Record all midi channels realtime as I play my arranger

In Cubase 5, I found a forum that explain how to filter the tracks in my arranger keyboard, but I forgot how to do it, plus I’m using Cubase 8.5 and things are not in the same place. Could someone help me please? I remember it saved me a lot of time doing it that way, instead of doing it track by track. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about rendering to audio. I just want to record the MIDI from all channels as I am playing it live.

Thank you :slight_smile:

By default Cubase will record all the MIDI Channels that it sees on the MIDI Input for the Track. But there is a setting on the Track for MIDI Channel. This setting does not control which Channel(s) are recorded, instead it controls what Channel is used for playback. So if it is set to Channel 1 it will play back everything on Channel 1 even if the recorded Notes are on other Channels. Set it to “Any” to play back on the original Channels.

If you want to Record only Channel 1 Notes on on the first Track, Channel 2 on the second etc. you can use the Input Transformer to filter out the unwanted Channels on each Track.

If you intend to do this frequently you might want to save it in a Template so you only need to set it up once.

This seems backwards. It’s common to set a master MIDI controller keyboard to have separate zones transmitting on different MIDI channels such that the DAW is expected to play only the virtual instrument track mapped to, e.g., channel 1, for the left hand zone - and only the virtual instrument track mapped to, e.g., channel 3 for the right hand zone. But in Cubase, if you set the channel in the MID inspector to channel 1 for the left hand instrument and set the inspector to channel 3 for the right hand instrument, then both instruments echo everything and you end up recording all the MIDI data from both channels on both tracks. You should not need to add a filter or transform the MIDI data in order for this kind of “multiplayer” mode to work out of the box (which is what other DAWs provide). Subsequently, there would be no reason to select a MIDI channel upon playback because the data was already directly filtered according to the channel displayed in the MIDI inspector (when both practicing and recording).

By default, and as @raino has explained it, a given MIDI track will record notes coming from all 16 MIDI channels.

The problem is actually when you want also the playback/monitor to be multichannel. Just set the MIDI channel area in the inspector of the involved MIDI track as this :

C12_MIDIMultiChannelOutputs

… which actually means “All”… :smile:. You can then record MIDI notes from any MIDI channel and play it back/monitor it on a multichannel instrument/VSTi instrument without hassle : all the notes will be transmitted on the exact same channel as they’ve been recorded.

The issue isn’t having 1 instrument respond to multiple channels of MIDI information., i.e., as a multi-timbral or polyphonic instrument. It’s having multiple or different virtual instruments play and record on their own different (single) MIDI channel as triggered from a master keyboard with multiple MIDI zones - w/o having to add the extra input transformer with a MIDI channel setting on each virtual instrument track. It’s backwards to have the MIDI channel setting in the MIDI inspector affect playback and not recording when it is set to a single MIDI channel.

OK, I get the issue but well… Setting the input transformer is rather easy, in this case : we have dedicated Input Transformer presets for this kind of need in the Factory presets > Channel filtering category.

Once set, you can make a trackpreset of it, after having chosen the Track option for the IT in the inspector : no more need to deal with the Input transformer window, after this…

That’s your opinion. What that drop-down actually sets is the playback MIDI channel, and if it’s set to “Any”, it plays back whatever was recorded on the track. If your objective is to have the recorded information in a MIDI track split out over several track, each with its own specific MIDI channel, then you can just use the “Dissolve” function.

Input transformer was the keyword. Thank you all. I searched it up, so this is what I did as attached:

I created all the 16 channels and labeled them to mirror what’s on my MIDI out layout on the keyboard (Korg PA4x). Then one by one I selected the parameters from within Transformer to filter the channels. Make sure at the bottom that you choose filter. Sometimes I forget and it stays on Transform. But make sure it is on FILTER.

Select Track and then go back open panel in the Input Transformer option of each channel. It was tedious. I have to do that for each of the 16 channels.

Now I can perform publicly, while the MIDI channels are being recorded and then rendered to audio in post.

I believe that there may be a way to filter from the Korg itself but I haven’t found that way yet. I am eager to find out if there is another way to do this.

The only problem now is that my ENDING 3 button doesn’t respond.
Hmmm! Some MIDI related problematic connection (something to do with Synchronization setup.

I have some attachments.

Thank you all for your help.