Patches

In the world of MIDI music, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus as to how to refer to the different sounds available from any MIDI device. Different manufacturers may refer to a specific violin sound (for example) on their MIDI device as a sound, patch, part, voice, or program. This can be very confusing when all you want to do is change the trumpet sound to the saxophone sound. In the interest of consistency throughout Finale and its documentation, we’ll refer to a specific sound as a Patch. This term comes from the early days of the synthesizer, when you changed the sound of your synthesizer by switching the configuration of the various “patch” cords or cables.

A patch could be as simple as a basic MIDI program change message, but it might also include bank change information, which may be required on certain MIDI devices to access all available patches.

Finale both records and plays back the MIDI data that allows a MIDI instrument to change patches (that is, programs or sound settings and optional bank change information) during playback. You can even edit this data directly using the MIDI tool. Using Finale’s ScoreManager, you can create sets of your favorite channel/patch combinations and select them, by name, from the Sound drop-down menu (if Play Finale Through MIDI is selected in the MIDI/Audio menu).

Finale begins numbering its patches at 1, but not every MIDI instrument begins the numbering of its programs at 1 (some begin numbering at 0). Therefore, if you find that the numbers you enter in the following examples change your MIDI instrument to a program number that’s one off, remember to change the numbers accordingly by adding 1. (If your MIDI instrument isn’t responding to the program changes, make sure that program changes have been “enabled,” for those synthesizers having such a control.)

The easiest way to set up patches is to select the instrument you want from the General MIDI drop-down menu. This will automatically setup the Bank Select and Program Change for that instrument. If you prefer to setup specific Bank Select and Program Change information using the text boxes, the direction below provide more information.

To copy or erase patch change data created with the MIDI tool

Establishing the initial program settings for each staff

Setting up a patch change on playback

“Chasing” patch changes before playback

Setting up patch changes using the MIDI Tool