Problem with patches randomly changing to other patches

Hi, a couple of months ago I started having an issue where one of the patches in one of the slots would just change to some different preset. I would have to turn off virus and reboot and all would return to normal again, it would all stay fine for about an hour or so and then it would do it again, it would change back to this same preset. It would always be the same preset for a particular project I'd be working in.

Now if I opened another project with an instance of VC it would do the same changing but would be a different preset this time. In any of the instances it wouldn't have been a preset I would have used or even auditioned, it just seemed to select it at random. It also could happen on any of the multi slots containing a patch, but once it started happening to one slot it would always be that patch slot and no other e.g. Project 1 it could keep happening to slot 1, all other slots remain ok, project 2 it would happen to slot 2 etc.

This was with OS 4.5 and this continued to my annoyance for a few months, where I kept saying to myself "I must do something about this", but you know how it is, I just didn't.

Then recently about a week ago it started to change the patch much more frequently. It would play through a sequence once with the patch I selected or created and then the very next time it went to play it would change to whatever patch it had selected to torment me with. It also started to change every patch slot I had a patch loaded in to the same dreaded random patch.

This rendered the machine completely unusable for production with Virus control plugin, and I tried loads of dummy projects and different settings but it kept happening without fail. So i said "just update to the new OS and firmware and everything will be fine". So I did so two days ago and everything is not fine, everything is exactly the same. No matter what I try my selected patches change to some random patch after playing them through once on each loaded slot of the VC software.

Additional information is that when playing them on the keyboard with the keys everything seems to stay fine, the problem seems to occur from midi clips. I'm not sure how it behaved in standalone mode, haven't had time to test. It appears like it receives program change messages but in my ableton midi clips these are not selected.

I'll probably roll back the software, drivers see what happens there, then failing that reinstall the new OS and drivers again, then failing that cry a little. It's just that it's wired that it sort of started to get worse from an OS and driver that was fine over time and the problem remained when the machine and software was completely updated.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I think I'll have that little cry now

Just to confirm we are talking about the same thing, it doesn't just change the sound of the patch but swaps it out for a whole new preset. Example before playing 3 slots receiving 3 seperately midi sequences with 3 different presets:

• slot 1, preset A, midi channel 1
• slot 2, preset B, midi channel 2
• slot 3, preset C, midi channel 3

Now here's the thing press play all midi clips play there respective slots and make the sounds of the selected presets on the their routed to audio channels just fine, this is how it worked from the start and how it should. Press stop, position the curser ahead of the three sequences again press play and the instant it hits these midi clips again:

• slot 1, preset D
• slot 2, preset D
• slot 3, preset D

The strange things being that this used to only happen to one slot and after a longer period of time before now which it does after 1 play. And also wired that if the live is somehow setup to do this how come it doesn't do on the first play of the sequences.

Also I loaded up old finished projects from a year ago, where I had none of these same issues, and this issue is there now with the instance of VC.

One thing I haven't ruled out is live itself I must do a re-install of it and update. All I must try the tutorial song as reccomended. Thanks for Marc. I'm not going to get a chance this evening but from tomorrow I'll be investing my time solely to investigating what's going on. So any more suggestions are welcome. And thanks in advance