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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.

Dirtywave M8 MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Dirtywave M8: what it answers to, on firmware 6.5.2.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 6.5.2.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Parts
Track, 8 of them: each on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes and program changes, with 1 voice each.
Voices
Each part's own, under Parts.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Received.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
Not recorded.
Program change
Received and sent, with 128 presets.
MIDI clock
Sent and received.
Start and stop
Sent and received.
Control change
Assigned by the player, so there is no fixed chart.
NRPN
Not recorded.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

M8 Operation Manual Version 6.5.2, read in full, with Dirtywave's own firmware changelog and its Resources & Downloads page for what the manual is too old to cover.

THERE IS NO CONTROL MAP AND THE MAKER SAYS SO IN ITS OWN SPECIFICATIONS. Among the engines it lists "MIDI Output engine with 10 user defined CCs per instrument" (manual p. 91). User defined is Dirtywave's word. Nothing in 98 sheets says that a parameter of this instrument answers to a particular controller number, there is no MIDI implementation chart, and the appendix the chart would sit in holds key shortcuts, FX commands, synthesis models, groove examples, a wave table index, a hexadecimal table and the specifications.

WHAT IT HAS INSTEAD IS MIDI LEARN, IN THREE PLACES AND WITH THREE DIFFERENT LIMITS. Incoming: "MIDI mappings are MIDI CCs (Continuous Control - knobs on an external MIDI controller) or the touchscreen that are assigned to instrument or mixer parameters" (manual p. 43), assigned by holding a key and turning the control. Outgoing: "Up to 10 custom MIDI CC numbers with optional default values can be assigned per MIDI instrument" (manual p. 64) on the MIDI Out instrument, and "Up to 4 custom MIDI CC numbers with optional default values can be assigned" (manual p. 62) on the External Instrument. The specifications line above says ten and covers both, so it is wrong about one of them: the External Instrument is a MIDI output engine by its own first sentence and has four.

AND THE "128 CCs" A THIRD PARTY PUBLISHES FOR THIS INSTRUMENT IS THE MAPPING-SLOT COUNT. "Up to 128 mappings are available per song" (manual p. 43) counts slots a player can fill, and nothing assigns a number to any of them. Four other things in this manual are counted as 128 as well - the instrument slots, the MIDI note range, the song markers and the instrument equaliser banks - so a round number near the word CC in this document is not evidence of a map.

ONE MAPPING RULE IS WORTH KEEPING because it is asymmetric: "The destination parameter can only be assigned to one mapping, but one control/touchscreen axis can control many parameters" (manual p. 43). So one incoming controller may move many things and no parameter can be reached two ways.

CONTINUOUS CONTROLLERS ARRIVE ON A CHANNEL OF THEIR OWN, NOT ON A TRACK'S. "CONTROL MAP CHANNEL - MIDI channel for incoming MIDI CCs for MIDI Mapping" (manual p. 44) is one of three global channels, beside one for recording notes and one for cueing song rows, and all three are separate from the eight per-track channels. That is why the parts below receive notes and program change and not controls: a track is not where a controller lands.

EIGHT TRACKS, EACH ADDRESSABLE ON ITS OWN CHANNEL, which is what makes this a sound module as well as a sequencer: "The M8 can act like a sound module, where each of the 8 tracks can be independently controlled by an external sequencer or controller" (manual p. 45). Each track takes a channel, an instrument number and a mode of MONO, LEGATO or POLY, where "POLY - Poly mode utilizes all tracks of the same MIDI channel to enable polyphonic playback" (manual p. 45). So polyphony over MIDI is a matter of how many tracks a player gives one channel.

AND THE SPECIFICATIONS PAGE SAYS TWO THINGS FOUR LINES APART THAT DO NOT SIT EASILY TOGETHER. It gives "8 Monophonic Tracks/Voices" (manual p. 91) and then "Hypersynth - 6 note stereo chord synthesizer" (manual p. 91), and the same engine is "a 6 note saw wave chord synthesizer" (manual p. 60) - saw against stereo, a second and smaller disagreement between the two descriptions. So one engine is stated to sound six notes on a track the same page calls monophonic, and the manual never reconciles them.

WHAT THIS FILE DOES WITH THAT, AND WHY. polyphony: 1 is recorded against the track because two statements say it in plain words - "Each track can play one single note at a time" (manual p. 5) and the specification above - and because that is the figure the field asks for: how many notes a part will take at once. The Hypersynth line describes what one engine sounds from a trigger, which may be paraphony, one voice playing a chord. The manual does not say so and this file does not claim it: paraphonic is unset, the disagreement is written here, and a reader who needs to know what a Hypersynth track emits should read manual p. 60 rather than trust a field.

NOT RECORDED: mode. No basic channel default is stated anywhere, and there is no implementation chart to give one.

