Help needed for changing through different sounds in a preset

Hi Nomad

Thanx for a fast response

I have thought about the PRG change command - but i find it not so good because : i use the prg. change already from Live for choosing a preset in MS of up to 4 sounds for each song, and i have a total of maybe 20 different sounds for my whole gig-setup so if i use 2 buttons for prog up/down i would sometimes have to press many times in order to get from sound 1 to sound 20 - furthermore i would like to have the monitor of my Macbook showing Ableton Live and not Mainstage - meaning i would like to have 4 buttons on my controller where i can select the 4 sounds very fast without having to use a graphic feedback as the MS screen.

My wish is that i can switch between each of the 4 sounds in each every preset in MS with 4 buttons.

EX:

I load a new song in Live, press a button on my controller to send out a scene from Live containing only a PRG change over the IAC bus to MS in order to have the right sounds ready. Then i want to use 4 buttons on my controller to switch between the 4 sounds i have setup in MS.

Maybe i misunderstand you, and if then please answer

thanx ;-)

It´s always good wit some creative ideas ;-)

I did already try to make a patch with the 4 sounds stacked on the same midi ch and then assign the 4 buttons to the solo function on each track, but (unfortunately) it´s possible to solo more than 1 track, meaning that i would still have to make more button pressures - maybe it´s a luxury problem, but still not the optimal solution (i believe that the mute function idea would work like the solo function in this scenario)

About a DAW, i have been using Logic since the very first version and i love it for composing, arranging and producing, but Ableton Live is a perfect tool for playing midi and audio parts live, what Logic isn´t really suited for. I don't use the playback function i MS because i find Live super and it´s also not so hard to learn Live.

thanx for your input :-)

Hi

Thanx - i will try out your suggestion ;-)

Live is a good choice - you could also check youtube to se how people are using Live

it´s a very nice suggestion you have made - thank you very much.

I have some questions though :

First of all, is it possible to save these mappings for the 4 buttons and copy them into another preset or do i have do the programming for each preset ? This would surely save a lot of time.

At the moment i have my controller keyboard buttons (Roland A 800 Pro) set to Latch mode and the mapping to “Momentary behavior” mode

It gives me another problem :

Ex: I Press button 1 (it ligths up because of the Latch-mode, which i like so i get a visual feedback of which channel/sound is selected) ch1is um-muted and 2,3 & 4 are muted - so far so good.

If i press the button 1 again (the second button press) all 4 channels/sounds play and next button press (third button press) will give me only 1 sound again. But i have to press the “button 1” 2 times in order to first make it play solo and then to switch it of (playing all 4 sounds) and then press the button 2,3 or 4 in order to give me the next sound i want.

Maybe it´s a luxury problem and a kind of trade off, but it would be nice if i could skip the 2´nd “button” press and go directly to button 2,3 or 4. Sometimes a have to make the switch very fast and there is a small margin for error here, meaning that all sounds will play instead of only one.

I think there is maybe a soloution if you work with a combination of mute and solo, and a combination of Invert Parameter Range, Momentary behavior and button Latch/Unlatch mode

Do you have any thoughts about this ?

Hi daFrimpster

Thanx - seems like a very good idea to use the bypass instead of the mute (or solo)

I will check it out in details soon.

I have tested the good suggestions from Nomad_76 and daFrimpster (thanx ;-) but have another problem now :

Controller Keyboard Roland A 800 PRO with 4 buttons (B1-B4) are programmed with midinotes (unlatch) 1,2,3 and 4 (ch 16)

I will use these buttons to select up to 4 different sounds in each of my MS-Patches.

In MS i have made 4 Buttons which are assigned to the 4 Controller Buttons B1-B4

In a MS Patch i have 4 synths on track 1-4 each on Midi Ch 1

I have set up the 4 buttons mapped to Bypass this way (with 4 Mappings for each Button):

Button 1 : Track 1 Bypass off , Track 2 Bypass on, Track 3 Bypass on, Track 4 Bypass on

Button 2 : Track 1 Bypass on, Track 2 Bypass off, Track 3 Bypass on, Track 4 Bypass on

and so on - this way only one Track is active at a time and the others are Bypassed

I have for Bypass ON/Off used these mappings :

Bypass Off :

Saved Value: - - -

Button On: - - -

Button Off: - - -

Invert Parameter Range and Momentary Behavior are not ticked

Bypass ON :

Saved Value: Bypassed

Button On: Bypassed

Button Off: Bypassed

Invert Parameter Range and Momentary Behavior are not ticked

Now everything works fine (apart from the unlatch buttons on the Controller Keyboard - the don´t stay lit and therefor you cant see which sound is active - i use the screen for Ableton Live and therefor MS runs in the background and is not visible - but i believe this is best with unlatch in order to avoid extra button presses to switch off the last pressed button, when you press a second button)

but…….

The MS buttons which are supposed to lit up when pressed (Red for active/ON and black for passive/Off) works this way :

When i press Button 1 on my Keyboard i hear only the synth from Track 1 and the others are bypassed and the MS button 1 is lit on as the only one - very good

Now i press Button 2 on my Keyboard and i only hear the synth from track 2 and the others are bypassed - very good, but now the MS button 2,3 and 4 are all lit up ???

The same happens when i press button 3 and 4 ???

Im can live with this strange visual feedback from these MS buttons, but i want to understand why this is happening - any ideas ?

Hi Nomad 76

Thanx for the good suggestions, fut i can't get the MS Buttons to work proper. The first button works ok - It´s lit and synth 2,3 an4 are bypassed, but when i hit button 2,3 or 4 the bypass alright but all 3 buttons lit up although only one synth is active ???

Hi Authentic Identity

Thanx for keeping the discussion alive - it´s not really solved for me yet.

My old setup where i used the Nordlead 3 as master keyboard, had a feature i can´t make on the A-800. When i was selecting one of the 4 parts on NL3 it would send on the midi-ch for the part for the whole keyboard. If i have to change the setting for the base channel on A-800 i would have to use 4 different presets (each with a different ch) and switch with the data-encoder knob, but thats not fast and precise enough for fast switching through sounds. It´s not possible to make the A-800 change it´s base midi channel with just 1 keypress.

The NL3 setup worked like this :

Press Part A button : the keyboards send out midi on ch. 1

Press Part B button : the keyboard sends out midi on ch. 2

C Button > ch. 3 and D button > ch. 4

This was a very simple way to switch fast through 4 sounds

I will check out your you-tube link ;-)

nice regards

Henning Flintholm