new to midi

[ESPplayer7]

I was just wondering what a global midi channel is, a regular midi channel, a bank change, and a program change this is all foreign tongue to me. I was wondering because it says in my manual that it can be easier to send global or channel changes on my controller than in Reason (the software i use) Could someone give me an example of what this stuff means? THANKS SO MUCH!

[Toddskins]

I think Global MIDI channel simply means the channel your device is going to use to communicate with another device.

You probably know that the MIDI spec has 16 channels. No more.

So your device (one synthesizer) uses one of those 16 to communicate with other devices (i.e. a Sequencer, another Synthesizer, a MIDI controlled Mixer board).

The information flowing along your designated Global channel (let's say #3, for the heck of it), may need to speak to another machine for various reasons. Both machines need to agree upon one of the 16 channels to use. This is what is referred to as the Global channel.

If one machine is setup to use channel #3, and the other is using a different channel, then certain communication won't happen.

Also, if both machines are using channel #3 as Global, and the bass guitar track information is also on track/MIDI channel #3, then they will share MIDI #3. This is advised against by some manufacturers because it can cause miscommunication, and you may get unwanted results. So you are advised to use a separate and unused MIDI channel for Global, if you can, and put all your other instruments on unique channels.

By the way, the amount of Global information transmitted between machines, in other words, the Global chatter, is minimum.

The MIDI track data (information about the drums, guitar, bass guitar, etc.), will be far more data than the occasional chatter on the Global.

I think this is correct.

[Toddskins]

Ok. So you have a MIDI controller, and in the middle of a song, you want to change program sounds from piano to B3 organ. You could automate this, too.

In any case, the program change needs to be communicated to the instrument. So you may have a button on your controller already setup so that when you push it, it transmits the program change (telling the instrument to bring up the B3 organ sound). [The data transmitted at the push of the button would look something like this: MIDI Channel #3, Bank #4, Program #87 - which happens to be where your cool Hammond B3 with Leslie emulation sound resides.]

Or, you could do it the slow way by using your mouse and clicking on something in Reason on your computer monitor.

So, you can see that pushing a button on your MIDI controller (let's pretend it's an M-Audio Axiom 61), would be a lot easier and more convenient, than trying to manipulate your software with a mouse and/or keyboard.

Of course, all this stuff needs to be programmed and setup in advance. You will learn all this stuff as your own desires begin to dictate your plan.

[mikemorgan]

If a global command is sent, you'll get the same command regardless of which bank or patch you're using. Volume is a typical global command. A volume pedal or wah pedal is typically set up using global commands. You can also assign other midi commands (cc's) to react globally. Lets say the louder you play, you want the reverb level to be raised. You would assign a velocity cc to the volume pedal to globally control the reverb level.

A bank is either a collection of patches (sysex messages), or can refer to a single sysex string describing the architechture of your device.
A patch is of course the single midi message telling your device which instrument to play.

[ESPplayer7]

this is all very helpful. I have the keystation pro 88 by m-audio. How would i go about using say the + and - keys to scroll through different patches in one of the synths of reason. I know I need to check the manual, but what do i look for in it? is there anything i need to do in reason too? thanks!!!