Re: selecting au presets in live

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:07 PM, Simeon Harris
<simeonharris40@googlemail.com> wrote:
> a cc to
> select the one i want, but if i drop a softsynth into live, how do i
> go about selecting presets from it?


I'm afraid changing preset, by external MIDI, in a loaded plugin
instrument isn't a good idea. It is possible, if the plugin supports
it, but chances are Live will crash or stutter with noise. The reason
for this is that Live is a DAW and as such allocates a memory buffer
for the plugin and if the plugin goes away and another comes in this
buffer assigning has to be done all over - which is sketchy in DAW
play mode to say the least.

A way to get around it is to do like we use to do in the Bidule host;
assigning a MIDI event to mute a plugin and un-mute another. Mainstage
uses the same strategy but refined to pre-load all virtual instrument
presets into RAM when you boot the session. This makes it possible to
hot-swap multiple plugin settings for a new set of settings.

You could set up multiple tracks in Live, each one with an instance of
the same instrument plugin but set to different sound patches. Then
you simply assign your pedals to un-mute one while muting the others.
However, this may cost some extra CPU resources as Live doesn't allow
muted plugins to be offloaded the CPU in the same grade as Bidule
(with the Audio Switcher instance swapping trick) and Mainstage.

You may also use the computer's up/down arrow keys to scroll n load
presets for an instrument plugin. I'm finding that pretty neat.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com
www.looproom.com internet music hub