Switching/Selecting Instruments with a controller

[d4rwen]

I am new to Ableton 8 and I'm writing some code that sends midi commands to Ableton.
The goal of the code is to be able to:
-select any of the instruments from Ableton programmatically (by sending a midi message?)
-to play the instrument in real time (not using pre-recorded clips),
-and also adjust some of the instrument parameters

Basically, I'm looking for a way to write a custom midi controller in software that can
do the things above. The trouble I'm having is figuring out how to select the instruments in Ableton.

I've been digging around and it doesn't seem like there is a nice way to select instruments in Ableton.
This post talks about using software to map keystrokes in Ableton, but it's from 2006:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=54403
There are other posts that talk about using remote scripts to make custom midi mappings for midi controllers, but
I'm not sure if midi instruments can select instruments in Ableton.

Any suggestions on how to select instruments in Ableton would be appreciated

[simmerdown]

idk about selecting any instrument that live has available...but you can load as many as you want in an instrument rack, then midi-map to the chain selector to scroll between them

[82DMC12]

Simmer, sorry to revisit this topic but what did you mean by "chain selector to scroll between them"?

I know how to make an instrument rack and I know how to midi-map but can you elaborate? I too would like to move between the instruments in a chain.

Thanks

[simmerdown]

load up and Inst. Rack, thenin the rack, open the Chain List (far left of the rack, middle circle thet looks like this

.___
.___
.___

the right side of that is your chain selector...drag one of the bars to be spread across the entire range 0-127

rt click that full bar and choose "distribute ranges evenly' or whatever

map a midi knob to the lil bar at the top, the vertical line where the range numbers are...your in biz

also...nothing to say those selection bars cant overlap as well, so that you have multiple voices going....

[82DMC12]

I got it. Tried it out and it worked great. Learned something new!