If I change presets while recording a clip everything is reced with the last one

[ppravier]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I did not use some kind of sequencer since the early days on the Atari ST back in 1988-90 ! Things have .... changed .
I got lots of fun playing around with the Minilab MKII and Analog Lab 3. Fantastic sounds, great control, great feelings.

I am learning Ableton Live Lite at the same time, as it is bundled with the Minilab.
I am wondering if it is possible to use more than one Analog Lab's preset on a single track. My impression that this issue is not related to Ableton Live but rather to Analog Lab 3:
Let's say I record a midi clip for one minute: I start by playing 10 seconds with one preset , then I change to another preset in Analog Lab 3 and continue playing for 10 more seconds or so with the second preset, then I change to a third preset and play 10 more seconds. At the end of this I have one 30-seconds midi clip with everything I played with the 3 presets.
If I replay the midi clip all the notes are played, but this is done with the last preset I selected (instead of the 10 first seconds played with the first preset, the next 10 seconds with the second preset, etc...) . The two changes of presets during my session were clearly not recorded.
I find this surprising because everything I did with the knobs and the keyboard was very well recorded, except for the changes of presets... Why is that ?

Thanks in advance for your answers
 

[LBH]

Hi and welcome to Arturia forums.

Your DAW and AL3 must both be set to use programchange to have any change of getting this to work at all. I don't know if your DAW can record programchange automaticly or if AL3 work well this way. I don't record tracks this way.

However - You should be able to manually insert a programchange on a track using automation, if it's not recorded, and if you have things set up correct to use programchange.
In AL3 you should use playlists for this. It might be of more use for a live performance though.


You can also record the sound instead of MIDI data.


But you can also just load multiple instances of AL3 in your DAW on different tracks, and use different MIDI channels for each or use split key points or use other possiblities you might have. Then you don't have to change presets. Afterall it does take time to change a preset. It's not instant.
This i think is what most users does today, also because the sounds may require different treatment afterwards.

[MajorFubar]

LBH is correct. It's way simpler just to use multiple tracks with a different instance of Analog Lab on each tracks. DAWs and VSTs are not like external sound modules or workstation keyboards, where you might have been used to using Program Change commands on your Atari ST to change the patch on one particular track during a song or performance. Trying to find a way to force modern DAWs and VSTs to work that way is of no benefit.

[Aymara]

Trying to find a way to force modern DAWs and VSTs to work that way is of no benefit.

The benefit would be less CPU usage, because you need one plugin instance per track. Because Ableton itself is more CPU hungry as many other DAWs, this can matter depending on the used PC.

My advice to the thread starter is to try out a different DAW for learning the basics!

Reaper is in my opinion a top candidate, because it has a very powerful community (tutorial videos and forum) like no other DAW and you can start with a free demo. And it‘s the cheapest of all powerful DAWs.

www.reaper.fm

Studio One is a second option, because here you also can find many tutorials and a demo as a free version too are available. I would also check the new chord track of Version 4, which is a huge advantage for composing.

[MajorFubar]

Trying to find a way to force modern DAWs and VSTs to work that way is of no benefit.

The benefit would be less CPU usage, because you need one plugin instance per track. Because Ableton itself is more CPU hungry as many other DAWs, this can matter depending on the used PC.

Ah ok, I sit corrected. I'm a Logic user. Certainly in the Logic environment there is next to no additional resources drain (processor or HDD) unless a track is actually playing midi or audio. You could create a project with 200 VST tracks and if only one is playing at once, it's virtually no different to running one VST track. I had assumed they all worked like that.

[Aymara]

I had assumed they all worked like that.

There seem to be huge differences between different DAWs regarding CPU consumption.

And hey, usually we create many tracks to be able to play them at once, right?

I read an interesting discussion in the Reaper forum, where Reaper was compared with other DAWs, especially regarding needed system performance. It seems Reaper is one of the best performing DAWs and Ableton one of the worst. Studio One also had a bad reputation regarding CPU, as Logic too some time ago.

But times are changing, at least for Logic and Studio One. I have both, Reaper and Studio One, latest versions, and both perform pretty well.

But here and there some VSTs are causing headaches, because they run on one core only and are pretty CPU hungry. A top candidate for example is NI‘s Polyplex, but Pigments can also be a CPU hog sometimes, depending on the used preset.

PS: Ok, we can bounce CPU hungry MIDI tracks to audio, but hey, this is a workaround, right?