“How do I get bank change commands happening on my new Proteus 2000 module with my sequencing software? I want to get to patches on my expansion boards, but it doesn’t seem to work the same as my other gear.”
The new Proteus modules use both the bank select controller MSB and LSB. This may be new to some of you who only have used the bank select LSB (controller 32) to select banks. You may even have older gear that won’t even send the bank controller MSB (controller 0). Emu gives each sound set its own bank MSB. This way, no matter which expansion slot you have a particular set installed into, it will always be selected by the same bank select command. This means sequences can be exchanged between users and will always play correctly as long as you both have the sound set(s) installed.
The “downside” to this is that bank numbers do not necessarily advance in contiguous order. For example, the Composer sound set that comes in your Proteus 2000 has a bank MSB of 4 (press the Audition button on a Composer preset and it shows you the correct bank MSB and LSB to send). User presets always have a bank MSB of 0 — So when you scroll from the last user bank (MSB = 0, LSB = 3) to the first Composer bank (MSB = 4, LSB = 0) you skip over a bunch of numbers. What happened to MSB 1,2, and 3? Those are reserved for other sound sets that have not been released yet.
Okay, so what does this mean to you and your sequencing software? Unfortunately they all work a little differently with respect to bank change commands, so it’s difficult to advise anyone in detail on this without knowing the software in use. Some have you enter distinct values for bank MSB, LSB, and patch. That’s the easy one. Others make you combine the bank change numbers together to make one number that it sends out as a “14 bit controller,” which just means it will break the number back down again and send some on controller 0, some on controller 32. How do you combine the bank MSB and LSB? Well, you first need a degree in Computer Science… All right, it’s not really that hard (but it could be easier. Any manufacturers listening out there?). To covert the MSB and LSB into one number you multiply the bank MSB by 128 (because there are only 7 bits in a MIDI data byte. After a value of 128 is reached [see WFTD binary] the MSB gets pushed into the next byte, but you already knew that being a Computer Science Ph.D.) and then add that to the bank LSB.
For example, to choose the second bank of your Composer ROM you’d do the following math:
– First, we know that the Composer ROM uses 4 as the MSP
– Multiply 4 times 128 (4 x 128 = 512), then add the LSB
– The LSB we know to be 2, so you add 2 to 512 and arrive at 514. This is the value you put into your sequencer to get to the correct bank. From there you just need a patch number as before.
Remember, this convoluted math procedure is only necessary on some sequencers. Thankfully most of them will just let you enter the separate numbers (4 and 2 in the example above).
Confused? Don’t feel bad. That’s why Sweetwater has Technical Support. They can get you through this so it will be easy.