4 MIDI Sends limit & workarounds

[vitek246]

Hey!

I have one MIDI track called “DRUMS MAIN” that triggers two drum libraries.
One library plays the main drums, and the second one plays only OH.

• Output of DRUMS MAIN → Drum Instrument 1 (Channel 10)
• MIDI Send → Drum Instrument 2 (Channel 10)

Now I want to trigger many instances of a trigger plugin (around 10) from the same DRUMS MAIN MIDI track.

It doesn’t matter where those trigger plugins are placed.
The only requirement is that all triggers receive MIDI from the DRUMS MAIN track , and each trigger will listen to its own MIDI note.

The obvious solution is MIDI Sends , but Cubase only allows 4 sends per MIDI track , and one is already used by the second drum instrument.

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Workarounds I tried

1. Separate MIDI tracks

I tried creating additional MIDI tracks and feeding them from DRUMS MAIN , but Cubase cannot route a MIDI track into another MIDI track . MIDI inputs only accept Windows MIDI devices or plugins , not other MIDI tracks.

2. loopMIDI

I also tried using loopMIDI , but it introduces latency and requires the receiving track to be record-enabled or monitored , which is annoying

The only workaround I can think of is:

• create several MIDI tracks inside a folder with group editing enabled ,
• duplicate the same MIDI event across them,
• and then use MIDI Sends from those tracks to different trigger instances .

That way at least editing the MIDI would stay synchronized.

If anyone has a better solution for triggering many plugins from a single MIDI track , I would really appreciate it.

This thread unfortunately didn’t help:

Using more than 4 midi sends

Hello people, any way to be able to use more than just 4 MIDI sends? I saw a post where one response was to send the midi to another midi track but I suspect it is not possible, any ideas?

[raino]

In general folks just chain MIDI Tracks to create more MIDI Sends. It’s a bit clunky but it works fine & is easy to setup.

Create 5 MIDI Tracks. On the first Track route its 4 MIDI Sends to the other 4 MIDI Track’s MIDI Input. Now you’ve got 4 Sends on 4 Tracks or 16 MIDI Sends total.

[shifka]

Its not perfect but can be considered as a workaround ,
Make copy of the midi with the duplacete command. You should an event with 3 line on the corner .
Now all the edits you make to one of these event applies to the others

[vitek246]

Not sure how i can send MIDI track to MIDI input, if they only allow me to send Side-chains, Windows MIDI, plugins?

[vitek246]

It’s pretty same to ‘Group Editing’ folder workaround, but thanks anyway!

[Nico5]

I’ve had some success with the following workaround:

Basic Idea

You can select MIDI output from Instrument plugins as input for many other instrument or MIDI tracks. I haven’t tested for an upper limit, but I’ve definitely made 6 tracks listen to the MIDI output of the same Instrument track.

Implementation

The trick is to find an instrument plugin that can be put into a mode where it simply passes its own MIDI input to its MIDI output without any manipulation.

Examples that have worked for me

Some MIDI Arpeggiator instrument plugins can be put into special “bypass mode” where they don’t arpeggiate, but simply pass all MIDI input notes straight to their MIDI output. Harmony Bloom can do this, but there may be others.

I’ve also done a similar thing with Unify 2, where I make it send all the MIDI it receives straight back out without any further manipulation.

[vitek246]

Hmm, it could work. Could it add any latency tho? Will try it anyway, thanks!

[raino]

You also might look at using virtual MIDI cables. I use one so I can freely route the Chord track to multiple Tracks. If you are on the latest Windows update that has the new Microsoft MIDI drivers you can now create the virtual cable directly in Windows instead of using a 3rd party like I did with LoopMIDI in the instructions from a few years back below.

How to add the Chord Track as a MIDI Source for any Track

Out of the box there are two ways you can have the Chord Track play on a MIDI or Instrument Track. Both of these methods have some major limitations. You can set the Chord Track to “Use Monitored Tracks” which works great - unless you want to Monitor a Track for some purpose other than playing chords. Perhaps to play a solo. You don’t want the solo instrument to also be playing the chords, but they will with this method. Or you can set the Chord Track to play back on one, and only one Track at…

[vitek246]

Thanks man for the idea!

I found a plugin that can host multiple instances of drum instruments with multiple outputs routed to different channels, so they can be mixed separately.

My setup is the following:

DRUMS MAIN (DM) MIDI track that contains the actual drum part.

• Drum Instrument 1 → routed to DM MIDI Track Output on Channel 10
• Drum Instrument 2 → routed to DM MIDI Send 1 on Channel 10
• Blue Cat’s PatchWork Synth (loaded as a VST instrument) → routed to DM MIDI Send 2 on Channel 10

Inside PatchWork:

• Trigger 2 instances MIDI In set to All Ports, MIDI Out set to All Ports
• Audio I/O set to 2 in / 2 out on channels 3–4, 5–6, etc.
• This ports activated on the VST Instruments (F11) menu on the blue cat’s plugin.
  (trigger 2 via settings listens to midi in channel 10 to the “note you want”)

I didn’t use channels 1–2 because they louder then the others. Also, channels 3–4 are not controlled by the output/input gain and mix knob and were slightly quieter, so I added some pre-gain in the cubase mixer Pre section.
So basically you will have 3 midi sends, each of them have 8 plugins routed to multiple outputs. Perfect.

Thanks again, and happy mixing!