On the BK-9 using the 16track sequencer, you can select (with micro edit) what ever tone you want in each track if you know the C0 C32 and PC numbers of the tone.

I'm learning this Audio Pro9 MIDI software program, and selecting a tone you can do it in two different ways.

You either go into the event list and create 3 events, C0, C32 and PC, and you type in the numbers for the desired tone at the beginning of the song.

Or there is another option where in the Track Properties there is a Bank and a Patch box.

For Example: Grand Piano 1 (on the BK-9) has the following numbers for C0, C32 and PC.

C00 = 90
C32 = 67
PC = 1

So, the number that I have to type into the Bank is:
(90 * 128) + 67 = 11587

Formula: (C0 * 128) + C32 = Your Bank number.

For the Patch I type (select) "1" since PC = 1.


I don't know why this works, but it works. I assume this has to do something with the 128 tones in a group, and the variations. I'm not sure, maybe someone can tell me why is this working.

A lot of DAW’s do this differently. Cubase, for instance, had boxes where you simply entered CC00 CC32 & PC in boxes labeled this way. Most major DAW’s also allow you to set a template where you select the Tone by name from a drop down list and the DAW automatically sets the codes. It’s called Patch Scripting.

Generally, the better (and usually more expensive!) the DAW, the easier it makes selecting patches. Take a look in your DAW’s options, and see if there’s a way for it to enter the cc0 cc32 and PC without all that calculation. That’s pretty clunky, tbh…

By the way, some DAW’s refer to the CC’s as MSB & LSB (most significant byte, least significant byte) so if you see this, that’s what they’re talking about. It basically comes from a need to use numbers greater than 128 in hex. You’ll see it used anywhere that values exceed 128 (pitch bend for instance, and many other things).

It might be a good to go read a basic primer on MIDI before you go much further, and also learn the relationship between normal (base10) numbers and hexadecimal (hex) which is base16 (used widely in computer code). Just about everything in MIDI is expressed as a hex value unless the software automatically translates it. You’ll see it widely used in the Sysex Implementation manuals…

Thank you Diki, for the info. If you know a good MIDI primer, send me a link...

Haven’t needed a primer since the 90’s, but I’ll see what I can find…

I was looking at the BK-9's Tone List.

How can you tell which Tone (out of the 1701) is a GM and which one is GM2, or GS.


Can you go by the MSB and LSB numbers?


Since we are at the subject, can some of you please, explain to me like to a 5 year old, the difference between GM, GM2 and GS, and even XG(I know that's Yamaha voices). I read multiple websites, I have a vague idea about these groups, but I'm still not clear on them 100%, maybe someone can lift the veil.

Any input is appreciated.

GM was the original General MIDI standard. 128 Capital sounds, that’s it. So no MSB/LSB CC’s, just the PC#. GM2 expanded on that by allowing CC’s to select additional voices behind the original Capital Tone on the same PC# (usually variations of that type of sound).

Try this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_MIDI for an overview.

XG was Yamaha’s answer to GS, Roland’s next gen standard, and so on and so forth. Each standard advanced the idea of compatibility to play a sequence on something other than the synth it was created on (which was the case up until GM) and still have basically the right sounds on each part.

Before GM, you would get horrendous results playing a Korg SMF into a Roland or a Yamaha into a Korg. Nothing was standardized, not PC#’s, not drumkits mapping, not which CC’s controlled effects etc.. Ahhh… the good old days! 😱😂

And yes, to a certain extent, you can see the progression through the different standards by which MSB/LSB CC’s are used. But even Roland stopped having 100% compatibility quite a while ago. The MMA (MIDI Manufacturers Association) got everybody to agree for about 20 years, then there started to be proprietary functions for Yamaha (S.Articulation, Guitar Modes etc) that had no Roland equivalent, and gradually the two standards diverged.

But we went from having 128 sounds total to thousands now, and it was just too difficult to keep everyone in lock step as they kept trying to outdo each other..!

The vast majority of SMF’s you find on the web are GS, with occasionally some XG (they’re usually marked as XG). So they should play without much work in the BK9. But one of the biggest things that changed was, we went from each drum sound having ONE sample to multi-velocity drum sounds, so older drum parts may need some work to play well.

For an old GS module, there’s very little difference between a low velocity hit on a high volume sound and a high velocity hit on a low volume sound. But once there are several different e.g. snare sounds as you increase velocity, balancing the velocity against the volume makes a huge difference.

I find myself spending the most time when editing old SMF’s in scaling the velocity response and volume of drum sounds (and things like acoustic guitars or anything where dynamics alters the sound) so that the part ‘sits’ in the sweet spot of the new sound’s range.

Truth is, once we moved away from simple one sample per sound modules and keyboards, it was rare to find an SMF that didn’t need tweaking to sound its best! But compared to the HOURS it took trying to play a Korg sequence on a Roland etc., it’s still a useful standard…