In playing at church, it’s usually really important to have seamless switching to avoid dead air between songs. And pads typically fill that dead air nicely, only they get cut off harshly between songs. I’m glad this is something people are trying to figure out. Just brainstorming some ideas, not being a programmer…
Have the option, per song, to keep trailing audio for 5 seconds (or whatever measure you choose) after the song has been switched, then cut it off, avoiding any stuck notes. This would be time-based, not controller-based. By then I’m able to start the next song, click, etc. Of course, how to do this is the difficulty, looks like. What about keeping all of the VSTs from the old song active for that time period longer, sustaining all notes (pedal) for a few seconds? I already have all VSTs preloaded for the set, so memory is not likely an issue.
As @brad explained earlier if you’re using linked racks and they’re the same between songs but you have a transpose, etc. that could cause a problem. But I’m thinking of a couple of things here:
- Regardless of transpose, the actual note that ended up being played (regardless of the keyboard/MIDI note) in the previous song gets continued. I’m assuming the transpose function only works with new notes.
- The feature, at least in version 1, wouldn’t support seamless switching with linked racks that are the same between songs. It’s not a big deal to convert a linked rack into an embedded one for the benefit of seamless switching, IMO.
Another option, and this is probably not feasible (but brainstorming is not about what’s feasible), is that if seamless switching is on for Song A there’s a 1-bar (configurable) audio recording “cache” that’s happening through the whole song. When the song is switched it loops that 1-bar WAV file for however many times you have configured it to. Lots of problems with this, but maybe it’s measured in seconds, not a metronome count, being that you don’t always switch at the end or start of a bar. Most of my transitions would work with a simple audio loop of the pad sound carrying on for 3-6 seconds.