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This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Erica Synths Steampipe MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Erica Synths Steampipe: what it answers to, on firmware 1.1.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 1.1.
MIDI channel
Not recorded.
MPE
Received: its voices are spread across its MIDI channels, a note to each.
Voices
8, or 1 as set on the instrument.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Received.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
How far it bends is not recorded, and the range can be changed.
Program change
Not recorded.
MIDI clock
Received.
Start and stop
Not recorded.
Control change
Not recorded.
NRPN
Not recorded.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

ONE MANUAL, AND IT PRINTS NO TABLE OF CONTROLLER NUMBERS. Erica Synths' product page offers one document, User manual, dated July 15, 2025, with two packs of presets and two firmware files (product_page). The manual is 20 sheets with no page numbers, so a page cited here is a sheet. Its last sheet reads "User Manual V3, July, 2025" (manual p. 20). Its text names no controller number anywhere, and no program change, system exclusive or NRPN.

EVERY PARAMETER ANSWERS TO A CONTROLLER, AND WHICH NUMBER IS A SETTING. "Every parameter on the Steampipe can be controlled via MIDI CC messages. The Steampipe comes with factory preset mapping, but you can personalize mapping in the MIDI CC MAP menu." (manual p. 16). The owner changes a number at the instrument: "Rotate the left encoder to select the parameter and rotate the right encoder to alter the MIDI CC number." (manual p. 16). The factory's mapping is printed nowhere: no table, no list, and no file of it on the product page.

A PICTURE OF THE MENU SHOWS FIVE ROWS, AND FOUR CONTROLLER NUMBERS. Beside that paragraph is a picture of the screen headed MIDI CC MAPPING (manual p. 16). Its rows, numbered 0 to 4, are Envelope Attack, with the word Learn where a number would stand, and Envelope Decay, Envelope Sustain, Envelope Release and Envelope Scaling with 71, 72, 73 and 74. That is what one screen showed when the picture was taken. No sentence says whether its numbers are the factory's, or what the word in its first row means: the text describes no learning in this menu. Envelope Scaling is the name of no control on the panel, whose envelope has a keytrack knob and a velocity knob, and the manual says of the one that it scales the envelope's times and of the other its level (manual p. 7). And five rows are not a mapping of every parameter. So no control is made of it.

SO control_change IS UNSET. none would say the instrument answers to no controller, which the maker denies in so many words. learned would say there is no factory map by design, and the maker says there is one. What is missing is the document.

AN OWNER CAN READ THE MAPPING OFF THE INSTRUMENT. Row by row in the mapping menu (manual p. 16), which is one of the settings menu's options (manual p. 15). Or by recording what the instrument sends, which the manual offers for another purpose, in a sentence printed as it stands: "This feature in particularly useful if you wish to record automations during live recording of the Steampipe into your DAW." (manual p. 15). That turning a knob sends its controller is a reading; no sentence says so in terms.

THE SAME NUMBERS ARE SENT. "The Steampipe transmits MIDI CC messages as mapped in the CC mapping menu" (manual p. 15). Each of the two ports, the DIN socket and USB, has a switch for receiving controllers and another for sending them (manual p. 15). No default is printed for the four. Of the DIN port's receiving switch the manual says: "This is particularly useful to avoid conflicting messages from the MIDI controller as described in the MIDI DEVICE menu section." (manual p. 15). That section describes no conflict. The switch's own words name every controller from that port, and the four sources below are controllers too; the reason given reads as if the playing controller's messages went on working. No sentence settles which. The second DIN socket is "the configurable MIDI thru/ MIDI out" (manual p. 5), lettered MIDI OUT on the drawing of the back and MIDI Thru/Out among the features (manual pp. 4, 5), and no setting that makes it one or the other is described.

