High Speed Bank/Preset Switching

[NCN]

For those who have an interest in making very fast bank-preset changes I've puzzled out the following. And by fast, I mean those delivered by another program over (say) a virtual MIDI channel like that setup by the program loopMidi.

DMXIS accepts MIDI Notes on channel 15 to change banks. In my setup, note 0 will be the first listed bank, note 1 the second, etc. I've seen other documentation on this site that says note 1 will be bank 1, but that isn't what is happening for me. So try both ways.

However, DMXIS doesn't react kindly to high speed bank changes. In general, it pretty much ignores bank changes beyond the first one if you send them too fast as notes.

On the contrary, once in a bank, the program accepts high speed preset changes as Channel 16 MIDI notes. Here again, for me note 0 is the first preset. So if all your presets are in one bank, you can change between them as fast as you like.

The good news is that an alternative method of delivering high speed bank-presets seems to be holding up.

Bank changes can be sent on any MIDI channel via CC (control change) number 32. The parameter to the CC will be the bank number. Value 0 is bank 1, 1 is bank 2, etc.

To change presets within a bank you use the Program Change (PC) message on any channel. PC 0 will be the first preset, etc.

You may be wondering why I want to change presets so fast ... well it's not actually to make the audience seasick! I have separate banks of set scenes, chases, and effects. To build up a final "look" I effectively merge a preset for a scene with one (or more) chases and with one (or more) effects. I do this by rapidly selecting the presets so it looks simultaneous. For example, a Bank 3 Preset 5 Scene could be run with an effect in Bank 6 Preset 12. These particular selections are tied back to a touch-sensitive program screen button that delivers the sequence to DMXIS ... I imagine in much the way ShowBuddy works.

[zerogravity]

Great tip!
i will have to try this out. I like your idea about building "scenes".
Couple of quick questions...
What app are you using for touch and have your tried this in Ableton Live as well?

[NCN]

I don't have Ableton.

I hesitate to mention the app (but I will) as it is almost beta, pretty much moribund support, and the documentation is broken english at best and is woefully incomplete to boot. It's Surface Editor. It's the only thing I've found that allows you to do something like TouchOSC but on Windows, I'd sure like to hear of something else. If you do use it (it's Java) then install Jave 64-bit ... not the default 32-bit Java. You will also need loopMIDI

I believe I also controlled ShowBuddy once, for kicks. I also had some luck with the remote MIDI to control DMXIS from another computer.

I know Dave once mentioned he was thinking about doing his own TouchOSC-like program for IOS, but, frankly, since DMXIS runs natively on Windows (as does his other products) it makes more sense to develop for Windows ... especially given the wide availability of touch-sensitive Windows tablets and laptops.

DMXIS is a pretty resilient program and can take a beating for the most part. I especially like that he's built in dynamic recognition of external events so you don't need to restart if something changes in MIDI land.

[zerogravity]

Cool!
Thanks again for the tip.
I am using touchosc, and it works pretty well. I'll try using ableton with your trick and post results soon.

[zerogravity]

To my surprise Abelton does not offer CC32 as an option. Bummer!

Any other suggestions people might have for pulling this trick off?

Dave, are rapid fie bank changes recommended?