An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
- Victor Hugo
First Song as Initializer
Since The KeyMaster goes to the first patch of the first
song whenever you open a document, you might want to fill that patch with
commands that initialize your MIDI setup. For example, in the enter message of the first patch, you
could:
A MIDI note on or off messsage consists of two parts, note number and velocity. Notes range from 0 to 127; middle C is note number 60 (hex 0x3C). Velocity range is 0 - 127, where 0 is the same as note off.
A note is not turned off until either a note off command is sent or (on most synths) an all-notes-off command is sent.
You can also enter note commands into a programmable MIDI emssage and send the message from a song or by hand.
See the MIDI reference for a fuller discussion of MIDI messages.
A Tuning Song
You might want to set up a song that helps you tune your instruments by
sending the proper program changes and entering note on and note off
commands that play the tuning note on different synths. For examaple,
Exit message: send note-off for synth B.
Exit message: send note-off for synth C.
Exit message: send note-offs for synth D and reference synth A.
Programmable Messages
Programmable MIDI messages can be used for a number of things. For example,
you can have one message for each of the "start" (250, hex 0xFA),
"continue" (251, hex 0xFB), and "stop" (252, hex 0xFC) MIDI commands to
control your sequencer or drum machine. This turns your computer keyboard
into a MIDI control panel.
You might want to have a message that resets all of your synths to full volume.
See your MIDI devices' manuals for the specific MIDI commands to which each responds.