cubase 6 making a midi program (instrument) change

issue: in cubase 6 making a midi program (instrument) change within a midi track.

i currently compose in sibelius 7. i’m wanting to do more composition work in midi.

scenario:
i have an arco contrabass (garritan gpo/aria) intro of 10 bars. and on bar 11 i need to ask that bass fiddle player to switch to pizzicato.

after i found my way to the ‘list editor’ and locating the program change feature at the bottom left in a drop down menu that also contains velocity, i’m not able to get cubase to respond and change the patch to pizz. this seems like a pretty basic function since this is so seamlessly done in notation apps like sibelius/finale.

this is just an example of the issue. in any given piece there could be dozens of these changes needed to accommodate brass and percussion doubling. so just adding new midi tracks to switch back and forth between arco and pizz is great for producing music and moving it out the door. but my current project requires an extra step.

once the tracks are produced, i need to export them as midi and import them into sibelius for engraving. so my 20 piece orchestra might now have 60 or more staves that need to be sorted out and re-consolidated. that program change feature would offer more flexibility in certain types of composition then some of the restrictions prevalent on digital notation.

i’ve read many of the entries in this forum regarding this program change issue and they got me to this point but the home stretch is painful. does anyone know step-by-step strategy for making midi program changes midway in a midi track

Hi and welcome,

I would recommend you to have look on Expression Map in Cubase. These are designed to be able to change the articulation very simply way. Just by creating the event.

anyway, if you need to create a Program Change message, do this in List Editor:

  • Change the Insert Event Type from Note to Program Change.
  • Select Draw tool, and click to the timeline, where you want to create the event.
  • New Program Change is created.
  • Set the Program Change Value.

Or do so in Key Editor.

  • In the Controller line select Program Change.
  • Click to the Controller line to the position, where you want to create the event. And set the Value (I would recommend do so in the Info View).