Scrolling through plug in voices in Pro Tools LE

[cellopiano]

Does anyone have experience with this live set up situation in Pro Tools.

We arrange music for our band that requires the keyboard player to progress through as many as 6 voices during the performance of a song. Our keyboard player has been scrolling through these voices on her clavinova by hitting a registration button. We would like to switch to a system using sampled voices from plug-ins in Expand and Native intruments etc. I bought a Mac Book and the Mbox 2 Pro starter kit and a Casio keyboard with midi in and out.

Does any know how I can quickly scroll through these voices during live performance using a short cut on the computer keyboard (up or down arrow?) or idealy with a midi foot pedal which is connected to the audio interface?

I know how to set up a session and assign voices from Exspand onto tracks.


Thank for your thoughts,

Tim

[TwoPort]

I've seen some people create multiple performance tracks of the different voices they intend to play, say in a Pro Tools session, and switch the active track(s) they wish to play. It also makes automation easy if it's just a track mute vs. on situation. If they play multiple patches you can use mute groups to simplify too.

[cellopiano]

Dear Two Port,

Thank you for you quick reply. I am just a novice pro tools user. Your ideas sound great. Could you clarify some technical terms please.

What are:
multiple performance tracks
multiple patches and mute groups

I do understand how to mute a track with the arrow. Is there a short cut. My wife, who is our pianist would like to press one button to switch from voice to voice during a song.

Would all the tracks with voices start out muted and then she would unmute and and mute as she performs the song?

I am eager to learn!!

Thanks,

Tim

[TwoPort]

I'm no expert for sure. Actually, your question would probably is already answered in another DUC area so I'd search around a bit. But here's my answer: insert an instrument on each track you need a sound for. You figure out what sound you want the instrument to play and it's just on that track. Then you repeat. Beyond that you really gotta read on mutes and mute groups because it's just going down the book directions.

[cellopiano]

Thanks a lot. I read up on mute and mute groups.

[emluper]

What you need is this. Frontier Design Groups Tranzport I've seen it for around $200.00.

This will let your wife control Pro Tools from the laptop with minimum button presses. What Twoport is describing is putting together several Instrument tracks with instrument plugins on those tracks, something like this.

Track 1. Xpand - Piano
2. Electric Piano
3. Kontakt 2 - VSL Strings
4. Hybrid - Lead Synth
5 Xpand - Soft Pad

Each of these track would be set to receive on whatever MIDI channel your wife's controller was transmitting from, and she could mute and unmute the individual tracks as needed. The Tranzport would give here access to the channel mutes without having to mouse around on the laptop pad.

Another way would be to make sure the tracks were in Read mode for automation, then insert mutes in the automation playlist for each track at the beginning of each measure. This way she would only have to scroll forward one bar at a time. It would be quick and since the mutes were automated it would change the sound (or instrument) that she was playing. Experiment a bit in PT and you'll understand what I'm saying. It should be fairly easy to set up.

Good luck and let us know how it went,

Erik