Simple MIDI question

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eddieray7
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2015/05/20 18:04:27 (permalink)

Simple MIDI question

Hi,
 
I have a couple of MIDI tracks set up and connected to a soft synth.  I have a MIDI keyboard controller connected and I can play notes on it and the MIDI tracks make their synth sounds... ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  My MIDI drums, piano and strings tracks are all "active" as I noodle around on the keyboard.  Each of the MIDI tracks are set up the default way (Input: My MIDI Box, Channel: OMNI)... and that simplifies things.
 
What I'd LIKE is for ONLY the track that is armed for recording to receive the MIDI keyboard input.  Is there a setting for this?
 
I'm currently using Sonar Home Studio 7 XL, but I've got Sonar X3 that I haven't loaded yet and I'm gonna run into the same issue I bet, so will need to resolve it there too.
 
I'm pretty sure this used to be a non-issue in HS6, 2004XL and earlier... you had to ARM a track before it would receive MIDI input.

Thanks in advance...
 
Ed
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    brundlefly
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 18:45:06 (permalink)
    I don't know Home Studio, but in SONAR by default only the track that currently has focus will echo MIDI to the soft synth, and record-arming is totally independent of that. You can also disable "Always Echo Current MIDI Track" in preferences, and manually choose to enable Input Echo on one or more tracks at all times regardless of which track has focus.

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    slartabartfast
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 21:32:22 (permalink)
    Why do you have all of your tracks input set to omni again? If you are trying to just record/echo the current input from the keyboard to a single MIDI track driving a single synth, and your keyboard is aliased/hidden as your MIDI interface, can you not set the MIDI channel coming in to something other than omni="none"=all, and the track you want to record/echo to that input channel? The expected behavior with tracks set to input MIDI omni and input coming on any MIDI channel is to receive every MIDI input and respond appropriately. 
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    Doktor Avalanche
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 23:08:19 (permalink)
    Yup get rid of omni from your workflow you shouldn't get any further issues. Omni makes things more complicated not less.
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    mettelus
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 23:24:38 (permalink)
    Just be mindful of Input Echo. Unless you are driving multiple (different) things at once, using Omni is fine. MIDI allows for 16 channels to be used, but would require the keyboard channel to be adjusted (sort of moot if only driving one thing).

    Just be sure that input echo is assigned appropriately (I am not sure if there is a preference as in SONAR as B'fly mentioned either, but even with that set, it still requires checking at times).

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    konradh
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 23:36:40 (permalink)
    I have Preferences set to echo the currently selected track: but, if you have separate audio and MIDI tracks, as in the case of an external synth, you will have to turn echo on whichever one is not selected.  Example: I set up a MIDI track to control a Motif synth.  Then I set up an audio track to receive the sound from the Motif.  If I select the MIDI track, echo will be on for the MIDI track (because it is selected), but off for the audio track—so I have to click echo on the audio track so both tracks have lit-up blue echo symbols.
     
    In the case of a soft synth (i.e., VST or virtual instrument), Sonar is smart enough to know that the audio and MIDI tracks go together so you just select one and you're all set.  When you have external synths, though, Sonar has no way to know which matches which.  **A way to link these would be a nice enhancement.**

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    Doktor Avalanche
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/20 23:43:05 (permalink)
    Well I'm old skool. Always echo current tracks is off, I'm used to the workflow on real desks. Probably not the best way but I think it  forces me into good habits.
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    FastBikerBoy
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/21 02:21:14 (permalink)
    Here's a freebie video on my youtube channel that explains the basics of MIDI. It is produced in X1 but the principles are the same no matter what the DAW and will answer to your question 

    Karl
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    eddieray7
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    Re: Simple MIDI question 2015/05/21 19:22:00 (permalink)
    Thanks for the suggestions and discussion.
     
    As it turns out, the MIDI Echo button in the track view is mis-documented.  In HS7 you have to set it to "Echo: Auto Thru" to get the "only echo on the selected track" behavior.  If you set it to "Echo: On", it's going to ALWAYS echo, no matter which track is selected.  The "Thru" is what threw me... that usually means "take the MIDI for me and then copy it to everything else" which sounded exactly like what I *don't* want. :-)
     
    So it's working exactly like I wanted it to work now... just set each MIDI track to "Echo: Auto Thru".
     
    To answer some of the "why that?" questions:  I have a soft synth set up with a bunch of sounds/presets on different MIDI channels - so I set the channel on the MIDI track to get the sound I want (easy peasy!).  I use MIDI Omni to simplify recording since I only want to record on a single track at a time *and* I only have one MIDI controller - MIDI Omni vs. Channel 1 - MIDI Omni wins (and it's the default).  Maybe if I was going to play on two different MIDI controllers at the same time, I'd set the input channel to something else in particular tracks.
     
    Thanks,
    Ed
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