Roland Forums

I am a fairly advanced GT-10 and GR-20 user, but this is kicking my butt. Help!

In using the GT-10 and GR-20 for live shows, I would typically reorder the patches in Librarian to match our set list, reload them into the GT-10, then create Patch Links to the GR-20. But that won't work for the next thing I'm doing.

I am doing a show that requires literally hundreds of patch changes and voices on the GT-10 and GR-20. Waaaaaay too many to store in the user banks without having to remove all my other patches. And I don't want to constantly be bulk dumping back and forth every time I change bands. (I have a couple of different projects going)

I know you can link the two units with the Patch Link function. This does not help me...I am constantly re-ordering my patches in the GT10 Libraian and reloading them and (believe it or not) the links dont follow the patch if it moves. Insane.) Anyway...

(Also in the "insane" category, did you know you can't connect a GT-10 and GR-20 in series via MIDI? Neither of them have "MIDI Through" functionality. You have to have two separate midi devices on two separate ports. INSANE. You could theoretically use the USB/MIDI for the GT-10, but it causes all kinds of noise, feedback, etc on my system...a problem Roland hasnt been able to diagnose)

So once I buy a Midisport 2x2 USB to MIDI interface for my laptop, I will have a separate MIDI connection to each unit.

What I want to do is to be able to save all of the patches in a list or spreadsheet or some type of file on my laptop and advance through each one with one keystroke during the live performance.

And it needs to happen about as quickly as changing patches with a pedal on the GT-10. A song might need one voice for the intro, another for the verse, another for the chorus, another for the solo, etc. Needs to be one keystroke because I have a USB pedal that attaches to my laptop that can emulate ONE keystroke (or Ctrl+keystroke, etc)

For the GT-10 I could theoretically accomplish this by putting the patches in the correct order with the Librarian, but there is no way to go from patch to patch with one keystroke. You would have to hit the down arrow, then mouse over to the "Temporary Write" button, which has no keyboard equivalent.

I know about using the Playlist method in Sonar, but it seemed like I would have to make a separate .mid or .cwp file for each sound, then play them in the playlist. Tons of setup there.

I know that when Library is sending this data to the GT-10, it is using sysex messages, so if you were going to send the patch info that way, I assume a new sysex message would be needed for each patch. If there is an easy way to write sysex patch changes for either of these units, I havent found it. You can save each sound in a sys file using the GT Floorboard app, but then how would you put them in a spreadsheet/table/app where you could increment through them?

I also know you can store banks of sysex messages in one .cwp file, but again, you have the issue of moving to the next one and activating it in one keystroke, and I dont think thats possible.

I know that another way is to simply program the patch changes into a .mid or cwp file and play it while we perform, but we dont want to be on a click track...this is a live, spontaneous thing, and if we want to add a five minute solo, we need to have that flexibility.

So is there a piece of software or something out there that can accomplish what I am looking to do? I have heard it referred to as "scenes" on some equipment, where one keystroke changes a bunch of parameters (lights, EQ, effects, patches) with one button push to the next scene. I would prefer to use a laptop and not a separate hardware sequencer, but I am open to suggestion.

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading. If ANYBODY out there has a solution that has worked for them please pipe up! Thanks in advance.

Dan

"Plogue Bidule"
http://www.plogue.com/

is the software you want, amazingly configurable with audio and midi. You could have it recieve midi patch change data and program how or what you want it to do with the data.
In theory it should be able to do what you want. Use midi to trigger any event, hopefully to send a *.syx
patch file to the GT-10 and change patch on the GR-20 at the same time. This software can translate midi to key press events too.
I use the GT-10B and GR-20 together, with the GR-20 fed into the GT-10B Return to channel B, and then apply any unused effects to the synth. Since i have the GT-10B midi out to the GR-20 midi in, my GR-20 tracks the same patch changes as the GT-10B.