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Mx8 midi patchbay manual1/14/2024 ![]() Then you are at the next patch in one button press. All that is required in this case is to simply press the increment up button. This gets old quickly, and is not useful if there are fast changes.Ī way around this is to program patches into the keyboard in the order they will appear in the show. Many keyboards have keypads where you have to type in a number, like "24" for example, and then press enter. Ideally, the keyboard will have banks of buttons that you can use to quickly call up patch changes in one or two presses. There are several differnet ways to change patches:įrom the keyboard front panel. So reaching for a rack box or a control surface like a Peavey or whatever is not practical in many situations. Punching buttons on a rack box does not cut it for live work if you have a lot of fast changes, which I often do. I prefer to call up patches from the keyboard. Any box without all three of those features is not going to be of terribly much use. ![]() The big features you need in any controller keyboard or processor box are the ability to set patch changes, volume, and keyboard zones. You can send multiple patch changes on different channels, set zones, volumes, and a few other features. The Korg Wavestation makes an excellent controller, for example. Very tough to program without that, but easy with the manual for the most part.Īlso, some keyboards have good master controller functions built in. They go cheap on eBay, but just make sure you get one that has a manual if you go for an MEP4. However, overall the Yamaha MEP4 is my favorite and I've used it a lot. ![]() I've owned many midi patchbay/processors and prefer the 360 Systems for relatively simple things like assigning patch changes to multiple modules. However, don't get any version of that box other than version 2 because the earlier versions are buggy. The JL Cooper box to consider is not one of the units that has faders, but the MSB+ Version 2. ![]() There are other boxes made by 360 Systems (Midi Patcher), Digital Music Corp. The nice thing about this box is that it turns *any* keyboard into a controller keyboard. It has four midi processors inside, which can again be assigned to any of the midi outputs. This box is a midi processor that has one midi input and four midi outputs. I also have a couple very useful boxes made by Yamaha called the MEP4. You would change the one patch in the A-70 and it would in turn send all the relevant patch changes to the connected keyboards and modules. So with a controller like the A-70 you could connect up to four modules to the midi outputs and then program the patch changes into the patches in the A-70. Each processor can be programmed to send it's own patch change, preset volume, pan, and lots of other data. So all 8 processors could be sent to midi out 1, for example. It has 8 independent midi processors onboard, which can be assigned to those four midi outs. I often use a Roland A-70, which is a 76 note controller keyboard that has four independent midi outputs. I use a controller keyboard to send patches changes to multiple modules or other keyboards. I do this for a living, so let me try and lay out a couple of ways I make this work for me. There are several ways to switch patches in multiple keyboards/modules in a live setup. It's been the most reliable tool in the shed and I've had it at least a dozen years now. Oh yeah - the Peavey is built like a tank. But then so does the Peavey and if I remember right I paid about $300 for it at a local store. See it here.Īs an alternative, I did find this on the JL Cooper web site, and it says it has 50 memories so it should be able to memorize 50 combinations of program changes. Maybe you should consider my solution - I use a Peavey PC1600X for all program change duties on stage and the 16 fully assignable faders and 16 fully assignable buttons come in mighty handy around sequencing time. I successfully used one of these with 10 synth modules back in the day without a glitch. They worked like this - you could designate a channel to receive a PC on, then assign which PC it transmitted on to the rest of your rig. Digital Music, JL Cooper, MAudio, Edirol, 360 Systems all made good ones at one time or another, but a quick googling brought up not much. Program changes should be included in any midi patcher worth it's salt.
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