Using Midi to controll my live rig Question

[James-Doolan]

Hey this is for anyone with experience using midi to controll their live guitar rig.

So here's the story we will be playing live shortly to promote our new E.P and we will be using a laptop running cubase 4 through a saffire pro 26 to play backing tracks for drums keys and bass (as at the moment its just a singer and 2 guitarist in the band)

Now since we are using the laptop anyway i want to use it to programme my live rig so i dont have to turn pedals on/off during a set i want to elimate all pedals altogether.

So i am thinking of getting the GCX audio switcher http://www.voodoolab.com/gcx.htm
And using that to control all the channels on the amp and the fx loop. And i assume i can have the midi out from my saffire pro 26 into the midi in on the gcx and programme a midi track in cubase to trigger amp switching at certains points in the song.

What im trying to get my head around is how am i going to be able to programme a multi effects unit like a G-sharp ect in the loop of my amp to play certain patches at certain points in the song since the only midi out i have is going into the gcx.

Is it possable to split the midi cable and have the other one run into the multi effects (is this what the midi out on the gcx is for??) So now both the gcx and multi effects unit would be hooked up to the same cubase midi track. But im woundering if they are on the same track how can i issue different commands to different units off the same track?

Am i going about this the right way is there a better solution for what i want to do (which is have my computer tell my amp when to switch channels, tell my pedals when to turn on/off and tell my multi effects unit when to change certain patches)

Sorry for the looong post i hope its not to confusing and someone can help me.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I have no idea but I think it is a good question.

 

[jeffadies]

If i understand you right. All you need to do is send the midi cable to the effects unit first then out of the through or midi out to eh GCX. Or if the GCX has midi out then just run that to the effects unit. should work either way.

 

[James-Doolan]

Ok cool but can i control 2 seperate units at the same time on one midi connection? Is there seperate channels within the midi data?

Like can i assign the gcx to channel 1 and tell it to do certain things at certain points and the effects unit to channel 2 and tell it to do certain things at certain points independently of channel one. So the gcx would only respond to commands coming in on channel 1 and ignore the commands being sent on channel 2 is this possible?

Sorry if im asking stupid questions its just i dont realy understand how midi sends information. Is there any good websites to learn about how midi works?

 

[Omega_Void]

MIDI has 16 channels, each piece of MIDI can be set to a specific channel in its global settings (usually - some only use a particular channel, but that's very rare).

So for example one sequencer might put out program changes on all 16 channels, and all the gear gets the signals, but if your fx unit is set to channel 13 it will respond to program and control change messages on ch13, and ignore the data on all the other channels.

You can daisy-chain using MIDI thru ports (the MIDI out often doubles as a thru port if there's no separate thru), if you have lots of gear needing MIDI you can use a MIDI splitter (will need a battery).

 

[James-Doolan]

MIDI has 16 channels, each piece of MIDI can be set to a specific channel in its global settings (usually - some only use a particular channel, but that's very rare).

So for example one sequencer might put out program changes on all 16 channels, and all the gear gets the signals, but if your fx unit is set to channel 13 it will respond to program and control change messages on ch13, and ignore the data on all the other channels.

You can daisy-chain using MIDI thru ports (the MIDI out often doubles as a thru port if there's no separate thru), if you have lots of gear needing MIDI you can use a MIDI splitter (will need a battery).

Thanks dude thats exactly what i was trying to get my head round. 16 channels should be more than enough. Im realy excited about having my computer do all my tone switching live. Does anybody round here have something similar rigged up?

 

[jeffadies]

guess i should have mentioned midi channels..lol my bad. I thought about doing midi changes with the pc but im not sure i would trust it at this point. I always worry that if the pc fucks up your stuck on a channel for the rest of the show. It is nice however using a midi pedal and one button controlling fx and amp changes. good luck to ya and let us know how it works out with your set up.

 

[James-Doolan]

guess i should have mentioned midi channels..lol my bad. I thought about doing midi changes with the pc but im not sure i would trust it at this point. I always worry that if the pc fucks up your stuck on a channel for the rest of the show. It is nice however using a midi pedal and one button controlling fx and amp changes. good luck to ya and let us know how it works out with your set up.

Ya i know what you mean about the "dude what if it fucks up" aspect buts its different for us because if the computer fucks up we are fucked anyways because our drums, bass and synths will be comming out from the laptop so i have nothing to lose by having it control my amp as well. Its scary how much we are going to be relying on the computer:zombie:

 

[jeffadies]

Ya i know what you mean about the "dude what if it fucks up" aspect buts its different for us because if the computer fucks up we are fucked anyways because our drums, bass and synths will be comming out from the laptop so i have nothing to lose by having it control my amp as well. Its scary how much we are going to be relying on the computer:zombie:

Very true..didn't even think about that.lol My band started relying on a laptop about a year ago and knock on wood it has worked very well for us. Granted we only use it for backing synth,click tracks and dmx lighting software. Are you gonna be running in ears as well? If not i would highly recommend going that route.

good luck man i hope things go good.

 

[James-Doolan]

Very true..didn't even think about that.lol My band started relying on a laptop about a year ago and knock on wood it has worked very well for us. Granted we only use it for backing synth,click tracks and dmx lighting software. Are you gonna be running in ears as well? If not i would highly recommend going that route.

good luck man i hope things go good.

Thanks man i hope it works out to Yea the plan is to go in ears with the backing track plus click with each player having his own custom mix its going to take a lot of rehersing to get everything ready and get used to all the gear before we do it live ive never used in ears before so i hope its not to weird

 

[jeffadies]

Thanks man i hope it works out to Yea the plan is to go in ears with the backing track plus click with each player having his own custom mix its going to take a lot of rehersing to get everything ready and get used to all the gear before we do it live ive never used in ears before so i hope its not to weird

It is a bit weird at first but once your used to it things get very easy. just dont go cheap on your in ear system. we started with the cheap sure stuff then eventually moved up to the senheiser transmitters and body pacs. the sure ones just had no headroom and got real muddy when you have to many instruments at once.