The Vgm Banks - Kurzweil PC88 Musician's Manual

Internal Voices

The VGM Banks

The VGM Banks
The optional VGM board adds three extra ÒBanksÓ of instruments to the PC88Õs internal
sounds. A Bank is different from a PC88 Group. A Bank is deÞned by the MIDI SpeciÞcation,
and it can have 128 different programs, while a Group has only 16 programs. When talking
about the various banks, weÕll refer to the Internal Voices bank weÕve just been playing with as
Òthe Internal soundsÓ, or ÒBank 0Ó, because that is its bank number when selected over MIDI.
To look at the different banks, press the Program button in the Zone Parameters section, and
then the left cursor button ( <<< ). The display will now show the name of the Bank on the
bottom line, with its number (and the currently selected program number) above. For example:
Zone:1||||||0:049|||
Bank:Internal|Voices
Use the Data Entry section to select other banks. Bank 1 is a complete set of ÒGeneral MIDIÓ
instruments, which follows the General MIDI Level 1 SpeciÞcation. It provides 128 sounds,
including all members of the orchestra, keyboards, guitars, basses, tuned percussion, pads, and
sound effects, as well as a large set of ÒkeyedÓ (one note per sound) percussion. The PC88Õs
General MIDI bank also includes seven extra sets of percussion sounds, which are compatible
with RolandÕs ÒGSÓ instruments. Besides the large number of useful instrument sounds, and
the ability to play back General MIDI Þles from other sources, the General MIDI bank makes
the PC88 well-suited to development of General MIDI scores, for publishing, educational, and
multimedia applications. General MIDI is now the preferred medium of exchange for music
Þles among musicians, on ßoppy disk, CD-ROM, and on-line services.
Bank 2 is ÒExpansion SoundsÓ. These sounds are adapted from the Kurzweil Mark 10 series of
digital pianos, and include keyboards, guitars, orchestral instruments, sound effects, and
percussion. (They are not in the same order as the Mark 10 sounds, so you shouldnÕt try to play
Mark 10 disk Þles with them.) In addition, the seven extra ÒGSÓ drum kits appear here as well ,
plus there are Þve additional percussion sets.
Bank 3 is called Ò64-Note PolyÓ. It contains special ÒduplicatesÓ of several of the sounds in the
Internal bank, including piano, guitar, and vibes. Since these sounds are produced by the VGM
board, and the Internal sounds are produced on the Internal board, this allows you to play the
sounds with up to 64 voices of polyphony. See the ÒKey RangeÓ section of Chapter 5 for details.
When you are in Internal Voices mode, you can access the sounds in the VGM banks, although
not as quickly as the Internal sounds. There are several ways to do this. You can scroll through
all of the programs in all of the banks using the Alpha wheel, and as you pass program 127 in
one bank, the display jumps to program 0 of the next bank (the name of the new bank appears
on the top line of the display). Or you can use the left cursor and Alpha wheel to set the bank,
then the right cursor and Alpha wheel to select the program. Perhaps the fastest way is with the
numeric keypad. When youÕre in the Internal Voices ÒplayÓ mode (i.e., youÕre not editing
anything), go to the numeric keypad and press the number of the bank of the VGM sound you
want to play: 1 , 2 , or 3 . Then press the +/- button on the keypad, followed by the program
number (one, two, or three digits Ñ you donÕt need to enter leading zeroes) of the sound, and
Þnally the Enter button. The bank number and name will appear on the top line of the display,
and the program number and name on the bottom. The keyboard will play the selected sound.
Note, however, that in Internal Voices mode, the PC88 will not remember that a VGM sound
has been selected. If you subsequently press any of the Select or Group buttons, you will jump
back to the Internal Voices bank (Bank 0). VGM voices are only remembered in Setups mode.
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PC 88