Need help with input Transformer

Hi,

I’m looking for a Transformer preset that, when several MIDI notes are played simultaneously, will cancel/mute/kill all notes except for one MIDI note. For instance, if I play a four voiced chord on my keyboard, this preset will only let only one of the notes through.

I’ll try to explain my actual use:
I like working with polyrhythmic sequencers when making drum beats. I send the MIDI out of the sequencer to MIDI in on Groove Agent SE or other devices. What eventually will happen, which sometimes is undesirable, is that two or more of the note lanes in the sequencer will send simultaneous MIDI notes to GA. In case of simultaneous notes, the Transformer preset should only let one of the notes through. Sort of monophonic drums. Anyone with the slightest idea what I’m talking about? :blush:

A such 8 track sequencer will typically send midi notes chromatically from C1 to G1 or from C3 to G3. I use this one a lot: - YouTube

I’m afraid the Input Transformer cannot do that.
The only thing I can think of that might work (and, purely hypothetical, because I don’t even know if such an instrument as the following even exists… maybe in Reaktor?)…
You’d need to send those MIDI sequences into another MIDI Instrument which, itself, is monophonic, and can retransmit the single playing note out to MIDI again. But, like I said, I know of no such instrument.

Hi Vic - thanks! I had a feeling that this task doesn’t have a quick fix.

About Reaktor, I don’t think there are any devices in Reaktor that can do this so I would have to build it myself, which I haven’t got the brains to do :confused:

I conclude that all music up till now have been made without this feature so I guess I can’t complain that I have to get those midi notes down on a track and simply use my mute tool.

If you’re not worried about this in live performance then there’s MIDI->Functions->Delete Doubles on the recorded track. If you want to enforce a monophonic lines on a per-note basic (and I assume you’re using hardware sequencers with real MIDI outputs, feeding into Cubase?) then you’ll need some kind of hardware MIDI filter – years ago I had a Digital Music MX-8, and IIRC the merge function in that used to take care of note clashes.

It’s 20 years since I played live :open_mouth: But now, in my 40’s, I have some vague plans to do music live again. Anyway, the function you are mentioning is deleting doubles on the same pitch, whereas in my case the notes I want to delete/mute are different pitches falling on the same beat, usually in a 16th note grid. I use this (in-the-box) sequencer to trigger multiple kick drums, bass sounds, etc, which does not sound nice when they occasionally are triggered at the same time. I think Vic is right in that there aren’t many options available to do what I’m looking for.

Thanks!

OK, so how would the decision be made which one to filter out?

If you’re not bothered about realtime, there is something you could try (it’s a bit left field :wink: )…
Use the Score Editor, then the Score menu>Functions>Explode, and, in the dialog that opens, select “New Tracks”, and uncheck all the options except “Bass to Lowest Voice”.
You will now have some redundant MIDI tracks, but the lowest new one should contain just the lowest notes of anything that was previously a chord. (That probably won’t be enough in itself, but at least it will be quicker than deleting all higher notes in the chords manually).

When two notes arrive at the same time, you’ll still have to decide which one you want to keep, but I’m beginning to think this might be possible in realtime using the Context Gate.