Will MIDIbox do this?

[malh]

Hi all,

I'm doing a music theatre show and the keyboard parts are very complex with a number of patch changes throughout each song. I was wondering if there was some software that would enable me to pre-program all the patch changes in the order they occur in the score, so that the keyboard player can simply press one button and the software would then change the patch to the next one on the list, ready for them to play, rather than having to hunt through the banks/patches each time they need to change sounds.

I know there is such software available but I don't know what it's called or where to get it! I've been searching and there's a lot of sequencers that will allow you to put in program changes that take effect when you play back your arrangement, but I need something that will send the patch change to the keyboard straight away in a live situation.

Any help?

M :)

[lylehaze]

Hi all,

I'm doing a music theatre show and the keyboard parts are very complex with a number of patch changes throughout each song. I was wondering if there was some software that would enable me to pre-program all the patch changes in the order they occur in the score, so that the keyboard player can simply press one button and the software would then change the patch to the next one on the list, ready for them to play, rather than having to hunt through the banks/patches each time they need to change sounds.

I know there is such software available but I don't know what it's called or where to get it! I've been searching and there's a lot of sequencers that will allow you to put in program changes that take effect when you play back your arrangement, but I need something that will send the patch change to the keyboard straight away in a live situation.

Any help?

M :)

Sounds like it should be possible, if I understand your (rather clear) description.

A few suggestions for your consideration:

Use two keys, one for "forward" and the other "reverse", in case you accidentally over-advance during live performance.

Have some kind of visual feedback of if and when it changes.. either LEDs or a LCD display.

Also, "press one button" could easily be replaced with "press one key" if there are a few that are not being used for the performance.

Whether a key or button, Google the term "switch debouncing" and give it some thought.

To avoid the whole sequencing issue, if you can afford a key for each patch change, you could re-map an entire octave (or as much as you want)

to program changes.

Sounds like a fun, simple project.

LyleHaze

[lylehaze]

OK, a few more things..

I forgot to say, "Welcome!"

I like the idea of separate keys on keyboard mapped to each program change. It's just easier to do that

and it's more reliable for the end user.

So here's another idea: Build a basic core with only MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and two jacks for standard, cheap

foot switches (like a hold pedal). These are both digital inputs, and since there's only two, you don't even need a DIN board.

When foot switch One is pressed, the MIDIBox will send out whatever program changes are associated with whatever key

gets pressed on the keyboard.

When foot switch two is pressed, the user presses a key, then enters a program change, and these are stored in the core memory.

During performances, only foots witch one is present, so there's no chance of accidentally re-programming your toy.

When no foot switches are pressed, the MIDIBox does nothing.

Just ideas.. it's late.

LyleHaze

[julienvoirin]

Ableton does that : just create blank midi clip but correctly set up program change (there is a tick box where you can set the Pgm chg in the bottom left corner)

An hardware solution is to make your own midibox with a custom application (rather esay as you only need to send program change messages

[m00dawg]

+1 for Live. The session view would work wonderfully for that and would allow you to easily name the clips. Clips can be enabled using a MIDI keyboard, PC keyboard, or mouse. You can also buy/build button matrix type solutions so you can trigger the sessions using a dedicated controller. There are a number of commercial ones for Live, including ones that change colors and fancy things.

If you opted to build your own, I believe the standard MidiBox 64 firmware would work without much modification if you just needed to trigger sessions.

No matter what you use to control it, Live is amazing and sounds like it would just about be a perfect fit for what you're wanting to do so I'd highly recommend checking it out. It's not cheap, but so far it's been worth just about every penny I've spent on it.