@Steffen Interesting. So I always preload the entire set with no issues. But you’re saying that you have a standard reverb in the background rack for all songs and everything gets routed there? I have a standard compressor and mastering VST (God Particle) in every song, however the settings have to be often customized per song depending on the synths I’m using, so one setting for all songs might be hard to do.
I guess the other thing is that usually I have at least one pad in play, so if I cut it off and just reverb tailed it still would sound very noticeable.
@Torsten My CPU and RAM are quite strong, even on a laptop. I often have anywhere from 4-10 instrument VSTs and a 2-6 FX VSTs in play for one song. So having two songs loaded and active would be no problem at all, especially since the second song’s VSTs shouldn’t be doing much while waiting to receive notes once I move to that song.
However I don’t know what you mean by having 2 songs active at the same time. I pre-load all the songs when I load the set, but what do you mean by swapping out Song 1 for Song 2 as opposed to switching to Song 2?
So in your scenario, say Song 1 is ending and you have the sustain pedal held. You switch to Song 2 and the sounds are still being held as you hold the sustain pedal, but any new notes are using Song 2. You let go of the pedal, Song 1’s sounds trail off while you’re already playing Song 2. Is that functionally how it works?
Pretty much - not sure I held the sustain beyond the first beat of the new song…but meant that I could switch songs while the last chord of Song 1 was being held and all the patches I needed for the first beat of Song 2 were there ready for me to play on the beat.
Been I while since I’ve needed to do it TBH…(it was a jukebox musical with a segue between two numbers) so my memory’s a little hazy!
The solution I described in my earlier post solves this problem and requires none of the steps you listed. To make a new song set, I just load my master song, right-click on each rack and select “Replace Rack” to replace it with a different song’s rack, and I’m done. No reprogramming. It takes me about 30 seconds to create a new set from my collection of song-racks, and each song is sustainable with pedal as I start to play the next.
OK, I have a better idea of what you’re doing there. I guess you need to separately note things like song tempo, time signature etc. as that won’t be stored in a rack, only in a song. And for anyone using other song information that is typically saved in a song, such as global transposition, notes, etc. those can’t be stored in a rack either.
The other thing that’s missing when you do things like this is that it’s harder to see at a glance notes/comments (can’t remember the name of the column) for each instrument/FX layer in a rack for quick adjustment or memory.
For example, I may have a pad that uses CC17 for filter cutoff, two EPs whose volume is controlled by CC20, an FX layer (stutter/glitch) controlled by CC21. I put those in the notes column so if in the middle of playing I forget what knob on my controller I’ve assigned to the EP volume I can glance at the computer screen an the song has all that info. And I can quickly reach over and do things on the computer if I need to.
If this is all in a rack I’d need to expand each rack… maybe they all stay expanded when there are multiple racks? Not sure.
So I can see how this might work in scenarios where songs have very consistent VSTs and settings, and you have a separate place you’re referencing tempo and time signature, setting that up each time but it seems that’d add a lot to my workflow and limit more visibility.
But if I have to do this for only 2 songs in a 5-song set, maybe that’s a decent workaround/option.
That’s true, if tempo/meter isn’t served by an external clock, one must set them for each song state. I’ve found that to be very quick (adds another few seconds per song prep time).
I think you can set each song state to auto-open a particular rack when the state loads (e.g., using a binding). Like you, my VST controls are not consistent so I need notes, but I personally prefer forScore for my sheet music, in which I have notes about which buttons to press when; so I only refer to my rack comments when prepping. I’m also loving my Presonus Atom SQ controller because it lets me color-code the buttons per song, which really helps me remember which is which. (See my other thread on the merits of that controller.)
I guess I should also mention that there’s actually a nifty way to “store” tempo/meter/transpose settings in racks that I sometimes use for more complex songs: I have my master song programmed to send a special CC message to the “current” song-rack whenever it becomes the “active” song. This allows all my song-racks to optionally listen for that CC message and set the global tempo/meter/transpose to prescribed, song-specific values. The tempo-setting bindings live in the rack, so it’s a way to “store” such things in racks.