Some people aren't huge fans of the whole "bank up, press A B C D" method of patch selection.
It's a bit time-consuming and you need a MIDI cable, but here's a way to use a single switch to cycle between any number of favorite patches:
1. On the System MIDI page, make sure MIDI OUT/THRU is set to OUT (NOT THRU!).
2. Using a standard MIDI cable, connect the MIDI OUT of the HD500 back to its MIDI IN.
3. Choose the first patch in your "mega playlist".
4. Hold MOVE for two seconds to get to the MIDI Assign page.
5. Cursor to FS1 and assign:
- MIDI CH to Base
- MESSAGE to Prog Change
- PROG # to the value of the next preset in your mega playlist (you may have to make a list ahead of time. Basically, 000 is 1A, 001 is 1B, 002 is 1C, 45 is 12B, etc.)
7. Press FS1.
HD500 instantly jumps to the preset selected in step 5.
8. Repeat steps 4-7 to build a sequential series of patches.
You're basically programming each patch's FS1 switch to jump to the NEXT specific patch in your mega playlist.
For example, repeated presses of FS1 could:
- Toggle between 1A and 15B over and over... or
- Cycle between 1A, 14C, 9B, and 11A over and over... or
- Call up every preset sequentially, with one switch for your entire show