I need help.
I am sending Program Change from Reaper or Ableton to Halion 7.1
The input light is flashing, but the program is not changing.
Multi GM is loaded, PC is set ON.
What could be the problem?
I tried this in an old Cubase 11 SE version. It is working in Cubase.
But I need it in Reaper.
Please help me!!!
Thomas
Apparently only Cubase, Cakewalk, and Powertracks accept MIDI program changes, which is a shame. Customers should have the option to choose this behavior in the application.
IIRC, Ableton Live doesn’t properly support sending Program Change (PC) messages to VST 3 instruments.
However, I believe that they should be working fine on Reaper. I personally don’t use this DAW, but take a look at the Settings/Preferences to check if it’s not filtering out PC messages. Also, make sure that your MIDI tracks are properly routed to individual MIDI Channels.
It seems that both Reaper and Ableton can’t send a PC to a VST3. That really can’t be true. What’s the problem?
Because I found an old Halion Sonic 3SE that still runs as a .dll or as a VST3.
And the PC commands only arrive with the .dll version! So that works. Why not with VST3? That would be a big step backwards from VST2.
Halion 7.1 is only available as vst3, so i am out of the game 
Greetings
Thomas
I have since found out that VST3 cannot use “normal” program change commands. What Steinberg was thinking here is a mystery to me. Since there seem to be some examples where the host program can do this, there must be a workaround how to solve this with internal program code in the host.
So my questions to Steinberg developers would be: If there is an option in Halion to switch on the ProgChange, what does the host have to send, or what has to be programmed in the host?
I am a programmer myself and just want to understand what Steinberg has in mind.
Is there any contact to Steinberg VST3 and Halion developers here in the forum?
Indeed, this is annoying, to say the least. Why not follow midi specification if offering “Program Change” capabilities? And why not providing any information about a sequence of midi messages that would allow for PC? It is not only Reaper, GigPerformer (the software side), NO, also my hardware - an Novation SL MKIII, resp. the hardware synths I am using - which can not successfully be used for routing PC to Halion if not using it standalone, making it practically unusable for a live context. For me this smells like a “use Cubase or die” or “use Halion only” policy. How could I not test this before purchasing a license. I must be stupid to expect something working which was always working and is common and reasonably expectable behaviour in the context.
