hi everyone,

is there a way to change a patch (program) using MIDI controls? the Helix patch system is indeed useful for organizing patches into different banks, but having to use a mouse all the time can be a pain.

+1

Regards, James

This actually used to be a feature (beta) but was since removed in preference for the current patch loading system. I kinda wondered about that myself, though there were load spiking issues when switching between patches at the time.

Perhaps maybe a system that incorporates the best of both worlds... preloading a number of favourite patches to a bank in memory, which can be switchable (or possibly layered) via program change or MIDI channel? (Oh boy, multitimbrality.)

There is no way to do this in helix I'm afraid... it makes sense if you have midi-banks and midi-patches, but the organization of patches becomes compromised.

Actually, now that I think of it, Hypersonic kinda has the best of both worlds with the way it handles patch organization.

Bank MSB controls patch category (CC0/Bank Select I think)
Program Change controlling patches respectively.

Though Helix deals with this in two category levels rather than one..what would you say would be the difficulty of having a system setup like this?

Bank MSB (CC0) - Bank select
Bank LSB (CC32) - Subcategory select
Program Change - Patch select

Of course this would mean each dimension of the array would have to be limited to 128 (0-127) selectable choices each, but we're talking a theoretical maximum capacity of 127*127*127 patches anyway.
I'm not sure if there were other synths with a similar preset organizing system, that also could respond to MIDI program change. :3

Anywho, just my two cents. :3

PS: if it were implemented, that would be more of a reason to make a GM-friendly Helix soundset. xD