Magix Music Maker Patch Archives

Subject: RE: drum maps and controller maps

Date: 4/19/2007 8:44:28 PM

Drum Maps, Controller Maps, and Patch/Voice maps permit you to control synths (both softwarre and hardware) in the "context" of the synth.

They all permit you to define how a synth produces and controls its sounds.

A drum patch on any given synth will assign specific drum sounds to each key/note. Rather than playing a piano keyboard, a drum map lets you work with the sound associated to a specific key/note.

So, instead of Middle C or F# above Middle C, you would see Snare Drum or Splach Cymbal.

Additionally in ACID, when you work with a drum patch and its drum map for that patch, the inline MIDI editing goes into a drum grid mode of editing.

DrumMaps can be set up and assigned on each track or when used in conjunction with a Voice/Patch mapping, will happen automatically when a drum patch is selected.

For example, if you use the ACID DLS soft-synth and select a drum patch for a track, the track will be automatically placed into drum grid mode and the inline editing will show the drum map for the drum voice patch you selected.

You would create your own Drum Map when you use a synth that has a custom key/not to sound layout. (If the synth uses a standard GM or GM2, then you don't have to create one, just select one of the default Drum Maps that ACID provides.)

If you the drum voice patch you are using has a snare on C3, a tom-tom on D3, and a bass drum on E3, then you use the Drum Map editor to create this map. Once the map is defined, you can then assign it to any Track that is using this synth and Drum Voice.

A Controller Map allows you to define the CC msgs that a synth - hardware or software - uses. The default Controller Map follows the MIDI and GM/GM2 defined CC msgs. Let say that your uber synth uses CC 13 to control its funky filter sweep. You can edit/add CC13 for that track so that instead of creating envelopes for CC13, you'd be creating envelopes for Funky Filter Sweep.

Additionally, Controller Maps permit you to reassign what the synth considers its Volume CC and Pan CC msgs so that the MIDI Track's volume/pan controls actually control what the synth uses for Vol/Pan.

Patch/Voice maps are intended for external MIDI synths currently. A softsynth can tell ACID what its patches are. External Hardware Synths cannot do this in a generic or consistent way. A patch/voice map permits you to select the sound/voice/timbre by name (Piano, Funky Slap Bass, etc, etc) vs using patch: bank msgs. So, if your external device uses patch 12, bank 512 for Piano, you can just select "Piano" from the track's voice setting or when using keyframes to alter the voice on a track dynamically.

Additionally, a Drum Map and Patch/Voice map can be associated to each other. If set up correctly, when you select a drum patch for your synth on a MIDI track, you will automatically get the correct Drum Map.

Peter

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