This past weekend I played a show where I wasn’t sure exactly what patches I would need for which songs. To get around this, I came up with a way to quickly select presets using my keyboard. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Select some stock sounds that you’d like to use during the show, and categorize them into folders. I prefer to have folders with these categories: pianos, electric pianos, organs, orchestral, pads, and ethnic. 

2. Go to the Layout mode, and add some buttons to the screen. Switch back to the edit screen.

3. Click on the orange concert folder in the LH corner, then click on the first button. Under “unmapped”, select action>current patch number. Set the button on, button off, and saved value to 1. Reselect the orange concert folder in the LH corner, and repeat this step with all the following buttons, switching the button on, button off, and saved value to 2, 3, and so on.

4. Click on the orange concert folder in the LH part of the window. Now, in the RH corner of the screen in the edit window, select “Assign and Map”. Select each button, and hit the button on your midi controller that you’d like to use to trigger it. Repeat with all the other controllers. 

5. On your midi controller, use some white tape and label what each button should recall which sound. When you’re onstage, you’ll be able to quickly look at your controller and select the appropriate patch quickly using the buttons.