Work with SysEx faders

The SysEx fader type is slightly different from other fader types. It is primarily designed to send MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) messages—messages that are exclusive to individual manufacturers’ MIDI devices—whenever a specified fader is moved or controlled remotely. You enter the messages that you want to send in a window that resembles the Event List.

Note: SysEx faders can actually be used for any kind of MIDI event, making them useful for sending ordered batches of messages, such as Mixer or control panel snapshots, with one click of the mouse.

Open the SysEx Fader Editor window

  • Select the fader, then choose SysEx from either the Output or Input pop-up menu in the inspector.

    The SysEx Fader Editor window opens automatically.

    Figure. SysEx Fader Editor window.

You can also specify SysEx as an Input definition, but this has limited usefulness because the incoming message (presumably SysEx) must be very short in order to be recognized. (Because SysEx messages can be of any length, Logic Pro must break them into small packets to avoid interrupting other MIDI activities.)

An important thing to remember about the SysEx fader is that only selected events will have their value altered by the fader value when the SysEx fader window is closed. Events that are not selected will be sent exactly as they appear in the window.

For SysEx messages, you can determine:

  • The bytes that are altered

  • The format (MSB/LSB, BCD, nibbles, and so on) of the value

You can also specify a checksum format, if necessary.