Next MIDI Event automation

[chadcb]

Question about automation behavior.

I have eight midi presets named 'SCN01, SCN02, SCN03, SCN04, SCN05, SCN06, SCN07, SCN08'

Each scene maps to a section of a song. For example, Intro might be scene 1, verse 1 might be scene 2, chorus scene 3, then back to verse scene 2, etc..
INTRO: SCN01
VERSE: SCN02
CHORUS: SCN03
VERSE2: SCN02
CHORUS2: SCN03
BRIDGE: SCN04
OUTRO: SCNE05

Once I have the order figured out, I add all of the presets to a song in the correct order:
SCN01
SCN02
SCN03
SCN02
SCN03
SCN04
SCN05

Now using my PageFlip, I have one of the buttons mapped to 'Next MIDI Preset'. This works great as every time I press the PageFlip, it changes to the next preset and follows the listed order.

I then wanted to try automating all of this. So I recorded an automation using the foot switch to change advance to the next midi preset. This also works great except on playback the preset list is not followed in order. It does select the correct preset though.

My thought is if using automation and something got out of sync or an issue occurred, you could stop the automation but still have it on the correct preset per the order. And then manually advance to the next preset without losing your place in the list.

The work around I am using is to batch import multiple combination of names for presets. Example:
INTRO_scn1
INTRO_scn2
....
VERSE_scn1
VERSE_scn2
.....
VERSE2_scn1
VERSE2_scn2
...
CHORUS_scn1
etc...

Now that all of the preset names are unique, it follows the order. My updated preset list for a song looks like this:
INTRO_scn1
VERSE_scn2
CHORUS_scn3
VERSE2_scn2
CHORUS2_scn3
BRIDGE_scn4
OUTRO_scn5

Not too big of a deal thanks to the batch import.

Finally, sorry for long post. But another thought I had was, if you could do per song alias for preset names. For my 8 scenes, they will all be re-used for every song. However, the function of each may differ. Using the 'list' of presets in a song layout also provides a visual 'mapping' of a song.

So the idea would be, only have the 8 presets (in my case)
But for each song, I could add the preset, and an alias for that song. So when I add SCN01 to a song, I might alias it as VERSE. Then I may have a VERSE2 later that is also SCN01. And so on... Then have an option to use the alias names vs the preset names.

Here is a picture to hopefully show what I mean. You can see my song flow at the top right which is just the ordered list of MIDI presets.

[arlo]

I then wanted to try automating all of this. So I recorded an automation using the foot switch to change advance to the next midi preset. This also works great except on playback the preset list is not followed in order. It does select the correct preset though.

This is because when you perform a Next MIDI Preset command, the automation track records what specific preset is triggered, not the "next" action or the index of the next preset. Then when it plays back, it doesn't know which of the duplicate presets to highlight, so it just picks the first one. If you were relying on your automation tracks, you wouldn't need to attach duplicate presets in the desired order -- you would just attach each preset once and then record yourself skipping around among the presets to record the desired sequence. But I don't have a workaround for combining the automation track with the manual "next preset" approach as a backup.

another thought I had was, if you could do per song alias for preset names. For my 8 scenes, they will all be re-used for every song. However, the function of each may differ. Using the 'list' of presets in a song layout also provides a visual 'mapping' of a song.
So the idea would be, only have the 8 presets (in my case)
But for each song, I could add the preset, and an alias for that song. So when I add SCN01 to a song, I might alias it as VERSE.

You could do this by using the ability to attach one MIDI preset to another. So you could create all your "alias" presets, and they would consist only of links to your "real" presets. However, all preset names are project-wide, not song-specific, so you couldn't just name them "Verse," "Chorus," etc. You could, however, make a preset named "Freebird - Verse" that has SCN01 attached to it, "Freebird - Chorus" that has SCN02 attached to it, etc. If you went a step further and made separate aliases for "Freebird - Verse 1," "Freebird - Verse 2," etc. that would also address the first problem described above.

[chadcb]

Thanks for the reply. I've spent a lot of time over the last week setting songs and set lists up, customizing a layout, creating automations, lyric highlighting, etc... I'm blown away by how much you can do with BandHelper. I probably requested some items a bit premature as I wasn't familiar enough with the app or my own workflow. Anyway, thanks again!

[arlo]

You're welcome!