I recently noticed during a rehearsal that a MIDI CC preset control command was not processed correctly.
Here’s my setup: Normally, various MIDI Program Change messages are used to control a Kemper in order to load the corresponding presets. I’ve always used VST Live 2 for this without any issues. I always place the MIDI command roughly in the middle of the corresponding section on the MIDI track, so it should not be affected by boundary timing issues.
For a reduced setup without the rack, I’m now using the VST3 plugin “Archetype: Misha Mansoor X” by Neural DSP instead of the Kemper. The plugin is controlled via the MIDI Transformer using CC preset commands. At the same time, I switched to VST Live 3 (current version 3.0.40).
The setup worked very reliably during testing and in previous rehearsals. However, during the last rehearsal, one CC preset command simply wasn’t triggered. Nothing in the setup had been changed, and when I manually jumped back to that MIDI event in the song, it worked as expected.
Has anyone experienced similar behavior? This makes me a bit uneasy, because a preset not switching during a live performance would be a disaster. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue — even when firing many commands in quick succession.
You may have assigned that MIDI message (from the same port) in “Devices/Actions and Shortcuts”? Those “eat” events.
To check what happens, open Devices/MIDI Monitor and select “Virtual MIDI 1 in” as input, then you can see what is sent to the track output (Virtual MIDI 1 out, it seems).
Also, you are transforming a Program Change message, which has only one data byte (1, 2, 3 in your picture). This will send Controller Bank Select etc, but probably 0 (zero) as data, which may not be what your plugin wants for the action. Try setting “Range From” to 127, then always 127 is sent (or try to set both from and to to 1, or maybe 0).
Later…It didn’t let go of me so I looked it up and right away, this should be the solution.
“Hi, I have fixed the problem with the NDSP support. Misha plugin needs to have a value above 0 coming with the CC# command while Nolly and Gojira are working also with 0.”
So set “Range From” and “Range to” to the same number, but not 0 (zero) and it should work?
I shared a picture of the MIDI mapping, and there’s no double assignment — even though I did make that mistake in the past .
The forum post about the NDSP support and values above 0 was actually written by me. With exactly this setup we did our rehearsals, and we noticed the issue only once: a single CC preset command wasn’t triggered. It wasn’t a general or repeating problem. During the most recent rehearsals everything worked perfectly as well.
That’s why I raised the question whether there might be a case of randomly lost commands. I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue so far — even when sending multiple commands in a loop — but the issue definitely occurred once.
I have also problems here with a Kemper Profiler Player and midi preset switching.
I see you have massive knowledge in this area Therefore I hope you could help me.
(I have two Kempers here. One Kemper Profiler Stage and a Profiler Player)
The midi preset switching with the Profiler Stage works as expected.
For switching we use CC47 (for bank select) and CC50-54 (for slot select).
But the preset switching on the Profiler Player is horrible. On the Profiler Player we use program change commands for preset switching because the Player don’t support the method like the Profiler Stage.
I have created a programm change message in the middle of bar 1 and started the song to fire. The Player don’t reacted. Therefore I fired again. After the 7th try the preset on the Kemper Player was switched. For a live show this is horrible.
Our guitarist also owns a M-Live B.Beat for backup purposes. He never had issues with this setup. One midi programm change in the first bar always switched the preset on the Player correctly.
The only method we figured out that works is to send the programm change double (some milliseconds later again). Then the Player is switching. But I can’t give a long-term statement actually.
We tried several things to figure out the problem - but without success
Created a midiloop-back (connected Out to In) to monitor the midi messages which are sent → all correct
Tested different midi interfaces, tried other cables, other PC/Mac
Tried to send midi program changes from Cubase or VST Live → same behavior
Profiler Player was sent to Kemper Service → returned with the message that no problem was found
First thing that comes to mind is Preferences/MIDI/Controller Tracking. If enabled, it will surpress not only controllers with non-varying data (incl. Bank Select), but also Program Change if the program number (data) has not changed. So if you send PGM CHG 13 and then the same another time, it will be surpressed. Make sure this preference is not ticked.
Other than that, there is no reason for those events not to get passed to their destination. For testing, send track output to Virtual MIDI 3 (out), then open Devices/Midi Monitor, set its input to Virtual MIDI 3 (in) and check if program changes appear as expected. If they do, the problem is most likely with the Kemper.
First: You said you tried several MIDI interfaces. The Kemper Player, however, doesn’t feature a “classic” MIDI interface. So, how exactly do you connect your Player to your PC/Mac? Directly via USB? Via USB hub?
Second: If sending the same commands from Cubase (or any other DAW) to your Kemper Player won’t work either, there’s a huge possibility that there’s a) a problem with the way you connect your Kemper Player or b) the way the Player is configured.
I have 3 different USB to Midi interfaces here. The USB-A is connected to the Kemper player. And the midi connector is pluged into a “audio interface” with midi port on my Mac (also tried 2 different audio interfaces).
Like mentioned in my post. Tried Cubase and VST Live to test it. The possibilities to configure the Kemper Player are quite restricted. Only had to set the midi channel.
In cases like these, it is often a timing problem. Try if it works if you send one message at a time, leave some time in between? Yes, you said “message in the middle of bar 1”, but there may be other messages sent to the same port?
Sorry but what more can we do but send the messages as programmed by the user…
If you connect the Kemper Player directly(!) to your computer: one USB-cable, no(!) interfaces. A very simple test song/project, just the program change(s). Does the problem persist or does that work as expected?
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Therefore I hope you could help me.
