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- Bank Switching On The AWE
- A Tutorial By John Dorff
-
- Learning to play the alternative instruments and SFX sounds on the
- AWE32, by switching banks, can initially be confusing. This walk-
- through was originally written as a message to a fellow CIS member.
- After re-reading it, I felt that this would probably be helpful to
- many new owners of the AWE. I polished it up a little and
- uploaded it to this forum for all who need it.
-
- To use alternative patches in Cakewalk, you need to insert a
- 'Controller 0' Midi Event with a value of the bank number that contains
- the patch you are interested in. You follow this with a Patch Change
- using the number of the needed patch. Viola! The channel you did this
- on will now play the patch from the other bank! Here is a step by step
- example:
-
- 1) Start Cakewalk and load "Styles#1.mid" that is in the your
- sb16\samples\demo dir.
-
- 2) Mute all channels except #5 (Rhodes Piano). Change the patch to
- Chorused Piano. (Dblclick on the 'Rhodes Piano' box. This brings up
- the 'Track Parameters' box. Click on the Patch listbox and choose
- 'Chorused Piano')
-
- 3) Play the file a little to hear the piano. Sounds good, but
- I wonder if there is a better one in another bank?
-
- 4) DBLclick on the 'Chorused Piano' box. The 'Track Limit Box
- comes up again. Then click on the Configure Button. Now
- DBLclick on 'Roland GS Capital Tones' in the 'Patch Name List'.
- Now you will see that all the patches are now using GS names
- rather than GM ones! 'Chorused Piano' is now 'E. Piano 2'.
- Remember that this just changes the naming convention- not the
- sounds themselves.
-
- 5) Look on page G-4 of your getting started manual. There you will see
- an alternative patch for prog #6(E. Piano 2) called 'Detuned EP 2'.
- Look at the CC0 column (controller 0). This patch can be found
- in bank 8.
-
- 6) Now back to Cakewalk. Make sure you still have Channel #5
- selected. Click on 'Window' - 'New' - 'Event list' on the Menu Bar.
- Scroll around in it and check it out. These are all the 'events'
- that happen in a Midi file including different controller changes
- and patch changes. You are now seeing all the events for channel
- #5.
-
- 7) Now look at the time column and find the midi event that happens
- at (Hr:Mn:Sc:Fr) 00:00:10:19. This should be a 'controller 64'
- event (damper pedal- check out pg. E-1 to find out what all the
- different controllers are.) with a value of 127. With this event
- selected, hit the insert key. You now have two identical midi
- events shown.
-
- 8) Select the first of the two events. Change the time to 00:00:10:00.
- Change the first value after 'Contrl' to 0 (bank select). Change the
- second value to 8 (bank 8).
-
- 9) Hit the insert key again. You should now have two identical 'bank
- select' events. This time pick the second one and change the time
- to 00:00:10:01. Change 'Contrl' to 'Patch'. Change the value to
- 'E. Piano 2'.
-
- 10) Rewind the song and play it again while watching the event list.
- You will hear the alternative patch for 'E. Piano 2' (Detuned EP 2)
- after the song passes the events that you added. Pretty cool, huh?
- I always liked that patch!
-
- For more info on this and using the different drum kits, download
- AWEFAQ.EXE from lib 6. It has a lot of good info on the AWE. You may also
- want to download AWEDIP.EXE in lib 16. It is mostly info for developers
- but has some interesting stuff for all.
-
- If you have a daughterboard attached to the AWE, and want to be able to
- pick what channel goes to what synth, click on 'Settings' - 'MIDI Devices'
- on the Menu bar. Under the 'output ports list', pick both the
- Awe32 Synth and SB16 MIDI Out. Now click on a channel in Cakewalk. The
- 'Track Parameters' Box comes up. Click on the 'Ports' List and you will
- see that you now have a choice between the AWE or SB16out (the daughter-
- board).
-
- I hope this was some help to you!
-
- Have fun,
-
- John
-