Widgets (drawbar settings) not synced properly to Nord Electro 6

General discussion about Gig Performer
1

Hi,
I have one rackspace “Hammond” with different variations. Each variation represents another drawbars preset.
My goal is to select a song in setlist mode, which causes a program change on my Nord Electro 6 (let’s say PC number 80) and also a modification of the drawbar setting according to the variation of the song.
For this I included a Midi Out Plugin and mapped the nine drawbar widgets to the nine CC Parameters that Nord uses for drawbars: CC 16 to CC 24.
In wiring mode I told the Midi Out block to send a Program Change Message when the rackspace is activated (double-click midi out block).

When I select the song my keyboard changes to the correct program and loads the drawbar settings as saved in the Nord program instead of changing them to the drawbar settings given in the GP variation.
The result in the Global Midi Monitor looks correct:
At first 3 midi mesages for the program change (bank select + PC 80).
Then 9 CC messages that contain the correct widget values of the variation.

Curious: When I change to another song (same rackspace = same program number on the keyboard, but another variation), the drawbars correctly change! Only when switching between rackspaces (and nord programs) the drawbar CC messages aren’t interpreted by the Nord Electro…

Perhaps a timing problem - widget values are synced to Nord before program change is completely done…? Or a Nord electro issue? Does anyone have (had) the same problem?
(looks very similar to Sending a Program change upon selecting a rackspace)

Of course I can make a rackspaces for every drawbar setting, corresponding to different Nord program numbers, but I really want to have only 1 Hammond program on the Nord and its B3 presets should be controlled by the variations of 1 rackspace.

Cheers
Daniel

2

I am pretty sure this can be solved with a Script that uses invisible widgets … as Widget Values are rembembered from vaiation to variation. I am using this technique now with VSTIs, but I would be dissapointed if it didn’t work with hardware as well. Please keep me out of the loop for the moment as other members may have a more elegant solution.

3

I monitored the midi out and the pc message is sent out before the cc value from the widgets.
but it could be that your Nord takes time to react on the pc message and therefore does not react on the cc messages.

4

Hi pianopaul,
thanks, so it really seems to be a timing issue of Nord…
I finally thought about a solution that works for me and is really easy to install for new songs:
I create a song with 2 song parts instead of 1. Each songpart has the same rackspace variation.
Next I write a short song script:

// Called when you switch to another songpart
On Songpart(oldSongpartIndex : integer, newSongpartIndex : integer)
  if (newSongpartIndex == 0) then
    SetSongPart(1)
  end    
End

It makes the following:
When I change to this song the first song part is activated - Program change on the Nord, but no reaction on CC messages.
Then the script instantly switches to song part 2 - no Program change because program is already active, and CC messages are interpreted corectly.

2 Likes
5

Thanks Phil,
I don’t know what you mean with invisible widgets, but no matter, your hint with scripting brought me to an idea. See my reply to pianopail below.