[Patrick Rowles]

No probs, John, and thanks again for all the replies. In a way, it’s a relief to find out that, under VST3, EZkeys2 can’t receive the required command, as it means I don’t have to learn a new method! I’ll just carry on using my old solution, i.e. separate instances of EZkey2 for each instrument/sound combo.

[Patrick Rowles]

I totally missed that this is different in the VST3 version of the plugin

Well, I did specify in one of my first posts that “the ‘Allow MIDI Program Change’ toggle is now labelled ‘Allow MIDI Bank Select’” (i.e. it differs in the actual plug-in from what is shown in the EZkeys2 documentation), and if it had been possible to send a Program Change command I did find myself wondering why no-one would/could tell me what the program numbers were for the individual sound settings in a given EZkeys2 instrument/library (e.g. Electric R-MK I > Soft Ballad). Even if I could have worked out the difference between a Program, a Bank, and a Patch, and how Cakewalk communicated them to its plugins, I’d still need to have known the numbers involved.

[Patrick Rowles]

Thanks, Glenn – appreciate the input. I’d come to the conclusion that either (a) it couldn’t be done, or (b) it could but I was too stupid to work out how! I ended up doing what I’d always done before embarking on this, i.e. having two separate synths in Cakewalk, and cloning the MIDI track such that it was active only when the synth it belonged to was required to play.

[Patrick Rowles]

I appreciate the ongoing help, John, but I don’t think we’re getting anywhere. I’ve been reading Cakewalk help pages and watching Cakewalk tutorial videos on MIDI and MIDI instruments, but nothing seems to address the issue. (One comes tantalisingly close, showing how to send MIDI from one Cakewalk track via two MIDI channels to the same synth plugin, but that relies on setting up the synth itself to accept MIDI input via two channels, each patched to a different sound.)

You say the libraries correspond to the different EZK:s, with examples, and I’ve also now looked at the EZkeys2 help about the Libraries tab, so that makes a bit more sense. If that’s the case, based on the screen shot of my set-up that I’m going to try to include, is the Electric R-MK I library number 2 (given that it’s the second one in the top-right drop-down list of libraries, after EZkeys 2 Session Grand) for me?

And even if so, your instructions seem only to explain how to change the EZkeys2 instrument (e.g. from Electric R-MK I to Mellotoon) by changing the library (which is something I’d sort of achieved by automating the MIDI CC 0|0 parameter envelope on the instrument track for EZkeys2), whereas I want to change the sound preset of the Electric R-MK I instrument (e.g from Standard to Soft Ballad).

• This post was modified 6 months ago by Patrick Rowles.

[Patrick Rowles]

“Isn’t there an Event Editor that you can insert PC to?” Yes, I looked at that in the Cakewalk docs, but am none the wiser; you can choose Insert > Bank/Patch change to execute said change at the ‘now’ time marker, but again I don’t know what options to choose from the dialog that is presented after choosing that menu option. The parameters are: –

Output: 0 (which is hardcoded)
Channel: 1 (also hardcoded)
Bank Select Method: a drop-down with four options named ‘Normal*’, ‘Controller 0’, ‘Controller 32’, and ‘Path 100..’
Bank: a drop-down with only one entry, ‘—‘, regardless of which Bank Select Method you choose
Patch: a drop-down list of 128 sounds, including instruments of all kinds, and various sounds (e.g. Helicopter, Applause, Gunshot)

Also, when you say, “If you have 3 libraries installed”, I don’t get what you mean. From my perspective, the sounds I’m trying to get the DAW to change using MIDI automation commands are within EZkeys2, e.g. Electric R-MK I piano has 10 sound settings (1970s, Chorus, Soft Ballad, etc.).

