Input gain makes no difference to instrument tracks?

I have never taken to instrument tracks. They were only added as a feature because other DAWs had it and some users complained that SONAR should have them, too. After they were introduced with SONAR 8, I gave them a go and soon abandoned them as being too restrictive. They really offer only one advantage - keeping your track view tidy - but many disadvantages and limitations.
 
My solution is to keep MIDI and audio tracks in separate folders, ordering both in the same sequence so it's easy to locate a MIDI track's companion audio track and vice versa. This doesn't really add much clutter, since depending on where I'm at in the project's life cycle I'm going to be working primarily with MIDI or primarily with audio, and can simply close whichever track folder I'm not spending much time in.
 
Track templates can include folders, which is especially handy for multi-timbral instruments and complex routing. For example, I have an orchestral string track template that automatically creates four MIDI tracks in a folder, four corresponding audio tracks in another folder all named according to their respective string sections, loads Kontakt with my go-to string library, and routes all the audio tracks to a "strings" buss. All with a couple of mouse clicks.

I tend to favour instrument tracks, as I find it convenient not only for treating them as one track, but also I find it easier to swap out synths on the fly.
 
With the synth rack, I've got the MIDI track, the synth, and the outputs to separate audio tracks to deal with. If I change synths, I've got to re-route everything, which gets in the way of my workflow during writing.
 
I don't mind having duplicates of synths as I rarely get anywhere near to maxing out CPU or RAM.
 
Once I'm happy with an instrument track, I usually freeze it so I can treat it solely as audio.
 
I guess it all depends on your workflow...
 
If you've got a good idea for your song before you start recording (or a better memory than I have for keeping ideas in your head!), then separating them out will work fine.
 
I write and record as I go along. Getting ideas down quickly and developing them in the moment is priority for me.
 

msmcleod
I've wondered why this is the case too - thanks for clearing this up scook.
 
It is really confusing though, as everything else on the strip is audio based.
 
IMO it would make far better sense for the gain knob to swap between audio gain and "MIDI" gain when you swap between the Audio & MIDI tabs - just like every other control does (e.g. Volume, Pan etc).

This is a great idea actually since it would allow for accessing both controls from the inspector!
We'll consider it.
 
[Edit] I misspoke - input gain is not used for synth audio tracks. Input gain is pre fader gain that is applied to audio data from track and not synth output or from hardware input monitor. 
See the signal flow chart that illustrates this. So this is indeed by design that the input gain knob exclusively controls just the MIDI velocity+ which is somewhat equivalent in function to audio input gain.
 
[Edit2] I confused myself above lol. Input Gain is indeed available on audio channels for instrument tracks. So we'll implement the behavior recommended in this thread. Thanks for the feedback!

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
So this is indeed by design that the input gain knob exclusively controls just the MIDI velocity+ which is somewhat equivalent in function to audio input gain.

It isn't really the 'equivalent' control if a lower MIDI velocity triggers a different sample altogether within the instrument..
 
input gain should change the apparent volume, not the sample being played.. surely?

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

msmcleod
I've wondered why this is the case too - thanks for clearing this up scook.
 
It is really confusing though, as everything else on the strip is audio based.
 
IMO it would make far better sense for the gain knob to swap between audio gain and "MIDI" gain when you swap between the Audio & MIDI tabs - just like every other control does (e.g. Volume, Pan etc).

This is a great idea actually since it would allow for accessing both controls from the inspector!
We'll consider it.
 
[Edit] I misspoke - input gain is not used for synth audio tracks. Input gain is pre fader gain that is applied to audio data from track and not synth output or from hardware input monitor. 
See the signal flow chart that illustrates this. So this is indeed by design that the input gain knob exclusively controls just the MIDI velocity+ which is somewhat equivalent in function to audio input gain.

According to the signal flow chart, the instrument output hits the audio track after the audio gain.
 
This would imply that if I split an instrument track, changing the audio gain will have no effect whatsoever... except if I do this it does actually change the gain.
 
Recombining the tracks back into an instrument track retains the audio gain setting...
 
Furthermore, splitting the audio track again shows the audio track gain control exactly as I set it, meaning the audio gain setting it is getting stored inside the instrument track.
 
So if an instrument track is actually an audio track and a midi track just displayed as one, why can't the Gain knob be linked to the Audio track gain when the Audio tab is selected, and the MIDI track gain when the MIDI tab is selected?
 

brundlefly
Audio gain only affects signal coming from playback of recorded/rendered audio clips. As noted, live input from interface channels and soft synths hits the track after the input gain and is not affected. To control the input level to the track from a soft synth, you can either adjust the output volume of the synth directly via the synth GUI or use MIDI volume to control it.

 
It does affect live input from live synths. Here's me playing a chord on an organ, with no recorded clips whilst adjusting audio input gain: