Why can I still not directly add 8-16 or more (in case of HALion7 64 MIDI tracks to my chosen multi-timbral VSTi? I get the question if I want ONE MIDI track connected to my VST. But I want EIGHT, SIXTEEN (HALion Sonic) or SIXTYFOUR (HALion7) channels connected at once. Not first only one and then manually connect the other ones.
This could have been implemented 10 or more years ago, but we still do not have it. Can we get this at last please?
If your VSTi is on an Instrument Track & that Track is Selected - then if you add for example 5 MIDI Tracks, those 5 new Tracks will all route to that VSTi and will use Channels 2-6.
Yes, thank you. But I know that.
It is about when creating a rack instrument. Then it ‘asks’ if you want to connect a MIDI track. But it then has only the option for ONE MIDI track, and not multiple on one instance. So now I have to do it in two steps always. First connect one MIDI track, and directly after that the other ones I want/need. This could be much easier if you have the option in the first question HOW MANY MIDI tracks you want to connect at once.
I assumed you might, but ya never know. Maybe you should reconsider why you are using a Rack Instrument in the first place if the task is more easily accomplished using an Instrument Track. Instrument Tracks were in part created to avoid many ease of use limitations of MIDI Track/Rack Instruments. You’re bumping up against those limitations. Never say never, but I suspect the devs will be reluctant to re-solve a problem in a different manner than how they originally resolved it many years ago. Still, it can’t hurt to ask.
No, Instrument tracks are no option here. I use HALion7 to the full with about 60 sounds loaded. That means: one HALion7 instance vs 60(!) instances of HALion7? That would be very, very, very ineffective. And I do see no limitations with MIDI channels loaded to a rack instrument.
I just want to connect 64 MIDI channels to the Rack Instrument at the first ‘system’ question if I want to connect a MIDI track to the instrument instead of connecting only one at first and then on the next step the 63 others. Just make it happen in one step, that’s all.
Not necessarily. While you can do it that way, it’s not the only option. You could use a single Instrument Track with one instance of Halion setup the same as you do for your Rack Instrument - plus an additional 59 MIDI Tracks.
Basically you can accomplish what you are currently doing with a Rack Instrument by swapping it out for a Track Instrument. Then you can add multiple MIDI Tracks in one go.
I assume you understand that by using a single VSTi to play multiple Instruments rather than spreading the load across multiple instances of the VSTi you increase your chances of overloading one CPU core while under utilizing the other cores. This is independent of it being a Rack or Track Instrument.
That’s another discussion.
I just wanted to say that I would like to have the option (at last) to add multiple MIDI tracks to a Rack Instrument at the primary ‘system’ question if I want to connect a MIDI track. Yes, but please make a multiple option at once.
I will keep using Rack Instruments for multi timbral instruments. Using a Instrument Track here is of no extra use for me whatsoever. I also almost always use the maximum outputs of a Rack Instrument. As far as I know that are 32 at HALion7.
So please no discussiun whether to use an Instrument Track or Rack Instrument.
Thanks!
Except it allows you to add and connect MIDI Tracks exactly how you titled this very thread - Add multiple MIDI tracks to a multitimbral VSTi at once
OK this is the last I’ll post about them, but I think you have some kind of inaccurate impression about how Rack & Track Instruments function & compare to each other. A Track Instrument can do everything a Rack Instrument can do plus some additional stuff.
Why are you so resistant to using a tool that in general will make it easier to use Cubase and specifically solves the problem you originally posted about? I get the impression you think a Track Instrument will somehow limit or prevent you from doing stuff you currently do.
If you were to follow my suggestion, what do you think would happen that you don’t want to happen? How would the use of a Track Instrument negatively impact your workflow?
Are you under the impression you can’t do the same with an Track Instrument?
You’re doing yourself a disservice to leave Track Instruments unexplored - especially if you do so based on an inaccurate impression of how they work.