NOT RECORDED: presets as a factory bank. There are "128 instruments available per song that each contain settings, instrument modulations, and a table" (manual p. 16), and they are per-song slots rather than a factory bank - empty by default, the default type being NONE so that an unused slot is visible, and loaded or saved from the SD card. The figure is recorded against program_change because 128 is also exactly what a program change reaches here, but a reader should know these are the player's instruments and not the maker's.

A CHECKED ABSENCE: aftertouch, of either kind and in either direction. Neither the word nor channel pressure nor polyphonic key pressure occurs anywhere in 98 sheets.

A CHECKED ABSENCE: registered and non-registered parameters. Neither acronym occurs, searched as a word.

A CHECKED ABSENCE: system exclusive. Neither system exclusive nor sysex occurs anywhere, which also means there is no device identity reply and no documented way to address this instrument other than by channel.

A CHECKED ABSENCE THAT NEEDS A WARNING ATTACHED: MIDI pitch bend. The manual prints "PBN XX (Pitch Bend)" (manual p. 71) and it is an FX command that "Enables a continuous pitch slide up (00-7F) or down (80-FF) by the given amount" (manual p. 71) - the sequencer's own pitch slide, not a MIDI message. Nothing says this instrument sends or receives pitch bend, so pitch_bend is unset, and a reader grepping for the words will find them and must not conclude otherwise.

ALSO ABSENT, each searched for and not found: MIDI thru, local control, omni mode, the modulation wheel by either name, MPE, 14-bit controllers, running status and MIDI machine control.

WHAT TRAVELS BOTH WAYS IS SYNC, AND IT IS A SETTING RATHER THAN A FACT. The MIDI settings view has separate SYNC IN and SYNC OUT, each taking one of five values - clock, transport, clock and transport, transport with song position pointer, or all three (manual p. 44). So clock, transport and song position are all available in both directions and none of them is always on. And the same page disagrees with itself about transport: its opening sentence says "transport control (play, stop, continue)" (manual p. 44) while the setting's own line says only "TRANSPORT - Enable song start/stop MIDI transport messages" (manual p. 44), so continue is named in the prose and absent from the description. Recorded as both either way, because the disagreement is about which messages and not about the direction.

EVERY MIDI SETTING THIS INSTRUMENT HAS TRAVELS WITH THE SONG FILE AND NONE IS GLOBAL. "All mappings are stored within the song file" (manual p. 43) and "All parameters in this page are stored within the song" (manual p. 44), with a saveable default for new songs. So a channel assignment, a sync direction and a control surface choice are properties of the player's project rather than of the instrument, which is worth saying out loud to anybody building a panel for it.

PROGRAM CHANGE GOES BOTH WAYS AND THE TWO DIRECTIONS ARE NOT SYMMETRICAL. Received per track and behind a setting: "PG CHANGE - Enable instrument selection via MIDI Program-change messages" (manual p. 45), selecting the instrument slot. Sent by the two output engines, with bank select beside it: "BANK:PG - Optional MIDI Bank-select and Program-change" (manual p. 64). Bank select is sent and nothing says it is received.

ONE STATED MESSAGE ORDER, WHICH A PANEL CAN RELY ON: a MIDI instrument's default controller values "will be sent with the Note-on command after Program-change messages" (manual pp. 62, 64).

THE PORTS, FROM THE SPECIFICATIONS: "3.5mm TRS MIDI (Type A) input and output" (manual p. 91) and "USB MIDI and Audio Class 1 compliant" (manual p. 91), and the two are declared equivalent - "USB MIDI behaves the same way as the physical TRS MIDI connections allowing sync, remote control, and sequencing" (manual p. 65). An output engine chooses between them and can also send internally, to this instrument's own track input.

ONE CONTROL SURFACE IS NAMED AND ONLY ONE: "CTRL SURFACE - Set the MIDI control surface to be used with M8. Currently only the Novation Launchpad Pro MK3 is supported" (manual p. 44).

THE MODEL:01 AND THE MODEL:02 ARE ONE DEFINITION. The specifications list them separately and every difference is hardware - battery, display size, a microphone, dimensions and weight - with the MIDI line, the ports and every engine shared (manual p. 91).

AND THE MANUAL IS FIVE MONTHS OLDER THAN THE FIRMWARE, WHICH IS RECORDED BECAUSE IT WILL MATTER LATER. Dirtywave's downloads page gives the manual as last updated 04/21/2026 and the firmware as "6.6.3C Firmware" (downloads) last updated 09/14/2026, and the changelog dates 6.6.3 C to 2026-09-13 (changelog). Eight releases lie between, including a minor version bump which added a Hypersynth shape parameter and a ModFX comb filter type. None of it reaches this file, because a definition that maps no parameter to a controller has nothing a new parameter can invalidate - every field here is in both documents and unchanged by all eight. The changelog's MIDI entries in that span are four bug fixes and one usability message.