| Synthesizer patch mapping |
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With the increasing storage capabilities of synthesizers, particularly with the more recent models where up to several thousand patches can be stored and even more on alternate storage facilities, some kind of order was necessary to actually find a required sound, much more so when performing live on stage. Some people used to create patch sheets with patch numbers that were required during each song, some others used electronic patch mapping, where a masterkeyboard would control patches in various synthesizers and preset all the MIDI interconnected keyboards within the previously determined synthesizer patch mapping. In 1991 the MIDI Manufacturers Association and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee got together to set the General MIDI standards. These General MIDI standards also defined the General MIDI instrument patch map, which was designed to meet mainly non professional requirements of musicians, defining primarily which sounds needed to be in a synthesizer or other keyboard to qualify for a General MIDI certification. While the General MIDI did apply to all synthesizers designed after the year 1991, not all manufacturers were interested in implementing the standard in their product. The GM standardized instrument patch map required sixteen families of eight instruments in each family, plus a
standardized MIDI drum map to be implemented. Synthesizer patch mapping was again mainly left to synthesizer programmers in order to create a meaningful setup for the musician on stage, whereby master keyboards were mainly employed in order to control other instruments. In some really programmed cases, like for instance where the show is choreographed to the second, MIDI time coded sequencers were programmed to change patches just at the right and required time. In such cases, the synthesizer patch mapping was transferred to tracks that could be recalled at a given time coded moment, loading not only whole setups but in some cases tracks that play back music that physically was not possible to be played by musicians on stage. One of the main users of such elaborate setups is Madonna and her backup band. Synthesizer patch mapping used to be, back in the old days, the position of cords that were patched from module to module, as well as the position of single knobs and faders, that would make the modular synth sound as expected. Small mistakes would render the sound either completely wrong or not at all. When patch cords became obsolete, the positions of rotary knobs and faders got noted. Recently made keyboards have elaborate library functions that allow the users to patch and map as they please, without the need of a paper trail. |
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