FOUR MORE CONTROLLERS ARE THE OWNER'S TO NAME. "There are basic MIDI messages, like pitch, note on and velocity that are hard-wired to the Steampipe controls, but for more expressive performance, there are four more addressable MIDI CC messages" (manual p. 12). They are the four CC SOURCES, A to D, set by hand or by MIDI learn. As this file reads the menu they are set for each controller the owner adds as a device. Editing a controller is editing its sources, "In order to edit MIDI CC messages assigned to sources A, B, C and D, select EDIT in the MIDI controller setup menu." (manual p. 12), and the features speak of a modulation matrix "with MIDI controller-specific configurations" (manual p. 4). No sentence says in terms that each device keeps four of its own. They are sent on to destinations in a modulation menu, and what a source does there belongs to the preset: "Modulation settings are saved with PRESETS." (manual p. 13). No sentence says where the parameters' mapping, or a device's sources and bend range, are kept. The picture of the device screen shows two devices, KEYBOARD and EWI, the four sources at 1, 2, 17 and 18, and a bend of +12 and -12 (manual p. 12): again a picture of a setting.

NOTES AND VELOCITY ARE WIRED IN, AND A BEND RANGE IS A SETTING. The sentence above names pitch, note on and velocity. No sentence says in terms that pitch bend is received; what is described is its range: "The same screen provides access to the pitch bend range setting." (manual p. 13), on the screen of the device the owner set up.

MPE IS A MODE, AND THE MAKER'S ANSWER GIVES THE CONTROLLER EIGHT CHANNELS. The MIDI menu's third item is to "Initiate the MPE (Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression) mode to play the Steampipe with controllers" (manual p. 15) of that kind. The product page's one answer about it: "Since the Steampipe only uses 8 voices, make sure your MPE controller is configured to only use 8 MPE channels, not 16." (product_page). So mpe is receives and per_voice_channels true, the second as a reading of that answer. The same answer has an owner "set A to 74 CC and B to poly" (product_page) in the device menu, and "Leave C and D on zero." (product_page); no page of the manual says what poly or zero is as a source. Of how MPE works the manual says no more than that there is a mode; twice more it names MPE controllers as a kind (manual pp. 6, 12). No zone, no channel and no bend range for it is printed.

A ROW Mono-P: IN A PICTURE, THE WORD poly ON THE PAGE, AND PRESSURE IN NO SENTENCE. The picture of the MIDI monitor shows two controllers, 1 and 74, and a row Mono-P: with a value (manual p. 15). This file reads that row as channel pressure and the page's poly as pressure of the note; neither document says so. No sentence of the manual or the page says the instrument answers to aftertouch of either kind, so aftertouch is not recorded.

A CHANNEL FOR EACH INPUT, AND NO VALUES PRINTED. The MIDI menu's first two items are "Select the MIDI IN channel on the DIN MIDI connector." (manual p. 15) and "Select the MIDI IN channel on the USB MIDI connector." (manual p. 15). The picture of that menu shows both at OMNI, with MPE MODE at OFF and SYNC SOURCE at DIN. No page prints the values a channel can be set to, so channels is not recorded.

CLOCK IS RECEIVED, FOR THE LFOS. "Synchronizes the LFO to the MIDI clock." (manual p. 9), and the MIDI menu chooses which input it is taken from: "Select the source (DIN or USB) of the MIDI CLOCK for LFO synchronization." (manual p. 15). No sentence has the instrument send a clock, and none names start or stop.

THE SUSTAIN PEDAL HAS A SWITCH AND NO NUMBER. The instrument has a pedal socket of its own, and a setting for a pedal on the keyboard it is played from: "With default setting - SUSTAIN ON - an external pedal is enabled." (manual p. 15). No controller number is printed for it.

EIGHT VOICES, OR ONE NOTE AT A TIME. "It is an 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer, but it has no conventional oscillators." (manual p. 3). "Voice mode: with polyphonic selected, every voice gets a note. Monophonic is one voice at a time, in unison all voices play the same note." (manual p. 8). Three modes are named, and two of them sound one note, the second on all the voices. So polyphony is 8 and voicing_modes one and eight.

THE MANUAL IS TAKEN TO DESCRIBE 1.1. By the date the page gives it, it is a week older than the 1.1 firmware, and it already has a stereo spread, which that firmware is said to add: "Sets the stereo spread." (manual p. 9) among the reverberator's controls, and a VOICE SPREAD in the engine menu (manual p. 11). Which of the two the page means it does not say. No page says which firmware the manual is written for. The instrument shows its own: "The SYSTEM screen shows the firmware version, memory usage and CPU usage." (manual p. 17), and the picture of that screen in the manual reads VERSION: 0.00.

NOT RECORDED: