Ableton Forum

^^^^^ what he said: all the program change messages for bank one are on our website, stick them in a folder and drag in the clips when needed - a lot easier than going through drop-down menus.

Will this workaround work for vst effects also? What happens if the plugin doesn't respond to program changes? Is there a way to send program changes to switch the presets saved directly in Ableton? Do I need a seperate midi track for each plugin loaded up?

Chris

Machinate wrote:^^^^^ what he said: all the program change messages for bank one are on our website, stick them in a folder and drag in the clips when needed - a lot easier than going through drop-down menus.

Works like a charm, thanks!!! I actually put all 128 of them in 128 scenes and mapped a midi button to the "play clip in selected scene" button.

Friggin brilliant. Kudos to Machinate!!!

cml3160 wrote: Will this workaround work for vst effects also? What happens if the plugin doesn't respond to program changes? Is there a way to send program changes to switch the presets saved directly in Ableton? Do I need a seperate midi track for each plugin loaded up?

Chris

Unfortunately Live's instruments don't respond to program changes, but hey, that's life. Maybe version 6.

This workaround functions perfectly for many VSTs, but that depends on each one. Pro-53 (my current fav virt analog) works great with no pops or dropouts at all when you change progs.

Hi guys
I've read all these tricks for program changing...and got dizzy!!
Anything simpler has come out since last summer???

With Live 6, I made a MONSTER device rack for my drums, and I'm working on one for synth basses.

I basically created 16 impulses in paralell within a device rack, and then set the range for each so that as I move a macro knob it selects a different drum kit. It takes about 30 seconds to load with no audio streaming off the 7200 RPM hard disk, so if you create a large rack like this with a lot of samples in it (multilayered Sampler, impulses, etc) don't drop it in a set while it's playing - start with it in a dedicated channel all by itself.

You could easily do this with 127 impulses (or other device), it would just be a wickedly large device group.

Since Live only plays one device at a time, you won't end up with an increased CPU cost.

Very nice solution in my books.

Here's what it looks like:



Note that I've selected the "chain" to view, rather than keyrange or velocity. In this case, you can see that the kits all fade into one another using the small bars above the ranges - except for between kits 33-48 and 48-56 which are a sharp transition between them.

To map it to a knob, select the little bar at the top, as shown here:



It's helped me 100%! This is better than a workaround, it's 95% the real deal, except that you use a CC instead of a program change.

I am using Live 5.01 and Vsti's like Pro53, Arturia moog, Mellotron and B4.
Could you suggest something about my case?

jendask wrote:I am using Live 5.01 and Vsti's like Pro53, Arturia moog, Mellotron and B4.
Could you suggest something about my case?

The first suggestion would be to use the latest update of Live 5. Which is 5.2.

The synths you mentioned respond to program changes. You can send 1 program change from each MIDI clip.
Have a good long and hard look at a midi clip or check the manual.

Cheers

- B

The two solutions are send program change if the VSTi supports it, or use the chain function of the rack. In general I'd stick with the rack way of doing things, as there's a little bit more flexibility and you'll alway be doing it the same way.

***EDIT***

Sorry can't read

jendask wrote:I am using Live 5.01 and Vsti's like Pro53, Arturia moog, Mellotron and B4.
Could you suggest something about my case?

Upgrade to 6.

Honestly. It's fantastic, the best update since version 4 (which was also fantastic, it added MIDI).

jendask wrote:I am using Live 5.01 and Vsti's like Pro53, Arturia moog, Mellotron and B4.
Could you suggest something about my case?

hoffman2k wrote:The first suggestion would be to use the latest update of Live 5. Which is 5.2.

The synths you mentioned respond to program changes. You can send 1 program change from each MIDI clip.

Is this something that also works in Live 5.01, or is it essential to upgrade to 5.02?

Maybe I haven't made myself clear, though...
Let's say that during a jam I play in one midi track using Pro 53 and I change programs in the instrument itself. Then I can listen back to what has been recorded but I cannot recall which programs I have used, because these changes I have made haven't been written anywher in Live like "automation". Sorry for using probably wrong terms but I am a beginner in Live, recently moved from Cubase where this kind of automation was recorded automatically.

The iRack in Live 6 rules!!!

Ableton just needs to fix some bugs (602b) and i'll use it on stage.

Could someone please answer to my simple and maybe... stupid question?

Cant record program changes. You can only send them.

Updating to the latest version is always recommended. The difference between the first and last version might be 100 bugfixes.

So I guess I am obliged to use a different for every program change right?

You guessed right.