You're welcome.
It recognises some, some of the time, though??
It should recognize it every time. Keep in mind that those MIDI messages will be interpreted the same way as if you were pushing the buttons manually yourself. So, if you have "Wait to Load Pattern" On or "Wait to load Project" On, it will delay the change at the end of Pattern or Project (Drum Pattern is the Master for project change).
I'd also like to set it up so that each sequencer has a blank pattern so...
If I understand well, I would say:
Yes you need to use empty patterns for that purpose.
Hope this help,
Y.