Program/preset change from host (exposed)

a must have feature i think:

a way to recall a program via midi program change. i use Carla as plugin host and would love to use vital live on stage. the possibility to change patches via a foot switch is essential for that.

i see that HELM has an implementation that works in Carla. i can change presets via program change there just fine. would be great to have the same functionality in VITAL.

thanks for considering, and congrats! this synth is great.

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Would this change allow you to see what preset is selected from Ableton? I’d love to be able to select presets from the little plugin view inside Ableton (not sure what list of presets would be made available - my library is pretty massive at this point). Or at the very least, see which preset was used.

Program change messages causes a lot of support issues across different DAWs so I decided not to listen to it in Vital. For example, when loading a project Ableton will send a program change message after Vital has loaded all project state.

I may add this later but there are a lot of annoying issues to work around.

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Thanks for explaining the challenges, Matt! I can completely understand why that would be difficult to code around.

i understand. still this is such a crucial feature for many use cases, live usage only being one of them. could you make it an option that is disabled by default? how do you handle it in HELM?

ok, just trying to imagine other solutions. could you enable a midi cc message to switch patches? that would at least give us 127 programs to recall on the fly.

for example cc 0 (bank) or any cc that is not commonly used for modulation or volume etc. or as i wrote make program changes an option that is off by default.

but PLEASE let people switch/choose patches remotely in some way, it will be greatly appreciated i am sure! this synth has so much potential beyond just being used in a DAW, but without a way to change sounds via controller it makes other use cases very fiddly.

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I Agree its important, but there is also “other ways” to achieve preset change.

Reminds me of Aalto/ Kaivo and Virta from Madrona labs - there is a “special” - Midi Program folder where you put presets and its works. :wink: @Tytel

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how? from a “non GUI” position i see no way. since i would want to use it live i need to be able to switch freely, not just +1 and -1

Moving past the DAW era, example Gig Performer www.gigperformer.com can save entire plugin state and go from there; im sure there are other examples towards Live usage of “plugin hosts”.

cool, will check it out. i am running CARLA at the moment for this, which works nicely, and does support saving of plugin states but no recalling them via midi so far.

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actually @Tytel i see now that HELM (audio unit) does also not support program changes, but it shows a dropdown menu of presets in carla. i can recall presets from that just fine. (also from external controls) VITAL on the other hand does not show that dropdown menu. can you expose that for VITAL as well? this option would be as good as program changes actually and would save you the hassle to go through with different DAWs and the handling of PC messages.

helm:

vital:

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Please add support for Program Change messages!
My use case is similar (live performance and remote controlling everything via MIDI) and I’m using Reaper as the host. I need to switch patches live.

I know some hosts (like Ableton) have suboptimal Midi support (that’s why I switched to Reaper) but please don’t let that be a reason for Vital to not respond to ProgChange messages :slight_smile:
How about making it an optional feature (a checkbox in settings)? And setting the default based on which host it’s started in (setting it to disabled for those hosts that are known to cause problems).

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@localhorst, what buffer settings/sampelrate settings are you using with reaper? in other words, what latency do you get? always good to have some values :slight_smile:

On Carla I have 160/88200 which translates to 1.9ms , which is great!

a further update for people that want to switch patches live and with external control :slight_smile:

take a look at element from kushview, it works quite well and allows to save graphs which save all plugins state, and you can recall them via program change. i am still trying everything but so far it is stable and works very well.

at the end he´s doing stuff that´s probably very usefull for live playing.

its about lfo phase slider.

Hi Tytel,
I love Vital, but I would like to check again concerning having a way to change presets with a foorswitch (lmidi) for live performances.
I read your comment from january 2021, but I was wondereing if you could add this feature ONLY to the stand alone version so you won’t have any difficulties with DAW’s.
Please ??
Gert

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I would also love to hear about additional thoughts or any potential developments regarding the ability to change presets effortlessly with a controller. I have much appreciation for Vital and the community. Any news in this area yet??

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For Live users, you can use Clyphx. Works without lag, too. Basically you turn clips into presets - launching a certain clip switches to a certain preset. Here’s a tutorial: https://youtu.be/B5RaW4hEcTI

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Yet another thing tempting to consume me down the ClyphX rabbit hole. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Sure thing. It’s a rabbit hole well worth diving into :sunglasses: