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XProgram stands for 'Extended Program Change' and is Muzys' solution for the standard but complicated MIDI
Bank Select and Program Change commands.
You will need them if you use MIDI instruments, and want to select different 'programs' on it from within Muzys.
Note that 'Program' is a general term and can be a sound on a synthesizer, a pattern on a drumbox, a multisample on a sampler or an effect algorithm of an effect processor etc ... It all depends on your actual MIDI equipment.
A bit of history
The standard MIDI Program Change command can select 1 out of 128 programs on a MIDI instrument.
Since the very first synthesizers had only a few sound memories, that was sufficient these times.
In the eighties, most synthesizers 'grew up', and let the user store hundreds of sounds.
That's why man had to invent a new system to select one of those many sounds via MIDI.
And so the "Bank Select" commando was born.
But things were made a bit difficult since they chose 2 Bank Select commandos : Controller 0 (Bank Select MSB)
and Controller 32 (Bank Select LSB). And most synthesizers/samplers/drumboxes/effects react on their own manner.
So there are 2 disadvantages of the standard MIDI Bank Select and Program Change commands :
Muzys' solution : The XProgram List
Muzys uses the XProgram Lists to solve all this.
An XProgram List is a text file inside your (muzysfolder)/XProgramLists folder, which lists
all the available program-names, together with their necessary Bank Select and Program Change commandos.
For example the "GM" XProgram List contains all 128 sound-names for the General MIDI standard.
Now suppose we have assigned this XProgram List to MIDI Player x.
Whenever you work with an XProgram Event on this MIDI Player x, you will be able to choose a sound name
('Grand Piano','Bright Piano','Electric Piano','Honky-Tonk',...)
instead of working with those boring Program Change numbers (0,1,2,3,...).
The standard Muzys package contains already more than hundred of these XProgram Lists for various popular
MIDI instruments such as the Roland JV-1080, Kurzweil K2x00, Yamaha TG500, Korg Wavestation etc ...
So how does it work ?
For every MIDI Player you can choose which XProgram List should be used.
This can be done via System menu:MIDI Players.
That's all !
Then you will see the sound names where ever an XProgram Event is used, for example in the MIDI Controller Desk, or when you insert an XProgram Event in a Sequence via the List Editor.
When your device is not listed, you can create the necessary XProgram List text file by following the format below. In this case, we appreciate if you share this new XProgram List with other users by sending the list to feedback@muzys.com, so that it can be included in an updated Muzys package.
The XProgram List File Format
Technically, such an XProgram List is simply a text file with a special format, so that you can easily edit it as
well as that Muzys can easily read it.
Here are the format specs :
Line 1 : Format= followed by the XProgram List format which can be :
From then on you can set the current value for Controller 0/32 and Program Change by simply putting in a line like :
C0=0
C3=4
PC=5
...
If you put, for example, "PC=*", then the next lines will be an enumeration of Program Change values.
This is an example of how such an XProgram List File may look like :
(It's the beginning of the GS XProgram List)
Format=0P
C0=0
PC=*
0=Piano 1
1=Piano 2
2=Piano 3
3=Honky-tonk
4=E.Piano 1
5=E.Piano 2
6=Harpsichord
7=Clav.
8=Celesta
9=Glockenspiel
10=Music Box
...
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