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Montage live set / external MIDI control

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 John
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I need some help. Any assistance will be appreciated. I want to use "Set List Maker" to control MIDI program changes in the "Live Set" section of the Montage. I have used Set List Maker in the past with the Kronos and Nord Keyboards. It was relatively easy to set everything up. I am however hitting roadblocks with the Montage. I looked over the manual and did some searching, but can't zero exactly what I need to do. Thanks, John

 
Posted : 13/05/2017 8:08 pm
Bad Mister
Posts: 12304
 

Page 41 of the most recent of the Montage Supplemental Manuals (version 1.50) has the necessary information to remotely select any of the Live Set loactions.

When a Performance is "registered" to a User LIVE SET, it can be recalled by the Bank Select MSB/LSB and a Program Change number designated for each of the possible locations.

For example, MSB 062, LSB 000, Program Change 001 would select LIVE SET Page 1, slot 1

 
Posted : 13/05/2017 8:55 pm
 John
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Thanks! I appreciate your help. This works with the first page, but it seems like I have to manual switch the Montage to "User2". The LSB info does not change the page. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I tried using LSB 001 and LSB 1. Any thoughts?

Thanks, John

 
Posted : 14/05/2017 8:37 pm
Jason
Posts: 7911
Illustrious Member
 

1) I download latest firmware (v1.51) and unzip it - a bunch of PDFs spill out. "montage_en_nf_c0.pdf" is one of them. It's the "new features" document for firmware v1.50 and applies equally to v1.51 since they're both "the same" except v1.51 has a fix for a critical issue - but no real new features vs 1.50.

2) I search for "live set" in the PDF and see that there's nothing interesting in v1.5x that's new around the MIDI control - this was introduced in v1.10 (page 32 for summary of changes:

Live Set pages and slots can now be controlled by MIDI Bank Select and Program Change messages

3) Page 41 has the cart. Notice the chart shows the left-hand number under "MSB" is a decimal number and right-hand number under "MSB" is hex. So something like "62" doesn't really scream out hex or decimal - not sure what base you are using. If you assumed 62 is hex - then this would be a problem.

So the same instructions using a base indication ("0x" preceding a hex value).

MSB 0x3E, LSB 0x00, PC 0x00 would select select Live Set page 1, slot 1.

It can also get confusing because Montage shows "Program Change No." starting at 1 (1-based) while the underlying MIDI messages are zero-based - so 0x00 = Program Change No. 1, 0x01 = Program Change No. 2, etc.. And then the chart in the new features doc shows "Program No." as zero based (0-15). So it's important to know the usage context to apply the documentation correctly and even to just communicate what's what. I would tend to speak in MIDI message terms - but software sometimes expects a 1-based number. Note - this should have anything to do with showing pages (your issue) - but is part of a larger issue of how to communicate information (1 vs 0 base, hex vs decimal, etc).

I'll start with the "maybe you thought 62 was hex" theory for now.

There are other possibilities. Montage can turn off responding to BANK/PC messages - so you have to make sure this isn't filtered.

General MIDI connectivity like "did you remember to plug in the power cable?" type basics may be worth checking into.

When you start sending "invalid" MIDI messages - it's worthwhile to power cycle Montage to make sure it responds to proper messages. I think there are certain MIDI messages which will "throw off" the MIDI state machine requiring a reset to get MIDI to work properly. So when doing SysEx or MSB/LSB/PC - if you're not confident the messages you're sending are proper - it's best to throw in a power cycle between tries to ensure the MIDI receive engine is online and working.

 
Posted : 15/05/2017 10:20 am
Bad Mister
Posts: 12304
 

This works with the first page, but it seems like I have to manual switch the Montage to "User2". The LSB info does not change the page. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I tried using LSB 001 and LSB 1. Any thoughts?

You're not doing anything wrong as far as I can tell.

Perhaps you are anticipating something that is not at all how the LIVE SET Bank Select and Program Change feature works or perhaps the concept is not clear yet.

It is often difficult to see what someone is 'not seeing'. But here goes: When on the LIVE SET screen you can manually select the BANK using the Up/Down arrows on the left side of the screen (or with the upper Up/Down buttons on the right front panel). You can then look at various PAGEs, each with sixteen entries. Select the PAGE either with the buttons on the right half of the front panel, or use the lower Up/Down cursor arrows.

When you first encounter the Montage it is set to "Preset".
Live Set Bank = Preset
In this one Preset Bank, there are 16 Pages and each Page has 16 slots. Although version 1.51 did fill some more Pages and slots, not all 256 potential locations have data (by the way: a Page and Slot can only be remotely selected when it is occupied. In other words, you cannot select an EMPTY slot! Sending a message that attempts to recall a none existent program will be ignored. This is important).

Out of the box, the Live Set Page 1 is shown "Best of Montage 1"

When you begin to create your own LIVE SET, it will automatically start you in LIVE SET BANK = USER 1
USER 1 has 16 Pages, each Page has 16 slots. That's 256 potential LIVE SET Programs.

Each of those 256 slots can be designated with a specific LIVE SET Bank Select and Program Change (when occupied).

Let's start in "Preset" just so you can see and understand how it works: Bank Select 062/000, Program Change 000 will recall "CFX + FM EP" - This is MSB 062, LSB 000, first Program.

Sending that same 062/000, 000 will recall the very first Performance in USER 1, if USER 1 is the currently Selected LIVE SET and the slot contains a program
Sending that same 062/000, 000 will recall the very first Performance in USER 2, if USER 2 is the currently Selected LIVE SET and the slot contains a program.

Sending 062/015, 015 will recall the very last Performance (256th) in whatever the currently selected Live Set Bank

There is one PRESET LIVE SET (256), there are eight USER LIVE SET BANKS, each with 256 slots. That's 2048 slots.
If your using The USER 2 Bank before you've filled the first 256, perhaps that is where you've missed something in the concept of using Live Sets

Consider this:
The LIVE SET Bank number is an 'additional' identifier for your Performances. When you STORE any Montage Performance, it is automatically given a Bank Select and Program Change to identify it. Each of the USER BANK's 640 Performances are given a unique identifier, and when you install data to a LIBRARY, it is given a unique identifier.

The additional (separate) Bank Select and Program Change that identifies it as a part of a Live Set has a specific use case, to make it easy to recall from the Montage front panel and to organize certain programs into a single list. If your goal is to send in a Bank Select and Program Change from an external device, perhaps it matters not if you recall the Performance by its native Montage identifier or by its Live Set identifier.

Not sure what Set List App you are using, but you can usually preset a Volume using the external App, so it is probably not even necessary for you to have to think the way you are thinking... switching from User 1 to User 2.

Think of LIVE SET as a set list with 256 line entries.
And think that you can create 8 Lists.
Do not think of it, as a set list with 2,048 lines... that's where you get in trouble.

 
Posted : 15/05/2017 11:08 am
 John
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Topic starter
 

Thanks to everyone for helping.

Think of LIVE SET as a set list with 256 line entries.
And think that you can create 8 Lists.
Do not think of it, as a set list with 2,048 lines... that's where you get in trouble.

THANKS "Bad Mister"! Amateur mistake on my part. I was switching to user bank 2 instead "going to page 2" in user bank 1. All is well - appreciated.

 
Posted : 15/05/2017 5:00 pm
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