Changing midi tracks / instrument racks via midi command

[pb125770]

Hi,

I know this kind of thing has been discussed on the forum before and I've read some of those threads. What I'm trying to do is fairly straight forward in concept but maybe beyond the art of the possible in Ableton (or perhaps Music OS).

I'm going to use Ableton on-stage as a 'soft-synth manager'. I will use two midi controllers, each is defined in my midi set-up on Ableton. For each song I have constructed a synth-rack - therefore each midi-track (column) is named after the song and has it's own custom synth rack and effects etc.

I want to be able to switch through the songs (i.e. the midi-track) and I can think of a few ways of doing this:

1. The obvious way is to use my wireless mouse to click on the next midi-track. This might be my only option but of course I'm relying on my eyesight and some of our song transitions are instant/seamless.

2. A second way is to set each midi-track input to a different midi-channel and just change both controllers between songs. This is not ideal due to the time it'll take and also what do I do after I reach song 16? Sometimes we may play 40 songs in one night.

3. The option I'm searching for. Find a way of using the increment button on one of the controllers to send a midi message to Ableton telling it to move across to the next midi-track. Logically speaking I'm not sure this is possible because I don't think Ableton has a counter for each midi-track in a set. However if that was possible I wouldn't have to mess with the controllers midi-channel or trust my dexterity (and eyesight) with a mouse.

4. There is another possibility - I bought Music OS with the thought that if I rewired then I could build a set list in MOS that simply 'calls' the next set in Ableton (so each set would be a song on our set-list) or indeed calls the appropriate midi-track however having now spent considerable hours looking for that, I fear my money has not been well-spent. No fault of Open Labs, great product but just not for my use case, unless someone can enlighten me on that as well.

I don't need this config for recording - I had that figured out in 5 mins!

Any comments appreciated.

Paul.

[pb125770]

Oh how excited am I? I've solved the problem. I forgot to add - I'm currently using a motif ex6 as the main controller. I found a forum thread from 2009 (yes, 2009!) where a kind fella by the name of doghouse provides a way to get the Motif to emulate the mackie control surface to establish control over ableton as well as using the various knobs and sliders to control what happening on each midi-track.

DogHouse - if I ever bump into you, you will not need any cash at the bar that night.

As follows:
On the Motif ES:

UTILITY->MIDI->OTHER->MIDI IN/OUT set to USB
UTILITY->CTL ASN->REMOTE set Mode A to Cubase Port 4 and Mode B to OFF

Connect the Motif ES USB To Host to your computer and launch Live.

In Live 7:

1. Go to Preferences -> MIDI Sync2. Set Control Surface to Mackie Control
3. In the input/output section set Input: Mackie Control (Yamaha USB 4) to OFF, OFF, ON and Output: Mackie Control (Yamaha USB 4) to OFF, OFF, ON.

Set the Remote Control switch of the Motif ES to ON (lights up) and you should see Live parameters on the Motif screen. That's it! The Motif ES will now function as a Mackie Control.

Controls:

-- The Motif transport controls the Live transport.
-- The Motif channel select 1-16 and mute/solo buttons perform the same functions in Live.
-- The Motif knobs control pan and the faders volume for four tracks at a time (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, etc.) unless you activate Pan mode which flips the assignment (faders control pan, knobs control volume).
-- The Motif arrow cursor buttons will scroll through Live tracks and scenes.

The Motif ES has a total of six remote control screens using the select buttons next to the knobs/faders. Each brings up a different menu of soft buttons. Most have the same name as the Mackie button name, but some have names specific to Cubase. See page 60 of the Motif ES Data List manual for button definitions. See chapter 22 in the Live 7 manual for Mackie button definitions.

Motif button names that differ from Mackie button names:

Plugins = Devices
Cycle = Loop On/Off
PunchIn = PunchIn (but no PunchOut!)
Edit = Return
Project = View Browser
Mixer = View Detail
Master = Draw Mode
Shift = Follow Mixer

Mackie buttons that have no Motif equivalent:

Send
Home
End
Scrub
SMPTE/Beats
ViewArr
BTA
Locator


Motif buttons with no Mackie equivalent:

Instruments (stops all clips)