Guitar Rig AU does not receive program changes

[J_OLIVER]

I can't get Guitar Rig 4 to recognize program change messages when running it as an AU plugin in Abelton LIVE 8.2.1. Whether I record a program change message from my controller or just set one at the start of a clip, it just does not read it. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
MacbookPro 2.4 gHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, OS X 10.6.6

[jonnyH]

the problem is that guitar rig is on an audio track, so it's not listening for midi, only audio. here's how i run my rig:
1. create a new midi track and record arm it (or set input to "in".)
2. route the "midi to" to your guitar rig plugin on its existing audio track.
3. now when you send a program change message, it is received by the midi track, and then sent out to the midi input on the guitar rig plugin on the audio track.
hope this works for you.
jonny

[J_OLIVER]

I followed your instructions but I couldn't get this to work. I could not find any "MIDI to" coming out of the MIDI track. There is "Audio to" but not MIDI to". In any case, the audio from the VST instrument on the MIDI track goes to the audio track where Guitar Rig is. I can also put Guitar Rig right on the MIDI track because it's a VST instrument. But either way, there is no program change received from the LIVE track to GR. I found a youtube video showing that GR parameters can be automated quite normally by using the CONFIGURE button on the LIVE interface and moving a knob in GR, but there does not seem to be a way to add program changes as a automatable parameter in LIVE, either by adding it to the clip settings or recording it into the MIDI track. I'm really disappointed that I can't seem to use Guitar Rig in LIVE.

Thanks for your help. I wonder if tech support knows about this problem?

John

[yur2die4]

You need to use a MIDI Track that has no instruments or effects in it. The moment you add either of those, it becomes a MIDI -> Audio channel. I'd say that your quickest option would be to duplicate your MIDI track and then delete any instruments and fx that are in that channel. That should hopefully still have your progress with Program Change experimentation and whatever.

[jonnyH]

john:
i think i know what your problem is. if you see "audio out" instead of "midi out" it's because you have a vst on your midi track. this makes live give you the option to send its audio out, but not its midi.
so, don't put any instruments on the midi track. leave it empty. its only function is to accept midi and pass it to guitar rig.
so, to recap, start with a blank session.
add GR to an audio track.
add an EMPTY midi track.
in the top box of the midi track's midi out, select the audio track that contains GR.
in the bottom box of the midi track's midi out, select the GR plugin.
if you don't see the midi out, make sure you have i/o visible.

i am looking at my template session, where this is set up and working, so i know it can be done. you may have to fudge with the midi channel that GR is listening to, or set it to omni. i believe that when live sends midi from an empty track, it defaults to channel 1. so you have to filter the input channel if you have multiple controllers for multiple instruments. but none of that helps if you can't get it working in the first place.

if you still can't get it working, i can email you a session with it set up so you can understand it better.
yours.
jonny

[J_OLIVER]

Thanks Johnny. That worked fine. So in summary, if I was to use a softsynth for fake guitar to feed into Guitar Rig 4 and control the presets, I need one MIDI track for just program changes, and a second MIDI track fore the fake guitar, and both of them feed into the Audio track on which Guitar Rig is present.

Thanks for your help.

John

http://forum.ableton.com/posting.php?mo ... 4&t=159355#