MIDI, Sync and connecting other gear

Despite is tiny size, your Woovebox can control your other gear's playback and audio via audio in, physical MIDI out, physical MIDI in (models 15B2 and up), analog sync out and MIDI in/out over Bluetooth LE.

It can effectively function as the "brain" of a larger setup.

Lastly, it can turn any cheap controller or keyboard into an advanced workstation via remote control expander mode.

MIDI out

Your Woovebox can send MIDI data to its physical and BLE MIDI out port on a per-channel basis. All MIDI channels behave like monophonic instruments, accepting only one note at a time ("Omni Off/Mono").

In addition to note and velocity, as of firmware 2817, your Woovebox also transmits volume, pan, filter cut-off and filter resonance data. Note off events are sent as "velocity 0" note on events.

(firmware 2465+) On a track's 'GLob' page, use the 'MIdI' setting under the 8/Pc key to specify which channel (1-16) the track should send its data to.

(firmware 2817+) By selecting from the sixteen alternative channels (indicated by a "." at the end), filter cut-off and filter resonance can be sent as NRPN messages instead of standard (CC 71 and CC 74) controller message. This is useful for gear that responds to XG/GS-compatible NRPN (CC 98, CC98, CC 6 sequence) messages rather than standard MIDI CC messages.

As of firmware 2817+ your Woovebox transmits the following controller messages;

• MIDI CC 0, Bank Select (MSB), part of patch change
• MIDI CC 7, Volume, sends a track's volume including fragment/scene automation
• MIDI CC 10, Pan, sends a track's panning information including everything that affects pan position on a track's 'Pan ' page
• MIDI CC 32, Bank Select (LSB), part of patch change
• MIDI CC 71, Filter resonance, sends a track's filter resonance (not sent if using XG/GS NRPN mode instead)
• MIDI CC 74, Filter cut-off, sends a track's filter cut-off including fragment/scene automation (not sent if using XG/GS NRPN mode instead)

MIDI Patch Changes

As of firmware 2817, your Woovebox can send MIDI patch changes (including LSB and MSB bank selection) on a per pattern basis.

To select the MIDI patch number, set "Md.Pc"/"MIdI Pach" under 14/A6 on the Pttn page for each pattern. Please note that the patch number is 1-based and 0 is 'off' (no patch change for this pattern).

If your external device requires a bank select message, you can use "Md.bM"/15/A7 and "Md.bL"/16/A8 for bank MSB and LSB respectively.

MIDI SysEx

Your Woovebox can send and receive songs, patches and samples through standard SysEx messages.

MIDI In

Your Woovebox responds to incoming MIDI data in two distinct modes;

• When editing tracks (e.g. on the 'Seq' page and any of the subsequent pages), any incoming MIDI messages (notes, controller information) regardless of their original MIDI channel are directed to the active track. This behavior allows you to quickly switch sounds by switching active tracks on the Woovebox itself, rather than having to change MIDI channels on your controller. This allows you to use your Woovebox as a performance sounds source for a MIDI connected input device. It also allows you to perform sound design quickly and easily.
• When using any other mode (Live, Song), your Woovebox acts like a regular 16-part multi-timbral synthesizer and sound module. Incoming MIDI is played on the track (1/Cd-16/A8) that corresponds to the incoming MIDI channel (1-16) information. This mode allows your Woovebox to be externally sequenced.
  

Track 1/Cd allows up to five notes polyphony, while the other tracks are monophonic. Track 1/Cd - on the Seq ('Sequencer') page exclusively - also detects incoming chords (via MIDI IN), briefly displays them, and makes sure that chord is used next time you program a step using write + key 1-16. Paraphonic tracks will only sound "correct" if the playing chord's root note is played.

To make better use of your Woovebox' more advanced sample playback capabilities, sample kit tracks (e.g. tracks with 'bEhv/'traK bEhv'/'track behavior' on the under 7/hh on the 'GLob' page set to 'SMPK') have subtly different sets of the 16 kit's slices spread over the keyboard;

• notes before C4 play the slices in reverse
• C4-F5 play slice 1-16 as normal
• the next 16 notes play slices 1-16 as normal, but with PLFO trigger set (see PLFO conditional)
• the next 16 notes play slices 1-16 as normal, but with ALFO trigger set (see ALFO conditional)
• the next 16 notes play slices 1-16 as normal, but with FLFO trigger set (see FLFO conditional)

Your Woovebox responds to note velocity, and responds to both "velocity 0" and note off messages to turn off notes. Your Woovebox also responds to filter cut-off (CC#74) and pitch bend (+/- 2 semitones range). The latter responses are temporary (for performance purposes) and are not permanently stored anywhere. Any automation (by song fragments or live scenes) will also override these temporary "performance" settings. E.g. to permanently change the filter cut-off frequency as part of a patch on a track, please change 'Cut.F'/'Cut FrEq') under 2/bS on the 'Fltr' (Filter) page of the relevant track.

