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Midi Quest 9 New Features
If you want to know about every new
feature in Midi Quest 9, this is the page for you. It contains a
comprehensive list of the latest enhancements. Make sure you also check
out the Midi Quest XL for its feature list.
The Studio Window features...
- Formerly called the Driver List or
Instrument List Window
- Complete redesign of interface to more
closely represent your studio
- Displays a high quality graphic of
each of your MIDI devices
- Collapse or expand each instrument
representation
- Quick execution mini-buttons to
receive SysX via MIDI, load files from disk, create a new SysX file
and change instrument settings
- Dual display mode for creating Sets
and Collections
- AutoSense scans MIDI ports and
SysX channels for your instruments. It can be started manually
or invoked automatically each time a new instrument is added
- Multiple Set support allows easy
selection and loading of different instrument configurations such as
RAM data, RAM and ROM data, or card data, etc (Sets will vary
depending on instrument capabilities
- Popup menu lists all Sets and
individual instrument components (drivers)
- Install new instruments from the Midi
Quest CD from within Midi Quest - no need to run the program
installer
- Easily install new or updated
instrument support from Sound Quest's web site. Midi Quest
automatically connects to Sound Quest's web site, lists instruments
which have been recently released or updated and allows you to select
which ones to download and install. Keeping current has never been so
easy!
Cubase Name Script Support
- Midi Quest is now able to write
Cubase Name Script files allowing names from RAM and ROM banks to be
accessed and displayed in Cubase and Nuendo MIDI tracks
The Set Window features...
- Formerly called the Group Window
- Supports an unlimited number of
instruments
- Store your entire MIDI system in a
single Set
- a new Hierarchical Tree View which
keeps your instrument's organized. SysX is stored by instrument and
multiple banks are stored in expandable folders
- 48 different icons indicate the type
of device: keyboard, rack, mixer, etc.
The Bank Window features...
- New Bank editor display with logical
grouping of patches is faster and easier to use
- SmartTab selector quickly
accesses and displays any patch in a bank
- Find finds the first patch to
match
- Find Again finds the next patch
that matches
- Hierarchical patch editing is now 50%
faster
- Hierarchical patch editing can be
disabled for event faster editing
- New numbering formats
- New auditioning types
- For instruments which do not offer an
edit buffer, patches can optionally be edited in a fixed memory
location or in a location based on the position of the patch in the
bank
The Patch Window features...
- Redesign of every Midi Quest editor
with improved graphic display
- Smart Controller option allows
a single controller to be specified. That controller will edit the
currently selected control allowing you to edit from a keyboard or
other MIDI source
- Optionally display individual
parameter help (when available in the editor)
- Complete integration of Tech Quest
into the Patch Window - now called the Panel Editor. See the bottom of
this page for a complete list of Panel Editor features
- Apply a unique custom skin to each Midi
Quest editor
- Improved popup menus provides a
superior display of available control options
- Large option lists can be filtered to
display only a portion of the list (for example, if you have a listing
of 1000 sample names to select from and only want to see a list of
bass samples, you can enter "bass" as a filter and only
those samples with "bass" in their name are displayed)
- Placing the mouse over any control
displays a popup with the extended name of the control and its current
value (four different display level options)
- Description of the use of the selected
control is displayed in the message bar (when implemented in the
editor)
- Auto activate - automatically activate
a control by placing the mouse over it - no click necessary (optional)
- Controls representing MIDI note values
can be edited using MIDI input from a keyboard or drum machine (eg use
the keyboard to set the upper and lower range of a layer by pressing
the appropriate MIDI notes)
- Controls representing a MIDI note can
also be set using a virtual graphic MIDI keyboard - just right click
on a MIDI note display and use the keyboard to select the note.
