As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, it is common knowledge Instr. tracks are for monotimbral instruments only. And nobody was suggesting to use them for anything except single output VSTi. Hence the limitations you’re mentioning do not apply unless you expect them to work with multitibral instruments. 99% of VSTi’s out there need only 1 midi input on a single midi channel and a single stereo output. Exactly what intr. tracks have, making them ideal for most plugins on the market. And making vst rack essential only for the remaining 1%:
multitimbral and 5.1 instruments.
[quote=“L.F.”]
…talking about ways to enhance instr. tracks, I’d like to ad the obvious one; making them support multitimbral instruments (similar to a folder track; having the multitimbral instr. track open up to reveal the XX separate channels, for example)…
[/quote]
but then again, you would be limited to ONE track sending MIDI to the VSTi. What about a VSTi that play violas in the higher key range and celli in the lower key range, ON THE SAME MIDI ch#, as en example?
I’d want at least TWO MIDI tracks, routed the same VSTi on the same MIDI ch#.
Again, if SB were to make instr. tracks multitimbral, they would, obviously, have multiple midi channels and audio outputs contained within it. My suggestion was for a kind of a “unified” track which, when expanded, had all the midi channels available within itself. Similar to using a folder track for storing midi channels now, but instead, a folder being the multitimbral VSTi.
I’d suggest to consider a VSTi in an instrument track as if it was inserted into a VSTi rack" slot, and behave like an ordinary VSTi instrument track does now: being a MIDI track without a mixer channel, sending MIDI on an adjustable ch# to the VSTi and being an audio track with a mixer channel, receiving any VSTi audio out and route it through its mixer channel.
I disagree on making the instr. track a glorified midi channel, as that is what a midi channel is for. The fact instr. tracks make a stereo output on creation is exactly what makes them better; one can ad XX number of instr. track and preload some basic effects (comp/EQ for example), route them to a group as save this as a template for quick access later. Also, and this is key, without that mixer channel, replacing the VSTi “on the fly”, a feature only instr. channels have, would not work.
That would be covered by enabling instr. tracks to send/receive midi/audio input.