Send a command to mute / unmute a track at a specific timestamp?

EdSki

Hi, I am new to the ST3 world and have a question. I currently have my AirTurn BT500S-6 connected and assign various functions to the footswitches. I use switch 6 to toggle muting / unmuting of track #1 for some songs. Is there a way to send midi commands at a specific timestamps in a song to trigger the muting / unmuting of the track? I have a couple of songs where I want to unmute the track at a specific spot in the song and thought it would be really cool if this could be handled with tags. For example, I have a lead guitar track that starts off muted because I will be playing the main solo live but at the end of the song there are lead guitar fills on the track that I want to unmute.

Lishy

EdSki sure is. Just assign a midi action to Toggle mute track 1 and then use a midi time stamp like this for example -

[midi@00:02.09: CC78.1@4]

EdSki

Lishy Thanks for the reply. Excuse my lack of knowledge but I'm new to midi so don't really get what that command is doing. Looking through the ST3 help, I see that CC stands for control change. What does the actual command in your example "CC78.1@4" do? What does the 78.1@4 stand for?

Lishy

EdSki that is the specific control change message I have assigned to muting track 1. You can essentially assign whatever message you want to it in assign actions in settings.

peter

Lishy Does this really work? Midi commands in lyrics are sent to all midi out ports. Remote commands are only observed on midi in ports. So you would need a midid loopback device to make this work.

EdSki

Lishy Just edited my response. Unfortunately, this is not working for me. I was able to add that midi command to the lyrics with the appropriate timestamp for my song and it didn't do anything. When I first tested the midi command, I didn't realize that I was hearing audio from another track in the mix so I thought all was good. But, this still seems all like magic to me. How did you figure out that specific command was the one you needed to mute / unmute track 1? I am using my Airturn BT500S-6 in AirDirect mode so the Assign Action screen in ST3 doesn't show specific midi information, just what Airturn Port is assigned to a specific action.

Lishy

peter Sure does. I have midi thru on my midi controller so it sends it back to ST.

Damir

EdSki hi Ed, I can see what you want and it makes some sense to a point, you are obviously running multitrack and want to automatically control the mute/unmute of any track at any time using the lyrics editor by writing in simple commands.
My need and request was made ages ago regarding this need but I look at it differently, if I am forced to use complicated programming that takes time and effort to do this in the editor I might as well just edit my tracks in the Daw to create the effect I want and keep ST3 simple, but what I want is immediate control of MUTES and the ability to SOLO a track on the run this then gives us all a lot of power on stage to create the atmosphere as needed.

I don’t think it’s also a bad idea to easily place a mute/unmute or solo command in the lyrics editor but it needs to be very simple and quick to program, otherwise you are just asking for more time wasting when it could be easily done in the DAW.
Good luck
Damir

Lishy

EdSki There isn't a specific command as you can assign it to be whatever you want. Having thought about it I have it set up so ST sends the timed midi command to my midi controller and I have midi through active so it then sends it back to ST to then stop that track.

Riff

Seems like it would work if you had a digital mixer to send midi commands to that to mute certain channels when you need it.