How do I remove the Default Patch for a MIDI track?

[doctormelodious]

It's gotta be obvious, but I cannot find it anywhere!

For that matter, how do I remove the regular "Patch" for a MIDI track?

Thanks,
DM

[mhschmieder]

Not sure what you mean by "remove". Do you mean "disable"? That would be a Preference (go that that window -- I'm not at my home computer so can't find the correct panel in the Preferences pane from memory).

Another option -- depending on your goals -- is to simply remove those columns from view in the Tracks Overview. I did this myself recently, As I NEVER use program changes or DAW's to assign patches (this is probably useful for live playback of unrendered parts at a gig though).

I think for that, you use the new right-click context menu, but it might have also been in Preferences. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for though. You can also drag the order of the columns and maybe put the less-used ones way to the right, if they are distracting or taking up too much valuable screen real estate.

[doctormelodious]

Hi mhschmieder,

By "remove" I mean set it back to the way it is when I first created a new MIDI track. I.E. the track has no Patch assignment, nor a Default Patch. Once I've pulled down either of those menus and selected a patch from the patch list that goes with that synth/module/whatever, I can't find a way to reset it to "empty" (for lack of a better word), as it was when before.

I vaguely recall a "remove default patch" command from the distant past, but I can't find it.

DM

[RROY]

Top right hand corner of Tracks Overview window. Drop down menu, Clear Default Patch.

[doctormelodious]

Thanks RROY!

[doctormelodious]

Forgive the zombie thread reanimation, but I obviously never use this feature! A poster was kind enough to tell me how to delete the default patch, but there's another column in the TO simply called "Patch." Same problem I posted about all those years ago with default patch. Once I've selected a patch from the drop-down menu, my only option is to select a different patch. I can't find a way to go back to a "-" meaning no patch selected. How can I do this?

Again, I'm not talking about Default Patch (which I tried removing but it didn't do this job). I'm talking about just Patch.

EDIT: Oh, and it gets worse. Now any new MIDI track I create that is assigned to this synth has this patch automatically assigned to it. Also, DP has no "smart" patch list for the synth (KORG X50). So the best it can do is change the patch number to 54, but not also select the bank. HELP!

ANOTHER EDIT: The association of the dread patch 54 to my KORG X50 now evidently applies even when I create a new DP project and assign a MIDI track to that device. The nightmare continues! This has to be lurking somewhere in one of the myriad DP Prefs files, but I have no idea where to begin...

I've searched the manual, and can find nothing about deleting the "current patch."

Thanks!
DM

P.S. MOTU support ticket started...

[doctormelodious]

Well... I quit DP (which I hadn't done during any of the previous tests) and went downstairs for dinner. When I came back and relaunched DP with the project, the offending "current patch" entries had mysteriously disappeared! I need to make a note of exactly what I ate and what I was wearing to make this happen, in case I'm ever foolish enough to try assigning a current patch again...

[James Steele]

I wasn't able to reply earlier, but I assign current patches all the time and AFAIK they do not persist like default patches. It may be that all you need to do is close the project and re-open it. If that doesn't work, then quitting and re-launching DP should, but I don't think that's necessary.

Also, let's say I have a MIDI track and it's targeting "XYZ Synth" on MIDI Channel 1 and I then choose "Patch 52". DP is trying to be "intelligent" I guess if you then create a new MIDI track and assign it to "XYZ Synth" on MIDI Channel 1 and it autofills "Patch 52" in that column. AFAIK it doesn't SEND a patch like "Default Patch" does... it's purely informational and assuming that Part 1 of XYZ Synth is still set to "Patch 52". Logically that makes sense. If you set the MIDI track to XYZ Synth, MIDI Channel 2, then it should be blank as you haven't previously selected a patch on that synth/channel.

[doctormelodious]

Thanks for the reply, James.

This may be a DP7 thing (yeah, I'm all about the "vintage"...) but quitting was the only thing that worked, though I didn't realize this until I came back from dinner. Merely closing the project didn't do it. I tried creating a new test project (pre-quitting/dinner) and assigning a MIDI track [EDIT: with the default "Track-1" name] to that synth, and the dread Current Patch was attached to it.

Again, this may have changed in subsequent versions of DP. But no matter, the point is that now I know what to do.

Thanks again!
DM

[stubbsonic]

This got me curious-- i.e., how to "clear" the current patch.

Here's the PDF manual's bit about it:

THE CURRENT PATCH
The Current Patch column in the Track List displays the name of the currently selected patch (sound) for the device that is assigned to the MIDI track. If a patch has not been selected, no patch name appears in the column. If you have patch changes in the track, the Patch column will update during playback to show the current patch.
If you would like to choose a patch for the track, but you do not want the patch to be remembered with the project, choose it from this Patch menu. If you do, however, want it to be remembered, choose it from the Default Patch menu.

So it sounds like if you want a starting patch for that particular synth, choose the default patch. If you just want to send a temporary patch use the patch. It will only send it when you first choose it-- but should just sit and do nothing otherwise.

I doubt this functionality has changed since v7.

[doctormelodious]

Hi stubbsonic,

Yes, I read this in the manual as well.

If you would like to choose a patch for the track, but you do not want the patch to be remembered with the project, choose it from this Patch menu.

But that's only partially accurate. It does remember it with the project—and any new project you create with a MIDI track assigned to that synth, irrespective of what you name the track—until you quit DP. That's the super-top-secret ancient knowledge I had to stumble upon for myself, and James later pointed out in his reply. This morning I got a reply from MOTU on my support ticket confirming that this was the only way to break the evil spell...

Moreover, IMHO, to have a menu where, once you've made a selection, there is no apparent way to ever go back to a state of "no selection" just feels like counterintuitive UX. Like legacy code that's never been refined. But hey, there are certainly other vestiges of far older DP versions that remain in the UI (at least as of 7.24). By now it feels like DP and I have been married for 20+ years, and we just grin and bear each other's flaws...

Thanks for the reply!
DM

[stubbsonic]

Thanks for clarifying. What I should have said was that it doesn't remember the patch and resend it. Perhaps if we just think of this as "Last known patch message sent" I wonder if you have a hardware synth connected (with two-way MIDI i/o), and change the patch via the synth, and it sends a PC message into DP, if that column would update.

[doctormelodious]

Well yes, if the goal were simply to update the patch number in the Patch column, and if what the manual says is accurate, it looks like it would indeed do that. And of course, if System Exclusive data is checked in the Input Filter list, it gets written to the record-enabled MIDI track when you physically change the patch on the synth (connected via MIDI In and Out, as you said).

So, if you also have SysEx data enabled in the View Filters (Global or in the Event List) it's possible to grab it and, say, move it in the timeline if necessary. But the KORG X-50 synth I'm using in this situation is sending other stuff besides patch change via SysEx. I can probably filter that on the synth end, which would make it a less kludgy affair to reposition the data.

But since almost everything I do is in the box with VIs, for me it's easier just to type the info into the Comment field and pull up the patch manually on the synth if I need to come back to it. This was a rare instance where I needed to use a sound from a physical synth. I see in this thread that there are certainly people who find Patch and/or Default Patch useful. And this exercise has caused me to drill down deeper into how DP handles this kind of data.