Multiple MIDI Channel Question

Reboot your computer and your Controller (that fixed my *moody* Fantom X8 controller yesterday).

You might-should be able to assign MIDI channels and banks based on the XV-88 documentation.

I think you're both right that somewhere in the bowels of the XV-88 lies the answer but Zones seems like it would be XV-88 specific and I've rebooted a thousand times but as you suggest it's probably somewhere in the docs.

Maybe a better question. Is running separate instruments in a separate MIDI channel any better than simply using MIDI OMNI which seems to work OK?

Your controller can send on OMNI OR a specific channel.  On Omni.... any active synth will see the signal and pick it up. It's like shouting a command in a room...everyone can hear....If you select a specific output channel... the synth channel must also be set to recieve on that same channel  or you have no communication and no sound. more like whispering in someone's ear....only that one person hears it.

I set my keyboard to channel 6 (transmit)... so when I set up a synth in my platform.... I MUST set the input via track properties (in the platform...not the synth) to channel 6.

Now.... If I use a multi channel synth, I have to set each channel of the synth one at a time to channel 6 to record data for THAT specific channel. For example...I want bass in channel one of the synth.... I set the input to receive midi channel 6 and play and record....
then I want strings in channel 2 of the synth.... I set channel 2 to receive on midi channel 6...AND I need to set synth channel 1 input to NONE...or it will continue to see and receive the data I want sent to the strings channel in the synth.
simply repeat this for the remaining channels in the synth.

I have some info on my website... MC4 pages on doing this with TTS...also a 16 channel synth that many people use. Once you understand the concept.... it's actually pretty simple and cool.


I mentioned that I set my keyboard to channel 6. This was intentional, any channel would have worked....I decided on 6.... this was to avoid the omni signal that would be picked up by any "open" synth channel when I was still using TTS.... I have become used to it now.... and it works extremely well. Most of my synths are one channel synths, and I still need to be aware of shutting off the inputs on the "resting" synths in a project lest they chime in with unwanted notes.

Hope this helped.

I think it's time to develop a strategy like you've suggested Guitar.

 
Another strategy that I thought was actually the most common:
 
Set up a MIDI track for each channel of the soft synth and set the output channel (and starting bank and patch if you want) of each track accordingly. This is known as using a "forced" MIDI channel; no matter what channel the incoming MIDI or recorded MIDI is on, the output will be forced to the channel you assign.
 
By default, SONAR echos the input of the currently active (highlighted) track. So you can set them all to OMNI In, and no matter what channel your controller is transmitting on, you will only hear the sound on the track/channel that is currently active. And even though the MIDI events are recorded with the same channel on the different tracks, the forced output channel keep all the parts separate.
 
Tha advantage of having separate channels and tracks for each part/ instrument is that you can control panning, volume, transposition, bank, patch, etc. individually for each part. If the synth offers multiple outputs, you can also apply different effects to different parts adn get more control over output levels.
 
Personally, in addition to using multiple tracks and forced channels, I like to either change my controller's output channel before recording or interpolate the data after recording so that the channel of the recorded events is correct, just to ensure that I don't get parts irreparably munged together if I make a mistake when copying phrases between tracks. I also like to disable the Always Echo Current MIDI Track setting in Global Options, and set input echoing manually so I have control over what's echoed regardless of what is selected.
 
 
 

I found a way to send to different MIDI channels from the keyboard but no easy way to switch between them other than switching the keyboard which is very awkward and I as of yet can't find a benefit. It's also not a fluid change of channels and doesn't respond how I'd expect it to but that could be user error.