Create a Sound Bank?

[Jim Inman]

To expand on the question posed in my title:
Is it possible, using a DAW, to create a new sound bank, then drag patches from other banks into it?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I think the answer will depend on what you’re hoping to achieve, as well as which DAW you’re using and perhaps also what your hardware (keyboards or whatever) is capable of.

Some DAWs can use a “patch list” or “instrument definition” to make it easier for you to select from a keyboard’s preset patches (sounds, tones, voices, or whatever the keyboard manufacturer likes to call them). Basically, this lets you select a given sound by its name rather than having to specify its particular Bank Select MSB/LSB and Program Change values. You might be able to create your own patch list using names of your choosing.

Some DAWs may even let you create one or more “banks” of your favorite sounds.

Some DAWs let you treat a hardware instrument as though it were a virtual instrument plug-in so you can create and save user-defined presets for it.

So it pretty much depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. I gather from your other thread that the general idea is to be able to easily and quickly select different sounds on your keyboard(s) or sound module(s) during a performance— is that right?

 

[Jim Inman]

Your guess is correct. It would be handy in performance to have a small collection of Ketron voices in one bank. My DAW is Music Creator 6. Its Help section seems to describe what I'm wanting. The Define Instruments and Names dialog describes the Instruments Tree and the Names Tree. It says: Right-click the Instruments list and add an instrument (Att. 1). Likewise, I can add a name to the Names Tree (Att. 2). The Creating Instrument Definitions help dialog implies what I'm after, but it's mighty technical, and I'm not sure since its terminology isn't using my words. It nowhere says, “Create a New Bank.”

Incidentally, two years ago I renamed all the instruments in my module using 28 categorical codes. For instance:

a1 = pianos
a2 = elec pianos
b1 = acoustic basses
d3 = orchestral strings
e2 = brass sections
k1 = solo winds

When building a song, I can type c2 into the Patch Browser and the nylon string guitars in all five banks will appear – filtering away everything else – letting me scroll through and try them in play-along mode. This saves lots of time and avoids the often meaningless names given to patches. It took lots of time - assigning, just by sound, the hundreds of voices to one of the 28 codes.

Bottom line: Do you suppose that Creating Instrument Definitions is the path for creating a new bank?