4-36
Programming Your PC2R
Using the PC2R with Other Gear
Sending Bank-Select and Program-Change Messages
When you have a MIDI instrument slaved to the PC2R, the program-change messages you send
to the PC2R from your MIDI source also go to the slave instrument. If your MIDI source can also
send bank-select messages, you can select banks and programs on both the PC2R and the slave.
When you’re in MIDI Setups mode and you select a PC2R setup from your MIDI source, that
message gets remapped into four separate program-change messages that get transmitted to the
slave instrument, selecting the corresponding program (or bank and program) on the slave. (If
you’re wondering what to do if you want to send program changes only to the slave, see
Sending
Program Changes Only
on page 4-38.)
If you want to change banks on the slave instrument when you select a setup on the PC2R,
you’ll need to know which MIDI message the slave uses for selecting banks (it’s usually MIDI 0
or MIDI 32 with a value from
0
to
127
; many instruments, including the PC2R, can accept MIDI 0
and
MIDI 32 as a single bank-selection message, allowing you to select banks numbered from 0
to 16,383). Here’s how to do it:
1. Go into the Program menu in the Setup Editor, and press the
Left
cursor button to select
the Bank parameter. Change its value to a number from
0
to
16,383
(not all instruments
can handle numbers higher than 127, however).
Keep in mind that this is also instructing the PC2R to use the same bank. If you want to
send different program-change messages to the slave, you’ll need to edit the setup a bit.
See
Sending Program Changes Only
on page 4-38.
2. Press the
Right
cursor button to select the Program parameter, and select the desired
program.
3. Save the setup.
For more information about the bank-select message, 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 PC2R 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 five
standard program banks (
0
–
3
and
6
), and two KB3 banks (
4
and
5)
. 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 PC2R actually has a transmit parameter called Bank Mode, within the Program menu. This
allows you to chose 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 PC2R 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.
