Steinberg Nuendo 4 MIDI Devices Manual

							
MIDI Devices 
						

							Revision and Quality Control:
Cristina Bachmann, Marion Bröer, Heiko Bischoff, Sabine Pfeifer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part 
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement 
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica-
tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission 
by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of 
Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the 
United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh 
are registered trademarks.
Release Date: September 14, 2007
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2007.
All rights reserved. 
						

							Table of Contents 
						

							4
Table of Contents
5MIDI devices
6Background
6MIDI devices – general settings and patch
handling
13About Device panels
13Overview
16The main edit windows 
19Operations in the Edit Panel window
22Building a control panel – a tutorial
28Advanced Panel handling
32Building panels for VST Instruments
33Exporting and importing device setups
33SysEx messages 
38Defining a SysEx device – a tutorial
43Important files
46About Studio Connections
48Index 
						

							1
MIDI devices 
						

							6
MIDI devices
Background
The MIDI Device Manager allows you to specify and set up 
your MIDI devices, making global control and patch selec-
tion easy.
But the MIDI Device Manager also features powerful edit-
ing functions that can be used to create MIDI device pan-
els. MIDI device panels are internal representations of 
external MIDI hardware, complete with graphics. The MIDI 
device panel editor provides all the tools you need to cre-
ate device maps where every parameter of an external de-
vice (and even an internal device like a VST instrument) 
can be controlled and automated from inside Nuendo.
For descriptions of how to create device maps and the 
powerful device panel editing features, see “About Device 
panels” on page 13. For additional information on how to 
create panels for VST instruments, see “Building panels 
for VST Instruments” on page 32.
MIDI devices – general settings and 
patch handling
On the following pages, we will describe how to install 
and set up preset MIDI devices, and how to select 
patches by name from within Nuendo. This section also 
describes how to create a MIDI device from scratch.
About program change and bank select
To instruct a MIDI instrument to select a certain patch 
(sound), you send a MIDI Program Change message to 
the instrument. Program Change messages can be re-
corded or entered in a MIDI part like other events, but you 
can also enter a value in the Program (prg) field in the In-
spector for a MIDI track. This way, you can quickly set 
each MIDI track to play a different sound.
With Program Change messages, you are able to select 
between 128 different patches in your MIDI device. How-
ever, many MIDI instruments contain a larger number of 
patch locations. To make these available from within Nu-
endo, you need to use Bank Select messages, a system in 
which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instru-
ments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank 
field (Bank Selector) in the Inspector to select a bank, and 
then the Program field to select a program in this bank.
Unfortunately, different instrument manufacturers use dif-
ferent schemes for how Bank Select messages should be 
constructed, which can lead to some confusion and make 
it hard to select the correct sound. Also, selecting patches 
by numbers this way seems unnecessarily cumbersome, 
when most instruments use names for their patches now-
adays.
To help with this, you can use the MIDI Device Manager to 
specify which MIDI instruments you have connected by se-
lecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specifying 
the details yourself. Once you have specified which MIDI 
devices you’re using, you can select to which particular de-
vice each MIDI track should be routed. It is then possible to 
select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.
Opening the MIDI Device Manager
Select MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu to 
bring up the following window:
This is the list of MIDI devices you have 
connected. The first time you open the MIDI 
Device Manager, this list will be empty.
These buttons let you manage the list of installed devices. 
Here you specify to 
which MIDI output 
the selected device 
is connected.This button opens 
a selected device.This button 
allows you to 
import Mixmaps.These buttons are used 
to import/export XML 
Device setups. 
						

