DRIVERS: TALKING TO YOUR SYNTHS What is a Driver? As you know, The PatchMeister cannot run without Drivers. Drivers contain all of the MIDI commands that are used to communicate with your synths. But Drivers arenÕt enough. When The PatchMeister wants to send a command it has to know where to send it. ThatÕs where MIDI routes come in to play. This chapter will discuss installing Drivers and setting MID! routes. The PatchMeister Window The PatchMeister window is the control center of the program. This window lists all of the installed Drivers along with their corresponding MIDI routes. Any changes you make to this window will be remembered in the respect that what you see in this window when the program shuts down will appear in this window the next time that you run The PatchMeister. The PatchMeister window is open the entire time that The PatchMeister is running. The Patchmeister Window Buttons Drivers are installed, rearranged, and removed through use of the buttons located at the top of this window. When you click over one of these buttons, the button will become highlighted and the cursor will change to reflect the edit mode (button) you have just chosen. You will remain in this edit mode until you dick over a different button or you click on the same button a second time to shut it off. ¥ Use the PENCIL button to install the Drivers needed for your keyboard(s) and/or sound module(s). Choose a location for the Driver by clicking somewhere within the Driver list box in The PatchMeister window. You will be presented with a file requester. Select the specific Driver that you wish to install. ¥ The HAND button allows you to rearrange the installed Drivers in The Patchmeister window. Point to the synth (Driver) you want to move, and press the left mouse button as you drag this synth around the window. Release the left mouse button when you are over the area that you want to drop the synth (Driver) that you are dragging. The synth will be removed from its original slot and will be inserted into the destination slot. Synths in between the original and destination slots will be shifted up by one. You can also use the HAND button to install drivers! If you should elect to drop the synth (Driver) after the last installed Driver, a copy of that synth (Driver) will be appended to the end of the installed Driver list Duplicate Drivers are numbered sequentially starting with one (1). This number is in no way associated with a particular Driver for the rest of its life. It is simply a count. The first occurrence of a driver is one (1), the second is two (2), etc. As Drivers are rearranged, they are renumbered to comply with the previous statement ¥ The SWAP button provides another way to rearrange the installed Drivers in The Patchmeister window. Point to the synth (Driver) you want to move, and press the left mouse button as you drag this synth around the window. Release the left mouse button when you are over the synth that you want to SWAP with the synth (Driver) that you are dragging. You can also use the SWAP button to install Drivers by dragging a synth (Driver) past the end of the installed Drivers list! ¥ The ERASER button will remove (ERASE) Drivers that you no longer want installed in The PatchMeister environment. Click over the synth (Driver) that you want to delete. The synth will be removed. If you have removed the last occurrence of a synth (i.e. you just removed the last of your two (2) DX-7Õs) all of the windows associated with the Driver (i.e. all of the DX-7 windows) will be closed. The ERASER button will turn off after you have removed one (1) Driver. If you want to remove ALL of the Drivers, activate The Patchmeister window and then select the Bank menu Clear All Items option. ¥ You can use the DASH button to insert lines of dashes to help organize large Driver setups. Select a destination for the line of dashes by clicking over an installed synth (Driver) in The PatchMeister window. MIDI Routes In The Driver List It is important that you assign the correct MIDI route to your Drivers. This way, The PatchMeister knows how to communicate with each synthesizer. Use the windowÕs sizing button to open The Patchmeister window to its fullest width. If one of The PatchMeister windowÕs control buttons is highlighted, click on it to turn it off. The PatchMeister window describes each driverÕs MIDI route with a series of numbers to the right of each driverÕs name. To change a MIDI route value, click down on it and drag the mouse. The number will turn white and the pointer will disappear. Move the mouse up to increment and down to decrement the value. Release the mouse button when the correct value is displayed. The PatchMeister displays abbreviations for each of the values across the top of the Driver List. HereÕs what they mean: ¥ S-Ch: SysEx Communicalions Channel. Make sure this channel matches the MIDI channel that the instrument uses for its ÔSystem ExclusiveÕ MIDI communicallons. ¥ Ch: Audition Channel. This channel is used for the ÔNote OnÕ and ÔProgram ChangeÕ commands generated by The PatchMeister. This channel will more than likely be the same as the S-Ch channel. However, some synths (i.e. Roland MT-32) use one channel for SysEx Communications, and a different set of channels for ÔNote OnÕ commands. Make sure this channel is set to match the channel on which your synth will respond to ÒNote OnÕ commands. ¥ In: MIDI In. Bars& Pipes Professional users may select a MIDI In Tool. ¥ Out: MIDI Out. Bars& Pipes Professional users may select a MIDI Out Tool. ¥ P-Bay: Patch Bay MIDI Channel and Patch Bay Program Number. If you are using a patch bay, make sure the MIDI channel matches the channel that your patch bay is listening to, and that the program number is the program (patch) that will establish the proper MIDi route to this synth. The MIDI Route Button As we have just discussed, MID! routes must be assigned to your installed Drivers. MID! routes are also associated with every file that you save and every window that you open! As you work with The PatchMeister, you will use one standard button, the MIDI Route button, in many of the windows, to specify the MIDI route for a particular file or window. Although this button does not appear in The PatchMeister window, this is a good time to talk about it. When you get a SysEx file from your synth, the window that opens will acquire the MIDI route of the Driver that was used to obtain the SysEx. When you open a file, the window will use the MIDI route that was associated with the saved file. A windowÕs MIDI route is followed when you send the contents of the window to a synth. Also, it is the route that is stored with the file when you save the contents of the window. Every window that has a MIDI route associated with it will have a MIDI ROUTE button. When you dick on this button, a requester will open allowing you to view/change that windowÕs MIDI route. This requester adds one (1) element to the route that is missing from The PatchMeister window: ¥ Patch: Patch Number. Some SysEx requests require that you specify a specific patch number. For instance you may request that Patch 5 be transmitted. When you save a file, it will be saved with its windowÕs MIDI route. You can use the Library windowÕs MAGNIFYING GLASS button if you want to view the MIDI route that was saved with a particular file. When you send a file, the MIDI route requester used for the SEND process will default to the route that was saved with the file. Saving Driver Lists If you are only working with one (1) MIDI setup you will never have to save the contents of The PatchMeister window. Every time you run The PatchMeister it will start-up using the same Drivers and MIDI routes that it was using at the end of your last work session. If, however, you will be working with multiple setups, you can use the Project menu Save As... item to save a particular Driver setup so that you can reuse it at a later date. Use the Driver menu Open Driver Setup... option to load previously saved Driver Setups.