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.

Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave 8M MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave 8M: what it answers to, and the 477 controls it offers, on firmware 2.0c.

At a glance

Firmware

This page describes firmware 2.0c.

MIDI channel

1 to 16.

MPE

Received: its voices are spread across its MIDI channels, a note to each.

Voices

8.

Note range

Not recorded.

Velocity

Not recorded.

Aftertouch

Not recorded.

Pitch bend

How far it bends is not recorded, and the range can be changed.

Program change

Received and sent.

MIDI clock

Sent and received.

Start and stop

Received.

Control change

62 controls, in the tables below.

NRPN

Supported, and preferred to CC. 415 of the controls below have one.

System exclusive

Supported.

Controls

In the order the definition gives them, by group. Under each control is the name a program calls it by, once pymidiinstrumentdefs.load("groove_synthesis/third_wave_8m") has loaded them.

3rd wave control

Single

Multi

Global

Where these facts come from

Source documents

• 3rd Wave MIDI CC + SysEx Spec v2.0, v2.0, dated 10 September 2026, its MIDI implementation, read on 7 October 2026 (the file read).
• 3rd Wave 8M Module User Manual, 1.00, dated March 2025, its user manual, read on 10 October 2026 (the file read).
• 3rd Wave OS version 2.0, 2.0c, its release notes, read on 7 October 2026 (the file read).
• Support – Groove Synthesis, its download page, read on 7 October 2026.

How they were read

The maker's "3rd Wave MIDI CC + SysEx Spec v2.0" (spec p. 1), published as a document linked from its support page and read as the PDF that document exports, 75 pages: the 8M's controller table is spec pp. 14-17 and the NRPN table spec pp. 18-39. The export prints no page numbers, so it is cited by the file's own pages. Beside it, the 8M's own manual, edition 1.00 for OS 1.9, for the voices, the parts, the MIDI settings and MPE (pp. 1, 10, 82, 116-117 and 121-128); the notes for every firmware release from 1.0 to 2.0c; and the support page that lists them. These are the documents the keyboard's definition cites, the same bytes, but for the manual. A fresh export of the specification on 2026-10-10 differs from the copy cited in one byte, the version of the renderer that made it; its text is the same on every page.

READ TWICE, IN TWO RENDERINGS, BEFORE ANYTHING WAS CARRIED. The maker's document exports as a PDF and as plain text. The 8M's table and the NRPN table were read from each - the PDF by its ruled grid, the text by its cells - and the two agree on every row of both, but for one NRPN cell where the PDF wraps in-tempo-sync in the middle of a word.

TWO MAPS, AND A SETTING CHOOSES. The specification's global settings say a MIDI param send setting chooses "MIDI CC, MIDI nrpn parameter values, or off" (spec p. 2) and a MIDI para receive one "MIDI CC, MIDI nrpn, or off" (spec p. 2), and the manual's own list of the settings calls NRPN "the preferred method" (manual p. 127). The NRPN table says the receiving setting's third value is something else: "0: off, 1: CC, 2: CC+NRPN" (spec p. 38). The prose, the manual and the table do not agree about whether the instrument can take both at once, and nothing here depends on which is right.

THE CONTROLLER TABLE GREW, AND THE MAKER SAYS WHY: a map of knobs, "as the desktop and 8M came out, it was clear that this was not ideal." (spec p. 2), and "In later releases there has been a shift to expose more parameters over MIDI CC instead of using them to map knobs and buttons." (spec p. 2). The 8M's table names parameters, not knobs: three oscillators, two filters and four envelopes each with numbers of their own, and a 2.0a sub-table (spec pp. 16-17) adding the wave envelope's six times and six positions, the wave surfer and the hold.

EVERY ROW OF BOTH TABLES IS ACCOUNTED FOR. The 8M's table prints 62 rows, 48 in the main table and 14 in the 2.0a sub-table, and every one is carried, 32, "MIDI bank select" (spec p. 15), among them, as bank select is wherever a maker numbers it. Volume is printed "Volume (added in version 1.9c)" (spec p. 14) and carried as Volume. So 62 controls come from that table.

The NRPN table prints 469 rows, 0 to 468 without a gap, and 415 are carried. The 54 not carried are left out for what each row says it is: the part-select bitmap at 0; eleven rows of sequence data, a stream of commands rather than a parameter; 27 whose value packs two numbers into one, which a single range cannot describe; six marked deprecated; three marked not used currently; 444, filed as Not settable; and the five "used only on Desktop module" (spec p. 37), which are read as the 24-voice desktop's - the specification calls that model "the desktop" beside this one, "as the desktop and 8M came out" (spec p. 2), the release notes call it the desktop module in their earlier entries and, in 2.0a's, "Expanded MIDI CC mappings for 24voice module and 8M" (release_notes), and two of the five are edit buttons for each effect, where this model has one, "Press the fx edit button to access the effects controls in the display." (manual p. 82). But this model has oscillator select buttons and ENV 3 and ENV 4 buttons too - "Press the osc 1 button to select oscillator 1 for editing." (manual p. 30), and "ENV 3 (front panel): When lit, this assigns front panel envelopes section controls to the third envelope generator" (manual p. 76) - so of the five only the two effect edit buttons, with the naming, point away from it; and this model's envelope buttons have a row of their own, 8M selected env type (spec p. 38). Leaving all five out claims less than carrying any of them. The two that open 8M selected (spec p. 38) are carried here, as this model's. Some rows that name no model describe things this model lacks, and are carried as the table prints them, since no row says whose it is: the wave envelope's and the LFOs' button selects (spec p. 20), and output routing for stereo outputs 3 and 4 (spec p. 33), where this model has "the 2 stereo output pairs on the back of the unit" (manual p. 115).

