Amp channel & scene switching on a Stream Deck

Want one tap to jump between a clean, a crunch and a lead tone — with a clear light showing which one is live? MIDIRover sends MIDI, and because every Neural DSP plugin can MIDI-Learn its presets and footswitches, your Stream Deck can switch amp channels and scenes and light up the active one. There are two routes: Program Change for true, whole-tone recall, andlatch-group CC toggles for a tidy, one-active-at-a-time look. This guide covers both, onWindows or macOS, for free. If you haven't wired MIDIRover to Neural DSP yet, start with theNeural DSP setup guide, then come back.

What "scene" and "channel" mean for an amp sim

A hardware amp has physical channels — clean, crunch, lead. An amp sim doesn't, so the same idea shows up two ways. A preset or scene is a whole stored tone: the amp, its settings, and which stomps are on. A single stomp (drive, boost, delay) is one switch inside that tone. "Switching channels" can therefore mean recall a complete tone or flip one pedal — and each maps to a different MIDIRover action. Pick by what you actually want the tap to do.

Path A — Program Change for full recall (recommended)

If you want one key to land on a complete tone, use Program Change. Loading a preset replaces everything at once, so it's inherently exclusive — you can't be half in two scenes, and the plugin follows every time. In Neural DSP's MIDI Mapping window, add a Program Change → Preset entry for each preset and give it a program number, then give each MIDIRover Program Change key that number. Tap it and you jump straight to that tone. Because the plugin genuinely changes state, this is the route to trust for reliable channel and scene recall. One caveat in a DAW: the host has to forward Program Change to the plugin — Ableton Live doesn't, and Logic often doesn't to the AU — so run the plugin standalone for reliable recall, or map presets to CCs in those hosts instead.

Path B — latch-group CC toggles for a clean active indicator

If you'd rather keep individual stomps as separate keys but only show one lit at a time — say, three drives where only one should look active — add a Control Change action per stomp and give them all the same Latch group name. On the deck, they then behave like radio buttons: turning one on releases the previous one's light.

Important — this makes the deck visually exclusive, not the plugin. A CC learned to a Neural DSP button simply toggles that button; the plugin flips whatever CCs arrive and has no idea your keys belong to a group. So a Latch group keeps your hardware tidy and readable, but it does not force the plugin into one-tone-at-a-time. For guaranteed recall of a whole tone, use Program Change(Path A) — latch groups are the finishing touch on top, not a substitute for it.

Set the Latch group and the on/off key light

On each Control Change key, set Mode → Toggle, choose your Value On / Off, and type one shared name into Latch group on every key that should be mutually exclusive (leave it blank for an independent toggle). MIDI-Learn each one to its stomp as usual. The key shows its on and off states from the icon; turn on Feedback (below) so the light reflects the plugin'sreal state instead of just your last press. On the Stream Deck Pedal you still get the switching, but there's no screen, so no on-key light there.

Follow an external scene change (optional Feedback)

Feedback is a shared MIDI input, off by default. Turn it on and an incoming CC that matches a visible toggle updates that key's state and light — so when a scene changes from somewhere else (the plugin itself, your DAW's automation, or a floor controller), the matching Stream Deck key lights up and the latch group's previous holder goes dark. Route that source into the same MIDI port your keys use; MIDIRover reads it without echoing back, so there are no feedback loops. While you're actively pressing, your press wins.

Combine PC recall with latch CCs

The two paths stack nicely. Put a row of Program Change keys for whole-tone recall, and a fewlatch-group CC toggles for the stomps you tweak within a tone. Tap a Program Change to land on a scene, then flip a latch CC to swap, say, the drive without leaving it. One caveat: because latching is a deck behaviour, jumping scenes with Program Change won't automatically re-light your CC toggles — turn onFeedback (and have the plugin send those CCs back out) if you want the stomp keys to track the newly recalled tone.

Troubleshooting exclusivity

• Two keys stay lit? They're not in the same group. The Latch group name must match exactly on both — it's literal, so spaces and capitalisation count; blank means independent.
• The deck shows one active, but the plugin has two stomps on? That's expected — latching is a deck look, not plugin exclusivity. Use Program Change for guaranteed whole-tone recall.
• Light won't follow an external change? Turn on Feedback, confirm the same port and MIDI channel, and check the incoming CC number matches the key.
• Nothing switches at all? Check loopMIDI is running (Windows), the same port is selected on both sides, and the channel matches — same as any MIDIRover setup.

For every action and setting, see the MIDIRover user manual. To ride a parameter by hand instead of switching, see the expression / wah pedal guide.