How to group two midi tracks to one INSTRUMENT rack

[82DMC12]

Hey everyone,

Let's say I have a track with a synth bass on it and a few midi clips and effects. On the next track I have a synth lead on it with midi clips and effects. I want to create an instrument rack with the bass as one device and the lead as another device. Is there a quick way to merge those two tracks into one instrument rack, preserving all the effects? Or, is there a way to have an instrument rack and then bring another midi track into that rack. You can't do it with clicking and dragging or using copy/paste. Seems like the only way is to try to recreate the track within the rack which is tough if you have been tweaking all sorts of knobs.

Thanks,
Andy

[mothergarage]

I'm not entirely sure I understand. But select both tracks (shift+mouseclick) and hit Strg+G.

[82DMC12]

OK let me try to make it more clear.

I can drag an instrument rack into a MIDI track and then drop different instruments into it. I know that.

But let's say I have two MIDI tracks, track 1 and 2, each with their own single instruments already in them. Parameters have been tweaked to taste and each track has an effect chain. How do I turn tracks 1 and 2 into a single instrument rack (either on track 3 or turning 1 or 2 into the rack), preserving the settings and effects chains from each original track?

The purpose of this would be to then have the option to use the chain selector to split the instruments, and then draw in an envelope where the racked track can play different instruments in a single clip (or consecutive clips) based on the envelope.

I know this sounds complicated but the reason I was trying to do it was because I was building a session with 9 tracks. I wanted to eliminate one track so everything would fit on one page of my Launchpad. I had Track 1 doing something for the first two scenes, then track 2 doing something else in the next two scenes. Since they didn't play at the same time, I wanted to merge the two tracks together and use chain select to swap instruments.

Hope that makes sense now, as well the reason behind why I want to do it.

I know I COULD freeze a track into audio and just make both MIDI tracks into one audio track. But then I would not be able to change the arrangement with the MIDI editor after the fact.

Andy

[oddstep]

i've done this with a lot of copying and pasting of envelopes. it's a boring evening.

[mahkitah]

You can easily copy/paste a whole midi track including effects and everything into an instrument rack. In one go while keeping all the settings.

Create a new midi track with an empty instrument rack. Create a new chain inside the rack.
In the source track select all your instruments and effects (shift click) and copy (via right click or Ctrl-C)
And then paste it in the chain of the instr. rack.

Do the whole thing again for the other track.
The hardest part is combining the midi notes and making them work on the right chain, but this is also mostly done with copy/pasting

I've done this lots of times.

[oddstep]

Mahkitah, does this method transfer envelope automation for the instrument or do you have to transfer this separately?

[mothergarage]

And I still don't get why you can't just group the tracks. So you just have one track on the launchpad for the two instruments. You don't need the chain selector for what you want to achieve. You can have two parallel midi clips for each instrument. Let one play while the other one is silent.

[mahkitah]

Mahkitah, does this method transfer envelope automation for the instrument or do you have to transfer this separately?

Hadn't thought of that. You probably have to copy them separately. Don't know for sure. I hardly use envelopes in clips.

[oddstep]

@ mahkitah, shame - moving envelopes is where the effort is - I was hoping I'd missed something.
mother garage's idea is straightforward... you could use crossfade to switch within a single scene.