Hello wonderful forum users! you are always a great bunch to ask my questions to..because you have great answers:) today I am running a sequence in ptw and transmitting a midi signal out to mainstage. Id like to automatically have it select my preformance patches so I can be hands free. for some reason even though I have the right bank number and patch number mainstage isnt hearing it. there's got to be a way to make this work. Thanks in advance

Jeff, I'm not a MainStage user. But In RB, I can do this by embedding a Program Change command within the midi events on a track by track basis. That is for example, on track 5, which I have set to go to my Motif Rack, I originally assign a piano patch, later in the track, by using a program change command, I can change the patch to strings. Is this what you are trying to do?

Jeff

Yes thanks. this is what Im trying to do. I guess Ill need to further explore to discover exactly what program changes are like for mainstage. they have a program & a bank... seems simple enough, and it says it is recieving the messages....but no patch changes are happening.

Check into some midi specs or BIAB/RB user guides and read about MSB and LSB (Most Significant Byte and Least Significant Byte). These can be designated by using Change Control 0 (CC0) for MSB and Change Control 32 (CC32) for LSB. These 2 together select the patch bank on your synth.

Then you use a Program Change number to select a particular patch on that bank.

As an example, the 3rd bank out of 10 patch banks on my Motif Rack is designated as MSB=63, LSB=2. You find this in the midi data list documents for your particular synth.

Then if I add Program Change=4 (PC=4), I've selected the 4th patch from that bank.

So the complete instructions in the midi data events log for a particular track in your DAW to change to this patch would show the following 3 lines (each listed separately):

CC0=63
CC32=2
PC=4

Jeff

In PTW you can use the Classic Tracks window to make it easier to use Bank/LSB settings ...

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll figure this out yet:)

Hard to know how many total banks there are since I can add as many as I want in mainstage. isnt the standard amount of midi banks 128?

There may be some confusion between "banks" and "sounds" per bank. From the MIDI spec:

Controller number zero (with 32 as the LSB) is defined as the bank select. The bank select function is used in some synthesizers in conjunction with the MIDI Program Change message to expand the number of different instrument sounds which may be specified (the Program Change message alone allows selection of one of 128 possible program numbers). The additional sounds are selected by preceding the Program Change message with a Control Change message which specifies a new value for Controller zero and Controller 32, allowing 16,384 banks of 128 sounds each.

Jeff, as I mentioned, I am not familiar with Mainstage, but in looking over their write-ups the following may steer you in the right direction:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH13553?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

Jeff

Jeff, you got me thinking about this and I went back and read you original post. I guess my question is: are you trying to select the patches from within PTW or from within Mainstage?

Again I'm not a Mainstage user, but from reading over their literature, it seems that perhaps you can select patches but not banks in Mainstage. As I can't test this, I might be wrong about that though.

Nonetheless, it might be easier to do the bank and patch selection from within PTW and send the info over to Mainstage.

Jeff

I do this all the time. Simultaneously playing your sequence and sending MIDI data to an external port is not an automatic/default operation. Assuming that you have the correct ports set for output and your MIDI data is actually being transmitted and you have your capable receiving device set for one MIDI channel, pardon the silly question: Exactly what stage unit are you trying to control?

Paj
8^?

in the MIDI setup dialog form, is the box checked for
[x] USE VSTi/DXi synth?

in my experience with RB when trying to send MIDI to an external device, if you have Midi output redirected to a soft synth, the external device won't ever receive the commands you're sending.

Even if you specifically send it to the device via the right click menu, it won't work if the box is checked in the MIDI dialog box


If you need to control external devices with MIDI *AND* use soft synths, you should uncheck the aforementioned box in the MIDI dialog, and define the soft synths individually in the tracks right click menu.

"If you need to control external devices with MIDI *AND* use soft synths, you should uncheck the aforementioned box in the MIDI dialog, and define the soft synths individually in the tracks right click menu. "

Exactly.
You have to assign a default device in MIDI Drivers area, but then you can assign synths per track using 'Right-Click - Port'.

Once that aforementioned box is ticked, it doesn't become the default and allow other drivers. It Reroutes 'ALL' MIDI to the DXI synth.
IMO they should include the word 'ALL' in that check box description. One A and a couple L's shouldn't cost much to implement.

At least that's been my experience.

Wow sorry I didn't respond to this...I didn't get online here for a long time...I was trying to control MainStage....to have it change my synths and guitar patches for me...Ive long since found another method...but thanks for responding:)