How to drag/drop MIDI clips containing only MIDI control data to/from browser

Hi All!
 
I'd like to pick your brains on best practises for manipulating MIDI tracks that contain only external control data i.e. we are using Sonar projects + playlist to switch digi mixer, synths, bass FX etc. and since it is working really well, more MIDI events get added and it gets more cumbersome to manipulate.
 
Currently I have MIDI events on channel 1 - 3 for the digi mixer, ch 11 - 13 for bass FX, ch 14 -16 for synths, and now we are adding switching of guitar FX (ch 9, 8, 7, ... who knows who many) ...
 
At the moment I use a separate MIDI channels for each external device to be able to enable/disable switching by just muting/unmuting the respective MIDI channel.  The project gets "cluttered" with MIDI tracks which I can hide in folders ...  I reckon just using one MIDI track for all control would have more disadvantages than advantages, right? ... or am I overseeing something here?
 
Now, what really makes life difficult is to remember which MIDI event triggers which external event. So I would like to have something like a drag and drop library for most often used external MIDI events. I tried to drag "bypass bass FX" MIDI CC event or "switch digi mixer scene" event to the browers and it creates a MIDI clip with something in it, but when I drag it back to a MIDI track it does not seem to put an event back ... anything I'm doing wrong here?
 
I should probably start to write an instrument definition file for all my external FX to make the event list viewer more readable ...
 
Any other tips you could provide?
 
 
 
EDIT: Changed title thread to the remaining question "How to drag/drop MIDI clips containing only MIDI control data to/from browser"

I got most sorted what I'd like to be using, however, it still would be nice to be able to drag and drop MIDI ctrl events that occur frequently (e.g. bypass external FX#2) from the browser.
 
Here's what I have observed:

• If I have at least one MIDI note plus MIDI ctrl data in the clip, the entire clip can dropped in the browser and then dropped back into the project with all information retained.
• If there is no MIDI note, you can dop it in the browser and it will create a clip, but when dropping it back into Sonar, nothing happens (i.e. no MIDI events added)

Anybody got this to work? What am I doing wrong? Happens in X3 and Platinum Kingston.

It works for me as well (I mean clips with one CC only). But since the clip length is determined by content, just one event is infinitely short.
 
2 ideas:
1) put some note in the clip with the length you want to see the clip. In control MIDI tracks, add Midi Event Filter and select Note C0-C0. So all notes are effectively filtered out.
 
2) if that is about sending CC only, may be mapping Notes to CCs (in MFX) is better. Using instrument def and PRV (or zoomed track) it will be possible to recognize all control changes. The mapping can be Note Number -> CC Number, Note velocity -> CC Value, Note length -> Ignored. Caveats:
a) Note Velocity "0" is "note off" and so is not going to work right (after dropping from the browser). But you may want CC with value 0. Possible workaround is interpret velocity "1" as CC value "0" loosing "1" as possible value. Still not perfect but I think less critical.
b) I have not such MFX... But it can be written Without GUI that is not a big job (for me). But obviously I do not want waste my time in case you are not interested.

FreeFlyBertl
PS: Thanks azslow for your suggestions. However, since I am controlling several external devices in a live environment, I want to stay clear from MIDI filters or additional notes that might have side effect ... basically anything not needed definitely needed is not in the Sonar project.  But I might try following your suggestion of adding a dummy MIDI note, which I delete after dragging the file from the browser ...

Well, I had to stay at home today. So I have tested how fast I can create such a plug-in. 40 minutes, inclusive testing under X2 and SPlat  on 2 computers
So, if you want you can give it try: http://www.azslow.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=37
 
I understand your worries about extra tools live. But Sonar has a nice feature "Apply effect..." which also works on MIDI tracks with MFXes. And so you can bounce whatever effects you apply for performance, while processing offline convenient way.
 

Hi azslow,
 
Thanks again. Pretty impressive to write a MFX in 40 minutes including installer :-)
 
I think I'm sorted now. I got template clips for repetive CC messages which I can drag and drop. And I found the fastest way to add a patch change is using proper instrument def files plus having one patch change defined in the beginning of the track which you can quickly duplicate in the event list ...

CAL might provide a solution. It can be used to insert/delete MIDI events to a track or send MIDI data to a MIDI port/channel.