Hello,

It is normal for the GM bank to be bank 0, and to have to use Bank select messages to access patches on higher banks...
It is easier to use the controls on the main screen rather than the ones in the Channels dialog. 'Channel', 'Octave', and 'Chorus' don't have controls on the main screen, so the dialog is useful for those settings, but channel and octave are rarely used except in special cases.

But if you want, you could change the bank numbers in that dialog, then use Opt. | Utilities | Save Alternate Drum/Patch file to save a custom .dk file. You could then reload that .dk file at any time, and it will fill in those boxes for you.

If you are trying to map the general MIDI instruments to specific patches on higher banks (so for example, when you select 1 Acoustic Piano, it always gets mapped to some non-GM patch on a higher bank, you *could* accomplish this through Opt. | Utilities | Make an advanced patch map, but this is not used often. A couple of notes if you do use it... 1 - Be sure to save an alternate drum/patch file so you have all your settings saved in a .dk file that you can re-load later, 2 - you need to 'enabled advanced settings' checkbox) when you start BB.

A better way to do it is to have a patch map for your synth, then use the [+] button to access all of the patches available on your synth by name, rather than having to type in all the bank numbers each time you want to choose a patch. There are some patch maps included with the program, and on our website at:
http://www.pgmusic.com/support_miscellaneous.htm

There are instructions on creating a patch map here
http://www.pgmusic.com/tutorial_bbwpatchmap.htm#patchmap

Andrew
PG Music Inc.