gretschbeastfan Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I am working with my POD HD500 pedal, but I am unable to create the type of changes I am looking to create via MIDI, basically to have Ableton change to specific banks/patches during songs. I am having trouble setting up my POD HD500X pedal and Ableton so that it changes the presets at the correct time during the song, using program changes I have drawn in with the pencil tool. I know I can create a new clip, and chose the correct program/bank in the clip, and use follow actions to change to the appropriate clip at the right time, but I would like to draw in the changes in the piano roll so that I just need one clip with the appropriate programs changes drawn in at the appropriate points to trigger the preset changes. For example, during the verses Ableton would send a midi message triggering bank 1, preset 1---a clean tone. Then for the bridge, Ableton would change to bank 2, preset 5---a distorted tone (both of which are bank/presets on the POD HD).That is what I am doing with my lights, I created a return track and then have the DMXIS plug-in with two MIDI tracks (channel 15 controlling the bank change, and 16 controlling the various lighting presets within those banks). I essentially want to do the same thing with my guitar, have two MIDI tracks, one for banks and one for presets, with the notes drawn in to trigger the correct patch changes. Any screenshots, or someone who has this working willing to share a "template" would be greatly appreciated! I have attached an example attempt file. Thanks again for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugdealer Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I don't know about ableton, but maybe this will help: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixstringsk Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Hi Gretsch, I've been doing just what you are asking for some time in Ableton Live and it works great for me. I'll mention that I have my POD setup in "pedalboard mode" as described on page 2.2 of the user manual. It seems that you have yours setup in "preset mode". I'm not sure what differences you may encounter, but I think some of the same principles will apply. I'll also mention that I am using Live 7 and with that version, you cannot make a program change within a clip. This may have changed in Live 9. I'm just not sure. I know that I have seen it discussed pretty heavily on Ableton forums with other users hoping this ability would be included. In Live 7, the program change is sent out when the clip is launched. The only way to change to a different preset (or bank) in my setup would be to use a follow action as you also described. I don't have the need to do this since I use "pedalboard mode" as I mentioned. I also use DMXIS to program lights too. I do all of my MIDI programming in Logic since I also create my backing tracks there. I export those MIDI tracks and pull them into Ableton Live in a track I have labeled MIDI GTR. I also do this for some MIDI changes on a VoiceLive for vocal harmonies and effects labeled MIDI VOX. You'll have to program your MIDI changes using CC values, not note values. I've attached MIDI assignments from the manual. To program your changes in Ableton, make sure the clip inspector is viewable down below. The E should be yellow so that you are drawing envelopes instead of notes. You can then draw in your changes as needed. You can take a look at the attached screenshot of my template. Notice that for the song "All The Small Things" that the Small Things GTR clip is chosen. You can see that in the Envelopes section that 54 is the chosen parameter. 54 corresponds to FS4 on my POD. By drawing the data in between bars 41 through 49, this engages FS4 on my POD during this passage of the song. I believe it is necessary for the POD to make sure and draw the envelope all the way up to 127 velocity. It may not be true any longer, but I think I read that somewhere. Anyway, I hope this helps you some. Feel free to ask if I maybe can help any further. This has worked for my for a couple of years and I'm very satisfied with how it works. Shane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gretschbeastfan Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Thanks, I checked this out, Logic seems to be easier to set this up, but i am pretty sure Ableton will do the same. Odd, seems like such a basic thing, but there really aren't any videos out there that deal specifically with using Ableton to control guitar effect patches. I am pretty sure I just have something routed incorrectly, one of those things where you spend hours figuring out something that ends up taking two seconds to fix. Appreciate the feedback. I've attached a screenshot, in case that might help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixstringsk Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I don't see the screenshot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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