Patch Banks

The reason for this is that different types of patches are handled differently by the instruments. In general, patches are regular programs that you play one at a time. Performances, however, may be combinations of programs, which can be split across the keyboard, layered, or used for multitimbral playback, etc.

If you use a device with several banks, you can select Bank Assignment to specify which bank a specific MIDI channel should use.

The Bank Assignment affects which bank is displayed when you select programs by name for the device in the track list or Inspector.

Many instruments use MIDI channel 10 as the exclusive drum channel, for example. If this is the case, select the Drums or the Rhythm Set or the Percussion bank for channel 10 from the list. This allows you to choose from different drum kits in the track list or in the Inspector.

Limitations

There is no easy way to import a patch name script into an existing MIDI device. For a complex workaround based on XML editing, see the separate document MIDI Devices.