Bank Change Message Work Arounds
In response to our TTOTD (6/18/98) on accessing synthesizer banks and bank command messages, inSync reader David C. adds that Kurzweil K2 series machines provide a workaround in the way they store sounds. They store up to 1000 sounds in 10 banks of 100 sounds each. Because of this, MIDI program numbers 100 through 127 are never used. Kurzweil uses these values as bank-changes. Requests for programs 100 through 109 will result in bank 0-9, respectively, being selected if (and only if) the next MIDI command is a program change request for something in the range of 0-99.So, if your MIDI controller can’t provide the bank-change parameter but you want (for instance) to set a Kurzweil synthesizer to program 519, you can do this by first sending a program change of 105, followed by a program change of 19.Do other vendors’ synthesizers provide similar workarounds?The answer: Yes. Your best source of information is the MIDI implementation chart that comes with your synth. Stay tuned to tomorrow’s inSync for more…
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