As anyone who tries to use the midi features of the Magic 260 will quickly learn, the manual says almost nothing about how to do it. For example, one of the MENU options in the Magic 260 is "Set Midi Channel." When that option is selceted, you are give the option to set both the Midi Channel and the "Extra Channels." The manual says nothing about either of these.
Additionally, the Midi Implemtation Chart in the manual leads one to believe that the Magic 260 responds to signals on every channel, with no indication that the Magic 260 give you some ability to disable certain midi channels (so that you can include the Magic 260 in a midi controlled system without having it respond to notes transmitted on the channels being used in the system to control music.) But the Magaic 260 does have this feature.
Setting the "Midi Channel" sets the midi channel below which the controller will not respond. Setting the "Extra Channel" keeps the unit from responding to midi data sent on channels above the extra channel range.
For example, if you don't want the Magic 260 to respond to signals on midi channels 1- 6, the Magic 260 MENU will let you set the Midi Channel to 7 and it will ignore all the signals broadcast on channels 1 - 6. If you leave "Extra Channels" set to 0, then the Magic 260 will also ignore signals on midi channels above 7. Using channel 7 you can trigger via midi up to 24 shows and 24 scenes. If you set the "Extra Channels" to 1, then the Magic 260 will respond to signals on channel 7 and on the extra channel, 8. Setting "Extra Channels" to 2 causes the Magic 260 to respond to signals on channels 8 and 9; and so on.
Inasmuch as Shows are locked into the first 12 channels, if "Midi Channel" is set to 13 or above, then no shows can be triggerred regardless of the "Extra Channel" setting.
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