So I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to get my BSP working with an old SP505 sampler but I figured it out so I thought I should share it. I think it will work with the 606 too.
The ProblemI can play the 16 drum pads it but I can only manage to trigger the samples in preset bank 1, even if I change the bank on the 505 it still plays the samples from preset bank 1. It's not to do with the note range either.
Discovering the SolutionI actually sent a message to a guy who on a forum post about midi and the SP505 from about 2008. He put his email down saying in the message saying to email him about the SP505 because he knew it inside and out.
I thought he'd have probably changed his email but I tried anyway.
But no! He messaged me back What a legend! So many thanks and respect go out to him.
He said "Its all in the control change messages, in the settings, hook up a oooold casio or Yamaha gm midiboard, and change banks on that" to call him and gave me his number, however I'm in the UK and I think he's in the US
The SolutionI have my drum channel on the BSP set to 10 the default if you have a different one then where it says midi channel 10 set it to what you have.
In the 505s manual page 83
http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/SP-505_OM.pdfThere's a section called program change and it says that pad banks 1-12, 15-32 are 00H-1FH. (13-14 are chop banks, I don't really know if they work with the BSP I haven't tried them but I mapped them anyway)
It also said 20H-23H is pad bank 1-32 as well which is kind of confusing (this might be something to do with the chop banks, I might edit this advice when I fully understand)
This didn't mean much to me but on page 86 there's a Decimal/Hexadecimal table. So 00H = 0, 01H = 1 etc
So on the Midi control center for the BSP in the Controller Map section
I set pad 1 to...
Mode=Program change
Midi Channel=10 (default drum one)
Midi ports=Midi
Program number=0
NRPN Low=0
NRPN High=0
Pad 2 Mode, Midi channel and midi ports are the same but the rest (Program number and NRPN) are set to 1
Pad 3 the rest to 2, Pad 4 rest set to 3, Pad 5 rest set to 4 and so on
(see attached image for an example of how it works with pad 4)
Once you've set them all up save it as a user template and then go to Device > Store to > Working Memory
That sends it all to the BSP
To setup the SP505 you need to have in System > Utility > Midi
Pads channel=10 (midi channel)
Prog Ch SW=On
I have all the Parts channels=Off
I just left Sync mode=Auto
Then hook up the midi out from the BSP to the midi in of the SP505 and now when in control mode you can use the pads to change pad banks!
I think this works really well because with one button you can change all the samples to another kit etc
You can also setup the knobs on the BSP to cycle through the pad banks set it up the same as the pads but set Min Range to 0 and Max Range to 35 (well it probably should be 31 but with the thing saying it goes to 23H which equals 35 I set it up to that, I might change this later)
This isn't tested fully but it appears to work fine and it should work for SP606 and any other samplers that work this way, just be sure to check the manual for the ranges as they might differ.
Hope this helps anyone stuck like I was!
