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

well that is actually the main reason why i brought this up.

i am currently designing a 4 pedal conrol that will switch between banks and patches, eliminating the need to take your hands off the keys to get the right sound. 

it will use 4 switches and the arduino via serial/midi bus sending the standard midi control signals for bank and program changes. i will also install a switch/step potentiometer to switch between different cc settings..

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.

argh i don't understand why programmers would neglect basic midi implementation! 

well i know it should work for z3ta2 at least lol. which is one of the main ones tbh. i have contacted image line so hopefully i can get some answers for their synths.