Using The Pc88 To Control External Slaves - Kurzweil PC88 A Step By Step Manual

PC88 Made Easy

19. Using the PC88 to Control External Slaves

All of the techniques you have learned in the previous tutorials can be applied to playing
an external keyboard or module instead of the internal PC88 sounds. There is really only
one parameter you need to set.
1. Start with Setup #127 Default Setup. Press the MIDI Transmit button. Set the channel
to the channel number that you wish to use to control your external slave.
2. Press the >> button. Set the Destination to MIDI. ThatÕs It! Now j ust edit any other
parameters you need to control your slave (such as setting the bank and program
change, controller settings, etc.).
When you set the Program parameter, for zones assigned to MIDI only, the Program
parameter will display External Program, since - of course - the PC88 doesnÕt know the
names of the programs on your external slave. But you will always see the program and
bank numbers.
If you want to make a Setup where you layer PC88 sounds with external sounds, the
simplest way to is to set some zones to MIDI (to play the external slave) and other
zones to Local (to play the PC88). It is possible to have a zone set to Local+MIDI (and
in fact that is the default). In this case, one zone can play both the PC88 and external
slave. But keep in mind that since a zone can only send a single program change
message, if you want to layer a specific external sound with a specific PC88 sound, you
would have to edit your external synth so that program is stored at the same numbered
location as the one you are choosing for the PC88. (Since you canÕt edit the PC88
programs, you canÕt move them to different numbered locations.)
One final thing. Typically, you will always use different MIDI channels for each zone, if
you want to play different sounds on different zones. But if for some reason, you need
to, you can use the same MIDI channel for a Local only zone as you use for a MIDI only
zone. Since the two zones send the MIDI information to only one place or the other, both
zones could be on the same MIDI channel and have different program change values (or
anything else) selected.
37