To use an.factory MIDI Export support, your copy of an.factory needs to be registered.
The first step is to configure the Device types that you have in the Device Type Preferences tab in the Preferences Dialog. Up to two device types are supported: a Primary device and a Secondary Device.
You can select a Device to be either an AN1x, PLG150-AN or AN200. The Secondary Device is not enabled by default, and you need to enable it if required.
To configure MIDI support for each Device, go to the MIDI Preferences tab in the Preferences Dialog, and set up the following:
If you have enabled the Secondary MIDI device then there are two MIDI Device tabs, one for each device. Both tabs are identical, so only one is described.
If the Device Number on the AN device is set to ALL then it will accept data for any SYSEX Device.
You can check that these settings work (for the AN1x only) by pressing the Test MIDI Settings button. When you press this button a test message is sent to the AN device and the subsequent Dialog will tell you if communication was successful or if there was a problem.
The above steps set up the basic communication mechanism for MIDI support, and you then can set up the remaining options according to your preferences:
In operation, using MIDI is quite straightforward. an.factory will transparently convert between AN1x, PLG150-AN and AN200 file formats as required depending on the source and destination file types. Similarly, an.factory will perform conversions as required between a source file and the data sent to/from the Primary and Secondary MIDI Ports.
You can import all the AN Device Voices/Sequences/Songs into
any Child Window (including
the AN Device Synthesizer Window) by selecting the
Import from MIDI option on
the MIDI Menu, or the
button on
the Tool Bar.
This imports all Voices, and all Sequences (for an AN1x) if you have set the MIDI Preferences options to include Sequences during the bulk transfers into the selected window.
If the Synth is an AN200, then the following dialog appears, which waits for and captures the data exported from the AN200.
The AN200 does not support a program like an.factory being able to request the data, so you must manually send the bulk dump data. First, select the "Import From MIDI" command from an.factory's MIDI menu, and once this is visible and waiting for data then initiate the bulk dump from the AN200. The dialog box shows that the data being received. Once all data has been sent, press the "OK" button, or press the "Cancel" button to cancel the import.
Similarly you can also export all Voices and Sequences or Songs using the
Export MIDI option on
the MIDI Menu, or the
button on
the Tool Bar.
Note if you import or export MIDI data to/from a Child Window which is opened from a data file, then the AN Device Synthesizer Window is also updated with the Voices/Sequences being imported/exported.
And you can also move/copy Voices/Sequences between the AN Device Synthesizer Window and Child Window using drag and drop.
You can also import/export a Voice or Sequence to/from the AN Device Edit Buffer by
selecting a single Voice/Sequence and selecting the import/export to/from AN Device Edit
Buffer options from the Voice's or Sequence's Context Sensitive Menu. You can also use
the keyboard shortcuts for doing this.
Finally you can also perform all the operations on Voices/Sequences in the AN Device Synthesizer Window that you can upon Voices/Sequences in a normal Child Window.
If you have the Automatically Update AN Device after Synth Window Edit option active, when you change data in the AN Device Synthesizer Window then the changes are automatically exported to the AN Device.
So you may wish to turn the
Automatically Update AN Device after Synth Window Edit option off
during intensive editing sessions. Once you've made all your changes you then select
the
Export MIDI option on the
MIDI Menu, or the
button on the
Tool Bar Export option to manually export the
changes.
If you quit an.factory with changes still present in the AN Device Synthesizer Window that have not been exported, then you will be asked if you wish to export the data or not.
an.factory has a facility to allow MIDI data from an additional MIDI input port, defined in the MIDI Preferences dialog, to be routed to the port you have selected for an.factory to output MIDI data on. This allows, for example, you to use a master keyboard (which may be closer to your computer) to be used when auditioning AN1x sounds that you've sent from an.factory to the AN1x edit buffer.
You access this feature by selecting the AN1x MIDI Router ... option in the MIDI Menu or by pressing the F12 function key whenever you need it, which activates the following dialog.
The name of the menu option will change depending on the selected device. A MIDI router option also exists for the secondary device if enabled.
The router uses the MIDI channel defined in the MIDI Preferences dialog This can either be the channel transmitted by the source device, or the specified channel.
The routing is active until you close the dialog by selecting the Close Channel button or by pressing the ESC key.