							7
MIDI devices
When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first 
time, it will be empty (because you haven’t installed any 
devices yet). On the following pages we describe how to 
add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit 
the settings and how to define a device from scratch.
ÖNote that there is an important difference between in-
stalling a preset MIDI device (“Install Device”) and import-
ing a MIDI device setup (“Import Setup”):
•The presets do not include any device mapping of pa-
rameters and controls and no graphic panels.
They are simply patch name scripts. When you install a preset MIDI de-
vice, it is added to the Installed Devices list. For more information about 
patch name scripts, see “Patch name script text files” on page 45.
A device setup can include device mapping, panels 
and/or patch information. 
Device setups are also added to the list of installed devices when im-
ported. For more information about setups and device panels, see 
“About Device panels” on page 13. 
Installing a MIDI device
To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows:
1.Click the Install Device button.
A dialog appears listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we as-
sume that your MIDI device is included in this list.
2.Locate and select the device in the list and click OK.
If your MIDI device isn’t included in the list but is com-
patible with the GM (General MIDI) or XG standards, you 
can select the generic GM or XG Device options at the 
top of the list.
When you select one of these options, a name dialog will appear. Enter a 
name for the instrument and click OK.
Now the device appears in the Installed Devices list to the 
left.
3.Make sure that the new device is selected in the list 
and pull down the Output pop-up menu.
4.Select the MIDI output that is connected to the device.
5.Click the Open Device Panels button.
Now a separate window opens for the selected device, showing a node 
structure in the left half of the window. At the top of this structure is the 
device itself, and below it the MIDI channels used by the device. For 
more information about the Device window, see “The main edit windows” 
on page 16.
6.Select Patch Banks from the pop-up at the top of the 
window. 
The Patch Banks list in the left half of the window shows 
the patch structure of the device. This could simply be a 
list of patches, but it’s usually one or several layers of 
banks or groups containing the patches (much like a 
folder structure on a hard disk for example).
You can rename a device in the Installed Devices list by 
double-clicking and typing – this is useful if you have sev-
eral devices of the same model, and want to separate 
them by name instead of by number.
To remove a device from the Installed Devices list, se-
lect it and click Remove Device. The device will be deleted 
immediately. 
ÖNote that if there already exists a panel for the device, 
opening the device might open this panel first. In this 
case, click on the Edit (“e”) button to open the Device 
window. 
						

							8
MIDI devices
About Patch Banks
Depending on the selected device, you may find that the 
Patch Banks list is divided in two or more main banks. 
Typically, these are called Patches, Performances, Drums 
etc. The reason for having several patch banks is that dif-
ferent “types” of patches are handled differently in the in-
struments. For example, while “patches” typically are 
“regular” programs that you play one at the time, “perfor-
mances” may be combinations of patches, which could 
e. g. be split across the keyboard, layered or used for mul-
titimbral playback.
For devices with several banks, you will find an additional 
item labeled “Bank Assignment” in the pop-up at the top 
of the window. Selecting this opens a window in which 
you can specify for each MIDI channel which bank it 
should use.
The selection here will affect which bank is displayed 
when you select programs by name for the device in the 
track list or Inspector. For example, many instruments use 
MIDI channel 10 as an exclusive drum channel, in which 
case you would want to select the “Drums” (or “Rhythm 
Set”, “Percussion”, etc.) bank for channel 10 in this list. 
This would then let you select between different drum kits 
in the track list or Inspector.
Limitations
There is no easy way to import a patch name script into an 
existing MIDI device. For a complex workaround based on 
XML editing, see “Editing the device setup XML files di-
rectly” on page 44.
Selecting a patch for an installed device
If you return to the Project window at this point, you will 
find that the installed device has been added to the MIDI 
Output menus (in the track list and the Inspector). Now 
you can select patches by name, in the following way:
1.Pull down the Output menu (in the track list or Inspec-
tor) for a track that you want to play the installed device, 
and select the device.
This directs the track to the MIDI output specified for the device in the 
MIDI Device Manager. The bank and program fields in the track list and 
Inspector are replaced by a single Programs field that currently reads 
“Off”.
2.Click the Programs field to display a pop-up menu, hi-
erarchically listing all the patches in the device.
The list is similar to the one displayed in the MIDI Device Manager. You 
can scroll the list up and down (if required), click the plus/minus signs to 
show or hide subgroups, etc.
You can also use a filter function here. For this, enter the 
search term in the Filter field, e.g. “drum”, and press [Re-
turn] to display all sounds with “drum” in the name.
3.Click a patch in the list to select it.
This sends the appropriate MIDI message to the device. You can also 
scroll the program selection up or down, as with any value. 
						

