PC4 Multi Issues

[kaptainkeys]

I haven't been around for a while (life, as per usual got in the way) and I'm starting to get back into playing gigs and the like (and hopefully I'll be more active around here as well)

 

As part of this, I'm playing a Peter Gabriel Tribute at a private event next weekend and so I dusted off my PC4 and programmed some patches for it and they all worked fine until it came time for rehearsal with the band.  About half the songs in the set are more acoustic so I'll be using the grand piano at the venue for those (Solsbury Hill, In Your Eyes, Here Comes the Flood, Red Rain) but the rest of the songs have a lot of programming going on on my end.  Last night at the rehearsal almost all of the multis I set up had patches missing in some way that made them unplayable and it was rather embarrassing for me as it seemed like I had come unprepared (at least it didn't happen at the gig).  The issue was that when I would load up a multi, only some of the zones would play, and going into the edit screen and trying to change programs did not remedy the problem.  The majority of the programs in the multis are modified factory presets that are not being used by any other multis.  I went through and made sure that the expression pedal was disabled on all the zones where I didn't want it and that all of them were being routed through the main stereo outputs and I had nothing.  Can anyone who is better with this board help me?  I really don't want to have to reprogram any multis as I have a busy week at work ahead of me and I don't exactly have money laying around to go out and buy a whole other board right now.

Thanks and happy to be back,

KaptainKeys

[Delaware Dave]

Did you save the multis in the user area or did you overwrite the factory patch?  I've always created user patches and user multis.  Also ensure that the multi is using a user program patch # and not the factory patch #.  Hate to say it but anytime I've thought the keyboard was doing something weird it turns out to be user error.

 

[kaptainkeys]

31 minutes ago, Delaware Dave said:

Did you save the multis in the user area or did you overwrite the factory patch?  I've always created user patches and user multis.  Also ensure that the multi is using a user program patch # and not the factory patch #.  Hate to say it but anytime I've thought the keyboard was doing something weird it turns out to be user error.

 

Both the user multis and the user programs are stored in their respective user banks

[Dave Weiser]

Sorry to hear about the headaches!

 

First thing to do when something like this happens - hit PANIC. It's likely that the problem zones are being affected by MIDI volume in some way. Panic should clear that out. Of course this is just triage. Getting to the source of the problem will be a bit more tricky.

 

My guess is it's settings for the sliders or the expression pedal that's causing the issue.

 

In most factory multis (the starting point for user multis), the first 4 sliders control volume. They have entry and exit values. Same goes for the expression pedal - it has entry and exit values. Having the exit value set to "none" can cause problems. With exit value set to "none"... If you move the pedal down to zero, and then switch to another multi that has the expression pedal disabled, you'll lose volume without any way of getting it back, since the pedal is disabled.

 

It's easy enough to test if the sliders are causing the problem - if you lose sound in a zone, just wiggle the sliders and see if sound comes back.

 

I would recommend NOT disabling the exp pedal whenever possible, but it you do, be sure to set an exit value on the last multi that has the pedal enabled.

 

Be sure to check in over at the PC4 Facebook group, lots of helpful folks there who can offer more assistance. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541708299314501

 

 

 

[Analogaddict]

5 hours ago, Dave Weiser said:

My guess is it's settings for the sliders or the expression pedal that's causing the issue.

 

This! Entry and exit values are very important parameters, and also if your expression pedal has a 'dead' zone in the lower register (some cheap pedals and even the Roland EV-5 don't always reach 0 or 127, they often have a real world range from 2-3 to 125-126), exiting a setup with the expression CC at its lowest value could lead to problems "catching" the value again in the next setup. Been there, done that... 🤦‍♂️

 

Best of luck to You!

[bfields]

I've had cases where zones were muted on entry for reasons I didn't completely understand.  My fix (workaround?) has been to set the entry value for the buttons under the sliders, which usually control "mute zone", to 0.

[ABECK]

4 hours ago, Analogaddict said:

 

This! Entry and exit values are very important parameters

 

I've been stung by this before.  As a matter of habit, now I tend to exercise the expression pedal when I change multis, just to be safe.  I've never programmed exit values, so I'm def going to check those out on my multis.

[Dave Weiser]

On 10/23/2023 at 10:35 AM, ABECK said:

 

I've been stung by this before.  As a matter of habit, now I tend to exercise the expression pedal when I change multis, just to be safe.  I've never programmed exit values, so I'm def going to check those out on my multis.

It shouldn't be an issue, if you've always got the pedal enabled for all zones on all multis. Where it can get you into trouble is when the pedal is disable on certain zones and multis. If you move the pedal to zero and then switch to a multi that has it disabled, you'll get no sound unless you had an exit value on the previous multi. On our theater shows, we keep entry and exit values set to NONE, which makes the pedal "live" across multis when we switch between them.