Fsex - Fantom (and Juno-G) SysEx utilities

Fsex is a spartan set of command-line utilities (currently fsex and flib) written to transfer data from and to the Roland Fantom family of synthesizers (Fantom-S, Fantom-X and Juno-G) and manipulate Roland librarian files. The main motivation for writing the utilities was to transfer patches from Linux without the need to boot Windows.

The name is inspired on Vsex, a command-line SysEx dump utility for the Access Virus.

Caveats

Fsex is currently experimental and was only tested with the Juno-G. If you test it on other Fantom synths please send me feedback.
It only works with patches. Support for performances, rhythms, arpeggios, effects and other data types is not implemented yet.
The GM bank is not readable using SysEx.
Patches are sent to the temporary area only. Support for bulk-writing patches to user or card memory is not implemented.

Prerequisites

Fsex uses ALSA to communicate with the synthesizer. You need to load the snd-usb-audio module if your synth is connected through USB (a kernel patch is required in kernels 2.6.22 and earlier to recognize the Juno-G). If everything is ok you should be able to see the device using aconnect:

$ aconnect -o
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
    0 'Midi Through Port-0'
client 20: 'Juno-G' [type=kernel]
    0 'Juno-G MIDI 1   '

Download

Current release is 0.1 (20070708). You can download the tarball or get the development tree with git clone http://helllabs.org/git/fsex.git.

Using Fsex

Fsex/flib can be used to:

List patches from a librarian file
Extract, delete and merge patches
Send a patch via SysEx
Receive patches via SysEx
Request synth identification

Example: fsex can be used to retrieve patches from the synthesizer and save them in a library file.

$ fsex -r USER:2,40-42 PR-A:1-3 New.jgl
* USER: 128 patches
* PR-A: 128 patches
Send to MIDI address 20:0

Receive patches from Juno-G:

USER:0002  PLS  VocoBassline
USER:0040  PLS  Next Step
USER:0041  SBS  JP8 Seq Bass
USER:0042  BTS  RetroSonic 1
PR-A:0001  PNO  Juno-G Grand
PR-A:0002  PNO  Bright Grand
PR-A:0003  PNO  Soft Grand

Create new library: New.jgl

Example: flib can manipulate librarian files in different ways such as splitting a library or merging data from different libraries.

$ flib -e XV_Collection.jgl:1,3 Sineshine.jgl:!1,2,6-16 New.jgl
* XV_Collection.jgl: Juno-G librarian file (1024 patches)
* Sineshine.jgl: Juno-G librarian file (16 patches)

Extract patch from XV_Collection.jgl:
0001  PNO  Standard Pno
0003  PNO  Classique

Extract patch from Sineshine.jgl:
0003  SBS  Vintage Bs 1
0004  PLS  VocoBassline
0005  BTS  OldschoolHip

Create new library: New.jgl

$ flib -l New.jgl
* New.jgl: Juno-G librarian file (5 patches)

Patches from New.jgl:

Pat#  Cat  Patch name   M/P Part  Waveform 1 Waveform 2 Waveform 3 Waveform 4
----- ---- ------------- -- ----- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
0001  PNO  Standard Pno  P  -2--  (unset)    JD Piano A (unset)    (unset)
0002  PNO  Classique     P  12--  Ac.Pno f A JD Piano A (unset)    (unset)
0003  SBS  Vintage Bs 1  m  12--  Juno Sqr H Juno Saw H Juno Saw H Juno Saw H
0004  PLS  VocoBassline  m  1234  Juno Saw H Juno Saw H Juno Saw H Juno Saw H
0005  BTS  OldschoolHip  m  1234  106 Bs56   Super Saw  Sine       White Nois

Last update: Sun Jul 8 15:20:27 BRT 2007