MIDIPatch

SpessaSynth 4.0 brings the full bank LSB support in the API.

Description

The system now operates on MIDI Patches - a way of selecting MIDI presets using 4 properties, compatible with GM, GS, XG and GM2. The existing MIDI files will continue to work as the preset selection system has been fine-tuned for various types of MIDI files.

Properties

program

The MIDI program number, from 0 to 127.

bankLSB

Bank LSB controller, 0 to 127. This is mostly used in XG and GM2 for selecting variations of instruments, much like MSB in GS.

Note that the SF2 format does not support writing the bank LSB number so the wBank is still interpreted as both and flattened when writing.

bankMSB

This is what the previous bank used to be, but it’s now properly split up.

It is used for sound variation in GS, and for channel type in XG and GM2. This means that with bank MSB of 127 for example, a channel in XG mode will turn into a drum channel.

isGMGSDrum

This flag is exclusive to GM and GS systems. These don’t use bank MSB as a drum flag. GM has channel 9 hardcoded as drums, and GS has a system exclusive for setting them. This allows XG and GS drums to coexist in a single sound bank and can be thought of as bank 128 in SF2.

Warning

The isGMGSDrum flag being set does not necessarily mean that this patch is a drum patch! The preset list change event provides an additional property isAnyDrums which correctly identifies drums across all MIDI systems.