Registered and Non-registered Parameter Number controllers

The MIDI Non-registered Parameter Number (abbreviated to NRPN) and Registered Parameter Number (abbreviated to RPN) controllers can be used to adjust and control a wide range of functions upon a MIDI device. These controllers are used in conjunction with the Data Button Decrement (#96), Data Button Increment (#97), and Data Entry Slider (#6 for coarse adjust, and #38 for fine adjust) controllers.

Non-registered Parameter Number

The Non-registered Parameter Number controllers are controller #98 for the "low bits", and controller #99 for the "high bits" of the parameter number. Here's how a manufacturer may use NRPN.

Assume that a manufacturer decides to allow a musician to adjust the Filter Resonance of a Voltage Controlled Filter using some MIDI controller messages. There is no standard MIDI controller defined for this purpose. One option that a manufacturer has is to use some Non-registered Parameter Number to control Filter Resonance. The available NRPN's are numbers 0 to 16,383. Just for the sake of illustration, let's say that the manufacturer chooses 14,000 as the parameter number for Filter Resonance (ie, the NRPN is 14,000). Note that a manufacturer is free to use parameter numbers for any desired purpose.

A Data Button Increment, Data Button Decrement, and/or Data Entry Slider controller will be used to actually change the Filter Resonance value. Each Data Button Increment message sent to the device will increase the Filter Resonance by 1. Each Data Button Decrement sent to the device will decrease the Filter Resonance by 1. Each Data Entry Slider will set the Filter Resonance to whatever value is specified in the Data Entry Slider MIDI message. But before these 3 controllers can adjust Resonance, first you must send the pair of NRPN controller messages which tell the device that it should regard those 3 controllers as affecting Filter Resonance. The parameter number in the NRPN messages will be 14,000 because that's what this manufacturer chose as the parameter number for Filter Resonance.

To create the NRPN message, you need to convert the 14,000 (decimal) to a binary representation. The reason is because MIDI can't transmit numbers larger than 127 within a message unless you "break up" the number into several "pieces of data", where each piece is less than 127, and the receiving device puts those pieces back together to recreate the original, large number. So, we need to convert the 14,000 to binary in order to figure out how to break it up into 2 pieces. 14,000 works out to be the following (16 digit) binary stream:

0011 0110 1011 0000

NOTE: The Windows 95 calculator, when in scientific mode, can be used to convert values between decimal, hexadecimal, and binary notation. But note that the calculator trims off leading zeros (ie, It will display only 14 or less of the 16 digits) of binary values. Make sure that you remember to prepend leading zeros so that you always have 16 binary digits.

In order to break this up into 2 pieces, we discard the first two zeros. (Due to the parameter number range being 0 to 16,383, the first two of the 16 binary digits will always be zero). We then take the next 7 digits, put a 0 in front of them, and recreate a decimal value from them:

0 11 0110 1

The above binary stream converts to 109 (6D in hexadecimal). These are the "high bits" of the parameter number.

We then take the remaining 7 digits, put a 0 in front of them, and recreate a second decimal value from them:

0 011 0000

The above binary stream converts to 48 (30 in hexadecimal). These are the "low bits" of the parameter number.

So, when we transmit the parameter number of 14,000 over MIDI, we break it up into 2 pieces; the decimal values 109 and 48 (where 109 is the "high bits" and 48 is the "low bits").

Now we need to send the pair of NRPN controller messages to the device. We send NRPN controller #99 (ie, the "coarse" controller) with our high bits of the parameter number:

176 99 109

NOTE: I'm expressing all values in decimal instead of hexadecimal. Also, I'm assuming a MIDI channel of 1 (ie, actually 0), so that's why I show a 176 above for the MIDI Controller Status. Of course, MIDI channel 2 would be a MIDI Status of 177. MIDI Channel 3 would be 178. Etc. If you're using a sequencer program to enter these messages, the program will probably figure out the status for you -- you only need to tell the sequencer that you want to enter a MIDI controller event, with a controller number of 99, and for the data value, enter the low bits of your desired parameter number (above, that's 109).

