A way to solve the lack of “Controller information on all channels”, discussed earlier here on the Forum.
Could this be something @digimidi ?
A way to solve the lack of “Controller information on all channels”, discussed earlier here on the Forum.
Could this be something @digimidi ?
Still working on it, but so far I haven’t found a way to make it work with my two main workflows (Pro Tools and MG3 standalone) with Omnisphere. The only thing I have that will load Distributor as a midi plug in is Blue Cat Audio Patchwork, but it doesn’t want to pass the midi data to the next plugin. I am going to keep trying, but I hope that @JamO can fix multichannel midi legacy mode at some point to pass controller info on all channels.
Yeah sorry! I tried the Kontakt Multiscript and used the plugin into DDMF METAPLUGINSYNTH and it worked fine. I also tried is as a plugin in Logic and it worked fine there as well, but now I tried it in Elements and in Ableton it didn’t recieve MIDI at all. I don’t know really,
I am going to try with GP5 as well.
I tried it in GigPerformer as well, and from what I can see the “Distributor Instrument” and the VST3 version works there, but the AU does not. Perhaps that can be of some help?
Update: It works in Element too, but you need to the “unverified VST3/Instrument” version. But Element is free, and opens in MG3. It might be worth a try to get Omnisphere working?
Ableton is a no go ( as usual?) unfortunately.
I was using AU and tried VST3 with no luck. I was trying to avoid getting GigPerformer so I will look into Element. Thanks as usual @LoFiLeiF for all of your help!
It’s funny how we MIDI guitarists are sometimes simultaneously thinking about the same specific problem among a group of many.
I’ve been playing with creating certain SynthAxe-style retunings via MG3 Hex/Omnisphere 2 (OS2) leveraging its multi-channel MIDI capabilities and powerful modulation sources. But I have trouble with modulation sources across parts in OS2.
I can make it work but only if I map a specific controller (say breath – CC#02 on Ch.1 ) to a specific parameter (say Cutoff Freq) on each part after duplicating the primary preset across parts 2-7, each receiving note on/off data from a different string/MIDI channel. Then you must save a controller template and indicate to OS2 to load that specific template with the given multi when it’s called up. It’s quite clunky but it basically works in a limited way.
The simple issue is that I can’t automatically send CC data from a single controller to multiple channels when a preset is duplicated across parts. Say if I want to use CC#01 (mod wheel), which is already baked in via modulation sources to many presets, it’s simply not accessible. And if you tell the multi’s patch slots to listen to “any” MIDI channel (omni) you lose the all-important channel separation for the retuning aspect.
So, as I watched this video, I was thinking this could be a great solution but, as a Live 12 user primarily, it seems it is not compatible. And it appears there’s no position in MG3 where you could insert Distributor to get the desired result.
Am I missing something?
Do you have any plugin host software you can use? Element (Kushview) or Metaplugin (DDMF) works for me.
Ableton is still giving me trouble when I save and reopen a project with this setup however.
@LoFiLeiF, yes like @digimidi I have Blue Cat Audio PatchWork which I use quite a lot for different things (usually workarounds) but it seems it’s not handling Distributor based on earlier comments.
I have tested and abandoned the free version of Element in the past for reasons that I now cannot fully recall but I definitely had some kinda of issue with it. How are you finding it?
MIDI channel redistribution of controller messages seems like such a simple thing to do, it’s hard to understand why it’s so elusive. I kind of figured out a way of doing it in Ableton where the controllers bypass MG3 and get remapped six times before reaching Omnisphere 2 but it’s really quite a clunky solution. Also there is a way to make one of my MIDI controllers transmit OMNI but will require some serious editing — and it’s only good for foot controllers transmitting through it…no breath control.
I’m really surprised that there is no M4L device to do this — maybe I can figure out how to make one…
I do like to keep things simple where possible. Ideally we could handle this within MG3 but, if not, then a MIDI FX plug-in between the MIDI GUITAR OUT port and the target instrument seems the next best solution.
What exactly is Ableton doing that’s causing the issue?
There is a plugin from Bluecat Audio that allows you to easily implement this type of distribution: “Remote control 3”.
