Hey, I’m creating cool songs. I’m using Controller Sets, and doing fancy effect overdubs. Woo woo! In the main manual for the Motif 6 on page 169, there’s a table listing the Control Change Numbers. Among the list is General 1, 2, 3, etc., and Effect 1, 2, 3, etc. I read in a Power User guide that General means General Purpose - but what does THAT mean, and what does Effect 1, 2.... mean??? I’ve read the manual 3 times, and I don’t see these explained. Can someone please help me understand this?

Re: Control Change Number list

The Manual, while it does provide some fundamental basic information on the MIDI specification, is not going to be a complete guide to the MIDI protocol

General Purpose - means “all around - for general use"… this translates into, these Control Change numbers (there are four of them) cc016-cc019, can be used for whatever parameter you assign to them. They do not have a specific fixed or dedicated function.

An example of a Control Change number that has a fixed purpose would be cc010 PAN… It will always control pan position. cc011 EXPRESSION, cc007 VOLUME - these will always perform a change in output level.

General Purpose means you can assign something to them - in the case of the Motif these default as follows:
General Purpose 1 (cc016) = Assignable Knob 1
General Purpose 2 (cc017) = Assignable Knob 2
General Purpose 3 (cc018) = Assignable Knob A
General Purpose 1 (cc019) = Assignable Knob B

Also in MIDI there are four different Control Change messages dedicated to Effect processors. cc091-cc094
by convention Reverb is cc091, Chorus is 093 - the other 92 and 94 can be used by not in all cases.... it depends on the product in question… the Motif uses 91 for Reverb and 93 for Chorus. (SYSTEM Effects).

A basic book on MIDI will give you more information and background on the messages.  [url=http://www.MIDI.org]http://www.MIDI.org [/url] is a great resource as well.