I’m coming to the conclusion that what I’m trying to do (which I was basing on my long experience with EZmix) isn’t possible. When I’ve added the EZmix plugin to a Cakewalk audio track’s FX bin, EZmix gets added to the list of things I can automate from within that track, and I’m prompted to choose which EZmix parameter I’d like to automate, from a list of 4 named options: Shape 1, Shape 2, Input and Output. The automation envelope I create then controls that parameter. Similarly, if I tell the Amplitube guitar FX plugin to associate its own Parameter 1 with a specific amplifier model’s channel switching, Cakewalk immediately ‘knows’ that the relevant audio track’s automation envelope for Parameter 1 of Amplitube switches between the amp’s channels (or changes gain/bass/treble pot values, and so forth).

I think this means I’ll be using a second EZkeys2 in the song, but thanks for your time and effort, John.

• This post was modified 6 months ago by Patrick Rowles.

[Patrick Rowles]

Thanks again, John – I was afraid that it would be something I needed to change in the DAW. Cakewalk’s documentation is comprehensive, but not always clear if you don’t understand the concepts well.

I’ve got the Output on the MIDI track set to EZkeys2, and there’s a topic on the Cakewalk forums wherein the answer to a question very similar to mine says to “select a channel (1-16), select a bank and then select the patch”.

There’s a MIDI track drop-down labelled ‘C’, which I assume means Channel, and sure enough it has 17 options: they are ‘None’, and a list of 16, from ‘1: EZkeys2′ to ’16: EZkeys2’. There are two additional MIDI track drop-downs labelled ‘B’ (Is that ‘Bank’?) and ‘P’ (‘Patch’?). Whichever selection I make from the Channel list, the ‘B(ank)’ options are always ‘None’ and ‘0-bank 0’. Similarly, the ‘P(atch)’ options are always ‘None’ and a list of numbers from 0 to 127. Changing them doesn’t seem to make any difference, even when I save the Cakewalk project (on the off-chance that changes I’ve made in the DAW would then be picked up by EZkeys2)

Not your problem, I know, but is there any way to tell which Channel/Bank/Patch selections correspond to which instrument/sound selections in EZkeys2? At one point, dragging the MIDI CC 0|0 parameter envelope up and down on the EZkeys2 instrument track in Cakewalk was changing the instrument in EZkeys2 (e.g. from Session Grand to Mellotoon), but even that seems to have stopped happening now.

It would be really nice to know how to do this, but I can always fall back on using a second instance of EZkeys2, I suppose.

[Patrick Rowles]

Sorry, John – while I appreciate the reply, I’m going to need a bit more to go on! I already searched the EZkeys2 online manual for “program change” before posting the topic, and can’t see anything in the results (https://www.toontrack.com/manual/ezkeys-2/?type=manual_ezkeys2&search=program+change) explaining how to do this, only how to set up EZkeys2’s MIDI Input Settings. Further help would be greatly appreciated. (Also, even though it’s obvious from the graphic in the manual that they’re the same thing, the ‘Allow MIDI Program Change’ toggle is now labelled ‘Allow MIDI Bank Select’.)

[Patrick Rowles]

Amazed that no-one has taken the trouble to answer such a simple question in over a month! Yes – the Nashville EZX kit has some great patterns and fills, including: –

Sticks > Trainbeats > Trainbeat 85 BPM (total of 31 patterns & fills)
Sticks > Trainbeats > Trainshuffle 85 BPM (total of 23 patterns & fills)
Sticks > Trainbeats > Grease Shuffle 120 BPM (total of 23 patterns & fills)

Brushes > Trainbeats > Rolling Trainbeat 85 BPM (total of 19 patterns & fills)
Brushes > Trainbeats > Trainbeat 4/4 85 BPM (total of 20 patterns & fills)
Brushes > Trainbeats > Marching Push Feel 95 BPM (total of 12 patterns & fills)
Brushes > Trainbeats > Rolling Trainbeat 130 BPM (total of 21 patterns & fills)

Hands > Trainbeats > Oklahoma 80 BPM (total of 51 patterns & fills)

Hope that helps!

[Author]

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