Patch Catcher

by R van Laake & A Veen This circuit facilitates switching between programmed settings on synthesizers, expanders, and other electrophonic instru- ments. Most of these have some provision for storing or saving user-defined instrument set- tings, which are usually re- ferred to as patches in the electrophonics enthusiasts" jargon. Although this facility is a great asset to many musicians, a problem arises when patches are to be called up in rapid suc- cession while playing. On some instruments, this problem is solved by a pedal that, when pressed, enables the instru- ment to operate with the next patch from the user-defined file (patch increment pedal). In practice, however, the incre- ment function of the pedal may still be considered cumber- some. Assuming that the rel- evant instrument supports the use of eight patches, the pedal needs to be pressed no less than seven times to switch from, say, patch 3 to 2. This is obvi- ously a distracting additional task when the keyboard is ...