THE MULTI-PART ROWS ARE WRITTEN FOR FOUR PARTS, AND THIS MODEL HAS TWO. Most carried NRPN rows are of the category whose "program contains 4 separate values for a multi-part setting, one for each of its 4 parts" (spec p. 18), and a value sent to one of them reaches whichever parts NRPN 0 has chosen: "Use NRPN #0 to change the active part that you are editing for multi-part settings." (spec p. 18). Since 2.0a a global setting can give each part numbers of its own instead - "In this mode it adds 1000 for each part to the NRPN number" (spec p. 18). The numbers below are the table's, which are part 1's in that mode and the edited part's otherwise. The table is the same for every model, so its bitmap and its global rows still name parts 3 and 4, which this model does not have; they are carried as printed.

TWO PARTS ON TWO CHANNELS, IN A MODE, AND NO PARTS DECLARED HERE. "The 3rd Wave is 2-part multitimbral" (manual p. 10), and a global setting puts each part on a channel of its own - it "allows independent MIDI control of multi-parts 1-2 on a given program" (manual p. 127), with a channel setting for parts 1 and 2. Neither document says whether that setting is on when the instrument leaves the factory, so this file describes the instrument on its one MIDI channel and declares no parts.

IT TAKES PROGRAM CHANGE, ON ONE SENTENCE. "The 3rd Wave can send MIDI Program Change messages." (manual p. 121), and below it: "Note: As long as the global receive midi program changes is on, the 3rd Wave will accept program changes from incoming MIDI messages." (manual p. 121). The manual's own list of global settings has no such setting - it lists sending, not receiving (manual pp. 124-131), and nor do the specification's global NRPN rows - so whether it can be turned off, and how it is set at the factory, is not said. Neither of the other two models' manuals says program change is received. No preset count is recorded: "The 3rd Wave has 500 presets divided into 5 banks of 100 presets." (manual p. 1), but the bank select controller the table names runs 0-3 (spec p. 15) - four of the five - and the system exclusive messages index banks 0-4 (spec p. 48), so how far program change reaches is not settled. The controller is carried as printed, 0-3.

TWENTY OF THE CARRIED CONTROLLERS ARE NUMBERS THE MIDI SPECIFICATION KEEPS FOR FINE HALVES. It makes 32 to 63 the fine halves of 0 to 31, and this table gives nineteen of them parameters of their own; the twentieth, 32, keeps the specification's meaning, bank select's fine half. Of the nineteen, 13 have their own coarse number carried too. Three sit where the commonest fourteen-bit senders put their fine halves: 33 is oscillator 2's wave offset where a fourteen-bit modulation wheel sends its fine half, 34 oscillator 2's level beside breath control on 2, and 39 the low-pass filter's envelope amount beside volume on 7. That is a fact about the MIDI specification set beside this table, not the maker's.

A MANUAL WRITTEN FROM THE KEYBOARD'S. The 8M has no keyboard, and its manual keeps the keyboard's settings for "the way the keyboard reacts to your playing velocity" (manual p. 116). They are read as the module's settings for incoming notes, and nothing below rests on them.

WHAT THE DOCUMENTS DISAGREE ABOUT, recorded and not resolved:

One worked example against the NRPN table. The specification's example of a program dump sends "MSB for param 254 (osc 1 level)" (spec p. 50), and its bytes make 254; the table gives 254 to the third oscillator's fine tuning and puts the first oscillator's level at 255. The table is carried as printed.

The modulation sources. The list of them is "Mod Source values (0-29 values)" (spec p. 39); the sixteen NRPN rows that choose a source give 0-26 (spec pp. 26-27), which stops before the last three - MPE pitch bend, the MPE Y axis and MIDI breath control (spec p. 40). The rows' ranges are carried as printed.

Effect 2's types. The NRPN row for the choice runs 0-12 (spec p. 28) and stops before the shimmer reverb 2.0a added - "New Shimmer Reverb added to the list of effects for Effect 2" (release_notes) - which the notes' "The 8M is not affected by this limit due to the fact that it only has two parts." (release_notes) suggests the 8M has too. The row's range is carried as printed.

Smaller ones. The metronome's volume is 0-100 by NRPN (spec p. 20) and Range 0-127 in the manual (manual p. 117). The MIDI in and out cables can be set off by NRPN (spec p. 39), where the manual offers "MIDI In Cable: (usb+midi, usb, midi)" (manual p. 126). The velocity and pressure curves NRPNs 38 and 39 name (spec pp. 19-20) are not the manual's lists (manual p. 116); the choices below are the table's. By NRPN 468 the tempo runs "(20.0 to 240.0)" (spec p. 39), and (20-210) in the manual (manual p. 88).

WHAT IS NOT RECORDED, each for a stated reason. Velocity and aftertouch: both are modulation sources (spec p. 40), and no document says which incoming kinds the module answers to, though the notes carry a "Fix for clearing polyaftertouch values" (release_notes) from controllers that send it. The pitch bend's depth: it is settable from 0 to 24 semitones up and down per program (NRPNs 36 and 37), and no default is given. A mode and a note range: there is no implementation chart.