DAW / In The Box MIDI Myths - True or false please?

Discussion in 'Software' started by belinea2010, Oct 9, 2019.

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  1. belinea2010

    belinea2010 Kapellmeister

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    Windows 7 64 bit

    Cubase 5

    All Soft Synths

    I am working on a complex project that requires a lot of soft synths but I am rapidly running out of MIDI channels. Having spent some hours searching various music production forums there seems to be conflicting answers/opinions on how to deal with this.

    I have no idea if true but two interesting answers were:

    1. to use a virtual MIDI port program

    2. for each instance of the SAME Soft Synth we get 16 channels of MIDI so, for example, if I opened Kontakt (kontakt 1) and 16 Librarys I could use all 16 midi channels but if I then opened a 2nd instance of Kontakt (kontakt 2) I could then use another 16 midi channels and so on.

    BUT.... the first 16 midi channels that I used for Kontakt 1 would NOT affect Kontakt 2 and vise versa. To put it another way Midi Channel 1 assigned to a library in Kontakt 1 would not send midi data to Midi Channel 1 assigned to a library in Kontakt 2 and so on.

    My questions are for

    1. are virtual MIDI ports stable and can anyone recommend one I can use?

    2. is any of what I have written in answer 2 right or wrong?

    I genuinely have no idea but the only thing I do know is just 16 MIDI channels is nowhere near what I need for this project so any help or suggestions would be great.

     
    belinea2010, Oct 9, 2019
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  2. Ads Master

    Ads Master

     
  3. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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    The "16 MIDI channels" is more for hardware synths (16 of them in a live situation, for example).

    With softsynths you can run as many (VSTi) as you want (i.e., as many as your computer can handle in realtime, before you have to start freezing/bouncing/rendering).
     
    Baxter, Oct 9, 2019
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  4. korte1975

    korte1975 Guest

    hi balinea,

    can you explain how do you run out of midi channels in a daw in 2019 , please ?

    case closed.
     
    korte1975, Oct 9, 2019
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  5. No Avenger

    No Avenger Audiosexual

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    Best Answer
    The asigned vsti synth is already the virtual MIDI port.
    You can run 20 synths on 20 tracks on MIDI channel 1 and none of the notes will affect any of the other synths.
     
    No Avenger, Oct 9, 2019
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  6. belinea2010

    belinea2010 Kapellmeister

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    Thanks everyone :wink::like::wink:
     
    belinea2010, Oct 9, 2019
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  7. The Pirate

    The Pirate Audiosexual

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    @belinea2010 For what you are trying to do all you need is an app like LoopBe30 https://www.nerds.de/ 30 In and Out ports. Each of these ports can be connected to eight applications simultaneously.
     
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    The Pirate, Oct 9, 2019
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  8. tun

    tun Rock Star

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    are you playing all of those synths live? if you are not you can run all synths on one MIDI channel, or even omni channel and the MIDI events from each track will only send to their corresponding synth.
     
    tun, Oct 10, 2019
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