My Novation SL MkII has a dedicated knob sending out PC messages. Knobs are at a premium for me so I would love to make use of it… it also clicks in discreet steps which makes it for great fine control choosing presets.
However I do not want to use it for changing rack spaces, i would like to use it for changing presets in plugins. The problem there of course is I have to exclude it in Accept Program Change Messages from any Device so as not to change racks, but then it is not available at all.
If there was a way to limit its range so as not to change rack spaces and still use the unused passed through PC messages that would work. Or a way to use it just like other knobs and assign it to a widget sending out PC messages? Or any other solutions?
Just reset all your rackspace PC assignments to something out of range of that knob.
Edit->Reset program change assignments->First variation …
Then enter a bank number of say 100 and you most likely will not hit it with that knob.
I’ve seen your other posts so please consider my other answer and suggestion not to change patches within plugins using this method.
We are aware that for many applications this is the ONLY way to actually change your sound, but Gig Performer is different. It has been built for live use.
Each rackspace should be one (of a few) of your sounds. If you play a guitar - you’d have one rackspace for a clean sound, another one for the distorted one. You wouldn’t be sending PC messages into your plugins to switch.
This has many benefits (I noted some in my other post) but it also allows you to easily combine other plugins into your rig without having to worry what is switch one or off. You could have variations for smaller variations in sound for example.
ok @djogon thanks, great suggestion! I should have thought of that. I think, though, that I may still have the problem of those PC messages only being passed to the first plug in. In a rack where I have a synth plugin going into Ampitube and want to change preset in Amplitube, I’m not sure I can do this?
I do appreciate and understand the beauty and benefits of having each sound be a rack space. I think I have explained though… I DO use GP in a live set up. My band does not use set lists and even when songs are repeated show to show, they can be given a completely different treatment and arrangement… all just left open to the inspiration of the moment. So I just need to be able to access a wide variety of possibilities in as simple, efficient and error free manner as possible.
Having hundreds of rack spaces to anticipate those possibilities would not fit that bill for me. Besides having to remember in some way what all those presets are and their rack number…but how do I access them? I am not going to go into a menu and enter a specific PC number on stage… a knob would not be simple, efficient and error free with that number of presets. My CP300 has 4 banks of 16 PC buttons, so I could reasonably access 64 presets. But I am not a fan of using banks on stage… for my controllers or PCs. Inevitably I will reach for a controller or whatever and make a change and then go through some confusion as to why the change didn’t happen or the wrong change happened…oh yeah, I was in the wrong bank! It’s just extra button pushes and extra attention…and not where I want my energies going on stage. And even so, still only 64 presets.
So as I have mentioned before, I use a hierarchical approach. I have 16 basic configurations that correspond to the 16 preset buttons on the CP300… simple. A configuration would be equivalent to say a Rhodes with Prophet 5 on top, or a dual manual B3, or a piano with single manual organ on top, etc. From there i use my top keyboard, an SL MkII to dig any deeper. The SL MkII has eight drum pads very conveniently placed that I use to send out PC messages. to my plugins. So with a maximum of two easy button pushes I have instant access to 128 configurations! That is one of my top priorities for my live work and I just don’t see how I could come anywhere close to that simplicity in execution using a different rack for each of those configurations.
I don’t really have any need for variations, as any parameter changes I might want to make like that, I just make in real time using the faders, buttons and knobs on the SL MkII, which of course are mapped to the widgets. I’m a keyboard player and I prefer and enjoy interacting with my plugins like I would with the actual physical hardware.
This is what works for me…and I actually love the beauty of it. I realize that I am in the minority with my particular working methods and I don’t expect you to cater to me and those methods. But so far I have been able to get GP to do everything I need and I very much appreciate your help figuring things out.
Hi Lily,
maybe the solution for your problem lies in between all this…
I see the difficulty to work with diffrent rackspaces when the ‘sound-engine’ (Synth-VST/Preset) has to stay the same and it must keep playing but the effect (Amplitube) after it has to be changed.
So @Pianopaul already showed you how to use a knob widget with PC-messages in this thread:
This in combination with the use of diffrent variations could do the trick actually.
With such a knob widget, you should be able to switch Amplitube to the desired Preset.
If you have found your preset, then store the rackspace with the actual knob-position as a new variation, which then gets a separate PC-number.
This way, you may store as many effect-variations as you need for playing this sound/rackspace.
Using your hardware-knob (which i suppose to send out PC-numbers), you can step through the variations (which have separate PC-numbers).
The trick is, that you dont’t use your hardware-knob to switch the Amplitube-presets directly, but to switch the variations, which have a widget (the ‘PC-knob’) that is set to a PC-number which is then sent to Amplitube. Got it?
You don’t have to connect your hardwar knob to the knob-widget - the widget works for it self. Let the variations do the job for you.
And because the Synth-VST doesn’t receive any changes, the ‘basic’ sound should keep playing on while you switch the effect by changing the rackspace-variations.
That’s actually a great idea @schamass, thank you! The only issue I can see is that the hardware knob would also be scrolling through the whole range of rackspaces and variations to get to the variation I want… rather than just the handful of presets I would want to address in Amplitube.
Also as there is a number of rackspaces I’d like this in, unless the hardware knob just happens to be in the right place, I would be actually stepping through rack spaces, so wouldn’t want to be playing during that.
Nonetheless, definitely a workable solution. Thank you.
Oh!! I guess, I could give those variations I’m using in this way PC numbers so that they are all grouped together, so that actually makes navigating to them a bit easier… I’d still possibly be stepping through different rack spaces though.
