I would like to use the FCB1010 with UNO chip to control the Overloud TH-U plugin in Ableton Live 11. After a long time I found out that I had to put fcb1010 files in Ableton's MIDI Remote Scripts folder on my Macbook. Then I could choose the FCB1010 as the control surface in the Midi track. So far so good. But....something very strange; the first stompbox on the FCB1010 (cc 111) does nothing in the DAW. And in TH-U standalone version it works correctly. The FCB's other 4 stompboxes no problem in the DAW, working perfect. It's only stompbox 1 that's not reacting. Learn for the current preset says No Midi massage received (in standalone version it learns). Anybody know how to fix this in Ableton Live 11?

Upfront, I'm using LIVE11Lite on a PC with the latest version of THU and FCB1010/UNO2.
Not exactly your configuration, but MIDI is MIDI.
Start to finish, about 2 minutes to get it all working. CC#111 "Learns" to THU, no problem.
No special scripts required. Must be a MAC thing. Maybe @ossandust can chime in on that?
Assuming that has nothing to do with it, unless you have CC#111 assigned to some other function, I don't see any reason for the problem.

Suggestions:
Use the MIDI Monitor in LIVE to make sure that the CC#111 message is arriving in Ableton.
Try setting a different Stomp to send CC#111. Maybe there's a glitch in the HW that only shows up in the plugin/Ableton?

That's all I got for now. If I think of anything else I'll come back.

--

It's great that you found the issue, but it would probably help others if you posted what you had to do to fix it.

Hi Great to see you got the Uno2 Working in Ableton Live. Any chance of a dummy explanation for me, i use sgear and THU on a pc using Live 11 i also have a fcb1010 with a uno2 chip  .I have found a few TxT files which have downloaded to the FCB and this seems to work great. But the i start live up open my Sgear or THU plugin and then nothing, unfortunately . Any help at all would be very much appreciated .

Thanks Jae

On Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 08:04 AM, <j.maloney@...> wrote:

Hi Great to see you got the Uno2 Working in Ableton Live. Any chance of a dummy explanation for me, i use sgear and THU on a pc using Live 11 i also have a fcb1010 with a uno2 chip  .I have found a few TxT files which have downloaded to the FCB and this seems to work great. But the i start live up open my Sgear or THU plugin and then nothing, unfortunately . Any help at all would be very much appreciated .

Thanks Jae

Attached is a screenshot of all the relevant info you need to make this work.

If you've loaded the UNO2 files I created for either THU or S-Gear:

uno@fcb1010.groups.io | Files

This will work for you. MIO is the name of the interface that my FCB/UNO2 is connected to.
The difference between the two plugin files is that they're created to take advantage of the features of each.
Read the INSTRUCTIONS files that I've provided.

The screenshot shows the Ableton project ready to record using THU.
To record using S-Gear, deactivate the THU tracks and activate the S-Gear tracks.
It's really that simple. NOTE: DO NOT use VST3 if you want to be able to switch presets via MIDI. It doesn't work. Use VST2.

This is a simple demo project created with Live LITE v11.
This version allows only 8 tracks. If you have the FULL version of LIVE and don't want to use a separate MIDI track for each plugin there's a way to do that using an Instrument Rack and External Devices. ChrisW can explain that if you ask him nicely :-)
I use Reaper for that sort of thing.

If you have specific questions I'll be happy to answer them.

Super thanks for your help and yep the issue is the VST plugins.As soon as i swapped to and old VST2 plugin it works perfect.Unfortunatly i have just bought the newest version of SGear version 2.98 and there is not VST 2 available only VST 3 ,thus  pretty disappointed.

Anyway thanks a million you are a hero.

Cheers Jae

Hi Just found out there is a vst 2 version , have installed it and it works great.

Thanks for everything :)

Cheerts Jae

The VST2 plugin is located in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Scuffham Amps\S-Gear_VST

Just copy it to whatever folder your DAW looks in (usually C:\Program Files\VstPlugins).

Cross posting. Glad you got it working.

Just one more question if i may , cc 1 (next bank)  cc2 (next preset) cc3 (Previous Preset)  do work, i have the feeling that Ableton has already assigned them. CC0 works fine  (previous bank).
Its not only an issue with S gear but also THU .

Could this be a Live 11 thing 

Cheers Jae

Just t make even more clear In THU stand alone using the learn function for cc 1 , 2 ,3 works fine, but in Live 11 nothing, unfortunately

cheers Jae.

Apparently, this is an Ableton thing, and I have no clue what the problem is.
Everything works as expected in the standalone versions of both sims.
Likewise in Reaper.

I don't use Ableton for this type of thing. I only use Ableton for what it's best at, loops.
I use a proper grid controller, then Rearoute (similar to Rewire) the audio into Reaper, which is my goto DAW.

My first recommendation is to use Reaper for this.
I use multiple amp sims, synths (real and virtual) and eDrums/drum VSTs without any mysterious MIDI problems like Ableton seems to have.

My second recommendation is to either contact Ableton support (if you have the full product) or post in the Ableton Forums.
My guess is that since most people use Ableton like I do (THE best electronic music/loop production/performance DAW) you probably won't get much help in either place.

No clue about your configuration, but usually this is because some other MIDI program or VST is using them.  Like EJ, I run on PC, but I've never heard of anything like this in the forums.  Did you try changing the FCB1010's MIDI channel(s)?  If it is being blocked by something else already using them, it will only be for that channel.  I set all my FCB1010's MIDI channels to 7, for example, to make sure it won't interfere with something else.