Your Woovebox further responds to CC#75, which allows for filter automation to be temporarily negated (turn to full/127) or applied again (turn to 0/off). This is useful for adding live filter tweaking to a performance;

• Make sure you set CC#75 to 0 (the default value) at the start of your song or performance.
• Off/0 for CC#75 is always the natural position to finish knob performances on (but not mandatory!).
• A programmatically closed filter can always be opened using CC#75
• A programmatically fully opened filter cannot be closed using CC#75

As of firmware 2.0 on the Woovebox SE and PRO models, the physical MIDI port can be switched to become a MIDI input instead of a MIDI output. This can be accomplished by booting up the device and holding 9/A1 while turning on your device. Please note that the required hardware to allow of a physical MIDI input is not available on earlier hardware revisions (15, 15B, 15B1).

Please note that in some cases, ground loop issues may arise if powering both your Woovebox and MIDI sender/receiver using the same USB power source. MIDI IN and/or OUT may not work reliably (or at all) in such cases. To solve this, run your Woovebox off its internal battery, or run the two devices off of different USB power sources. Please also avoid very long MIDI cables, as they may attenuate the signal too much, potentially causing drop-outs in the data stream; this may result in hanging notes, or missed controller messages.

MIDI Real-Time messages and clock sync

Your Woovebox outputs real-time clock/sync, start and stop messages.

Your Woovebox also responds to MIDI start and stop commands.

Please note that your Woovebox does not respond to clock/sync messages due to technical limitations that prevent arbitrary song tempos.

Starting and stopping playback resets transport to the start of the song. Stopping playback sends and "all notes off" MIDI event to prevent any hanging notes.

Turning off Wooveconnect CC messages

To prevent your Woovebox from sending Wooveconnect-related MIDI CC messages to your external gear, turn off Wooveconnect device mirroring; find the "Mirr dvcE" context menu option in Song mode's 'GLob' page and action it.

Device mirroring is off by default, if the device was not booted up with BLE enabled.

Analog sync

Even today, analog sync pulses are a popular way to start, stop and synchronize playback of other gear. Your Woovebox can output an analog sync pulse via a breakout cable (a fairly standard cable that is normally used to split mic andstereo headphones) that connects to the headphone output jack.

To enable the sync pulse, switch to Song mode. scroll to the 'GLob' page, and change the 'Sync' parameter under the 13/A5 key to 'on'.

Note that enabling 'Sync' without using the breakout cable, may cause a faint clicking noise. Therefore, keep this setting at 'off' if the breakout cable is not in use.

Please do not attempt to listen to the sync pulse with headphones without attenuating the signal externally first. While low and electrically safe, the ~2.7V signal is very loud and may damage your headphones or hearing. Please also note that the ~2.7V voltage may not be sufficient to drive some older analog gear that expects higher voltages.

Line input

Your Woovebox can incorporate up to two incoming audio sources into the synthesizer's signal path; on any tracks' Osc1 or Osc2 page, simply select 'In1 ', 'In 2' or 'In12' for the for 'WavE' (WavE typE) under the 1/Cd key;

• 'In1 'uses audio from the incoming audio's left channel as if it were an oscillator source
• 'In 2' uses audio from the incoming audio's right channel as if it were an oscillator source
• 'In12' use audio from the both the audio's left and right channels mixed down into mono, as if it were an oscillator source

This is a very powerful way of incoporating external audio into your Woovebox' final output; it allows for sound-designing with external audio as well as effecting external audio or even have external audio effect internally synthesized audio (for example through the dynamics/'dyna' section).

Note, however, that this also means that you will not hear incoming audio until you play a note that uses the 'In1, 'In 2' or 'In12' oscillators.

Please also note that any signal fed into the line input needs to be at a sufficiently amplified line-level (-10dbV minimum). The line-input is not meant for, for example, microphone-level input.