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Using MIDI devices
Background
The MIDI Device Manager allows you to specify and set
up your MIDI devices, making global control and patch
selection easy.
MIDI devices – general settings and
patch handling
On the following pages, we will describe how to install
and set up preset MIDI devices, and how to select
patches by name from within Cubase.
About Program Change and Bank Select
To instruct a MIDI instrument to select a certain patch
(sound), you send a MIDI Program Change message to
the instrument. Program Change messages can be re
-
corded or entered in a MIDI part like other events, but you
can also enter a value in the Program Selector field in the
Inspector for a MIDI track. This way, you can quickly set
each MIDI track to play a different sound.
With Program Change messages, you are able to select
between 128 different patches in your MIDI device. How-
ever, many MIDI instruments contain a larger number of
patch locations. To make these available from within Cu
-
base, you need to use Bank Select messages, a system in
which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into
banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instru
-
ments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank Se-
lector field in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the
Program Selector field to select a program in this bank.
Unfortunately, different instrument manufacturers use dif-
ferent schemes for how Bank Select messages are con-
structed, which can lead to some confusion and make it
hard to select the correct sound. Also, selecting patches by
numbers this way seems unnecessarily cumbersome, when
most instruments use names for their patches nowadays.
To help with this, you can use the MIDI Device Manager to
specify which MIDI instruments you have connected by
selecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specify
-
ing the details yourself. Once you have specified which
MIDI devices you are using, you can select to which par-
ticular device each MIDI track is routed. It is then possible
to select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.
Opening the MIDI Device Manager
Select MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu to
bring up the following window:
When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first
time, it will be empty (because you have not installed any
devices yet). On the following pages we describe how to
add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit
the settings and how to define a device from scratch.
Ö Note that there is an important difference between in-
stalling a preset MIDI device (“Install Device”) and import-
ing a MIDI device setup (“Import Setup”):
• The presets do not include any device mapping of pa-
rameters and controls and no graphic panels.
They are simply patch name scripts. When you install a preset MIDI de-
vice, it is added to the Installed Devices list. For more information about
patch name scripts, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”.
This pop-up menu lets you edit
the selected device (provided that
“Enable Edit” is ticked).
Here, the patch structure
for the selected device is
shown.
This area shows exactly which
MIDI messages are sent out to
select the patch highlighted in
the list to the left.
Here you specify to which
MIDI output the selected
device is connected.
List of connected MIDI devices. The first
time you open the MIDI Device Manager,
this list will be empty.
Use these buttons to
install/remove devices.