TI Snow changing patches unintentionally

    Hi all,


    I have a little problem using the Virus TI Snow in a live context, so I'm wondering if anyone has any bright ideas. Will try to explain the problem:

    When performing live, I have the Virus communicating with Live via USB, and run two, sometimes three parts simultaneously, with separate virtual outputs, and I modulate parameters with the softknobs on the actual Virus' hardware. This all works well except for one problem:


    In order to change which part I am controlling, it is necessary to push the part button, then button 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the second row of buttons on the Virus itself to select the part I wish to control. OR I can do this by clicking the appropriate button in the TI plugin GUI... but I don't want to use a mouse, I want to use hardware only.


    The problem is that, sometimes the part button doesn't register (perhaps I have a faulty button) and if I don't notice this and then push a numbered button, this changes the part to that preset, which sounds bad as there is MIDI note information being sent to the Virus constantly and changing your patch in the middle of a bassline doesn't usually sound very good :p


    To prevent this from happening, I want to be able to either:


    a) disable local program change control


    or


    b) set up a one-touch selection control (ie a button) through Ableton's MIDI mapping which will switch the TI control's focus to a part of my choosing.


    ...but it does not appear that either is possible.


    Can someone confirm, or suggest a solution to my problem?


    Thanks!


    Jon
    http://www.darkarps.com

    Thanks Bob, but this isn't the issue for me. I know I can send program change and bank change messages with MIDI clips in Live, my problem is with regards to switching the Virus' focus to a particular part so I can modulate my sounds using the soft knobs.

    Oh I see... But surprisingly my answer will be similar in some aspects. If you look at some of the soft knob definitions of your patches, you'll see that sometimes the destination for the soft knob is a MIDI CC. Therefore in this case, instead of using the soft knob you can send MIDI CC-s (e.g. from the assignable knobs of your MIDI controller), on the MIDI channel for the correct Virus part. If the soft knob goes straight to a synth parameter, you can go to the matrix and replicate this routing from one of the free MIDI CC-s available in the Virus, and again, send it from one of your assignable knobs. In this specific case you can go even further - if there is a sweet spot where the knob tweaking has the best results, set the amount of the replicating matrix routing to be smaller (and finer) and before saving the edited patch, point the replicated knob at the sweet spot. I guess that with some practice you will end up with a system where you always use the same MIDI CC-s this way in all patches, and don't need to re-assign knobs between songs.
    The end result will be that you will not need to even approach the Snow for tweaking, and you will be able to tweak parameters of more than one patch at the same time, and with some smart modulation matrix manipulation, you will be able to tweak more than just 3 aspects of your patches (the same way some patches already respond to the mod wheel).
    Hope this was more helpful.