Manual Backup & Restore of TR909 Patterns Via Sysex
===================================================

The TR909 has a sysex implementation that allows
the whole memory to be dumped or reloaded, but all
transfers must be initiated from the PC, so most
people don't even know this can be done...

Make sure the 909 is in track mode, and stopped.

Connect 909 MIDI out to PC MIDI in, PC MIDI out to
909 MIDI in.

I use MIDI-Ox to backup and restore patterns, but
other MIDI utilities may do just as well.

MIDI-Ox will not allow the sysex request commands to
be sent manually while also waiting to capture the
dump sent in response by the 909, so you need to use
two instances of MIDI-Ox to backup the 909.
One will be used to send the requests, the other will
receive the data.
The first instance run should be used to send the
requests, as the second instance may not be able to
open the MIDI output port.

In the first instance of MIDI-Ox, open the Sysex
window.
Go to the 'Sysex, Configure...' menu option and, in the
configuration dialogue, make sure you have
'Delay after F7' set to at least 150 ms.

In the second instance of MIDI-Ox, open the Sysex
window and use the 'Sysex, Receive Manual Dump...'
menu option.
A 'SysEx Receive' dialogue should appear showing
zero bytes received so far.

Copy and paste the following into the Sysex Command
window in the first instance of MIDI-Ox:

f0 41 51 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7
f0 41 53 f7

Then use the 'Command Window, Send Sysex' menu option.
This instance of MIDI-Ox will send 16 messages to the 909.
There should be a 150ms pause between each message.
In response to each, the 909 will send one block of its
memory contents back.
All 16 blocks sent by the 909 should be received by the
second instance of MIDI-Ox.
When complete, the 'SysEx Receive' dialogue should report
8368 bytes have been received.

To save the dump, click 'Done' to close the receive dialogue.
The received hex data should appear in the Display Window.
Use the 'Display Window, Save As...' menu option to save the
dump to disk as a .syx file.


RESTORING THE DATA

Before the saved sysex data can be resent to the 909, you
need to manually send a 'Data load from host' request:

F0 41 50 F7

You can copy this string into the MIDI-Ox sysex Command Window.
After sending it to the 909, you can then use the
'File, Send Sysex File...' menu option to replay the dumped
data to the 909.
As long as you have the F7 delay still set correctly, the 909
should respond to each block with the message 'F0 41 53 F7'.


That's it !

Cheers,
Colin f