Headmaster 1.0 p 5
Banks And Buttons
When designing a foot-operated controller there is always the question:
How Many Buttons?
Fewer buttons make the unit smaller, lighter, easier to pack and easier to fit on a
crowded stage.
More buttons give the player a larger number of choices. But if the buttons must be
operated with a foot, they can't be placed too close together. This means that a foot-
operated controller with lots of buttons gets really big.
To achieve a compromise between size and flexibility, the Head Master is organized as
a set of 5 banks of 6 buttons each. This results in a unit having 30 available Stored
Programs, but only 8 buttons - 2 to select the Bank and the other 6 to select the
Program.
As shown on the next page, Bank Switching allows 6 buttons to control 30 Stored
Programs. Think of the Bank Selector as a control that tells the Buttons WHICH set of 6
Stored Programs to control.
Bank + And Bank –
The Bank Select Buttons are labeled Bank + and Bank -.
When you press Bank +, the bank is incremented by one.
If Bank 5 is selected, and Bank + is pressed, the Bank rolls over to 1.
When you press Bank -, the Bank is decremented.
If Bank 1 is selected, and Bank – is pressed, the Bank rolls over to 5.
NO MIDI COMMANDS ARE SENT when the Bank Select buttons are pressed.
The LED display shows the CURRENT Bank, and the LAST Button pressed.
Example:
If Bank 1 is selected, and Button 2 is pressed, the display shows
Bank 1 Button 2
If Bank + is then pressed, the display shows
Bank 2 Button 2
But, since no MIDI Commands have been sent, you are still playing the Program
Bank 1 Button 2
