Multiple Keyboards Live Setup

[Lonemusician]

Hello.
This is a fairly simple one, but I'm sure there are a hundred right answers.

I'm a keyboard player living in a rural area. So I'm usually in all the bands around here, as there aren't really any other keyboardists.
So it's gotten to the point where I'm in 5 local bands right now. Not a lot of places to play, so each band plays out once or twice a month. The bands are all different...country, 80s, 70s, 60s, and an alternative/reggae band.
In the past I used two keyboards and could find my patches before the drummer did his four count into the next song.
But now with the diversity of sounds needed (especially with the 80s band) I'm starting to bring more stuff.

Here's my setup for live playing...
Roland RD700SX , Roland XP-60, Roland D-50.
These boards I use the factory sounds on.
Roland S-10 that I use as a controller with my laptop with virtual instruments (softsynths).
Also have a Roland MS-1 (small sampler with 8 pads) that I also want to connect to the laptop for samples/sounds/waves.

Here's the simple question....

What software would you recommend for connecting these for live playing so each keyboard will be setup for the right sounds/patches for the songs needed.

I used to have a Korg M-1 in sequencer mode, and had the sequence named after the song.

I don't do any sequencing....all keyboards are played live.

Currently I have Cubase SX3, Ableton Live 7, Sonar 6 (which doesn't live my Vista laptop) and ASIO4all for sound driver to run the virtual instruments with VST minihost.

I don't want to do anything too complicated, just set up the boards so they have the right sounds for the next song, and without causing latency issues.....

Like I said, there's a hundred right answers.....

Thanks.

 

[Organ_ized]

I use a Digital Music Corp. MX-8 midi patch bay. It has room for 50 patches. I have 2 keyboards on the inputs and an E-mu Classic Keys Module, Roland JV-880, Viscount D9e Drawbar module, Yamaha SU10 sampler and internal sounds on 1 of my boards on the outputs. By pre-programming the patchbay, all you need to do is "scroll" up or down to your desired patch.

The MX-8 isn't made anymore, but I believe there are others around. (there's always e-bay)

Setting up the patchbay isn't all that hard and pretty easy to learn. The patchbay and the Korg Keyboard mixer have made live performances soooooo much easier. I found this link if it's software your looking for, notahat.com/midi_patchbay. The description reads like it performs the same way as my MX-8.

 

[pspianoman]

Hi, I found this site because I'm also a multi-keyboardist and I do a lot of international travel. I have grappled with the same issues you are trying to solve. What I'm in the process of doing, since I'm at home in the good old USA is this: I'm going to a rack system which will allow me to retire my XP80 keyboard and add more synths w/o more boards. My set up: RD-700GX, Korg Triton Extreme, Emu Vintage Pro rack, Roland JV-2080 rack. I just purchased a 8 channel stereo line mixer(Alesis), a rack Multi effects unit, and the last thing is I bought a Rolls Midi Buddy pedal.(this is really cool it has 12 pedals 1 set for banks, and the other for programs just like my old prophet 5 giving you 128 midi presets which you do have to program So what you and I want to do is have our main controller keyboard switch all our other units to the patches for the next song. When all the synths are hooked up through midi you should just be able to set your main controller, or the midi controller and have all your other joints communicate. I'll let you know how it's going for me. A work in progress.