Library/CLI tool for working with Roland RDS files (live set keyboard patches)
Roland stage pianos (such as the RD300NX) have the abiity to program a set of patches in a particular order for use during a performance, these are called "live sets". The full set of live set patches can be saved/loaded to the internal memory or an external USB drive. They are stored in a binary file with the extension RDS.
Although the functionality in the keyboard is great for performances, due to being an embedded system with limited controls and no keyboard, it can take a very long time to program a complex set of live set patches, and as it is tedious it is prone to human error. More significantly, making small changes such as changing the order of 2 patches, or inserting a single patch and shift everything else down can take hours.
The Roland RD300NX (MIDI implementation) is currently the only supported model, however the Roland RD700NX (MIDI implementation) could be supported with minimal effort as it also uses 2160 byte live sets and seemingly the same structure as RD300NX but with more patches. This would require someone to provide example RD700NX files and assist with some testing. Both of these models are discontinued.
It is likely that the currently available Roland RD-88 (MIDI implementation) and Roland RD-2000 (MIDI implementation) could also be supported, however these would require substancial work as they use different size live sets (RD2000 appears to be 5090 byte).
To decode an RDS file, and output plain text JSON (which can be easily manipulated in a text editor):
roland-rds decode INPUT.RDS OUTPUT.JSON
Once you have made the required changes to your JSON file, to re-encode it to an RDS file:
roland-rds encode INPUT.JSON OUTPUT.RDS
NOTE: I currently do not recommend editing the SYSTEM settings, until issue 13 has been completed, as the checksums will likely be wrong and the keyboard will not accept the RDS file.
To split a decoded JSON file into a folder structure (with each live set as a separate section for easy modification):
roland-rds split INPUT.JSON OUTPUT_FOLDER
To re-combine a folder structure of JSON files into a single JSON file:
roland-rds merge INPUT_FOLDER OUTPUT.JSON
To generate the JSON schema and save to a JSON file:
roland-rds schema OUTPUT.JSON
In all instances, a file argument can be replaced with '-' to mean read from STDIN or write to STDOUT, however folder arguments must always be supplied.
If you run roland-rds help or without args, you will see usage instructions.
If you'd rather not edit JSON directly, the recommended way to edit the JSON data is using JsonEditor. This requires the JSON file and the JSON schema file.
I encourage anyone who has time to add to the understanding of the RDS file, or implement for additional Roland devices. I suggest the following 2 approaches, potentially used in tandem. You can also find some easier (more well defined) tasks in issues which will help.
- use a keyboard to create 2 different RDS files with only a single parameter different
- decode both files to JSON
- use a text comparing tool to diff the JSON and determine which bit has changed
- update the code in roland.rs accordingly, test, and submit a pull request
- Roland will likely never release details on the RDS file format
- they do however describe in detail how memory is stored in the device itself as part of the MIDI implementation (see SysEx messsages)
- it appears that the RDS file follows the same parameters but in a compressed format
