MIDI: Setting Song tempo and key in equipment

[rtichenberg]

As with many others, how can I send and clock tempo to my MIDI device?  And along same lines, how to send key of song, also to my attached device?

NOTE:  I am using a tc helicon voicelive 3 voice / guitar processing pedalboard unit.  I am successfully sending MIDI from BH  to the VL3, setting / establishing the needed preset-one preset for each song.  I want to document and control song info such as key and tempo using BH but it would be desireable to not only set the VL3 preset, but also the song's key and tempo as well.  Further, why can't I have BH and my MIDI device talk with one another, keeping tempo when the song is playing?  If I could do this it would eliminate having to purchase a drum machine or something like the beatbuddy.

Thank you!

[arlo]

You can send MIDI Beat Clock messages by turning on Settings > Tempo & Pitch > Send MIDI Beat Clock, then starting the tempo from the tempo button on one of your songs.

I'm not aware of a standard way to send a key through MIDI. If the VoiceLive implements some custom method for doing that, you should be able to enter the required MIDI messages into BandHelper ... you'd just have to check the documentation or talk to TC Helicon about what messages you need to send.

[iguana]

Further to this -

BH will send MIDI clock, which the Voicelive can receive - see page 71 of the Voicelive manual.

Also, you can send MIDI CC messages to the VL to set the key and scale - see page 176 of the VL manual.

There would be no direct way to take the key as entered in the BH Key field and use that to set the key/scale on the VL. But what you can do is:
- set up MIDI presets (in BH) for the various keys and scales that you use. Or set them all up, there's only 12 keys and 8 scale types
- in each song, attach the relevant key and scale preset. Then those get sent when the song gets loaded.

[rtichenberg]

Thank you so much!

[rtichenberg]

Further to this -

BH will send MIDI clock, which the Voicelive can receive - see page 71 of the Voicelive manual.

Also, you can send MIDI CC messages to the VL to set the key and scale - see page 176 of the VL manual.

There would be no direct way to take the key as entered in the BH Key field and use that to set the key/scale on the VL. But what you can do is:
- set up MIDI presets (in BH) for the various keys and scales that you use. Or set them all up, there's only 12 keys and 8 scale types
- in each song, attach the relevant key and scale preset. Then those get sent when the song gets loaded.

iguana... It sounds like we share similar setups.  Could you please humor a first-timer so that I can be done and get to the business of playing music...

I am going to follow Your advice regarding creating separate MIDI presets (for all of them).  re: page 176 in the VL3 manual showing CC numbers for key and scale  ...  Now assuming that we are in Band Helper and we're adding a new preset (let's assume this is for Scale = MAJ1), where do I enter the number zero (since the documentation says that to use MAJ1 I need to use zero).  Whice field do I use?  If I use the program Change field which of the three fields?  Where do I put the 0 and also the 31 (for the Harmony Vocal) ?

I am sorry for asking such a silly question, but this is the level I'm at and I cannot progress until I understand this.  Thank-You again for helping us!

Russell


Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

[arlo]

If the VoiceLive uses control change messages to change the key and scale, then you'll need to put those numbers into the control change fields, not the program change fields. This requires a controller number and a value, both of which should be listed in the VoiceLive manual. It sounds like 0 is the value for a major scale. (I tried looking up the manual, but the one I found doesn't have the page you're referencing.)

[iguana]

iguana... It sounds like we share similar setups.  Could you please humor a first-timer so that I can be done and get to the business of playing music...

Russell -

To set up the presets for the VL3, when adding/editing MIDI presets:
- Set the Name to something like "VL3-Key-C#" or "VL3-Scale-Maj2". Meaningful, but not too long :-)
- Choose your Projects and Users.
- Under the "Control Changes" list, next to the device you've set up for the VL3, enter "30" (for key) or "31" (for scale) in the first field
- In the second field, enter the data value for the particular key (0-11) or scale (0-7).
- And save the preset

Rinse and repeat for each key and scale.

Then, on any given song, in the MIDI Presets area, add two presets - one for the key and one for the scale. You say you already have BH send MIDI to select a preset on the VL3. If you are doing that via Control Change (CC) commands, the key and scale MIDI presets should be positioned after the VL3 preset command.

BH sends out MIDI pretty quickly. For something like this, you want to use BH's ability to pause between MIDI commands. In the app, go to Settings > Audio & MIDI > MIDI Options > Send MIDI Presets Together ... with Delay Between, and set that to 0.1 or 0.2. You might also want to change Settings > Audio & MIDI > MIDI Options > MIDI Preset Order ... with Delay Between to 0.1 or 0.2 as well, particularly if you use Program Change (PC) commands to change the VL3's preset.

Hope that helps!

Note, I don't use a VoiceLive. I'm just going by what I can glean from the manual :-)

--mark;

[arlo]

Mark, thanks for sharing this!

[rtichenberg]

Mark and Arlo,

I am blown away at the help you've given me.  Frankly, without it there would have been no way for one to pU LL the one-man-band thing off! Arlo, what a wonderful product / service you provide .  I am seeing it as essential .  Not 'optional' anymore.  I am a blessed musician.  what a wonderful time to be alive as a musician!

Thank you so much my friends!

Russell