Midi Channel Routing

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Would anyone else find an option to internally route seperate midi channels useful?

Poll ended at Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:27 pm

Yes
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Total votes: 1

rogerl_uk
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:37 pm

Midi Channel Routing

Post by rogerl_uk » Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:27 pm

According to the documentation, Ableton Live merges midi channels when routing midi from one track to another. IN most instances this is probably not an issue, but there are occasions when I use a sequencer such as Stochas. On each pattern, I can program up to 4 layers which can output to different midi channels (say 1 to 4). Therefore, theoretically, I could control four different instruments by each instrument on an individual channel. However, because Ableton Live merges the midi channels I do not seem to be able to do this. Can you develop a feature to not merge midi channels to enable me to use sequencers such as Stochas?

solidaqua
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:02 pm

Re: Midi Channel Routing

Post by solidaqua » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:11 pm

I think I have found a relatively low-pain solution to this.

1. On windows, Install the external loopmidi driver and create with it a virtual midi port. This will be shown in Live's Midi.
2. In Ableton go to Options>Preferences>Midi>Midi Ports and enable the "Track" and "Sync" for "Out: loopmidi Port".
3. Create a track with your Stochas instance, and then 4 other tracks. For those, set "Midi From" to the Stochas track and channel the output of the Stochas MIDI plugin.
4. On those 4 tracks, start instances of Ableton's "External Instrument". Then on those instances, on the "Midi To" selector select loopmidi and channels 1-4.
5. Create 4 instruments with whatever you want and set them to monitor the loopmidi port, and the corresponding 4 channels.

This way the midi information is correctly routed and you can play 4 different instruments from the same sequencer. A little convoluted but thankfully a solution with a Stochas instance inside Ableton.

gagua
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:05 am

Re: Midi Channel Routing

Post by gagua » Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:07 am

Thank you!

kentel
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:14 pm

Re: Midi Channel Routing

Post by kentel » Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:39 pm

Tested ?
Sorry. Do not work for me with Stochas.
All the channels are blended.
I double check Stochas layer's channels, LoopMIDI, The IN/OUT, the ext.instr. configuration and the channels, no way. Even with two ports of LoopMIDI with 2 differents channels.

Alternative solution ? With the internal routing of Live, it seems impossible.

A Time For Foxes
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:01 pm

Re: Midi Channel Routing

Post by A Time For Foxes » Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:10 pm

I think I have found a relatively low-pain solution to this.

1. On windows, Install the external loopmidi driver and create with it a virtual midi port. This will be shown in Live's Midi.
2. In Ableton go to Options>Preferences>Midi>Midi Ports and enable the "Track" and "Sync" for "Out: loopmidi Port".
3. Create a track with your Stochas instance, and then 4 other tracks. For those, set "Midi From" to the Stochas track and channel the output of the Stochas MIDI plugin.
4. On those 4 tracks, start instances of Ableton's "External Instrument". Then on those instances, on the "Midi To" selector select loopmidi and channels 1-4.
5. Create 4 instruments with whatever you want and set them to monitor the loopmidi port, and the corresponding 4 channels.
The problem I have trying this is in Step 3: I can set the channel outputs within the Stochas plugin, but how do I get other MIDI tracks to read just that specific channel?

When I set "Midi From" to Stochas, the only options in the channel list are "Pre FX," "Post FX," and "Stochas" - is there a way to make it choose channels while having it also receive Midi From Stochas? I'm not sure if there's simply a setting somewhere I haven't configured properly, but following your steps still had all 4 channels playing from all 4 of the External instruments.

My current, less favorite workaround is just to have multiple instances of Stochas for each channel rather than using layers because it seems like a MIDI channel will only read all the channels coming out of Stochas, rather than just one of them.

I recognize this may be an issue with the plugin's coding not being interfaceable with Ableton's, but I wanted to note that this solution didn't work for me.

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