MIDI to Multiple Tracks: One Working Solution

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2008/12/12 10:58:26 (permalink)

MIDI to Multiple Tracks: One Working Solution

There have been many, many threads discussing the subject of MIDI 'sends', and having the ability in Sonar to output MIDI clips to multiple tracks. Given the amount of confusion and disinformation floating about, I thought that I'd put together some images of one solution that's been around for as long as these forums have.

All that's needed is a virtual MIDI cable, installed to your system. They're free (and freely available), download & install in seconds, and are easy to configure. Yet they are versatile enough to serve as the foundation for any number of unique configurations in Sonar, and fill in solutions that Sonar currently lacks. For example (not illustrated here), VMCs can be used to 'print' the output of drum maps to a parallel MIDI track.
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Here's a few links to some virtual MIDI cable downloads.
Most feature multiple MIDI cables, defined by virtual MIDI ports, with each 'cable' containing 16 MIDI channels.

Maple Virtual MIDI Cable
LoopBe1
MIDI Yoke

Not a 'native' solution, you say? Neither is any other third-party plug-in device that doesn't ship with Sonar. That's the beauty of having an open architecture. Install once, and you're done. No need to re-install at upgrade time. It's just a patch cable: out-to-in; in-to-out. But you have many the advantages of hardware MIDI router, including 'mults' and isolation by MIDI channels & multiple ports.
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In the image above, live keyboard input and/or resident MIDI clips are routed to three separate synths. It's also routed to 2 MIDI tracks; each containing an MFX plugin. In turn, the MFX processing is 'printed' to 2 more MIDI tracks in real-time. All of this happens over a single virtual MIDI cable.
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In this image, the process is reversed. Six MIDI tracks of source clips are routed to a single synthesizer. In this case, the synth was set to multitimbral mode. The combined clip in the destination track maintains its MIDI 'channelization' in the recorded results. Again, this is all done over a single virtual MIDI cable, and accomplished in real-time.
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