load presets on the fly ?

[Antigone]

Hi,

What I want to achieve should be simple enough: load presets on the fly

I'm using both external plugins and native effects.
I save them in racks.
I want to switch between presets, just like Macro Variations, triggering them from a clip, when I launch a scene.

The problem with macro variations is that they are very limited (16 values only), and can't be triggered from a clip, only MIDI.
I use ClyphX to send midi messages mapped to a Macro Variation but that's quite heavy, and hard to maintain.

I had high expectations of version 12, since it came with a "Performance Pack" with a "Variations" plugin that could solve my presets issues...but it's not: the plugin itself is SO SLOW and doesn't work very well, it doesn't seem to store/restore parameters correctly (when using with many parameters/presets), nor keeping state between sets... I clearly don't recommend to use it at all for professional use.

I also tried Smooth Automator plugin, but it does not work at scale either.

I can use "Program Change" messages to switch between presets in external VSTs, but I have yet to find anything like that in Live ?

Of course, I don't want to use chains, because I want to use the same effects (mapped to controllers), just with different settings.

So... it's 2024, it's version 12, presets are still a mess ?!

For now, I think I'll stick with ClyphX, but that's far from ideal.

Any tips or idea appreciated

[S4racen]

ClyphX Pro runs on the control surface thread so less than 25ms, MaxforLive runs on a low priority thread and stacks it's calls so you may wait a while with lots of recalled parameters...

ClyphX the free version will be significantly slower of course as it's development stopped a long time ago bar the open source conversion to Live 11....

Maybe this will be addressed with a future update, it's been at the top of my list for 11 years...

Cheers
D

[Antigone]

Yes, so far ClyphX Pro is my best option I think.. but honestly it's very hard to maintain in a big set, and _between_ sets.

Maybe I'm missing something here: even if we're not talking about keeping presets between sets, how do you switch between presets with ClyphX Pro ?

Again, one example of my use case:
On one track I have: one VSTi (The Legend), a couple of FabFilters Plugins, and maybe some native Ableton Live Effects.
I have different settings in each of those plugins for one song and another, and I want to switch between them, on the fly.
How would you do that with ClyphX Pro?

Thanks a lot !

[[jur]]

"Performance Pack" with a "Variations" plugin that could solve my presets issues...but it's not: the plugin itself is SO SLOW

Can you report to Support please?

[S4racen]

Yes, so far ClyphX Pro is my best option I think.. but honestly it's very hard to maintain in a big set, and _between_ sets.

Maybe I'm missing something here: even if we're not talking about keeping presets between sets, how do you switch between presets with ClyphX Pro ?

Again, one example of my use case:
On one track I have: one VSTi (The Legend), a couple of FabFilters Plugins, and maybe some native Ableton Live Effects.
I have different settings in each of those plugins for one song and another, and I want to switch between them, on the fly.
How would you do that with ClyphX Pro?

Thanks a lot !

The VST's present an issue if the developer hasn't specifically exposed the preset selection as a modulatable parameter but otherwise with ClyphX Pro you'd use the Snap action to record and then recall your chosen settings...

Cheers
D

[Antigone]

Thanks for the tip.

I've read the documentation of ClyphX Pro again, and updated my live setup workflow.

Still perfectible and long, but for anyone interested, here it is.

For each track that I want full control on (ie: main bass) ; I want to be able to trigger play recorded MIDI clips OR notes sent via a MIDI keyboard, played live. I want to quickly switch between presets.

This will involve the creation of 3 different MIDI Tracks:

- Main Track

This track contains all MIDI effects, main Instrument, and audio effects.
It will host clips that will recall settings for each songs.
Each clip will be named like this: [song-name] Recall
This will tell ClyphX Pro to recall all saved parameter stored under name "song-name"
The clip will also be set to send a Program Change message so the devices (mostly the instrument) can react to it. This is mandatory since plenty of VST don't expose all their parameters.
It's kind of a double "recall" process, and many of the parameters will be reset twice, but that's alright I guess.

- Play track

This is the track where I put all my pre recorded MIDI clips. Its output is directly set to the "Main Track" main group.
I've mapped the Monitor buttons to a controller so that can be either "off" (play recorded MIDI clips, don't play anything that comes from another midi source) or "in" (don't play any MIDI clips, just listen to the keyboard notes played in Live)

- Memo track
This track is always inactive. It's just serve as a memo track so I can copy and paste ClyphX Pro commands.
It mostly contains empty midi clips which have that kind of name: [song-name] SNAP DEV(ALL.ALL)
Also, those clips are set to send the correct program change


Process of saving a preset

1 - get the sound you want
2 - save the preset in your VST, as a preset. Always keep presets as an ordered list, you don't want your presets to change their position in this list.
3 - verify that the "program change" is indeed matching this preset position
4 - copy paste the clyphx memo from track 3 to track one, launch it
5 - it will automatically create a [song-name] Recall clip, that you can copy anywhere in this track.

Now repeat this for every preset, for every track... and have fun