Is there any way to use drum kits on noteworthy? If so where do I get them?
G'day Nijg,
most synths use MIDI channel 10 for percussion/drums. There was an old standard that used channel 16 but you don't see them much.
So... Set a staff to MIDI channel 10 and you're away. There are different kits available in different synths/sound fonts and they won't all be the same, but there is always a kit on patch 0/1 (grand piano)
For an example open the file "drumref.nwc" from "samples".
As far as I know, GM2 now includes what used to be GS and/or XG drum kits, and specifically:
ProgChange Name
MSB LSB
000 000 Standard Kit
001 000 Standard Kit 2
004 000 Hit Kit
008 000 Room Kit
016 000 Rock (Power) Kit
024 000 Electronic Kit
025 000 Analog Kit
026 000 Dance Kit
032 000 Jazz Kit
040 000 Brush Kit
048 000 Symphony (Orchestra) Kit
056 000 Sound Effects (SFX) Kit
If your synth is not too old or if your synth is automatically in GS or XG mode you should not have any problem inserting an instrument change command with the relevant ProgChange values.
I tried the different ProgChange values and nothing changed at all. I'm pretty sure that my computer's MIDI capabilities are not very old. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
I suppose in NWC you checked "Send bank select" and set LSB = 0 and MSB at wish, so I can only guess that your synth needs a command like "GM2 on" or "GS on" or "XG on" to use these features.
Just a guess, anyway.
The problem is that, as far as I know, you can not send that kind of command from NWC.
Another idea is: take care of what you're looking (well... listening) at.
For example: I can select the Analog Kit so the drums and cymbals become "synthetic", but the other sounds (agogo, claves, maracas, cabasa...) don't change.
Uh, I just noted that you wrote
.
I did my tests with external keyboards. Maybe your sound card does not handle alternative drum kits.