Hi!
I don’t know if what I’d like to do is feasible (or if there in an alternative way to obtain a similar result).
Anyway. I would like to setup a MIDI Track that sends midi notes to an array of instruments. Like:
MIDI Track
Instrument One
Instrument Two
Instrument Three
Instrument Four
Instrument Five
If I write (or play) midi events in “MIDI Track”, it would play that event (say, a C3 note) in Instrument One, Two and Three.
Now, I’m pretty sure this is doable, but I’m not sure why.
But this is the catch. Besides this basic multi-midi-output setup, I’d like to write an Expression Map for “MIDI Track” that lets me switch between Instrument One, Two and Three, so that from the Key editor I can select that a note is played by “Instrument One”, another note by “Instrument Two” and so on.
Specifically, I have nine instruments that are closely related and I’d like to switch between them with Expressions maps.
Yes you can easily set that up with expression maps by using a separate channel for each instrument. This is done when certain kontakt instruments have articulations on different patches. In Midi Output section (EM) is where you designate the midi channel.
Hi and thanks.
Yes, this is the part that I know, but still, how do i say to Cubase: This is the track “MIDI Track”. If I play “C” on this track, forward that C to “Instrument One” on Channel 1, to “Instrument Two” on Channel 2, to “Instrument Three” on Channel 3, and so on?
Or, alternatively, How do I set the track “Instrument One”, “Instrument Two”, “Instrument Three” and so on all to receive MIDI signals from the track “MIDI Track” but on different channels?
By default MIDI & Instrument Tracks have their MIDI Channel set to “All”
On your individual Tracks set each to be a unique MIDI Channel number in the Track’s Inspector. You send the Track all the data, but it ignores anything not on its Channel.
Hi Raino, and thanks for you answer. I’m not entirely sure I understand your suggestion or if I made my request clear. I’ll try to make my situation clearer.
I’m setting on a very large template. Some of the VSTi instruments I want to map are different plugins but related. Think “Solo Violin Tremolo”, “Solo Violin Staccato”, “Solo Violin Pizzicato” and so. They do not come in a host like Kontakt or EastWest’s where you can load multiple patches basically within a single instrument. They are actually different VSTi instruments, each on different track. Some groups are made of 10 instruments, some of 12 or more. I want to treat those groups of separated VSTi / tracks as a single instrument, so that I can write a single midi part, in a single MIDI event, but have some notes played by an instrument, some chords by another and so on, switching between them with Expression maps. Typically Expression maps let you change the patch or activate a key switch. I’m looking for a way to tell, via Expression maps, “Play this note with the VSTi on this particular track”.
Now, I don’t know if I understand your suggestion correctly, but there are only so much MIDI channels available. I have tens of “related instrument groups” to create, each having multiple VSti. Having only 16 midi channels, after the first 16 instruments, I have to repeat the numbers and sanding system wide midi notes to, say, channel two", would play a plethora of different, unrelated instruments belonging to different groups.
I don’t know if what I’m saying makes sense. A quick example is Spitfire LABS Trumpet fields (it’s free and awesome https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/trumpet-fields). It comes as a series of 14 different patches. I have each of them running on its own instance of Spitfire LABS VSTi, each on its track, but they really are just articulations or variations of the same instrument, so I’d like to write a single MIDI part and have it played by the different instances.
Got it. While at a smaller scale the suggestions can distribute notes on the basis of Channel. But as you point out there are only 16 MIDI channels which creates an upper limit.
There are folks on here (I’m not one) that deal with these issues too. My impression is that most of them use VEPro to manage their articulations. I think it’s common to give each articulation its own MIDI Track, But I’m more a casual observer on that.
You might consider changing the subject line to better attract those folks. Right now it’s asking about the mechanics of manipulating MIDI data in a certain way. Maybe lead with the underlying problem of how to best manage large numbers of articulations.
Ok, you can’t do that with instruments in different racks. Possibly with VEPRO, I don’t use, or with another host plugin like Metaplugin should be able to do it, but honestly I don’t think it would be worth it for normal composition, but it would still be limited by 16 channels