A <b>Track</b> contains a description of each note to be played by an instrument.
Using an orchestra as an analogy, a track is the same as one musician's sheet music.
<br><br>
A <b>channel</b> is a number from 1 to 16 that connects a MIDI controller,
and thus, the computer, to a particular instrument on a particular synthesizer.
In <b><i>Anvil Studio</b></i>, each track is played on a single channel.
Using an orchestra as an analogy, a channel is the same as one musician in the orchestra.
<br><br>
Each MIDI cable can carry up to 16 <b>channels</b> of MIDI events.
Most synthesizers are <b>Multi-Timbral</b>, that is, they can make sounds for several different instruments at the same time.
A <b>MIDI Sequence</b> is a file that contains a song to be played
by <b><i>Anvil Studio</i></b>, or any similar program.
A single MIDI Sequence contains one or more tracks of music;
one track for each instrument in the song.
Using an orchestra as an analogy, a MIDI Sequence contains the entire orchestra's
sheet music for the song to be played.
<br><br>
A <b>Patch</b>, is the information a particular synthesizer needs to sound like a particular musical instrument. Using an orchestra as an analogy, a patch is the same as an instrument. Within <b><i>Anvil Studio</i></b>, a patch is usually referred to as an <b>Instrument</b>.
Patches can be either <i>Factory Preset</i> or <i>User-Created</i>.
</b> <b>Factory Preset</b> patches are read-only patches that your synthesizer had when it arrived from the factory.
<b>User-Created</b> patches are patches you create.
<br><br>
A <b>Bank</b> is a set of patches that can be held in a synthesizer's memory at one time. Different synthesizers can hold different numbers of patches at one time. Some synthesizers have only one bank with a fixed set of patches that can never be changed. Others allow new banks and patches to be created. Using an orchestra as an analogy, a bank is the same as the set of all instruments used by the orchestra.
<br><br>
An Anvil Studio <b>Patch Library</b> is a disk file that contains
information you want to save for one of your synthesizers, including a set
of Banks and Patch for one of your synthesizers, including:
<dir>
<li>Bank and Patch names,
<li>Controller names
<li>Comments you would like to remember about particular patches,
<li>Which Patches or Channels your synthesizer uses for Drum sounds,
<li>Names of Drum Notes, used when creating Rhythm Tracks.
</dir>
Anvil Studio automatically assign patches to channels that you have
assigned to it on Anvil Studio's Mixer page.
<br>
The standard version of Anvil Studio ships with a <b>General MIDI</b>
Patch Library that describes patch names and Drum Notes for synthesizers that conforms
to the General MIDI standard.
<br>
To view or edit the contents of a patch library,
select <b>Synthesizers</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
Then, press the button <b>Show Patch Library...</b> button.
<br><br>
To import an industry-standard <b>Instrument Definition</b> from a file with an extension <b>.INS</b>,
e.g. MySynth.ins,
<dir>
<li>select <b>Synthesizers</b> from the <b>View</b> menu,
<li>press the <i>Load Patch Library...</i> button or <i>Existing Patch Library...</i> button,
<li>change the file type field from Patch Libraries to Instrument Definition Files, and
<li>select the .INS file that you want to import.
</dir>
A new Anvil Studio patch library with the file extension .MLB will be created for this synthesizer.
<br><br>
If you have a <i>Patch Library</i> for a synthesizer, but no <i>Patch Controller</i>,
you can only refer to <i>Factory Preset</i> Patches, and not <i>User-Created</i> Patches.
A <i>Patch Controller</i> allows you to manipulate and refer to
both <i>Factory Preset</i> and <i>User-Created</i> Patches.
<br><br>
An Anvil Studio <b>Patch Controller</b> does everything a patch library does,
and in addition, it allows you to use Anvil Studio to:
<dir>
<li>Create and manage new banks of <i>User-Created</i> patches.
<li>Copy patches between your synthesizer and computer over MIDI cables.
This lets you save them in a Patch Library on your computer.
<li>Automatically cause your synthesizer to listen to only those
MIDI channels that you have assigned to it on Anvil Studio's Mixer page.
<li>Set the synthesizer's volume for each channel as you have indicated
on Anvil Studio's Mixer page.
<li>Split your synthesizer keyboard into different ranges of keys,
or split points, each with:
<dir>
<li>the MIDI channel those keys are to be sent to
<li>the number of semi-tones to transpose keys in that range
</dir>
</dir>
A Patch Library or Patch Controller does not add sounds to your soundcard.
It only tells Anvil Studio what sounds are already built into your soundcard
or external MIDI synthesizer.
<br>If you have a SoundBlaster Live soundcard, SoundFont files can be used
