MIDI "any" not available on inst. tracks

In fact, all midi is converted to channel 1 on instrument tracks, and there’s no option to change this like there is on a regular midi track. Why?

I suppose I will just use midi tracks and attach an instrument to it - this seems to get around this issue.

There is no way to set a midi channel output on an instrument track, since the output is a VSTi, but you can certainly have the data inside the track be on different channels. (I did not have a look at which channel it receives on)

Setting to Midi channel to any results in midi events on a track being sent out on the channel of each individual event, rather than have all events sent to the same channel as would be the case with midi channel set to a midi channel number.

May I ask what you are trying to accomplish? Myself, I have really only used different channels to specify voices in Score Edit, though there a a million other uses too, I’m sure.

Thanks for that.

I would like Halion Sonic to be able to receive multiple midi channels. As a VST instrument track, this is impossible (AFAIK) because all midi sent to this track is converted to channel 1.

There are workarounds, I know, but it’s baffling to me that Cubase would have this limitation.

Right. I believe there is a thread here requesting multi timbral instrument tracks.

On instruments tracks, multi midi channels works just for drum edition mode…

So how would this work, that is what would the structure be if “ANY” was allowed to be used for instrument tracks?

Assuming the output is still stereo, if multiple MIDI channels could be used, would the data need to be on lanes or something else more “friendly”. Since Steinberg have lately been doing work around this ideal it would seem reasonable to think something more could be done in this area.

I don’t care about multiple audio outs, I just want multiple timbres so if for instance I use a VST that is multi-timbral in an instrument track, I can easily edit sub-tracks as a single unit, ie track with mute/solo etc.

Here’s a workaround:

It seems you can only have max 5 midi channels per instrument track for some unknown reason, has anyone actually tried this?

I’m no software developer, but I would suggest having the same format and syntax as a regular midi track (“ANY”, “1”, “2”, etc.) and let the instrument decide what channel(s) to listen to.

Simply having it lock to channel “1”, with no visual indication and nothing in the manual to suggest that this is a restriction, is frustrating. Just look at the time we’ve spent here talking about it.

I most certainly agree but now after reading that article I am wondering why only 5 channels?

If that is to be a viable workaround then the Transformer plugin would need to support all 16 midi channels and not only 5, but yes having ANY would negate the extra instance.

The problem then is whichever method is used whether fully or partially implemented dealing with the data in lanes would not easily allow one to mute/solo etc, ie handle parts in the same way as tracks so maybe now since Steinberg have improved lanes, folders, comping and so on they can do something in this area.

I may be missing something (usually true) but what is the point of Instrument tracks? Is there any advantage over a standard MIDI track, to offset the many disadvantages?

For stereo VST’s they are great, since they free up rack space for multi-timbral software instruments.

What this thread is bringing to light however is the lack of usability outside a single instance (stereo) output instrument.

If there was a way to use all 16 midi channels in an instrument track, it’d not matter so much the fact of having to use lanes as with many multi-timbral vst’s, mixing (and often) effects can all be done from within the plugin.