:
7-2
G l a
47 6C 61
4F D8
79 216
01001111 11011000
04 0F 0D
4 15 13
0000100 0001111 0001101
27 76
39 118
0100111 1110110
132
10000100
0000001 0000100
1 4
s s _ K
73 73 20 4B
01
1
00000001
08 00
8 0
0001000 0000000
0
0
0000000
a z o o
61 7A 6F 6F
29
41
00101001
01 02
1 2
0000001 0000010
12 48
18 72
0010010 1001000
<null>
00
09
9
0001001