Tutorial
Using the Library
For Midi Quest and Midi Quest Pro only.
Creating a new Library
It's now time to start creating a Library for your instrument's Patches. Go to the Studio Window and click on "Default Set" to display a popup list of available Sets and Components for the instrument. Select the Component that represents a sound on your instrument. This may be called a Patch, Tone, Sound, Voice, etc, depending on the instrument. We'll assume it's called a Patch. Now, either choose File/New/Library from the menus or right click on the instrument's "New" button and choose Library from the popup menu to create a new, empty Library.
Copy Patches from a Bank into a Library
Return to the Set and select the Patch Bank; this is the Bank that holds the instrument's sounds. Now, click on one or more Patches in the Bank to select them. Click again on a selected patch, hold the mouse button down, and drag the mouse towards the Library. You will see the mouse change to a Drag display. Drag the mouse over the Library Window and release the button. The selected Patches are copied into the Library.
Adding Tags in a Library
One of the major advantages of organizing your instrument's Patches in a Library is that each Patch can have descriptive tags assigned to it. In the future you will be able to search for only those Patches which have matching tags. For example, if you code all of your bass Patches with the tag "BASS", later when you are looking for a BASS sound, you can search for and display only your BASS patches. While it may take some time to initially set up each of your Patches, in the long run, the time will have been well spent. Now that you have a Library with some Patches, select the first Patch and press the Patch button in the Library's icon bar to display the Patch Update dialog to the right. The Patch Update dialog allows you to change the name of the Patch, assign a comment and add tags to the Patch. To add a tag:
| • | Click the left mouse button in the raised area beside Tags "1." |
| • | A pop-up menu appears with a list of the tag categories |
| • | Select a category and choose a tag from within the category |
When you release the mouse, the selected tag is added to Tags. Even if the Patch you have selected is not a bass sound, pretend it is for this portion of the tutorial. Add the Bass tag by clicking in the raised area beside "1." to display the pop-up menu. Move down the menu to "String-Pluck", highlight "Bass" and release the mouse button. Bass will be added as the tag for this sound. Press the OK button to accept the changes. Choose two or three Patches and repeat this process so that you have several Patches coded with the tag "Bass".
Note: Up to eight tags can be assigned to a Patch. Along with an indication of the type of Patch, tags can be used to describe the type of sound such as "Slap" bass, or "Fender" bass. We strongly suggest that you must keep the descriptions of your sounds simple and consistent or you will not be able to effectively search for sounds in the future.
Searching a Library
The Query dialog is used to select Patches from the Library based on the criteria you select. For the tutorial, we will show you how you can find Patches. The other most frequent use for the Query dialog is to find duplicate sounds so you can expunge them. Imagine in the future, you have built up a Library of 5000 sounds and you would like to find all of the "bass" sounds in your Library. Follow these steps:
| • | Press the Query button in the Library Window |
| • | Check "Apply Tags" |
| • | In Tag Select, click in the first raised box |
| • | A pop-up menu listing of tags is displayed |
| • | Move down to "String-Pluck", and highlight "Bass" |
| • | Release the mouse button to select "Bass" |
| • | Press the OK button in the Query dialog |
After the program has finished processing, only Patches with the tag "Bass" are displayed in the Library.
Auditioning a Library
You can now audition each of the Bass Patches in your Library.
Similar to the Bank Window, clicking on a Patch in the Library automatically sends that Patch to the instrument and plays a chord.
If you would like to play a different chord, you can open the Tones Window by choosing Utilities/Tones. From this window, you can define the number of notes to play in the chord, the chord's duration, the pitches, and the velocity of each pitch.
To redisplay all of the Patches in your Library, choose Library/View/Show Allor press the Show All button on the Library button bar.
Saving the Library to Disk
To save your Library, choose File/Save As.... A File Selector dialog is displayed for you to enter a name for the new Library.
Available in:
Midi Quest Pro |
ü |
Midi Quest |
ü |
Midi Quest Essentials |
û |
Midi Quest one |
û |