Multitimbral plugin (kontakt) instrument-out sub-channels as midi-ins

Cubase
1

Hey there!

I’ve been running into an issue with Cubase where I can’t figure out a very (in my opinion) basic capability and I hope that I’m just missing something. Please enlighten me.

So I do film composition and I have a very big Cubase template. The other day my teacher showed me (in Logic) that if you create a Multitimbral Kontakt channel (Kontakt 16-outs). You can enable these separate output channels and have them show up as instrument subchannels for the respective audio outs.

What he showed next amazed me: He proceeded to select these output channels and play them as instrument/midi channels and the respective sound came out.

Let’s say the first patch in Kontakt is Trumpet (MIDI In Ch 1 - Audio Out 1/2), 2nd one is Violin (MIDI In Ch 2 - Audio Out 3/4) and 3rd one is a Piano (MIDI In Ch 3 - Audio out 5/6)
I could continue for a while; but you get the gist.
When he selected the first Kontakt output channel he pressed his keyboard and a trumpet sound same out, 2nd Kontakt output channel was a violin etc.

As far as I’m aware in Cubase you always need a separate MIDI channel for midi input and get the audio out on another track. How is this the case? I would love to have the audio show up on the same channel that contains the midi data (kind of like having a simple Kontakt instance for every instrument). But since I work with VEP that’s not really an option.
I thought the ‘Instrument Channel‘ in Cubase had the same functionality but as far as I’m aware there’s no functionality to send (or receive for that matter) midi or audio from an instrument channel to a rack VSTi or another Instrument Channel (anywhere to host a VSTi).

My apologies if I seem overly explanatory, I have spent a good couple of days scouring forums and haven’t found a way to do this yet and it has made me a little frustrated because to me it seems like a pretty basic feature? but please correct me if I’m wrong.

Would love your help!

Sincerely,
Martijn

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2

That’s right, this is Cubase’s specification.

I’ve also been writing on this forum for a while now that it would be vastly more convenient if the specification were changed so that you could connect to other instrument channels beyond channel 2 using just the instrument channel, without having to distinguish between instrument channels and MIDI channels.

Currently, when using multitimbral, channel 1 can be used as an instrument channel.
However, for channels 2 and beyond, you must deliberately prepare a separate MIDI channel and connect its output destination to the aforementioned instrument channel.

When you want to view the MIDI piano roll, you use the MIDI channel.

But when you want to see the audio output information for channel 2, you have to go out of your way to look at the subchannel of the instrument channel you designated for channel 1.

It’s truly inefficient.

The reason this issue isn’t raised more often might be that few users employ multi-timbral sound sources…

Or perhaps it’s because many users resort to inefficient, outdated methods like VST Racks.

I’m truly grateful that this issue has been brought up.

At the very least, I want to speak out about this.

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