Bank Window

(If you are reading this with HTML based help and would prefer to watch a video, just skip to the next page.)

The Bank Window is used to load and organize a Bank of Patches. The size of a Bank is determined by the architecture of the instrument. For example, a Yamaha DX7 has 32 Patches so the bank size is 32.

The primary purpose of the Bank is to provide a selection of tools you can use to keep your Patches organized. Use the Copy, Paste, and Swap functions to move Patches within a Bank or to a different Bank. It's easy to create custom Banks by opening a new Bank from the Studio Window and pasting Patches from existing Banks into the new Bank Window. Patches can also be moved from one window to another by using copy/paste, and drag and drop.

When using Drag and Drop, it is possible to control how it operates. If a patch is dragged and dropped within the same bank, then there are three options: overwrite the destination patch with the source patch, swap the source patch and destination patch, or insert the patch at the destination patch location. When dragging and dropping to a different bank, the source patch can either overwrite the destination patch or can be inserted at the destination patch location. The drag and drop options are set in the Preferences Bank Tab where there is additional information on these functions.

Along with organizing Patches within a Bank, the Bank Window provides excellent tools for creating new Patches. Begin by selecting two or more Patches and then choose one of the five different Randomize functions. The program will proceed to make useful new Patches for you. No editing knowledge necessary! Have a look at the functions: Mix, Mix All, Blend, Morph, and Gen4.

In most Banks, it's easy to audition different Patches stored in a Bank. Just click on a Patch and the program will send it to the instrument and audition it. There's no need to go to the synthesizer to audition Patches. If you have problems auditioning, make sure the MIDI Channel, SysEx Channel, and MIDI Ports are set correctly for the instrument in the Studio.

When auditioning bank patches in a Set window, there is a second, enhanced audition option available. Hold down the ALT key and click the mouse on the Patch to audition. In this case, Midi Quest sends the selected Patch to the edit buffer, as well as all child SysEx required for the patch to sound correctly. Please note that this type of auditioning will only work if the child banks have individually writable elements, that is, specific individual Patches can be sent to a bank without having to send the entire bank. In addition, while a standard audition is usually non-destructive (only the edit buffer is affected and not the banks - for instruments without edit buffers, all auditioning is destructive and is usually noted in the Fast Tips), a parent/child audition is destructive because child elements must be written into the banks.

For banks with a bank select assignment, this will be most banks for most instruments released after the late '90s, an empty bank can be be used as a generic patch selector. Click on the patch in the bank that you want selected on the instrument and Midi Quest will send the correct bank select / patch change combination to select the patch. If there is no bank select assignment, Midi Quest won't send anything.

Finally, some instruments which are modal (meaning there are different operating modes such as Program, Combi, and song for example) - particularly Korg devices - frequently share bank select information. This means that a given bank select combination in Combi mode will select a particular combi. The very same bank select message in Program mode will select a program. The mode that the instrument is in can't be changed with a bank select message. For these instruments because the bank select isn't fully reliable, by default Midi Quest doesn't send out a bank select message. However, it is possible to override this. If you know that the instrument is in the mode that matches the bank being auditioned, hold down the ALT key and Midi Quest will send the bank select message. Obviously, if the mode of the instrument is different from the type of SysEx being auditioned are different, Midi Quest will make the wrong selection.

Banks are also capable of responding to remote patch changes. If a patch change command arrives at a MIDI port that the program is monitoring, it will route this patch change to each bank window (enabled from the Preferences/Bank page). If the bank is using the same MIDI channel as the patch change, the bank will automatically select the requested patch.

Note 1: While many instruments use essentially the same types of SysEx, the manufacturer's of these instruments insist on calling the SysEx by different names. For example, a tonal source for an instrument might be called a sound, voice, patch, tone, preset, etc. Regardless of the name, the SysEx still defines a tonal source. As a result of these inconsistencies and lack of industry standard, Sound Quest will refer to an entry in a Bank Window as a "Patch" even if the SysEx you are viewing is called something else by the manufacturer.

Note 2: Additionally, on most newer instruments there is a multi-timbral setup SysEx structure where the different tonal sources are assigned to different MIDI channels. This structure, depending on the manufacturer, may be called a performance, multi, combi, global, section and so on. Regardless of the name, it still performs the function of creating a multi-timbral setup. In the few instances where it is necessary to distinguish between a "Patch" as the tonal source and a multi-timbral setup, the help file refers to the multi-timbral setup as a "Multi Patch".

Many instruments have a hierarchical organization. That is, there is a basic sound definition called a patch and if the instrument is capable of playing two or more different sounds at a time then there is an additional type of SysEx called a Performance or Combination which selects the patches that are to be played.

In most cases, when a MIDI device has this type of organization then when a Bank is being edited within a Set, Midi Quest provides Parent/Child relationship support. What this means is Midi Quest keeps track of the relationship between the Performances and Patches. If you move patches around in a Patch Bank, Midi Quest will automatically update the Performance Bank so that each Performance continues to correctly reference its Patches.

For example, if Performance 1 uses patches 3, 6, 8, 10, and 25 and you modify the Patch Bank so that Patch 25 is moved to location 36 and Patch 6 is moved to location 55, if you look at Performance 1 you will see that it now references patches 3, 55, 8, 10, and 36. This is very important because it means that you can rearrange your patches and not have to check and update all of your Performance SysEx to ensure that the correct patches are being referenced.

An additional feature of Parent/Child Relationships is that when you move a Performance from one Set to another Set, Midi Quest will find the Patches used by the Performance and move them from the Patch Bank in the source Set to the Patch Bank in the destination Set.

Bank editors support the standard extended selection options for editing, arranging, and organizing banks.

Single click on an unselected Patch - clears all currently selected Patches and selects/auditions the selected patch.

Single click on an area where there is no Patch - clears all currently selected Patches.

To select a contiguous group of patches, select the first patch then hold down the SHIFT key and select the last patch. All intervening patches will be selected as well.

CTRL-click toggles the selection state of patch so non-contiguous groups of patches may be selected.

To select or deselect a chunk of patches, click the mouse on any patch in the chunk between the left-most edge of the chunk and the left most edge of the patch numbers. This causes all patches in the chunk to be selected.

Shift+Esc cancels any drag from a Bank window to another window currently in progress.

In Windows plug-in environments, many plug-in hosts capture some or all incoming key strokes. For these hosts which capture only command keys, which include the arrow keys, there are the following additional assignments. (Remember, if the host DAW captures all keystrokes then these alternate assignments will also not work)

The easiest way to import SysEx from .SYX and .MID files is to drag and drop them onto the Studio window. If, however, SysEx needs to be imported directly into an existing bank and the file contains compatible SysEx, it can be dragged, dropped, for importing directly into the bank. (note: that while this is true for most types of SysEx, there will be exceptions. If the SysEx the .SYX or .MID file will not import, try dropping the file into the Studio window.)

The Bank menu contains a collection functions with which to organize your instrument's Banks of Patches. These functions are all contained in the Bank Edit menu. The Bank Edit menu is accessed by right clicking (Mac cmd-click) the mouse over a Bank Editor window or if the the bank is displayed in its own window, by activating the window.

You may display on your screen simultaneously as many Banks from as many different MIDI instruments as you wish (limited only by available RAM).

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