Patch changes via MIDI (Ableton)

UDO Audio Gear Super 6
1

Hello,

I’d like to incorporate the Super 6 (Firmware 0.30) into my live touring rig. To make this feasible, I want to use Ableton Live 10 to control patch changes mid song. I have a few questions:

  1. How does the Super 6 “label” patches?

i.e. I would assume a patch saved to A1 would be bank 1, program 1, but what if the patch is saved to the second bank of A? Is it now bank 2? Does this mean bank B is 3, and so on?

  1. Is there a list of the above I can refer to?

  2. Ableton has 3 “windows” or “fields” to assign for program changes: Bank, Sub-Bank, Program. How do these relate to the Super 6, if at all?

  3. Currently (N.B. sending MIDI over USB) changing the Bank and Sub-Bank fields in Ableton makes no difference to the Super 6. If I want to change to the first program in the second bank of A, the only way to do this is to put 9 in the program field in Ableton. That’s fine for patches in the first couple of banks, but gets confusing when working with patches saved to the second bank of F or G etc.

Is there an easier way to work with this?

  1. Working with Ableton as per point 4, the patch will change and the program light on the Super 6 will move to the corresponding program button, however the bank number will remain on A, even if it is playing (and sounding) a patch from another bank. This is very disconcerting and essentially means flying blind mid-performance. There’s no way by looking at the S6 I can guarantee I am on the correct patch.

How can I make the Super 6 display the correct Bank and Program button lights, when patch changes are controlled externally?

(FYI info on Ableton Program Changes here)

Thanks for taking the time read, and for any help with this!

2

  • Does anyone know the Super 6 program labelling protocol (ie Bank/Sub Bank/Program)?

  • Does anyone know the specific steps for the Super 6 to receive program changes via MIDI over DIN?

I am aware of p.108 of the manual, but this doesn’t seem to work. FYI the Super 6 receives MIDI (e.g plays notes sent from my DAW), but does not respond to program changes.

3

Hi,

Bank change messages (cc) are ignored and the synth uses program change messages (0-127) only.

To respond, the synth must be set to receive program changes using the global settings (SHIFT → TX/RX P).

Behaviour changed in firmware 0,27 and above. Please check you are using 0,30.

Programs are numbered sequentially from 0-127. A(1):P1-P8 correspond to program change 0-7, B(1):P1-P8 correspond to program change numbers 8-15 and all the way up to H(2):P1-P8 120-127.

Note that the currently selected bank will not change on receipt of a program change message so you may not see a patch LED lit if the current patch is on another bank not currently selected on the front panel. This behaviour is due to be changed.

Notes on the operation of the program change can be found in the release notes of 0,27 and 0,30 for reference and please check the most up to date manual online.

Hope this helps!

George

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