The question is, how many similar, but different questions can be contained on one question?
“I would like to know what a program change exactly means? When I do a program change in edit mode in Cakewalk it shows me sounds for each patch number. Are patch numbers and program numbers the same thing? I want to change to different banks on my SY77 keyboard and I can’t get it to respond through Cakewalk using this method. I heard that controllers 00 and 32 would help in this situation, but how?”
Okay, patch number and program number are the same thing. The associated MIDI message is called a program change message. It is defined in our WFTD archives. Many sequencers, Cakewalk included, have the ability to show patch (or program) names on the screen for you to make selections. Sometimes these come from defined lists of names that come with the software (or are downloaded) or you can type them in yourself. In other cases the software can be integrated with a librarian or editing program that can dynamically change patches in MIDI devices and update the sequencing software at the same time (well, not literally at the same time, but you know what I mean). On devices that have more than 128 programs there is a need to organize those programs into banks. This is because a MIDI program change can only access up to 128 different programs. It’s a limitation of the MIDI specification developed nearly 20 years ago. Thus the bank select change was born, and this is where continuous controllers 00 and 32 come into play. Continuous controller commands are used to tell devices to change to different banks of programs. Then, once the machine is at the desired bank, a simple program change command works.
In the good old days (I don’t know why people think they were so good) most of this programming had to be done manually as part of a sequence. This required an understanding of the LSB and MSB and which one is relevant to your specific MIDI device. Now all of the good programs have automated this so it is pretty much invisible to the operator. Just call up the desired patch from a list of hundreds of patches and you’re done. You can refer to the MIDI implementation chart for your device to learn more about the MIDI messages it sends and receives.