Looking for a MIDI Brain for Automated Patch Changes

RBM01991

RBM01991

Member
Hey guys, I'm looking for either a hardware brain or a reliable piece of software that can reliably switch patches depending on what we have set up for Ableton Live.

Our issue is that our show is heavily MIDI controlled, from patch changes for lights, smoke machines, hazers etc, and we have had reliability problems with automated patches before.

I'm looking for a simple, elegant solution, the price point doesn't matter, but to make our show just that much better, reliability and consistency matter.

We're using mainly an Axe FX II, but I'd also like compatibility for the III, as I happen to have one. Maybe even a Line 6 HX Stomp, as we do use those in the rig for certain situations.

Let me know what you guys are using, thank you!
 
Most touring bands use a DAW running on a computer for automating their show, usually Logic or Digital Performer. Live should work fine. What kind of reliability problems are you having?
 
GlennO said:
Most touring bands use a DAW running on a computer for automating their show, usually Logic or Digital Performer. Live should work fine. What kind of reliability problems are you having?
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Anthony76 said:
What issues were you having? If set up correctly live shouldn't give you to many issues, same as any other daw.
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The issues that were having were that the guitar patch changes just simply wouldn’t happen, and they were programmed correctly and they just simply wouldn’t execute. So someone had to go and physically change the preset/scene in the Axe FX. The theory was that there were changes going on for lights, hazers etc, that would interfere, but it hasn’t been investigated further.
 
sprint said:
I'm using Bome Midi Translator Pro to control a whack of stuff here in home music room. A tad of programming experience doesn't hurt to get it humming but not a must have if you are willing to dig in. They also have a hardware box (BomeBox) that will run Translator Pro programs if you don't want to have a computer in the setup.
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That looks like an elegant solution, my question is and I couldn’t find it in the FAQ, can that sync to the MIDI Clock in Ableton?

We have to use the computer for our video screens, so this would be a solution to offload some of the CPU tasks off our MacBook, but we’d still like to have Ableton be the start of authority of that makes sense.
 
RBM01991 said:
The issues that were having were that the guitar patch changes just simply wouldn’t happen, and they were programmed correctly and they just simply wouldn’t execute. So someone had to go and physically change the preset/scene in the Axe FX. The theory was that there were changes going on for lights, hazers etc, that would interfere, but it hasn’t been investigated further.
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Interfere? I'm not sure what you mean by that, but it sounds like you need to do some troubleshooting to see where the problem lies. It's extremely unlikely that the problem is Live isn't sending the midi, if that's what you're thinking. Making your rig more complex by adding more moving pieces doesn't seem like it would improve reliability :).
 
RBM01991 said:
That looks like an elegant solution, my question is and I couldn’t find it in the FAQ, can that sync to the MIDI Clock in Ableton?

We have to use the computer for our video screens, so this would be a solution to offload some of the CPU tasks off our MacBook, but we’d still like to have Ableton be the start of authority of that makes sense.
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I've not tied bome to Daw (just to enhance footswitching), but there is an active Bome forum here, and I got good responses from them directly (Florian Bomers) on a couple of questions I had via the contact form . As usual, there is a trial version of the software. I have not tried the hardware as I don't really need it but have been tempted to get the box and port all my translator programs to it, just to see if it would all work in isolation / detached from my Mac.
 
RBM01991 said:
The issues that were having were that the guitar patch changes just simply wouldn’t happen, and they were programmed correctly and they just simply wouldn’t execute. So someone had to go and physically change the preset/scene in the Axe FX. The theory was that there were changes going on for lights, hazers etc, that would interfere, but it hasn’t been investigated further.
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Ok so that sounds like a programming issue, I would rebuild a test session with some preset changes from scratch without any thing else, just to test, then keep adding more on different midi channels. But, it really sounds like a programming issues. Hopefully you can sort it and not spend $.
 
Is the guitar rig on its own channel? Does it work sometimes, or never? Does it work if you disable everything else?
 
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