Cactus Music
My whole one-man rock cover live show is controlled with MIDI.
Sorry to sort of Hi jack this thread-- but Karl are you using Sonar as your sequencer? I'm curios as I stopped using a sequencer back in the 90's when Mini disk came out, But I do miss the option of midi control for my efxs. My old midi files still have the patch changes in them.
I'm just using WAVE files and Win Amp because I call stop start with my Xkey footswitch. I dream of a Audio format that sends MIDI data too...
Not as my main system, Sonar only gets used as a backup which it does fine although IIRC correctly last time I tested it I was having trouble controlling transport via a foot switch. I think I gave up in the end rather than waste a load of time trying to get it working.
My main system is a Roland Sonic Cell which I use as a MIDI sequencer. I have a BOSS GT-6 guitar processor which I 4-cable to a Marshall JCM600 and a Digitech Studio Quad 4 for vocal FX. The Sonic Cell will play back audio files as well but it's either/or for playback although it does still work as a MIDI sound generator while playing back. It's a pretty impressive unit.
Both the GT-6 and Quad 4 get their patch change commands from the Sonic Cell as the MIDI file plays back. The only thing I have to do is start and stop songs with a pedal that hooks into the GT-6.
I have used Sonar for playback in place of the Sonic Cell and apart from aforementioned transport woes that worked well. I just hate placing my faith in a laptop unless I have to, although I think that's more of a psychological thing than it is any real bad experience.