Assigning separate midi channels to different tracks - help!

[merovie23]

First off, I am using an Ensoniq EPS. If you’re not familiar with that, that’s because it’s a very old machine. It was literally one on the very first sequencers on the market and you have to load sounds up using 3 and half inch floppy disks. Once you have done that, though, you don’t have to use the sounds on the disk - you can assign each of the eight instruments to a midi out and send them out on eight different midi channels. For years, I had to use seven loaded sounds and send one midi track out to my Yamaha TG500 tone generator. But now I have Cubase and I want to rock this thing.

This is my question - I want to send all eight instruments out, after I have written a song using the Jurassic-era sounds on the disks, to Cubase on eight separate midi channels so my eight Ensoniq instrument slots are instead being played by eight separate vst instruments.

Any idea what to do? I think I can send the eight different channels to Halion and separate them inside Halion, but that won’t help me much when I take the file over to my guitar player’s house and he needs my VST instruments on separate tracks.

I thank anyone in advance for their infinite wisdom and patience.

P.S. I have included a picture of the Ensoniq - the eight buttons in the middle control the eight tracks. That slot on the right - yeah - that’s a slot for a floppy disk. Old school.

[merovie23]

I figured out that when I highlight channel two on the midi filter in preferences, the channel two notes coming from my second instrument slot it the ensoniq stop playing (I have two sounds loaded up playing two separate sets of notes) and the midi from channel one keeps playing, but this does not occur in Halion when I assign an instrument to channel one - both channel one and two play on channel one - nor does it occur in separate midi tracks - I can get a channel to NOT come into cubase, by filtering a channel, but I cannot separate them if the channel is not filtered.

I also loaded two sounds into Halion and I figured out that the second instrument won’t play at all if it is set to channel two (with channel two not filtered in cubase - it has to be set to channel one.

I am new at this so pardon my ignorance.

[merovie23]

Well . . . I figured out a kind of half-assed way to do what I wanted - create a bunch of different VST midi tracks using f11, record them all on the base midi channel, and then dissolve the parts into different channels and then just delete all the channel tracks I don’t need and THEN set the channels in Halion, but that, admittedly - while it gets the job done - is, as I said, half-assed.

I’d much rather assign the different midi channels to different VST tracks and just hit play on my Ensoniq and record on Cubase. Or better yet, sync my Ensoniq so it starts recording the second I hit play. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

[vic_france]

Yes, you do need to have one record-enabled MIDI track per MIDI channel, but, on each of them, insert a Local Input Transformer (the “crooked arrow” icon near the top-right of each MIDI Track’s Inspector). There are Presets in there, for filtering out all but the desired MIDI channel for that track.

[enjneer]

Yeah, seems straightforward to me:
-assign each EPSS instrument to its own MIDI output and channel, 1-8
-Create 8 MIDI blank MIDI tracks
-Assign input of each MIDI track to the EPSS ports 1-8
-arm all MIDI tracks, press record and play the EPS. (You’d need Cubase and EPS to sync if you want tempo locked)
-load the VSTi’s you want in the Rack and the patches in each
-Assign each MIDI track’s output to the corresponding VSTi

You could also do this making each MIDI track an Instrument Track with each one having your VSTi loaded.

After successful transfer, you could save the whole project as a template so you wouldn’t have to do the setup again.

[merovie23]

Vic_france - I read about the input transformer on another forum but I couldn’t figure it out. I am including a screenshot of the input transformer - I don’t see any “presets”, and I can’t figure it out. Can you help? I have tried reading the manual and it is no help.

Enjneer, it sounds to me like you believe there are eight midi ports on the back of the EPS, but there is only one midi slot for one midi cord, I am just able to send the midi channels out on eight separate channels. I don’t want to press play AND record on the EPS, just play to signal Cubase. If I press record on the EPS, I’ll record over some part of a song I wrote.

I will, of course, do more research on the input transformer in the meantime.

[enjneer]

@merovie23

Enjneer, it sounds to me like you believe there are eight midi ports on the back of the EPS, but there is only one midi slot for one midi cord, I am just able to send the midi channels out on eight separate channels. I don’t want to press play AND record on the EPS, just play to signal Cubase. If I press record on the EPS, I’ll record over some part of a song I wrote.

