TC-Helicon VoiceLive Sysex User Manual

TC-IVL

VoiceLive MIDI System Exclusive Version 1.2

Hexadecimal Notation

Many values in this document are presented in hexadecimal notation.
Hexadecimal numbers will be prefixed with “0x”.

Example:
Hexadecimal 0x123 = Decimal 291
Decimal 123 = Hexadecimal 0x7B

VoiceLive SYSEX message format:

0xF0 MIDI System exclusive message start
0x00 3 byte manufactors ID for TC-Helicon
0x01 ...
0x38 ...
<Device ID> System exclusive device ID (user parameter)
0x4E VoiceLive model ID
<Message ID> VoiceLive message type identifier
<Data> Start of message data
... Variable number of data bytes based on message type
0xF7 MIDI System exclusive message terminator

Data Packing (24-bit words to 4x7-bit bytes)

The idea of packing data is to take a 24-bit value (the normal width of
parameters in VoiceLive) and represent it as 4 bytes of 7 bits each.
This is done because SYSEX data can only be 7 bits in size. The first
three bytes hold (in sequence) bits 0-6, 7-13 and 14-20 of the 24-bit
value. The fourth byte hold bits 21-23 of the 24-bit value with zeros
in the remaining bits.

For example, If the value of a 24-bit parameter is 614 (0x266), it
would look like “0x66 0x04 0x00 0x00” in a SYSEX message.

Byte1 0x66 = binary X1100110 (abcdefg)
Byte2 0x04 = binary X0000100 (hijklmn)
Byte3 0x00 = binary X0000000 (opqrstu)
Byte4 0x00 = binary X0000000 (****vwx)

Final 24-Bit Value:
vwxopqrs tuhijklm nabcdefg
Total = 00000000 00000010 01100110
= 0x0 0x2 0x66 = 0x000266

Page 1

TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies

www.tc-helicon.com

Preset numbers

Preset numbers are represented in SYSEX messages as 2 bytes (combined
14 bit value). The first byte is the 7 least significant bits and the
second is the 7 most significant bits. Preset numbers are mapped as
follows:

Preset number zero references the current operating preset. Presets
numbered 1 through 99 (0x63) reference all stored presets. For
example, preset number 67 (0x43) would be translated into
bytes 0x43 (LSB) and 0x00 (MSB).

Checksum

Checksums are 1 byte holding the 7 least significant bits of the sum of
all bytes contributing to the checksum.

Example: If the byte values used in a checksum calculation were the
series 1,2,3,...,126 their sum total would be 8001. Dividing 8001 by
128 leaves a remainder of 65 which becomes the checksum byte.

Message data format

The format of data for each of the different SYSEX messages depends on
the type of message. Below are descriptions for each message type
explaining their specific data formatting requirements.

SYSEX message type Identifier

Request Preset 0x45 (69)
Request Parameter 0x47 (71)
Request Shift Map 0x51 (81)
Request Song 0x14 (20)
Request Setup 0x15 (21)

Preset Received Notification 0x34 (52)
Preset Data 0x20 (32)
Parameter Data 0x22 (34)
Shift Map Data 0x31 (49)
Song Data 0x12 (18)
Setup Data 0x13 (19)

VoiceLive Data Request messages

Request Preset – 0x45:

<Data> is 2 bytes representing the number of the preset requested. See
above for a description of preset number representation. The data
transmitted by VoiceLive upon receiving this message will be formatted
as a Preset Data message.

Request Paramter – 0x47:

<Data> is 2 bytes. The first byte defines the group to which the
parameter belongs and the second byte identifies the parameter within
the group. See the Parameter Grouping and Listing table for a complete
list of all groups and parameters. The data transmitted by VoiceLive

Page 2

TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies

www.tc-helicon.com

upon receiving this message will be formatted as a Parameter Data
message (see below for complete description).

Request Shift Map – 0x51:

<Data> is 1 byte. The value of this byte is ignored. The data
transmitted by VoiceLive upon receiving this message will be formatted
as a Shift Map Data message.

Request Song Request – 0x14:

<Data> is 1 byte. It specifies the song number (1 is the first song, 0
is the current song). The data transmitted by VoiceLive upon receiving
this message will be formatted as a Song Data message.

Request Setup Data – 0x15:

<Data> is 1 byte. The value of this byte is ignored. The data
transmitted by VoiceLive upon receiving this message will be formatted
as a Setup Data message.

VoiceLive Data messages

Preset/Song Receive Notification – 0x34:

<Data> is 1 byte. Sometimes VoiceLive needs to reorganize its internal
preset bank after receiving a SYSEX preset. While this is happening,
VoiceLive has to ignore incoming preset SYSEX packages. If this
happens while you are dumping several presets to the unit, you might
lose a preset in transmission without realizing it. This situation can
be avoided by waiting for VoiceLive to send this message indicating
that the preset was successfully stored before attempting to send the
next.

Alternatively, if you plan to dump several or all 99 presets to the
unit and do not have the ability to wait for this message between
sends, simply clear the user preset bank (restore all factory presets)
before initiating the batch send. Doing so will save VoiceLive from
having to reorganize midstream, allowing for all 99 presets to be
dumped successfully.

Preset Data – 0x20:

Note: VoiceLive is capable of importing VoiceWorks presets
automatically. Note that VoiceLive presets are not backward compatible
with VoiceWorks.

<Data> is 396 bytes organized as follows (in sequence):
2 bytes Preset number (see above)
12 bytes Preset name (as ASCII characters)
1 byte Number of notes in custom scale
16 bytes (cs) * Custom correction scale
64 bytes (cs) ** Custom shift map for each voice
300 bytes(cs) 75x24-bit packed parameter values
1 byte Checksum

Note: The checksum is calculated only on the data marked with (cs).

Page 3

TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies

www.tc-helicon.com