Getting 32 Midi channels with 1 sound module

One physical MIDI connection (think of MIDI cable) support at most 16 midi channels.
So to control 32 parallel voices you need 2 connections and so at least 2 tracks, 16 channels each.
 
EDIT. Quick looking in the documentation confirms that, you should connect both "MIDI IN 1" and "MIDI IN 2", so you need MIDI interface with 2 outputs (so in total 3 cables, on Roland side 2 inputs and 1 output connected to 2 outputs and 1 input on the MIDI interface side)

The XV5080 in fact does have two Midi IN connectors on the rear panel.  So yes it can be used as a 32 channel module. I have a Kawai K5000W which also has the same facilities.
 
You need a midi interface with at least two Midi OUT ports and then you can make the physical connection from the two Midi ports on your interface into the XV5080. Then you should be able to send each separate 16 channel multitimbral sequence to each port.
 
There is no USB port on this. It is all a little before USB time.
 

Thanks
 
That makes sense, next question if I may
I am using a Alesis midi controller which has a USB connection to my PC and a single midi out which I connect to the xv5080 "midi in 1"
The XV5080 has the following midi connections
"In 1", In 2", "Out" and "In 1 Thru"
As the Alesis transmits the data to the PC - Sonar, what would I need to add or change to make 32 channels possible? The XV5080 does not have USB

Thanks 
 

Fantastic Instrument though. The cool thing is there are 8 expansions in it and 4 of them are the older SR-JV 80 cards and the other four are the later SRX series. I have got a JV2080 pretty well expanded too and it sounds incredible still to this day.
 
The other thing is this is the only model that runs at the higher sample rate.  All the others run at 30K. I think this one is 44.1K not sure but it is higher. They say it has a very nice sound because of it. 
 
You will only get the full 32 channels when you connect a hardware midi interface that has at least two MIDI OUT ports. There is no other way. You may have to invest in it. You can always connect your Alesis midi controller via the Midi IN on the midi interface and not use USB at all. (which in most cases will work better) 
 
Once you do this any DAW will see the midi ports listed in the outputs that the midi tracks are addressing. Then you can have 16 midi tracks on different midi channels all talking to one port and another 16 tracks using the same midi channels but addressing the other port.
 
For example I have got a midi interface that has 9 output ports so I can address 9 x 16 channels at once e.g. 144 midi channels at once! Be aware though that when you are addressing 16 channels of midi data down a single port midi timing is not great because of the serial nature of midi. e.g. some parts will be 16 mS late compared to others. (note this is only an issue if you want say 16 instruments to all sound at the exact same time e.g. on the same beat. It just means that the beat will end up being 16 mS wide. In an orchestra you would be lucky to get 16 different instruments to all sound within 16 mS anyway. The beat would be wider than this due to human nature)
 
I use all 9 ports but may only send 3 parts down each port e.g. 27 parts but timing will be way better. So the timing on each port with be tight to within 3 mS. But you need at least 9 multi timbral instruments to do it though!
 
The trick is when you are converting all the midi tracks to audio you can solo each part and only transfer one part at time thus preserving pretty tight midi timing. But for general composing duties using the midi live is fine usually.
 
 
 

One way or another, you need two MIDI OUTs on your PC. The Alesis USB is providing one, and assuming the Roland is connected to the Alesis' THRU (or THRU-enabled OUT), you will be able to drive 16 channels of the Roland via that port. But you still need another physical MIDI OUT on your PC to connect to the Roland's IN 2. A You'll need to add a MIDI interface to your PC or a second USB keyboard with MIDI THRU capability.
 
Or you can just use the 16 channels of the Roland, and do the rest with soft synths which are likely to have better sound quality than the Roland and give you more control over the audio output of individual instruments. With an external multitimbral sound module, you have to do a lot of mixing using MIDI controllers and onboard FX.

To route the MIDI in Sonar you need to treat each of the synth's MIDI in ports as if it's a separate instrument.

