You no longer have the concept of a default root directory, but a current one. This can by changed at any time without requiring a re-start, so there is no longer a need to display the (confusing) contents of all roots. Also, roots now have ID numbers associated with them, but no changes have been made to the actual directores to achieve this. Instead the IDs are stored in the config file. The same ID system is used for banks, again without making any file system changes.

At first run (and whenever new root directories are set) unknown roots and banks are given these IDs. Once set they will not change no matter how many more roots and banks are later added. You can however, manually change root directory IDs in the 'Bank Root Paths window' accessible from the 'Paths' item in the main window. Also, there is a new Banks window so that these can be set up, moved and renamed in exactly the same way as instruments can. With these IDs, roots and banks can be grouped/ordered by function instead of alphabetically. When using the GUI you will always know exactly which root and bank you fetch an instrument from.

You can quickly step between roots, banks and instruments with the so marked buttons in each of these, and if you right-click on them you will close one window as you open the other.

The significance of all this is that your MIDI sequencer can now reliably use these ID numbers to select roots, banks and (already available) instruments. That Rosegarden or Muse file you save today will be just as valid in the future, unless you make the deliberate choice to change some IDs. Indeed, you can now start with an 'empty' Yoshimi, and via MIDI, set roots, banks and load instruments into parts (enabling the parts as you do so) swapping banks and roots as necessary. While the MIDI file runs it can silently pull instruments from any root/bank into any non-sounding part without disturbing the playing ones.

In Yoshimi->Settings->MIDI you can enable or disable all these features, and can define which CCs you want to use. Bank can be either MSB or LSB (as before). Root can be any non-reserved CC but including the one not in use for Bank. Also, Extended Program Change now has the same restrictions as Root, and these three are all cross-checked against each other. As an example you might set Bank to LSB amd Root to 0 (MSB), effectively giving you extended bank control compatible with all sequencers.

Also, different instances have their own config files so that you can have (say) the main instance with current root(9), bank(23) while instance 4 has current root(2), bank(6). You can call up instances by number and thus access saved settings for that instance. As each instance has its own MIDI and audio ports, they can behave more-or-less independently.

In doing all of this we have completely changed the way we manage the structure internally, resulting in much greater efficiency, at the cost of only a slightly slower startup. Swapping roots performs *no* file operations. Swapping banks only fetches the directory list of the newly selected bank. Changing an instrument doesn't have to search for a file, only load from its already known location.

If you change a bank root path, either through the gui or via MIDI, it will
always reset the current bank to the lowest numbered one it can find. This is
because there may not be a bank in the new root with the same ID, and even if
there is, there is no guarantee that it will have the same name or contents.

Also if an attempt is made to reload the same root, nothing will actually
happen. The same is true of banks. Both of these are kept fully up-to-date so
there would be no point.

However, reloading the same *instrument* will be performed every time, as you
may have changed what is currently loaded without saving it. This provides an
effective 'restore' operation.


Finally, it is generally advisable to make root and bank changes on channel 1 so that you can more easily keep track of them. However they are not channel sensitive as they don't directly affect the sound, so you can set them in any convenient channel then perform individual program changes on the desired channels.