We then send the NRPN controller #98 (ie, the "fine" controller) with our low bits of the parameter number:

176 98 48

Incidentally, here are the above 2 messages shown as hexadecimal (which is the way that they're listed in Roland literature):

B0 63 6D
B0 62 30

After sending these 2 messages, any subsequent Data Button Decrement, Data Button Increment, or Data Entry Slider message (on the same MIDI channel) will adjust the Filter Resonance. For example, let's use the Data Entry Slider controller to set Filter Resonance to the value 100:

176 6 100

Note that the manufacturer can define other NRPN numbers. For example, let's say that parameter number 14,001 is used to adjust the Filter Envelope Release Time. Now, if you want to use the Data Button Increment, Data Button Decrement, and Data Entry Slider messages to adjust Filter Envelope Release Time, you first have to send the pair of NRPN controller messages with a parameter number of 14,001. (And you have to break up the 14,001 into two pieces; the "high bits" and the "low bits", as we did above with the parameter number of 14,000). Of course, after you send the pair of NRPN controllers with this new parameter number, the Data Button Increment, Data Button Decrement, and Data Entry Slider will no longer adjust Filter Resonance, but instead, will adjust Filter Envelope Release Time. In other words, the Data Button Increment, Data Button Decrement, and Data Button Slider adjust whatever "setting" is associated (by the manufacturer) with the last received pair of NRPN controllers (and the parameter number specified by that pair). That's how these MIDI controllers are related.

CakeWalk Example

Here's the procedure for entering the above example of setting Filter Resonance to the value 100 using CakeWalk.

  1. Select the desired track where you wish to insert the NRPN controller.
  2. Go to the Insert menu and select Series of Controllers.

  3. In the dialog that opens, select NRPN (coarse) controller.

  4. For the Value Range End, type in the "high bits" of the parameter number. For this example, that would be 109.

  5. Set both the From and Thru times to the Measure, Beat, and Clock when you want the NRPN to be sent.
  6. Click on the OK button.
  7. Go to the Insert menu and select Series of Controllers.
  8. In the dialog that opens, select NRPN (fine) controller.
  9. For the Value Range End, type in the "low bits" of the parameter number. For this example, that would be 48.
  10. Set both the From and Thru times to the Measure, Beat, and Clock when you want the NRPN to be sent.
  11. Click on the OK button.
  12. Go to the Insert menu and select Series of Controllers.
  13. In the dialog that opens, select Data Entry (coarse) controller.
  14. For the Value Range End, type in the value you wish. For this example, that would be 100. (Note that some MIDI devices may want to use both the coarse and fine Data Slider controllers if a parameter can be set to greater than the value 127. In that case, you break up the value into "high" and "low" parts just like with the NRPN coarse and fine controllers).
  15. Set both the From and Thru times to the Measure, Beat, and Clock when you want the Data Slider to be sent. (Note that this must be later than the 2 preceding NRPN controller messages. If you enter this controller after the preceding 2, CakeWalk should send it after those other 2, even if you specify the same times for all 2 events. But, if you wish to be sure, you can choose a time that is at least one clock later than the preceding 2 events).
  16. Click on the OK button.

Registered Parameter Numbers

Of course, there were some "settings" that nearly all manufacturers found themselves defining, such as Pitch Wheel Bend Range. For this reason, we also have a pair of controllers for these defined parameter numbers. We use the Registered Parameter Number (RPN) controller messages for these defined parameter numbers. The RPN controller #101 specifies the "high bits" of the parameter number, and RPN controller #100 specifies the "low bits". There are (as far as I know) only a couple defined RPN's. Parameter # 0 adjusts Pitch Wheel Bend Range. Parameter # 1 adjusts Master Tuning. Of course, you break up these parameter numbers in the same manner as you did NRPN's, but you use RPN controllers 100 and 101 to transmit the parameter number (instead of the NRPN controllers 98 and 99). For example, here I tell the device that I want to adjust Pitch Wheel Bend Range, and then I use the Data Entry Slider to set it to 12 steps (ie, an octave up and down). This requires 3 events (ie, the two RPN controllers to tell the device to adjust parameter number 0 for Pitch Wheel Range, and the Data Entry Slider to set the value for Pitch Wheel Range).

176 101 0
176 100 0
176 6 12