Ableton Forum

Hello!
I want to be able to between switch several soft-synths on different tracks in live playging situations and also to be able to switch between the patches of each synth too since I use several different synths and a sampler and even two keyboards are not enough to map all the sounds of one song. I want this switching to be automated - I don't want to touch any keys, buttons, faders etc. for this purpose.

So to switch between the synths there are two ways: the first is to use the Monitoring section buttons and the second is to use the Track Activation button. But the first way can not be automated unfortunately, because the monitoring section buttons do not respond to automation - they can only be remote-controlled, but I want to free my hands as much as possible so this doesn't help me (and more: the Monitor section buttons are with three states, which makes you always be careful - for example to switch on a track with a synth you have to press the remote controller one time and to switch it off you have to press it two times, while with the other synth it is the reverse thing, so it takes too much patience..). The other way to switch between synths (using the Track Activation button) can fortunately be automated, but it has another serious problem - in fact even if you have deactivated the track of one synth, if you play the other synth that has the same key-mappings, the first synth will play too although one will not hear its sound. The result is in higher CPU usage and the other side effect is that if you play some notes on synth A, while synth B has been disabled, and you immediatly switch to synth B, it is possible for you to hear some notes of synth B which were not intended to be heard, if synth B has a long release time of its patch.

The second thing - switching between patches of just one of the synths is connected to the swtiching between synths too. I created several Arrangement clips and each of them has a different program so when it is triggered during the playback it sends tha appropriate Program Change message. But the problem is that for the clip to be activated you have either to turn the Monitor section to "Auto" or to "Off" which disables the external keyboard. So to have both midi data from my keyboard and from the recorded clips, I switch on the Record Enable button for the track. Unfortunately this really record enables the track and sometimes it is possible to record some notes from outside by mistake.. So here again it would be usefull wither to be able to automate the Monitoring section buttons behaviour or to have at least sending Program Change possible even when monitoring is turned to "In" without the track being record enabled.

So I wonder is there some other workaround for these problems (especially for the synths switching), or I will have to go to the wish-list section?

Thanks in advance!

Well, found a way to do it: using a separate control midi track which is using some external midi cable as midi yoke to send back the keys that are used for remote controlling of the monitor buttons. Although this solution works, it has still one big problem, that every time I change manually the project location I have to adjust the monitor buttons positions of the different tracks as the notes from the control tracks are not being sent as automation would do and this requires too much attention and disturbs rehearsal of the songs with Live. So I think that the best solution here would be if the monitor buttons could respond to automation, so now I'm going to the wishlist section...

Ecmjazz, I want to do the same thing as you and I've found a way. I wanted to find a way to do what NI's Kore will do without having to buy it. it's not as sophisticated as that but it works. The thing I don't think live can do is to unload and load instruments automatically when changing scenes.

Here's what to do

Load up all your different instruments, one on each track
create a scene for each configuration you want to play

I guess you were doing that already.

The next step is to mute the instruments you don't want by suppressing their midi input.

To do this, you have to do something at the track level and then something at the clip level.

At track level, insert an instance of the midi effect 'pitch' in each track, and put it in front of the instrument.

When you want to suppress an instrument in a particular scene, create an empty midi clip for it in that scene, and click the E to see the clip envelope.

In the top pull-down in the envelope window, choose 'pitch' as the device you want to control.

In the second pull-down in the envelope window, choose range. Then drag the envelope line down to 0 across the whole clip length. That will stop the instrument receiving any midi input in that scene and so will not incur any CPU overhead for it.

Any problems let me know

Rich

Interesting solution. Will try and reply;) Hope it figures out the automation problems.. Thanks!

Well, although an unusual and strange solution, it works and I am very happy. Thanks a lot!

a lot of people say that about me...

Ingenious! You rock, thanks so much; this helped me out too.