- Controls representing MIDI velocity
values can be edited using MIDI input from a keyboard (eg use the
keyboard to set the upper and lower velocity window of a layer by
pressing appropriate note velocities)
- Block copy/swap - easily copy a
predefined source parameter block such as an envelope or operator to
one or more destinations within the same editor or to another editor (eg.
for a Yamaha DX7 you can easily copy operator 3 to operators 1, 4, 5,
and 6 with just a couple of button clicks)
- Buffer load and save commands are
accessible through keyboard commands
- Floating editors now display patch
names referenced in banks
- Combi/Multi editors support instant
editing of their referenced patches. Double click on a patch name to
automatically open an editor for that patch
- Extended names entered in controls of
all editors
- Patch skins now contain almost twice
as many controllable parameters as in version 8 including
specification of tiled or scaled backgrounds, multiple slider bitmaps,
8 different custom fonts and more
- Full editing using cursor control. Use
the arrow keys to step between controls
- Extended numeric entry - type in a
value for each control from the keyboard
- ALT + arrow keys edits the selected
control in increments of 10
- the '[' and ']' edit the selected
parameter in increments of 10
Additional Instrument Support
- Midi Quest 9 adds support for
over 50 additional instruments
- Midi Quest now supports over
600 instruments
The Collection Window features...
- Formerly called the DBase Window
- Displays columns for each entry's keys
and comments
- The Collection can be sorted using any
one of these new columns
The Midi Monitor Window features...
- New window layout
- MIDI history - all MIDI events are
stored and call be scrolled through
- Easier to read design with one MIDI
event per line
- Interpretation of MIDI data - the type
of data, MIDI channel and data values are displayed in an easy to
understand format
- MIDI event time (time stamp) is
displayed along with the difference in timer from the previous event
- MIDI data source is displayed so you
know which port the event came from
- Both MIDI input and output are now
supported
- MIDI event filter selects which types
of messages are displayed
- Export stored MIDI events in a MIDIX
format file or copy them to the clipboard as text
- With this new set of features, it is
now possible to record a specific series of individual parameter edits
from a Midi Quest editor and save them for inclusion in a piece
of music in your sequencer
The Sequencer Window features...
- New window layout
- Volume, Pan and Muting controls for
each MIDI channel
General features...
- New icon bars and icons with mouse
over highlighting
- Set, Collection, Library, Bank, and
Patch Windows all allow SysX data to be copied to the clipboard as
text to be pasted into a Sonar SysX Bank
- All windows have mouse wheel support
where applicable
- MIDI Panic button turns off all
notes on all MIDI channels
- The default paths (program path,
instrument path, and data path) used by Midi Quest and stored
in the registry can now be displayed and edited from within the
program
- Auto-Save Session - optionally save
all open windows and their positions on program exit. When next run,
Midi Quest will automatically re-open all windows in the same
positions
The following section covers all of the
technical features added to the Midi Quest Panel Editor. This section will
be of interest to those who are interested in creating or modifying Midi
Quest editors.
The Patch Window Panel Editor
features...
- A new rendering engine with
instantaneous graphic updates and ultra-smooth window scrolling
- Extended control selection
- Unlimited text block to document the
purpose of macros and variables and store any other pertinent
development notes
- 4 new standard controls added:
Horizontal and Vertical Graphic Sliders, Background Bitmap, Tab, and
Static Text
- All controls are now written to a
standardized C++ plug-in format allowing for future control
development by 3rd parties as well as the additional of custom
features on a per editor basis such as customized file import and
conversion utilities
- Optionally lock controls to a layout
grid
- all controls can be nudged using the
control keys
- any custom editor created in Midi
Quest 8 is automatically imported and converted to the new file format
- Technical note: the entire Patch
Editor rendering and editing engine was rewritten from scratch and all
editors are now stored in a completely new file format. These changes
have resulted in more features than can be reasonably be documented
here. Most notably, editors load much faster than in previous Midi
Quest versions.
- All controls now feature substantially
enhanced display options such as rounded edges, transparency, and
parameter edge options and
- Envelopes - expanded the size of the
grab boxes, optional 1 and 2 line drawing thickness
- Knobs - support for user customizable
multi-bitmap knobs - allows you to create and use your own knob
bitmaps if you wish
- Knobs - support left/right, up/down,
and rotary editing
- Each control has extensive standard
display formatting options including: 1 pixel raised, 2 pixel raised,
1 pixel indented, 2 pixel indented, flat, and offset
- Numeric and String List controls have
an optional graphic which can be displayed to show right click
functionality
- String Control - be able to specify
the display font
- The information above is just a small
sample of the features added to the Panel Edit development tool in Midi
Quest
Additional Links
For information on Midi Quest XL, click
here
To order a Midi Quest 9, Midi Quest XL, or UniQuest
upgrade, click
here
To order a new copy of Midi Quest 9, Midi Quest XL, or UniQuest,
click
here
For Midi Quest's Instrument Support List, click
here
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