Programming your PC1
Using the PC1 to Control External Slaves
4-25
You’ll need to know which MIDI message the receiving devices use for selecting banks (it’s
usually MIDI 0 or MIDI 32 with a value from
0
to
127
; many instruments, including the PC1, can
accept MIDI 0
and
MIDI 32 as a single bank-selection message, allowing you to select banks
numbered from 0 to 16,383).
1.
Set the
MIDI Xmit
parameters like step 1 and 2 above
2.
Press the
Menu
button then the
Right
cursor button to select the Program menu. Press
Enter
.
3.
Then press the
Left
cursor button, you can see the bank parameter.
4.
Turn the Alpha wheel to set the number of the bank you want to select. You can enter a
number from 0 to 16,383 (not all instruments can handle numbers higher than 127,
however).
5.
Press the
Right
cursor button, and you will see the Program parameter. The display will
show External Program, since the PC1 doesn’t know the names of programs on external
slave.
6.
Turn the Alpha wheel to set the ID of the program you want to select.
For more information, see
Understanding Bank-Select Controllers
.
Understanding Bank-Select Controllers
Most newer keyboards have more than 128 different programs, but MIDI allows only 128 values
for the Program Change message. The bank-selection controller enables you to have multiple
banks of programs: each program bank can store up to 128 programs.
There are actually
two
bank-selection controllers: Controller 0 and Controller 32. Some
manufacturers use just 0, some use just 32, and some use both. Since each bank-selection
controller can have 128 values, that means that the total number of possible banks is 128 x 128 =
16,384 (numbered as 0–16,383). Since each bank can have 128 programs in it, that means the total
number of possible programs in an instrument is 2,097,152! In practice, most instruments tend to
have 10 or fewer banks.
By default, the PC1 responds to Controller 0 with a value of
0
, followed by Controller 32 with a
value corresponding to the desired bank (although you can use either controller). There are six
standard program banks (
0
–
4,
and
6
). When working with external slaves, you may find they
require very different values for the banks. Many Roland keyboards, for example, use values of
80
or
81
for Controller 0.
The PC1 actually has a transmit parameter called Bank Mode, within the Program menu. This
allows you to choose either
0
or
32
or
0/32
for an individual zone. However, if the value of this
parameter is not the same as the Bank Sel Ctl (Bank Selection Control) reception parameter found
in the Global menu, it causes the PC1 to display the bank values in a very confused manner.
Therefore, we recommend that you leave the Bank Mode parameter set at the default value of
0/32
, which is the same as the default Global Bank Sel Ctl value.
If you have an instrument like a Roland, which responds only to Controller 0 for bank selection,
you have to know how to calculate the bank number. Controller 0 is the Most Significant Byte
(MSB) and Controller 32 is the Least Significant Byte (LSB). If you see the two bank controllers
together, they are normally shown as MSB/LSB. This means that you count by incrementing the
number in the LSB column before incrementing the MSB. In essence, you are counting in base 128.