Ha ha. Maybe I did “believe” that. I’ve seen such devices in the wild.

Shouldn’t matter to my suggestion. If you can assign the channels, then Cubase tracks (assigned to those channels) should only record the assigned data. Non? Am I missing something else here?

[merovie23]

I figured out what was wrong, and in the spirit of sharing, I am going to share my fix. The Input Transformer presets were not sent to the right location when I installed Cubase. Here’s how to fix the problem:

Quit Cubase if you currently have it open.
Browse to the folder where Cubase is physically installed on your system. The exact folder name depends on your version of Cubase, and the exact location depends on your Windows platform (32-bit or 64-bit). Here are some examples of where you might look on a 64-bit Windows system:

32-bit Cubase 6: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Cubase 6
32-bit Cubase 7: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Cubase 7
64-bit Cubase 6: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 6
64-bit Cubase 7: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 7
Inside the Cubase folder, open the folder named Presets. Inside it, you should see folders for: Arpache, Auto LFO, Chorder, Input Transformer, KeyCommands, Logical Edit, Micro Tunings, MIDI Monitor, MidiContextGate, MIDIEcho, Project Logical Editor, Staff Presets, StepDesigner. These are the preferences folders for all those inserts!

Leave the Presets folder open. You will need it shortly.
In another Window, click Start > Run and type the following: %appdata% (If you are running Windows 8, open up an explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar, then press Enter.)

You should now be in the AppData\Roaming folder for your current Windows user account.
Locate the Steinberg folder in AppData\Roaming, and inside that, open the correct Cubase folder for your current version. Here are some examples:

32-bit Cubase 5: Cubase 5
32-bit Cubase 6: Cubase 6
32-bit Cubase 7: Cubase 7
64-bit Cubase 5: Cubase 5_64
64-bit Cubase 6: Cubase 6_64
64-bit Cubase 7: Cubase 7_64
Once inside the correct Cubase folder, open the folder named Presets. You will probably find that most or all of the MIDI insert preferences folders are missing.
In the original folder you opened in step 3, select any preset folders you wish to copy to your AppData folder in Explorer. Right-click the selected folders and type CTRL+C to copy them into your clipboard.
Now click your mouse in an empty area in your AppData Presets folder (from step 6) and press CTRL+V. This should make copies of the presets folders. If some of the files or folders were already there, just let Windows replace the existing files.
Now launch Cubase, create an instrument track, and place a MIDI insert on it. When you open the plugin and click the Select Presets box, you should now be able to pick from a list of presets for that MIDI insert.

Abracadabra!

[vic_france]

So, it is sorted for you now?

[merovie23]

I was at a Renaissance festival all weekend. I got the presets in there but now that I am back, using the input transformer does not seem to be working. My bass sound has always been in slot 5 on my ensoniq so I set the midi channel out on that slot to 5 as well. The drums have always been slot 1 so I did the same. I set the input transformer channel filtering on the drum track to 1 and the bass track to 5 and it is not doing what I want. When I switch from track to track, only the drums play. So I switched the bass track’s channel filtering to 2 and also switched the midi channel in halion for that instrument to 2 and when I press keys on my keyboard, both the drums and the bass play, even though the channels in my ensoniq are set drums - channel one, bass - channel five. The ensoniq midi send is on “instrument” channel and not “base” channel so it should only be sending my midi signals out on those channels.

What I am doing wrong? I am including a screen shot again of everything. This is while a sequence is playing with three instruments on my ensoniq - drums, bass, and a keyboard part. All three are being played by the drums and bass even though you can clearly see the channel pass for the bass is set to 2 and the midi channel in halion is set to 2, and even though the bass in my ensoniq is being sent out on channel 5.

[merovie23]

I figured it out. I did not have the modules in the input transformer turned on. You know, the blue circles in them. I got it! Thanks for your help anyway!

[K87gomotso]

I seem to be having a problem with this, I’m trying to align the midi channel on my controller (MPK261) (e.g. USB A4) with the Midi Channel Cubase, nothing I do seems to work, I have activated the modules, tried global and local options on the input transformer, but everything still plays all at once, any help?

[Cosmo]

Hi, Do you still have the Ensoniq EPS?