Program Change via MIDI Direct Jump?

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

I am sequencing program changes on my A4 via Ableton Live. All is well, except that the A4 only does program changes via Sequential mode when it receives Program Change messages via MIDI.

This is problematic because even though I’ll have a program change on the downbeat on the start of the measure, the A4 will not change for another pattern length, it merely does that flashing between sequence numbers to show that a change is coming up, and will change a pattern length AFTER it is supposed to change.

My workaround is to put a program change message on the 1/4 note before the downbeat in my Ableton sequence, but this seems like a bug to me.

Does anyone else have this problem or a solution to it?

Thanks!

#2

Sending program change messages early is a good way of eliminating any risk of your program change message arriving late.

Instead of using program change messages you can also use midi notes if you setup a multi map. With a multi map you are not restricted to using sequential mode if you don’t want to.

Example here: Multi Map to transpose and switch patterns

1 Like
#3

Oh, awesome LarsErik! Thank you for that, the MultiMap technique works flawlessly. This is great. Totally going to use the Transpose keysplit for composing as well. Killer!

#4

You’re welcome.

#5

Do you really have to use MultiMap to get around this? On the Analog Four, you can specify whether you want it to run in sequential or direct jump mode. Can’t I have it respond to program changes the same way it would respond to key presses, according to the mode it’s currently in?

My use case is that I have several patterns where switching between them mid-pattern still sounds good and where it helps to spice things up. This is totally lost if I can’t have this type of fine grained control.

#6

Apparently yes. What is the master device?
With a midi processor, you can map prog changes to notes for Multimap control.