Which means picking the relevant synth MIDI in port as a MIDI track's output port and then setting the track's outgoing MIDI channel to whichever channel the sound you want is on. To record MIDI or play the synth, set the MIDI track's input port to the Alesis controller. You'll need to watch out which tracks are armed for recording and what's happening with MIDi track echoing to avoid MIDI being sent to the wrong place in the same way those of use using several hardware synths do.

As an example -

I have a DSI Mopho, Waldorf microQ and a Waldorf Pulse 2 all using 5-pin MIDI cables which I control off the same USB keyboard controller. The MIDI cables are connected to the computer by a couple of MIDI-USB interfaces each with several ports.

To do this I set the Mopho to channel 1, the Q to channels 2-5 and the Pulse to 6. It doesn't matter what channel the controller's set to.

I then create MIDI tracks as follows-
1. Mopho
2 Q
3 Q
4 Q
5 Q
6 Pulse

Each track output points at the MIDI interface port the relevant synth's MIDI cables are attached to. The input of each track points to the controller.

To play/record I select (highlight) the relevant MIDI track and turn on the track echo button. MIDI will then be routed by Sonar from the controller to the synth via the MIDI track. To play a different instrument or Q voice I simply switch track echo off on the track I was using and activate it on the track I now want to send MIDI through.

The main thing is not to try to record more than one of those MIDI tracks at a time, and to make sure only one at a time has input echo enabled (unless I want two synths to play the same notes of course).

If I wanted to I could even set the Pulse, Mopho and one Q voice to all use channel 1 and the routing would still work out OK. Which is very useful as I have an MD-20mini and a couple of other more oddball things that are fixed on MIDI channel 1 and can't be changed.

Edited to add - if, having recorded the MIDI from the controller I then want to add in CCs generated by the controls on each synth all I have to do is switch the MIDI track input over to the port attached to the synth's MIDI output and overdub the knob turning.

Wow - Thank you everyone so much for the responses and guidance , it is really appreciated - 
 
From what I can gather, I have 3 options
1. Get another midi controller Keyboard and use each controller keyboard midi out to the Xv midi in1 and midi in2 and usb from keyboards to pc
2. Buy a USB to midi interface cable- any recommendations I see they go from $29 AUS upwards
3. Buy a Hardware midi interface - any recommendations
 
thanks again all 
 

Jeff Evans
Midi timing is better in Studio One as well. Especially if you use all 8 midi ports and if you have them only sequencing 1 or 2 parts down each port. Actually I am only addressing one instrument per port most of the time which is luxury. (1ms latency which many virtual instruments are struggling to achieve) I do feel the response of the hardware is almost second to none too. Except these days I also have got a Mac and I am running Studio One on that and this time with a thunderbolt interface with 1.2 mS latency. Only now I am feeling this is as fast as the hardware.

When using MIDI cables...
1 note ("On" or "Off") transfer takes 1ms (~30 kBit / 10bit (MIDI byte + start/stop) = 3000 MIDI Bytes/Second / 3 Bytes per note On/Off = 1000 Notes per Second = 1ms
So, 10 fingers chord takes 10ms to transfer.
16 instruments throw one cable have a jitter 16ms when they want to play one (!) note each at the same time.
 
Hardware synth do not have zero latency, more like several mS.
 
Most synth sounds do not have attack under 1ms, the difference between instruments can be huge.
 
What I mean, +3-5ms latency for anything except "tactile" direct feedback with rapid attack (voice, guitar, drums) is physically impossible to distinguish.
 
Do not get me wrong, I also prefer to play my DP with local sound and clearly notice the difference when switching to DP->USB->PC->Soft synth->Slow audio interface (10ms+). But what I claim is that changing the buffer and so latency in the last component (audio interface) in range under 5-8ms is only possible to notice when local sound is played in parallel.
I mean (DP->USB->PC->Soft synth) or even worse (DP->MIDI->(USB/thunderbolt)->PC->Soft synth) latency is far from 1ms (some USB MIDI keyboards, like Roland, try to reduce at least the first part with "hi speed" MIDI mode/drivers, but most do not bother).