End Of Sermon
I also used to use rack instruments for multi-timbral instruments. Until I realized that Instrument tracks can do everything a rack instrument can do plus more. Since then I haven’t touched rack instruments anymore. I assume they are only still left in Cubase for backwards compatibility.
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Don’t understand me wrong. Thank you for your opinion and tips about Instrument Tracks.
My wish although was that when you activate a Rack Instrument, you got the question if you want to connect a MIDI track. My wish is only for the option to choose multiple tracks as well.
I use Instrument Tracks for all of my non-multi-timbral instruments like all the Arturia instruments and others.
My question was not if Rack Instruments are better or worse than Instrument Tracks or what the advantages or disadvantages are of both.
When you import MIDI tracks in Cubase and use HALion Sonic for it, it opens all instruments in one instance of HALion Sonic. Not 16 or the number of MIDI tracks in Instrument tracks. So there is still a practical need for Steinberg/Cubase to use Rack Instruments. Furthermore it is much more easy to use MIDI tracks in a Rack Instrument, because you can switch more easy to a fully other instrument or even hardware MIDI device as when you use Instrument Tracks.
But as said before, that was not the subject of my post.
True, it wasn’t directly. However, as Raino suggested the rack instruments might be considered by Steinberg a legacy feature, which might not get worked on anymore. You can hold your breath until Steinberg will fulfill your feature-request or, take Raino’s advice to heart and use Track Instruments instead and do what you wanna be able to do right now.
It is also true that Cubase will create a rack instrument of Halion upon importing a midi file.
However, it is not true that it is easier to use midi tracks on a rack instrument as there is no difference between track and rack instruments in this regard.
The big difference is that the VST paramter and automation stuff for a rack instrument gets shown in the special VST Instruments folder, while with a track instrument you just pop up the lanes right there on its track. So, a track instrument combines two tracks of a rack instrument (MIDI + VST) into one.
Here you see Halion Sonice SE loaded as a track instrument with 16 patches. In the next step I will add 15 MIDI tracks in one go (your request) . All of them will be connected to Halion Sonic and their channel number will increase one by one (2 to 16).
But I also cannot create 60 Instrument Tracks with one click.
The advantage of a MIDI track connected to a Rack Instrument is that it is fully interchangable with an external MIDI device. When I create something in a Rack Instrument MIDI channel, but change my mind and switch that MIDI output to a hardware synth, that is no problem. That can’t be done with an Instrument Track.
Ok, then hold your breath. I wish you good luck with your feature-request.
True but that Instrument Track would only have the MIDI data for one of your 60 Instruments. The other 59 MIDI Tracks feeding into the Instrument Track could all be switched to a hardware synth.
Thinking about it if you used 60 MIDI Tracks (instead of 59) and only use the Instrument Track to host the VSTi and not for any MIDI data then it would all work exactly like you are doing it now.
While you can’t switch an Instrument Track to drive a hardware synth, you can easily switch back & forth between Track Instruments and hardware Instruments.
An Instrument Track and a Track Instrument are 2 different things that do different stuff and work by different rules. In your posts you seem to be conflating the two and assuming that a limitation you encounter on an Instrument Track also applies to a Track Instrument. That’s incorrect.
There is literally nothing you can do with a Rack Instrument that cannot also be done using a Track Instrument. However there are things a MIDI Track can do that an Instrument Track cannot and vice-versa.
Neither of us are suggesting you convert to using Instrument Tracks rather we’re recommending you try using Track Instruments as a destination for your MIDI Tracks instead of using Rack Instruments. It’s a simple one-to-one swap-out. Instead of having your VSTi in the bottom section of the Rack, put it in the top and you gain additional functionality, loose no capabilities, and basically retain your same workflow.
There are a couple of annoying bugs that only pertain to instrument tracks with multiple outputs enabled that do not present themselves on rack instruments. That could be one reason to favor rack instruments still.
Can you expand on that. It would be good to have that info captured on the forum.
Of course.
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