Audio Efffects Rack with Radio Buttons - is it possible?

[GuruGuitarLessons]

I'm finding the chain selector in audio effects racks to be a poor way to change among effects, because all of the effects are on and using CPU whether they are in the selected chain or not. What I'd like is to be able to nest audio effects rack in one main rack, and turn on any of the nested racks with a radio button - i.e. when one nested rack is turned on the others are turned off. This would operate the way a hardware multi-effects rack works, save CPU, and make it simple to switch between multi-effect "patches with a midi footswitch controller.

Has anybody done this yet? Is it possible to do with Max? If so, is someone up for a commission to build this?

[prebentious]

It can totally be done with max. I'd be happy to make it for you on commission. pm me with details if you're still interested

[Martyn]

I'm pretty sure that if no audio is being processed by a rack chain (or any Ableton plugin in an 'on' state) they burn zero cpu.

Chains are actually a really good way to change 'patches' without creating clicks and buzzes, theoretically you can have as many as you like and it won't increase your cpu unless they're actually processing audio.

[pepezabala]

All possible.

you can assign the on-off button of everything to the same knob that controls the chain selector, so the effect is only on during the desired range of the knob.

You actually can chain a number of efx behind each other in the same chain and make a fake-chain-selector if you want to, e.g. first ieffect is on during value 0-10, second effect during 11-20 etc.

[plox]

All possible.

you can assign the on-off button of everything to the same knob that controls the chain selector, so the effect is only on during the desired range of the knob.

You actually can chain a number of efx behind each other in the same chain and make a fake-chain-selector if you want to, e.g. first ieffect is on during value 0-10, second effect during 11-20 etc.

This is a great way to do it... i do the following to keep it down the line
-Group all desired effects racks inside the main rack so you can simply turn the rack off and not all the indiviudal effects
-Make sure macro knob is turned to 100 (not 127) as to avoid awkward %'s
-Make the chain select range the same as the macro knob range; ie my delays rack sits 8-16 in the chain select and 8-16 in the macro knob range

[GuruGuitarLessons]

thanks everyone! - I've had some additional help and here is how I'm doing it now: put an audio effects rack in each chain ("master effects rack") and load it with whatever effects: assign one macro to each chain (same macro for all chains), and split the min/max of each assignment among the number of chains (i.e if there are 8 chains, the min/max of the first chain is 0-15, second chain is 16-31, etc); then also assign the same macro to the on/off button of each master effects rack, and set those min/maxes as before; lastly in midi map mode assign a range of notes to the macro (for instance with 8 chains I assign notes C2 thru G2)by pressing the lowest and highest notes in the group at the same time. Voila, each note triggers a chain and turns that chains effect rack on while turning all others off. Lastly, midi map the notes to select each master rack (i.e. in the example above I assign C2 to select the master rack in chain 1) so that when you select a chain/activate its master rack, that rack is in view and ready to be manipulated by your controller.