I am trying to perform with VST instruments via an MPE controller (a Linnstrument in this case). I want to use u-he Diva, Repro, and Zebra as sound generators.
This all works great when using just the linnstrument. I have to set the Midi channel on the Cubase track to “any”, since each note gets its own midi channel, and all linnstrument control for that note (pitch bend, pressure…) gets that same midi channel.
It works.
However, I want to use a breath controller as a “global” control… it would control aspects of the sound for all notes. My understanding is that generally, this is done by using midi channel 1 as a global channel, so any controller data sent on channel 1 gets applied to all notes.
This does not work. I believe it to be because the u-he synths do not honor the “midi channel 1 controllers are global” protocol.
So if I understand the situation correctly, to make this work, I think I need a way to have anything coming in to a track on channel 1 to be duplicated and sent out to all channels. Or perhaps instead of “anything on channel 1”, it could (less ideally) be “any data coming in for breath controller” or whatever.
In any case, is there a way to get some midi to go to all channels, while all other midi notes and data is confined to the channel that it comes in on? A setting? A midi plugin?
Thanks…
Hi,
This expectation is wrong. MIDI Channel 1 works the very same way as any other MIDI Channel. So if you set the Breath CC to MIDI Channel 1, it affects only the Notes at MIDI Channel 1.
Have you checked the MPE settings in the Studio > Studio Setup, please?
Hi Martin. I will check settings when next at the DAW. Is there something specific I am looking for? Regarding channel 1 and “global” control, I was referring to what is described here: MIDI specifications for Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE) - Google Docs
If you do a search in the document for “global”, there are several instances where they talk about reserving channel 1 or 16 for global controller messages (they mention things like sustain, program change, etc, but I’ll add that in many cases breath control is a good candidate as well).
The problem as I understand it is that u-he synths do not yet support this particular part of the MPE spec. So in order to “simulate” it, I think I need a way to “broadcast” or “multiply” certain controller change messages (either specified by controller, ie, “2”, or by channel, ie “1”) and have those messages appear on all channels (or at least a set of selected channels)
Hey Martin, I looked in Studio → Studio Setup → Midi → Port Setup, I don’t see anything about MPE there. If I then go to the “linnstrument” item that’s also listed, there is a page of settings, but I’m not sure if any of that is germane. What am I looking for? I’ll reiterate, I am still pretty sure that properly-responding MPE sound generators will in fact respond to channel 1 controllers as global.
If that is the case, then what I need in order to work with the u-he VSTs is a way to take any one controller type data as it comes in, or better yet, anything on midi channel 1, and “multiply that” as controller messages on all the channels that the linnstrument might transmit on, such that any sounding notes in the plugins will then “get the message”.
I was poking around the midi inserts like the Transformer. I may be missing something, but I didn’t see anything that looked like it could do this. Is there a way with any of those inserts to do this? Or is there a 3rd-party plugin that could do such a thing?
Thanks again…
There is a heading under MIDI for the linnstrument, when I go to that I get the note input device page. See yellow highlighted section of image below. Is there a way for that to help me get other controllers (anything transmitting on channel 1) to get multiple channels of control to u-he VSTs?
Thanks again…
