Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

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Dayflight
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:58 pm

Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by Dayflight » Sat Sep 16, 2017 3:42 pm

I like to send from Live bank and prog change messages via the NI Komplete Audio Interface to my external Elektron gear. Live is master and sends perfect midi clock to my external gear.
Do anyone know how to do this?

Ubik
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:43 am
Location: Brussels

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by Ubik » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:49 pm

You can send program change from a midi clip : https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... MIDI-Clips

timday
Posts: 569
Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 1:02 pm

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by timday » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:44 pm

With Elektron gear you can also send pattern changes using notes on channel 16 (pattern A1 = C-2 on my Analog Keys). Since patterns also determine kits this will also change the patches for all four of the tracks on an AK. I imagine it is similar for the other Elektron boxes.

It's a bit weird because according to the manual this should work on "auto channel" which I have set up as 9 but actually it is channel 16. Maybe I misunderstood the manual.

It seems to work bwtter than clip pattern changes which for some reason only known to Elektron (I have emailed them about this and apparently it is a feature) take a bar to kick in.

Tekhed66
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 3:21 pm

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by Tekhed66 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:51 am

Dayflight wrote:I like to send from Live bank and prog change messages via the NI Komplete Audio Interface to my external Elektron gear. Live is master and sends perfect midi clock to my external gear.
Do anyone know how to do this?
Hi Dayflight

Live can send Bank/Patch change data as per the link in the other post but what might not be clear is that you will need to figure out how your synth knows where each sound/patch is stored ... in other words, how does it know a specific sound is in a specific place?

Live requires up to 3 bits of data to work out this address (depending on your hardware)... you'll see these fields in the 'Notes" box associated with each midi clip. The data fields are: Bank (this corresponds to MSB - most significant byte), Sub (this is LSB - least significant byte) and Pgm (this is Program ... sometimes this simply corresponds to the memory number slot on your synth).

How much data you need to send will depend on your synth and how the memory is arranged.

For example - I have an old Yamaha An1x and it has a single bank of 128 memory slots ... when I send change data, all I send is Program data as there aren't any banks to change ... fortunately, Yamaha use midi 1 - 128 for Program changes which is exactly the same as Live so if I make a midi clip and enter the following info: Bank--, Sub--, Pgm10 then the Yamaha will change to memory slot 10. Ditto any Pgm from 1 to 128, then the Yamaha also changes to that memory slot.

My Triton Rack is more complicated as it has two Banks (divided into 8 subsections each with 16 memory slots - A to H, and I to P) and each Bank has a total of 128 memory slots ... still with me? According to the midi specs hidden at the back of the Triton manual (this is the weird stuff you never read), Bank 1 (A-H) needs Bank/MSB 1, Sub/LSB 1 and Bank 2 (I-P) needs Bank/MSB 1 and Sub/LSB 2. To work out the memory slots though, you have to ignore the 8 subsections (A, B, C, D etc) and think of it as one big memory space containing 128 slots ... when you write it all out, memory slot A1 is the first one so Pgm is 1 ... memory slot A16 is Pgm 16... BUT ... the next memory slot which is memory slot B1 is Pgm 17 ... B2 is Pgm 18 all the way to B16 which is 32 ... the next slot C1 is 33 and so on until you get to the last slot H16 which is 128.

So to write this out so Live recognises it:
Memory slot A1 (Bank 1) is Bank 1, Sub 1, Pgm 1
Memory slot C1 (Bank 1) is Bank 1, Sub 1, Pgm 33
Memory slot I16 (Bank 2) is Bank 1, Sub 2, Pgm 16

To confuse you even more, some hardware uses 0-127 instead of 1-128 (my Roland gear uses 0-127) so whatever value the manual tells me is one LESS than what Live expects to see ... if a memory slot in the Roland manual says Pgm 99, I enter Pgm 100 (remember Live uses 1-128 ans the Roland uses one less 0-127) ... this is specific to your hardware so somewhere buried in the manual will be the midi spec for your gear... OR - you could just assume that it's the same as Live (1-128) and if your patches are out by one spot, simply increase the value in the Pgm box by one.

It might seem pretty confusing to start with but there's a weird logic to it ... unfortunately, you'll need to dig for the info in the manual or if the gear is still supported, contact the help desk and ask them for the MSB/LSB data (ie. how it is arranged).

Once you've got the data entered in your midi clip, you'll have to assign it to a specific midi channel (depending on your hardware setup) and also check to see the midi info is received in time to start the track/performance... I've got 4 hardware synths in my rig and 3/4 all change banks/patches immediately but my trusty old Roland needs two bursts of info to make the changes... to get around this, I have a scene with a midi clip just for the Roland (first burst for Roland) and then another scene with midi clips for all 4 synths (second burst for Roland) which does the job.

Good luck!

Akkad
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:33 am

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by Akkad » Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:41 am

Hi Tekhed66.

I know it's been a while since this was posted but thanks for taking the time to explain how Ableton MIDI Program & Bank changes work regarding MSB & LSB as I couldn't find any official Ableton info on this.

Only Program Changes worked but not all the time (this happens when having wrong Bank/MSB number) & could not change PLUGOUT synths on my Roland System-8 until I came across this post. Now everything works always, saved me a lot of time, cheerz!

Thanks Tekhed66.

Darren Tech
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:04 pm

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by Darren Tech » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:07 pm

Hi Akkad,

could you please give an example for a PLUGOUT and program change to your SYSTEM-8? I wasn't able to manage it yet. Thanks in advance.

CinderLyon
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:55 am

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by CinderLyon » Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:07 am

Took a lot of searching and tweaking to get this figured out.

To get program change to work on Roland Fantom 08 here is a sorta template for you:

For Scene:
A0001 = 86,1,1
B0001 = 86,2,1
D0001 = 86,4,1

for tone:
0001 = 88,93,1


Put these numbers in Bank, Sub, Pgm in the order above. Edit these parameter's in clip view, Launch submenu.

This probably works for all Fantom or Fantom 0 (zero).

Experiment from here.

#programchangeroland

johnclark
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2023 11:30 am

Re: Bank and Program change sending to external gear, how?

Post by johnclark » Fri Jan 26, 2024 4:37 pm

Hi!
great topic here.
Does someone has the same kind of « template » for PC change for the Nordstage 2, Mopho and Elektron Analog Keys synths please ?
Thanx

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