Pattern Change from the DAW

[Karlchen]

I'm making my first steps with the SparkLE in conjunction with Ableton Live 8 Intro at the moment. After not finding out how to change patterns I scanned the threads in this forum and understood that the only way to accomplish this is to assign MIDI notes to the bank/pattern change buttons in Spark.
Correct?
Because it seems like an awkward workfaround to me: Is there there any plan to implement the bank/pattern change via MIDI program change messages into Spark in the future? Or am I just too demanding?

[Karlchen]

I'd like to push this topic up again because there doesn't seem to be any other way, I tried to use the "assign pattern key to midinote"-approach, meaning that I configured my Spark2 to react to midi-notes to change pattern in ableton.
So what I have set up for an easy test is 2 midi clips with only 1 note each (on the 1st sixteenth note of the 1-bar-pattern).

First of all: Spark changes the pattern, when I change the clips. That good.
But: It only changes the pattern 1 bar TOO LATE. Only when my "trigger clip" in Ableton runs for the second time, the pattern in Spark also changes.

Did I forget something on the configuration side in Ableton? Some kind of negative delay or so

[Terrym]

Hi have you set in pref switch patten instant to on so when the midi note is played that sequence plays , or turn it off and set the midi note to near the end of each bar so on the next bar it plays the next sequence . also the bars in your clips must be the same length as in spark

regards

terrym

[Karlchen]

Hello Terrym,

where in the Preferences would I find the option "switch pattern instant to on"? I looked and couldn't find it. I'm running Ableton Live 8 btw.
And the Ableton clips are as long as  the Spark patterns (1 bar each).

Regargs,
Leonhard

[Terrym]

Hi ,in spark top right where is says pref  open that in the sequencer part you will see switch patten instantaneously.

regards

terrym

[Karlchen]

OK. I see, you meant the Spark preferences, not the Ableton ones :-)
But it's exaktly set as in your screenshot (set to "yes").

If I go for your second option (Putting the note at the end of the pattern), then again I end up being 1 bar too late with the Spark switching pattern, no?

Somehow what I would need to archieve is to have the midi note play before the actual clip start point.

[oopsi]

If you have a controller you can assign a knob in Live to 'Next Pattern' in Spark software. In Live you click the configure button on the vst shell and then change the pattern in spark software sequencer window. Live should populate a slider for 'Next Pattern' which you can control now via midi assign in Live. It's the best work around I have found so far for controlling pattern change which for me I would like to control on the fly along with loop divide and move because who wouldn't it's good fun!  I would like to be able to do this in spark standalone but have yet to find a work around.

[Karlchen]

In the meantime I figured out what was wrong:
I was just confused by the way the option "switch pattern instantaneously" is presented in Spark's preferences dialog. When deactivated you see an unchecked checkbox with the label "no" next to it. For me this meant it is set to "yes" and I have to set the checkbox in order to switch it off.  But actually this means that the option is already switched off.
After setting the right option here, it works as expected.

Thanks for your help.

[jsmirk]

I really wish they would remove the words "yes" and "no" from next to each check box.  It only adds confusion about what the action of clicking the checkbox will do.  This has always made me have to think twice when changing the values. Having only the checkbox is better UI design.

[stuey]

I really wish they would remove the words "yes" and "no" from next to each check box.  It only adds confusion about what the action of clicking the checkbox will do.  This has always made me have to think twice when changing the values. Having only the checkbox is better UI design.

+1

Good idea. A small thing but a simple box with a tick should be enough.

Thanks, Stuart