Funny, I was just looking at the Disaster Area stuff today, as a potential solution for you. Even the tiny one, if board space was at a premium. What bothers me about them is that I found no specific mention of Song Select. Something that needs to be clarified. A lot of devices claim to send “any MIDI message”, but it often turns out to be “any MIDI message that we find to be commonly used or useful”.
I was going to suggest some kind of master MIDI control, depending on your needs. Let your effects processors “process”, & perform as Thru devices [Master -> H9 -> Infinity]. I use an MPX-1 rack as my MIDI generator, out to everything else. MIDI Clock master, CC effects, footswitched or pedal Start, Stop, etc. I don’t load Infinity songs on-the-fly via MIDI, though. It takes about 4 seconds minimum to load, as it is.
As I said above, I’ve seen (or used) Song Select XMIT on drum machines, hardware sequences, DAWS, iPhone apps. I’d be reluctant to recommend a tethered option as your only source for master control. I need to check into my MIDI Solutions Event Processor Plus. Inline; no power required, retained settings. My thought was a conversion between Program Change and Song Select. As I recall, the EPP was weak on conversions to System Common & Real Time conversions. Perhaps even their Footswitch box may fill the bill.
I wanted to give you a few avenues to pursue for Song Select-specific solutions. I still think – if you want to take MIDI anywhere – that a central ‘master’ device is going to give you a lot more options, a good MIDI clock, and hopefully the parameter control you’re looking for. There are a lot of those to choose from now; more cost-effective by the day. I may have to switch over to something similar myself, as I have some needs now for Chase Bliss-type TRS MIDI control.
