Changing Patches on an Engine

erstlaub

Ok, this is something I've been meaning to try to get my head around for a while now and never quite got round to.

Is it possible to load patches on the engine using an external midi controller (in this case the BCR2000)? I know that the process probably has something to do with sys ex messages and the like. Despite the fact that I used to have a fairly complicated midi setup, I always shied away from bank changes etc.

Anyone care to give me a brief idiots guide? Ideally I'd like to have a couple of the buttons assigned to select patches up and down the way for when I can't be bothered turning a computer on but still want to have a little jam.

Another alternative might be to change slots via midi (I generally only use one at a time) and having access to 4 without needing to turn on a cpu would be fine.

The annoying thing is that if I'd got a hard copy of the G2 manual with my engine I'd be quite happy to read up and try to work it out, there's something about staring at a pdf that just puts my brain into idle mode.

Many thanks.

D

Derek Cook · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:21 am Post subject:

Hi, I agree on the manual front. In the end I bit the bullet and printed the thing out in work! Shocked

I regularly change patches on the Nord using my main controller, which is a Yamaha EX5. You need to send a Bank Select MSB of 00H, a Bank Select LSB of 00H for Bank 1, a Bank Select LSB of 01H for Bank 2, etc and obviously the patch select number.

I have my Nord G2 performance mode MIDI channel set to 15, and I send the bank/patch change commands to that channel to select my performances.

Antimon · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:47 am Post subject:

The BCR2000 supports program change with fixed bank, just tried it. Only you can't set a button to increment/decrement (as far as I can see). If you hold edit and twist a knob, you set knob 1 to PC. Then the knob selects patch 1-128 on its channel. If you edit a push button you set it to a fixed patch number. Knob 4 sets bank LSB. So if you want to switch banks quickly, you'll have to patch one knob for each bank.

Only you have to make sure that the global MIDI channel isn't set to the slot channel you want to change, if you only want to change the patch (cheers to Derek for showing this Smile

).

This brought me to another issue: how do you see the patch/bank number for the currently selected patch in the Engine editor? It isn't highlighted in the patch browser (running on a Mac), and I can't find a number in the editor, only the patch name. Confused

/Stefan

erstlaub · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the quick responses.

I was struggling a bit to get this working but then I noticed the midi in activity light going on the BCR so I just cheated and used midi learn "downstream" and it works nicely. I feel a bit lazy and unsatisfied so tomorrow I will probably look and see why it's working now.

Words cannot express how much I miss having even a single 2 line display on the engine, otherwise this would mean not having to lug a computer around everwhere.

C'est la vie.

EDIT: I've just updated the BCR firmware and it's added the ability to have push buttons act incrementally. I've to got 2 buttons assigned to the same PC settings but one with an increment on +1, the other -1. Voila! Patch up/down buttons.

Derek Cook · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:46 pm Post subject:

Yeah, just having a slab of metal and no UI is a bit daunting at first, but that little red box in my rack is fast becoming one of my most important sound engines for making analog seventies retro noises in the prog rock vein! Smile

G2DREAM · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:07 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:01 am Post subject:

I had some problems figuring this out on the NM. I found that on the NM you NEED to send the most-signifficant bit of the bank change first (probably best to leave it at 0) but that doesn't affect anything; the least signifficant one does but it won't get reacted to without the first one. Each slot-channel needs to have it's own bank set.

That could realy do with some more documentation beacuse now it was anoying to figure out.

cappy2112 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:15 pm Post subject:

cappy2112 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject:

G2DREAM · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:27 pm Post subject:

Great idea! Idea

Leave it to me!
_____________
cyber-evolution

Mentris · Joined: Jul 20, 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Berlin

cappy2112 · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:

erstlaub · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:11 am Post subject:

I'll have to fess up to getting fat and lazy from computers and forgetting all the fancy midi stuff I used to know.

To get this to work I simply made sure both the midi in and outs were connected up, put one of the buttons on the BCR into learn mode and changed the patch in the editor by clicking on it. I then went into edit mode on that button and one of the unmarked encoders at the right hand end let me dial in increments.

I just repeated the process with the button next to it and made the increments of -1.

You need to remember that there is some issue with changing the master midi channel in the nord to something different from the midi channel you use for your patches or it won't work. Or maybe it's something to do with my setup.

I'm not sure if this is any help or not, I can't remember what firmware version, the number 1.41 seems to stick in my head but that may well be for some other bit of kit.

I never have the BCR even hooked up to usb let alone trying to use that horrible and odd java editor. I'll tell you one thing though, even that was better fun and easier to use than the horrible and utterly broken enigma editor that I can never get to work properly for the UC33 I sometimes use.

NB - You can only change patches within the one bank but it works perfectlly for what I need.

Mentris · Joined: Jul 20, 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Berlin

Erstlaub, do you know if the increase-button-thing works for sysex-messages, too?