Hey folks. I’ve been using the standalone version successfully for a few months now, where I essentially send my guitar chords to an instance of Omnisphere inside ableton 11, and use the sustain “Forward to instrument” and “hold instrument, switch to guitar” so I can hold the pad while I improvise over top.
I’ve decided to try using the plugin version instead now, but I can’t figure out why the sustain pedal option
“hold instrument, switch to guitar”" isn’t working with it:
First attempt included Midi track with Omnishere and an Audio track with MG2, with the midi input on the Omnisphere track set to “Midi Guitar #2.out”. Didn’t work.
second attempt was the place MG2 on a midi track with an Ext Audio effect feeding the audio of the guitar to MG2, and then routing midi to omnisphere track from the “Midi Guitar #2.out”. Didn’t work
Repeated #2 but changed the midi routing to omnisphere from the midi track with the MG2 plugin. SUSTAIN WORKS, but not the “hold instrument, switch to guitar”. ALMOST THERE
Sooo… any ideas how to obtain the use of this important Sustain feature in the plugin version to allow me to hold the notes played while I improvise over the top?
It so interesting to realize how many functions there are that I’ve never even had a chans to take look at still. With this one, you seem to be right in that "Hold instrument, switch to guitar won’t do anything in Abelton. Easiest way to make sure is always to open the MIDI Monitor in MIDI Guitar 2, and see what happens when you press a button or move a dial.
But you can also do that in Abelton. Or your Omnisphere track, you can insert a MIDI Monitor to see what is actually coming in too. Don’t forget to Arm the track to view incoming MIDI. You can never know too much here.
In this case nothing happens in the outgoing MIDI monitoring window in MG2 for either of the “piano sustain” or the “Hold instrument, switch to guitar” functions, so you can best assume that these are internal functions to the MG2 app/software. The third option "Forward CC64 to instrument however, generated a message both in the MG2 window:
and in the Abelton MIDI Monitoring window:
So we can conclude that this is the only one of those three options that send MIDI to your Omnisphere. I would be very surprised to hear that Abelton don’t have its own hold or freeze function, so I’m sure you’ll be fine either way. Best of luck with your continued exploring, and thanks for the opportunity to delve into this function as well!
Hey LoFiLeiF. Thanks for the your message… I didn’t know of the midi monitor in MG2 which is definitely a helpful tool in this case! I had been monitoring the input signals with ableton’s midi monitor as you shared… it’s a shame it doesn’t work in the plugin. I assume the plugin would be more efficient and possibly more stable, even though I haven’t come up against any problems routing from the standalone version to ableton.
Should this be shared in some way as a bug?
Also noticed the ability to write our own custom midi fx, but sustain isn’t in that custom list. Anyone have an idea how to write for these sustain options?
Hi Blair!
I’'m not sure what to make of it really? I have the same functionality with the plugin as I have with the standalone version. Did you go into Abelton prefs and “refresh” the MIDI guitar plugin settings (Under MIDI ports). The MG2 software doesn’t actually send anything according to the MIDI monitor, so I guess has something to do with the absence of a message instead. A MIDI note is generally combination of a note on and a note off message. And if the note off message is silenced, for instance, the Omnisphere is going to think the note is still held, even when it isn’t. And this silencing could be internal to MG2 for all I know. But as I said, I get the same functionality from both, even though I feel that the pressing of the sustain pedal doesn’t generate fully consistent and reliable results.
I thought the same thing, having access to the sustain script in Midi Machine might give a better understanding of how to use controllers with MIDI messages
you can use all midimachines and buildin remote options inside the MG plugin,
if you reroute the MIDI in the DAW. (DAWs standard do not send midi to audio fx, and MG is actually an audio fx, be it with midi output)
Look here How to send MIDI to a plugin in a DAW | Overloud
I bought an M-Audio SP2 sustain pedal, and it works fine with every soft-synths in Logic. The thing is that I also want to be able to hold a soft-synth chord and solo on top of it. But when I solo on top of it, the notes I play still trigger the soft-synth and it gets messy fast. I understand that it can’t be otherwise, since MG2 is still active and tracking what I play. So, the question is, is there a way that I can have the chord be sustained by itself, not affected by my soloing over it, either in MD2 or in Logic?
LoFILleiF, if you happen to read this and have any idea…
Hi Bernard! What soft synth are you thinking of? Is it one in Logic or is it one of the MG2 synths? If it is a synth on software track in Logic, I’d probably open the Channel Filter in Scripter (in the MIDI FX slot) and set that to Ch.2 (or anything else than Ch. 1), and use the Scripter power on/off button. Start with the filter off, strike a chord and press you sustain pedal, and then turn on the filter for as long as you want the hold function.If you want this for a live setup, you can assign a button or a pedal for this task. Tell me if this worked for you? I just tried it and it worked fine for me!
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