Here’s what I’m trying to achieve:
I want to play the MiniFreak from my KeyLab, listen to the sound of the hardware synth while having MiniFreak V open in Ableton (muted) to have the visual feedback while tweaking sounds on the hardware.
To achieve this, I created an instrument rack in Ableton with an ‘External Instrument’ (Midi Channel 2 sent to MiniFreak) plus the VST Version of MiniFreak with volume set to 0.
Works great, with one weird downside:
As soon as I set Midi from ‘external instrument’ to be sent to the MiniFreak, the active preset shown in the preset selector of MF V turns blue and I am no longer able to change presets form within MF V! 
When trying to switch presets, for a short moment the chosen preset is shown in the selector:
but then immediatley it jumps back to the active preset on the external MF (which is displayed in blue):
When I disconnect the Midi-out of the external instrument from the MF, the preset is white again and I can freely choose any preset from MF V.
This is driving me nuts because I can only access presets already saved to MF.
Why is this behavior? Does this make any sense I can’t see yet?
Is there any way to avoid it?
Any hint or help is welcome!