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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.

Behringer RD-9 MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Behringer RD-9: what it answers to.

At a glance

Firmware
Not recorded.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Voices
10.
Notes
Each note plays a drum of its own, assigned by the player; the factory notes are listed below.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Received.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
Not recorded.
Program change
Not recorded.
MIDI clock
Received.
Start and stop
Received.
Control change
None.
NRPN
None.
System exclusive
Supported.

Drum notes

Each drum's note is assigned by the player, and these are the notes it has from the factory.

Drum Note
bass_drum 36, C2
snare_drum 38, D2
low_tom 45, A2
mid_tom 47, B2
hi_tom 50, D3
rim_shot 37, C#2
clap 39, D#2
crash 49, C#3
ride 51, D#3
open_hat 46, A#2
closed_hat 42, F#2

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

User Manual V 1.0, 38 pages: the panel's DUMP button and SYNC section at p. 7, the MIDI sockets and the hi-hat output at p. 9, the MIDI channel, the hats and accent at p. 10, the SysEx dump at p. 11, the MIDI and USB settings at p. 16, the MAP page and its default notes at p. 17, synchronisation at p. 19, the Parameters chapter at pp. 21-28, DAW control at p. 29, and the specifications at pp. 33-34. The Quick Start Guide V 4.0, for its DUMP line and its specifications. And Behringer's product page, for its claim to send clock and for counts that disagree with the manual.

NO CONTROLLER IS NAMED IN A WHOLE MANUAL, AND THAT SEARCH IS THIS FILE'S ROUTE TO none. No page of the manual, and no half-page of the guide, names a control change, a controller number, NRPN, program change or bank select, swept with the text reduced to letters and digits and every hit read. This is a 38-page user manual with a chapter of MIDI and USB settings, a chapter on DAW control and a glossary that defines MIDI clock and MIDI messages, not a quick start guide, so its silence is evidence, where the short-document silence behringer/edge leaves unset is not. Neither document prints a MIDI implementation chart, so this is the weaker of the two routes behringer/td_3 names, a search rather than an enumeration.

AND A SEARCH BY A CONTROLLER'S NAMES IS NOT ENOUGH, WHICH behringer/model_d SHOWED. Until 2026-10-13 this file called its route the Model D's. That manual names no controller message outside a glossary entry and still has a MIDI keyboard's modulation wheel adjust a depth, so the Model D no longer says none. Both documents here were swept again on 2026-10-13, the same way, for what sends a controller and is not called one: a wheel, a pedal, a footswitch, a joystick, a ribbon, breath, modulation, expression, sustain and volume, and for aftertouch, pressure and pitch bend with them. Every sustain is the Wave Designer's knob or its glossary entry, every volume is the panel's Volume Section, with its master and phones knobs, or the glossary's entry for Master, and the one pressure is the glossary's air pressure (manual p. 35). The other words are on no page of either document. So this none stands on both sweeps. One doubt is left, and it is the maker's application: "The Synthtool, found on the Behringer website can be used to control many of the functions of the RD-9." (manual p. 5), and no document says by what messages.

THE NOTES ARE DEFAULTS, SET ON THE INSTRUMENT. "The map function allows you to change the MIDI notes that trigger the RD-9 voices either via the USB or MIDI ports." (manual p. 17), and "The default numbers are listed in the table below." (manual p. 17): eleven rows, from Bass Drum 36 to Closed Hat 42. "The DATA knob can be used to adjust the number from 0-127." (manual p. 17), and "The MIDI map is set globally and is the same for all songs and patterns." (manual p. 17). The DAW chapter sends a reader back to it: "This allows complex programming from your computer using the note numbers as described in section 11.4 MAP." (manual p. 29). No page says the RD-9 sends these notes. The map is changed on the instrument itself, so note_map is learned, and the eleven below are where it starts. Until 2026-10-13 the field was left unset.

THE SPECIFICATIONS SAY TEN VOICES SOUND TOGETHER. "Number of simultaneous voices 10" (manual p. 33), and the guide's specifications say the same (guide p. 51), against eleven sounds and eleven notes. behringer/lm_drum leaves its polyphony out because its two counts disagree and neither says how many sound at once; this one is a count of simultaneity, stated alike in both documents, so polyphony is 10. The manual uses voice for other counts too - "Level control for the 9 voices plus Accent." (manual p. 8) and "Each of the 12 voices can be set to a different Polymeter" (manual p. 18) - and none of them is a count of what sounds at once. Which two sounds share a voice is not stated. The nearest is the hats: "(75) HI HAT INDIVIDUAL OUTPUT – Unbalanced output of the Hi Hat." (manual p. 9) is one output for both, and "the closed hat voice cuts the OPEN HAT voice" (manual p. 10).

VELOCITY IS RECEIVED. "Accent can also be programmed via MIDI or USB with a high velocity value, in a DAW or via MIDI any velocity value can be used in order for crescendos to be programmed." (manual p. 10). No threshold is printed, and whether the instrument sends velocity, or any note, is not stated.

