126
E-MU Systems
Programming Basics
MIDI Channels & Real-time Controls
Bank Select
Commands
When the original MIDI specification was developed, no synthesizer had
more than 40 preset locations. At that time being able to select up to 128
presets didn’t seem like much of a limitation. So it was that the original
MIDI specification provided for the selection of up to 128 presets.
Musicians wanted
MORE
presets and so the MIDI specification was later
amended to include
Bank Select
Commands
. It was decided that Bank
Select Commands would use Continuous Controllers 0 and 32 to allow the
selection of up to 16,384 banks of 128 presets (over two million presets).
Because Bank Selects are implemented using Continuous Controllers, the
Bank Selections can be made
per channel
. (This is getting better and better.)
For each MIDI channel, you can select any of 16,384 banks and then one of
the 128 presets in the bank. Of course no synthesizer has 16,384 banks
(yet), but hey, it’s nice to know it’s possible (for that really BIG project).
Continuous Controller (CC) 0 is the MSB (most significant byte) and CC 32
is the LSB (least significant byte). Normally you send both the MSB and LSB
controllers to implement a bank change.
When you press the
Audition button, the Bank Select
MSB and LSB are displayed on
the top line of the display.
MK-6 remembers the MSB and the LSB that were last sent (or last changed
from the front panel). For example, if you have already set the Bank MSB to
04, you need only send the LSB to change banks within the MK-6 sound
set. See the MIDI Bank Select chart below.
The selected bank remains selected until you change it (either via MIDI or
by changing the bank from the front panel). Standard MIDI Program
Change commands select from 128 presets within the selected bank.
MROM1
MROM1
MROM1
MROM1
Bank 0
Bank 1
Bank 2
Bank 3
Bank 0
Bank 1
Bank 2
Bank 3
00
00
00
00
15
15
15
15
00
01
02
03
00
01
02
03
USER
USER
USER
USER
MIDI BANK SELECT
cc00 cc32
MSB LSB
