is it possible to change banks / patches from a midi controller?

i feel this is honestly probably the biggest advantage for hardware synths. you can simply change the banks by pressing a button or turning a knob. i have never been able to figure out how to change patches in VSTis with a controller. seems like something that it should be able to do at a minimum!!! 

anybody figure this out at all?

p.s. i understand it would be impossible in things like dimension pro as it seems you have to actually load a file or something and there are no "left right" buttons in the plugin. but in z3ta, you should be able to do this somehow.

any advice on how to link this to my keyboard?

oh yeah, i am not thinking of doing this during project playback, but rather just during the jamming / writing process.

oh and with z3ta 2 what you can do is create a subdirectory with the patches you want to use and then midi learn the left and right buttons and map them to your keyboard to scroll through them.

so what you are saying is there is no generic patch control pre-defined in the vsts? i thought vstis were programmed to midi standard, which accept patch control... ?

oh and the way you send bank and patch changes is dependent on how your keyboard is designed. what kind do you have?

unfortunately i think youllrun into a limited number of vstis youll be able to use it with. might want to take a look at something like ni rig kontrol to see how its implemented  what i typically do in sonar is have several midi tracks set to diff channels controlling soft synths then switch channels on my controller for diff sounds.