Double-clicking a multi-instrument opens the Multi-Instrument window. It contains the following areas:
Device Name and Short Device Name fields: At the top-left corner of the window, you can enter the full name of the multi-instrument in the Device Name field. You can also enter a short name for the multi-instrument in the Short Device Name field. This short name is used in the main window track list, when the program name is displayed.
Depending on whether or not you have activated the subchannel’s Program parameter, the following information appears in the track list of the Tracks area:
The name of the multi-instrument and channel number (if the parameter is not activated)
The short name, channel number, and program name (if the parameter is activated)
Program Names area: There are 128 program names in the Multi-Instrument window. A total of 15 banks of 128 program names is available. There are several ways to enter program names:
Double-click the name (via the text field).
Copy (via the Clipboard) from a different multi-instrument, or from a word-processing program. The Clipboard functions for a whole sound bank are available in the Options pop-up menu.
First, copy the program numbers or General MIDI names to the Clipboard, and add them to a word-processing document.
You can then edit the names and copy the whole section back again.
If you want to use program numbers instead of names, choose Init Names as Numbers from the Options pop-up menu.
If you want to use General MIDI program names, choose Init General MIDI Names. If the Use GM Drum Program Names for Channel 10 checkbox, at the bottom of the window, is activated, the standard GM drum set names are shown in the Program pop-up menu of the inspector for subchannel 10.
If the Program box in the selected subchannel’s inspector has a checkmark in it, you can send a program change message by selecting a program name in the Multi-Instrument window.
Bank pop-up menu: The Bank pop-up menu allows you to choose one of 15 available sound banks (0 to 14). The top item—“No Bank specified. Names of Bank 0 used”—can be used if your sound generator does not understand bank select messages, or only has 128 sound programs.
Bank 0 is always initialized.
The first time you choose one of the banks numbered 1 to 14, you are asked whether or not you want to initialize this bank.
For banks that are not initialized, the names of the equivalent program numbers from bank 0 are used.
Note: You should only initialize additional banks if you want to enter program names for those banks, because each initialized bank uses more memory.
Bank Message pop-up menu: The Bank Message pop-up menu allows you to define the MIDI events that are sent when you switch between the banks of the multi-instrument.
Different bank select formats are used by different MIDI instrument manufacturers. Refer to your MIDI instrument’s manual to see whether or not it supports bank select messages, and if so, what format it uses.
With modern synths, there’s a good chance the format will match one of the top items in the menu: either controller #32 or controller #0. There are also presets to accommodate several of the more common types of synths. If your synth doesn’t use one of the formats listed, you can define your own bank select messages (see Custom bank selects).