As a side note, CC 0, 1, and 2 are predefined in the MIDI standard.  CC 0 is bank select, CC 1 is Mod Wheel, and CC 2 is Breath Control.  I usually stay away from CC# 0-19, since another MIDI controller, program, or VST is likely to use them, and just use 20-31 unless I want those specific CC functions.  For instance, I have used CC1 assigned to one of the FCB pedals.  The 'standard' is more of a suggestion than a rule or anything, but it could be why those CC's won't work for you.

Great minds and all that. I tried switching to channel 2 thinking that LIVE listens on ch1 so maybe, but no, that didn't get it.
Since those CCs and ch1 work fine with both VSTs in Reaper, I came to the conclusion that it's an Ableton thing.
Yeah very strange. I'm going to work on it some more tomorrow just because I can't see any reason why it shouldn't work in LIVE but works fine in Reaper.

Really cool that you guys are looking at this. Simply said I have only ever used Live from version 9, but anyway tried Reaper this morning , I think reaper looks really cool ,
Got Sgear to work as a VST, but no idea as yet how to route the midi signal from the FCB to the VST in reaper (big learning curve for me). Any hints and tips would be very welcome.But going back to Ableton live , this is really strange , i am pretty sure cc2/3/4/5 are all predefined and not usable .I have contacted Ableton about this, still waiting for a reply. Cheers Jae

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 02:34 AM, <j.maloney@...> wrote:

i am pretty sure cc2/3/4/5 are all predefined and not usable .I have contacted Ableton about this, still waiting for a reply. Cheers Jae

Just because a CC is "Predefined" doesn't mean that you can't use it. AFAIK, in the early days of MIDI predefined CCs were intended to provide a universal way for mfrs of MIDI HW to enable common functions. Say you have two devices listening on one MIDI channel. If one of them uses the MIDI standard of CC#7 to control Output Level, you can't use CC#7 to control some other parameter on the other device at the same time or both will be affected when you send CC#7. You MIGHT want that, but usually not.

CC#1 is assigned to the Modulation Wheel in the MIDI Standard. Unless you've got an Ableton Synth loaded, why would CC#1 be assigned by default to some other Ableton function? It makes no sense, and in any case shouldn't prevent CC#1 from performing any other function it was assigned, and switching channels should eliminate the problem even if Ableton was wired to BLOCK that CC on Ch1. That's what's got me baffled.

You also stated that you still can't route MIDI to the VST, and elsewhere that it works, and elsewhere that it works except for CC#1 etc.
I've provided very clear instructions on how to route MIDI to the VSTs, and if one function works, it's routed.
You need to be very specific about what's going on so as to not confuse my poor old brain. :-)

As of this morning's experiments:

In Reaper - MIDI works as expected with both THU and S-Gear.
Actual functions work perfectly in THU (Bank UP/DOWN, Preset UP/DOWN)
S-Gear seems to have an "enumerator" problem when switching Banks by MIDI. The BANK NAME display does not correspond with the actual bank whose presets are displayed, but the banks DO change properly using MIDI. This misbehavior is consistent in the Standalone version, so it's a bug in S-Gear which I'll report when I get a chance to properly document it for Mike.

In Ableton - both VSTs are having trouble with the Bank/Preset Up/Down commands. This HAS to be an Ableton problem, but nothing I've tried so far fixes it. I have one more idea that I'll try later when I get home from work.

Hi, do you know what's quite strange, cc2 cc3 cc4  do work one time  and only once in Ableton then stops working anymore . Something else which i thought is strange, in the sgear.txt I changed the midi port from 1 to 7 and in standalone told sgear to look at midi channel 7 and this worked great (also tested to see if another  channel (6) worked and this did not). Then I opened up live and started sgear and set the midi track to channel 7 (this did not work) Live continued working on channel 1 and not reacting to channel 7 


Really strange :)

cheers Jae

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 07:45 PM, <j.maloney@...> wrote:

Live continued working on channel 1 and not reacting to channel 7 

Live is channel agnostic - it takes in all MIDI regardless of channel.  It also sends all MIDI channels to every MIDI track by default.  If you click the Input Channel drop-down, you can watch the tiny bar graphs next to each MIDI channel light up if they are receiving MIDI.  That's one way to tell if Live is filtering MIDI or if it's the VST doing it.  Also a good way to check that the incoming MIDI is on the channels you think it is!

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 12:45 PM, <j.maloney@...> wrote:

Hi, do you know what's quite strange, cc2 cc3 cc4  do work one time  and only once in Ableton then stops working anymore . Something else which i thought is strange, in the sgear.txt I changed the midi port from 1 to 7 and in standalone told sgear to look at midi channel 7 and this worked great (also tested to see if another  channel (6) worked and this did not). Then I opened up live and started sgear and set the midi track to channel 7 (this did not work) Live continued working on channel 1 and not reacting to channel 7 

Yes, that "works one time thing" is also baffling. CC#0 (Bank Down) works every time and, as previously noted, it all works perfectly in Reaper.

The reason LIVE and SGEAR are not responding on Ch7 is that if you're using my file, it's SENDING on Ch1. If you went in and changed it to Ch7 along with the LIVE MIDI track and SGEAR, it would work.