							9
MIDI devices
Renaming patches in a device
The pre-configured devices list is based on the factory-
preset patches, i.e. the patches included in the device 
when you first bought it. If you have replaced some of the 
factory presets with your own patches, you need to modify 
the device so that the patch name list matches the actual 
device:
1.In the MIDI Device Manager, select the device in the In-
stalled Devices list.
2.Click Open Device.
Make sure that Patch Banks is selected on the pop-up at the top of the 
window.
3.Activate the Enable Edit checkbox.
When this is turned off (default), you cannot edit the pre-configured de-
vices.
4.Use the Patch Banks display to locate and select the 
patch you want to rename.
In many instruments, the user-editable patches are located in a separate 
group or bank.
5.Click on the selected patch in the Patch Banks list to 
edit its name.
6.Type in the new name and click OK.
7.Rename the desired patches in this way, and finish by 
deactivating Enable Edit again (to avoid modifying the de-
vice by accident).
ÖYou can also make more radical changes to the patch 
structure in a device (adding or deleting patches, groups 
or banks), see below.
For example, this would be useful if you expanded your MIDI device by 
adding extra storage media such as RAM cards, etc.
Patch Structure
Patches are structured as follows:
 Banks are the main categories of sounds – typically patches, 
performances and drums, as described above.
 Each bank can contain any number of groups, represented by 
folders in the list.
 The individual patches, performances or drum kits are repre-
sented by presets in the list.
The Commands pop-up menu contains the following items:
Create Bank
Creates a new bank at the highest hierarchical level of the 
Patch Banks list. You can rename this by clicking on it and 
typing a new name.
New Folder
Creates a new subfolder in the selected bank or folder. 
This could correspond to a group of patches in the MIDI 
device, or just be a way for you to categorize sounds, etc. 
When you select this item, a name dialog will appear, al-
lowing you to name the folder. You can also rename the 
folder afterwards by clicking it and typing in the list.
New Preset
This adds a new preset in the selected bank or folder. 
You can rename the preset by clicking it and typing a new 
name.
When the preset is selected, its corresponding MIDI 
events (Program Change, Bank Select, etc.) are shown in 
the event display to the right. The default setting for a new 
preset is Program Change 0 – to change this, use the fol-
lowing procedures:
To change which Program Change value should be 
sent out to select the patch, adjust the number in the 
Value column for the Program Change event.
To add another MIDI event (e. g. Bank Select) click di-
rectly below the last event in the list and select a new 
event from the pop-up menu that appears.
After adding a new event, you need to set its value in the Value column, 
as with Program Change.
!For details on which MIDI events are used for select-
ing patches in the MIDI device, consult its documen-
tation. 
						

							10
MIDI devices
To replace an event, click on it and select another event 
from the pop-up menu.
For example, a MIDI device may require that a Bank Select message is 
sent first, followed by a Program Change message, in which case you 
would need to replace the default Program Change message with a 
Bank Select message and add a new Program Change after that.
To remove an event, select it and press [Delete] or 
[Backspace].
Add Multiple Presets
This opens a dialog, allowing you to set up a range of pre-
sets to be added in the selected bank or folder.
Proceed as follows:
1.Add the event types required for selecting a patch in 
the MIDI device.
This is done just as when editing the settings for a single event: clicking 
in the event display brings up a pop-up menu from which you can select 
an event type.
2.Use the Range column to set up either a fixed value or 
a range of values for each event type in the list.
This requires some explanation: 
If you specify a single value in the Range column (e. g. 3, 15 or 127), all 
added presets will have an event of this type set to the same value. 
If you instead specify a value range (a start value and an end value, sep-
arated by a dash, e. g. 0-63), the first added preset will have an event set 
to the start value, the next value will be incrementally raised by one and 
so on, up to and including the end value.
ÖThe number of added presets depends on the Range 
setting.
This will generate eight presets, each with a Bank Select event set to 2, 
but with different Program Change events (ranging from 0 to 7).
3.Specify a Default Name below the event display.
The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can re-
name presets manually in the Patch Banks list later.
4.Click OK.
A number of new presets are now added in the selected bank or folder, 
according to your settings.
Other editing functions
 You can move presets between banks and folders by drag-
ging them in the Patch Banks list.
 You can remove a bank, folder or preset by selecting it in the 
Patch Banks list and pressing [Backspace].
 If you specify more than one bank, a Bank Assignment item 
will be added to the pop-up menu at the top of the window. 
Use this to assign banks to the different MIDI channels (see 
“About Patch Banks” on page 8).
Defining a new MIDI device
This section describes how to define a new MIDI device. 
If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-config-
ured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you 
need to define it manually to make it possible to select 
patches by name.
1.In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device 
button.
The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.
2.Select “Define New...” and click OK.
The “Create New MIDI Device” dialog appears. For a description of all the 
options in this list, see “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 11. 
3.Activate the MIDI channels you would like the device 
to use in the Identical Channels list.
This means that the device will receive Program Change over any MIDI 
channel. For a description of Identical and Individual channels, see the 
section “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 11.
!Different devices use different schemes for Bank Se-
lect. When you insert a Bank Select event, you 
should check the device’s documentation to find 
whether to choose “CC: BankSelect MSB”, “Bank 
Select 14 Bit”, “Bank Select 14 Bit MSB-LSB 
Swapped” or possibly some other option.