Roland Fantom Xa Features Manual page 3

General MIDI and General MIDI 2
Since MIDI sequences contain instructions for playing their
notes, and not the sounds themselves, an SMF uses MIDI
Program Change messages to select the patches it needs.
Each Program Change message tells a synth to select the
sound stored in a specific memory location—with a Program
Change message for each track in an SMF, all of its sounds are
automatically selected for you.
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Of course, if every synth has its own unique sounds, how can
an SMF possibly know where the sounds it requires are stored?
The solution is that every synth that plays an SMF contains a
General MIDI (or "GM") sound set. In the GM sound set, patches
are stored in standardized memory locations so the SMF can
know where to find them.
In addition to its own unique patches,
the Fantom-Xa contains the latest
version of the General MIDI sound set,
the General MIDI 2 sound set. When
you first load an SMF, you select the
PRST : 64 GM2 Template performance
so the SMF can find the GM2 sounds.
You can then customize the SMF to use
any Fantom-Xa sounds you like.
Type 0 and Type 1 SMFs
Getting an SMF Into the Fantom-Xa
When a device contains
Making and Activating the USB Connection
the GM2 sound set, it
bears this logo.
Typically in an SMF, each instrument is associated with a single
MIDI channel. Therefore, you can have up to 16 instruments
at a time. The data for all of the SMFs' MIDI channels may be
stored in either of two ways:
• Type 0 SMFs—pack the data for all of their MIDI channels
onto a single track.
• Type 1 SMFs—place the data for each MIDI channel on its
own track.
The Fantom-Xa can load and play either type of SMF.
Once you load a Type 0 SMF, you can work with each channel's data
separately even though everything's on a single track, or you can extract
the channels' data to separate tracks, usually an easier way to work.
This section presumes that you know how to operate the computer you'll
be using. See the computer's documentation if necessary.
Since the Fantom-Xa can connect to a computer via USB, the
first step is to get the SMF—the .mid file— onto your computer,
from a floppy disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or by downloading it
from the Internet. Put the SMF somewhere easy to get to, such
as on your desktop.
Connecting Via USB
This procedure is possible only with USB-supporting computers using the
following operating systems: Windows XP/2000/Me or higher, Mac OS 9.04
or higher, or Mac OS X.
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