I have tried BlueCat Audio’s Patchwork a couple of times and I have always had some problems with it. So I haven’t really pursued setting up in that environment. But the same have to be said about the DDMF and the the Kushview environments. Both are instable, tend to crash, or stall. I am only using these as testing environments, to see if something would work.
Recalling a Patch in Element is usually ok, but once you go in a change settings for any of the plugins in use, you often see it just shut down. I wouldn’t trust using ANY of these for live performance puropses as things are now. GP5 is the most reliable setup I have for this.
Sure it would be best if this is solved directly in MG3, but I was hoping to give JamO a chance to breathe, and forcus on the things he working on with a temporary solution for this problem.
When it comes to Ableton I have no idea. There is so much wierd stuff going on in the way they treat MIDI/MPE I have really stopped trying to wrap my head around it. I tend to get stuck with more new problems each time I get into it for whatever reason, so I can’t help you there, I am afraid.
Ok, but how do you use it in MG3? (Since MG3 does not pass on MIDI in the chains.)
Have you tried this in Ableton?
@LoFiLeiF Thanks for offering your take on it all
Yes, I totally agree about giving the developer a chance to breathe! Just spitballing on how to solve this problem with all the MIDI Guitar gurus in da house.
See this possible Live 12 solution…I haven’t 100% tested it yet but it takes all MIDI data from MG3’s output and sends it to the respective channels in OS2 - all indicators are correct.
I only require the CC data to be modified, so I need to find a way to block notes so they don’t end up being duplicated. Alternatively, the controller/s could be connected directly to the “re-channelizer” strips and disconnected in MG3 so the plug-in only produces note on/off data.
I know it can be done, it’s just a matter if figuring out the right tools for the job – maybe I already have the right tools available if it can be done in M4L or Max 8.
I’ll look into Blue Cat Audio’s Remote Control 3 as mentioned by @xtian82. It seems that it could do the same job as this routing but much tidier.
PatchWork is highly useful and stable in its latest iteration. Having said that, moving audio and MIDI around in its grid can be counterintuitive, at least in my experience. I currently use the standalone version to quickly bring up multi-audio device configurations, e.g. sending a D.I. from the SY-1000 to the front input of the Axe-Fx II via an audio interface without having to open up a DAW or rewire things. Once you have it set up right, it’s extremely simple to operate. I can’t imagine how I’d get by without it.
Can you try matching the MIDI Channel distribution coming into Ableton with its internal distrubution and see if the match on your end?
I can’t make sense of the way they jumble things around. They seem use another MIDI Channel distribution order internally.
Show MIDI is intecepting the MG3 MIDI Out before it coes into Ableton, and the ABleton MIDI Monitor is giving me this other Channel on which they pass the MIDI on to the Kontakt instrument. For some reason I end up with a Kontakt instrument that sound on all Channels at all times (but can be Breathcontrolled) which would be the OMNI mode that I am trying to avoid.
I can confirm that MIDI captured from MIDI GUITAR OUT (from MG3 Standalone) is not identical to the MIDI appearing in the native MIDI MONITOR device in Live 12 on a strip receiving the same data stream. There is MIDI note on/off data on all channels up to and including channel 16 in Live 12 only.
I tried rerouting the “re-purposed” MIDI from Live 12 out to a third-party MIDI monitor and the result is the same. Very very strange indeed!
You can mitigate the problem by enabling the MPE mode and limit the use of number of channels to 2-7 if you like, but you still get this jumbling of the notes on these actual channels.
Thank you Ableton. “We’ll give you MPE but we’ll make you work for it.”
So, limiting the channels reflects as expected in the monitor linked to the IAC MIDI driver but, like you said, the channels are being juggled, which might be fine for some applications but not the applications we’re talking about in this thread.
Yes, you wouldn’t have noticed it with MG3 before the HEX tracker, where we had a different MIDI Channel distribution spread. But now when we have a one-to-one match (almost all the way) it is instead very much an issue.
Just thinking over this, I seem to recall that GP5 has a dedicated tool for MIDI channel reallocation.