THE CHANNELS ARE SET PER PORT, AND NO DEFAULT IS STATED. On the MIDI page: "Choose the MIDI channel from 1-16, All or Out (The Output setting follows the MIDI OUT setting in the next step below) for the incoming MIDI IN port." (manual p. 16), then "Select the MIDI OUT channel from 1-16." (manual p. 16), and the USB page offers the same two (manual p. 16). The Parameters chapter gives the receive channel as 1 – 16 (manual p. 21), without All or Out. The two chapters also disagree about what is forwarded: "Turn on FORWARD TO USB to send the MIDI output of the unit to the USB OUT." (manual p. 16) against "Set MIDI in to send to USB Thru." (manual p. 21), and "FORWARD TO MIDI sends the USB MIDI output of the unit to the MIDI OUT." (manual p. 16) against "Send the USB MIDI in to the MIDI thru port." (manual p. 21) - the instrument's own output in one, what arrives at its input in the other. SOFT THRU turns the MIDI OUT into a second thru, and "DEVICE ID sets the units ID from 1-16. This is helpful when dealing with multiple units via SysEx." (manual p. 16).

CLOCK IS FOLLOWED, AND SENDING IS CLAIMED WITHOUT A PORT. The Parameters chapter's Clock Source setting offers INT, MIDI, USB or CLK (manual p. 21), the panel calling the last TRIG, and "MIDI – The sync is taken from the MIDI IN port. A MIDI start message is required in order for playback to start." (manual p. 19). For USB, "A message is required in order for playback to start." (manual p. 19), naming none. So a start message is received over MIDI, and transport says so; no page names stop, continue or song position as a MIDI message. The manual's feature chapter says "The RD-9 can also send and receive clock information with highly accurate timing to sync it to the outside world." (manual p. 6), and the product page rewrites that paragraph and keeps the sentence (product_page), naming the RD-8 once where the manual names the RD-9: "the RD-8 lets you control external synths" (product_page). The sentence names no port, and the RD-9 has analogue sync jacks as well as MIDI. The panel description says only that in the internal mode "The unit is the sync master." (manual p. 7), and no page says a MIDI clock leaves the MIDI or USB port. So clock is receives, and the claim to send is recorded here rather than carried.

MIDI TIME CODE IS NAMED FOR DAW SYNC, AND THE FORMAT HAS NO FIELD FOR IT. "The 2nd way is to use Midi Time Code (MTC) to sync the RD-9 to your project." (manual p. 29), with a worked example for one DAW in which "On the RD-9 select USB from the Sync options." (manual p. 29).

SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE CARRIES THE DUMPS. "Instead of saving, the DUMP control will output the selection as a SysEx message." (manual p. 11), and "This information can be saved and loaded by a third-party program or sent to another RD-9." (manual p. 11), which implies an RD-9 takes a dump in; no page says how. What a dump holds is given two ways: "(14) DUMP – Performs a MIDI SysEx Dump of pattern, song or settings." (manual p. 7), and "DUMP – Performs a MIDI SysEx Dump of pattern/song." (guide p. 15). The Parameters chapter describes "three different types of data files used by the RD-9" (manual p. 21), and gives a pattern's step bits for "power users wishing to implement their own editors" (manual p. 27); no SysEx header or command is published.

THE SETTINGS TABLE ON P. 21 SLIPS A ROW. From USB TX Channel down, each setting's name stands a row above its own description: USB TX Channel beside "Set the USB MIDI receive channel." (manual p. 21), Voice Note Mappings (1 - 11) beside "Send the USB MIDI in to the MIDI thru port." (manual p. 21), and the trigger assignment's description and values on a row with no name. No field rests on that table.

THE PRODUCT PAGE'S VISIBLE TEXT DISAGREES WITH THE MANUAL FOUR TIMES, AND ITS OWN FEATURE LIST AGREES WITH THE MANUAL. It says "The 64-step sequencer can store up to 64 patterns and 16 songs" (product_page) where the specifications say 16 songs, 16 patterns each (manual p. 34); "11 independent analog outputs" (product_page) where Voice out is ten jacks (manual p. 33); "The RD-9 has 33 knobs and 58 buttons" (product_page) where the manual has "The RD-9 has 37 knobs and 58 buttons" (manual p. 6); and that the "original drum sounds come with their own tuning, level, attack and decay controls" (product_page) where the rim shot and clap have a level alone (manual p. 33). The feature list in the page's script payload, which its visible text leaves out, gives 256 patterns and ten outputs, as the manual's specifications and the guide's do (guide p. 51).

NOT NAMED AS A MIDI MESSAGE ON ANY PAGE OF THE MANUAL OR ANY HALF-PAGE OF THE GUIDE: control change, NRPN, RPN, program change, bank select, song select, song position, continue, stop, pitch bend, aftertouch, omni, local control and all notes off.