Routing to different MIDI tracks from a rack

[mu71rd]

I'd like to use a rack's chain control to determine where the MIDI for an input track (that has a keyboard attached) is sent to. ie I have 5 MIDI instrument channels, each with a different instrument plugin, which I'll make available to my two keyboards. I'd like to use the chain control on a rack to determine which instrument track receives the midi from my keyboard.

I have it currently set up that a keyboard input track has an instrument rack with 'external instrument' device on each chain. Within that 'external instrument' device is a dropdown option to route directly to most of my VST instruments. However, none of my Arturia plugins (Analog Lab 4, etc) show up in that "MIDI TO" dropdown. I haven no idea why, but there you go. Must be a bug with Arturia plugins, or perhaps a deliberate choice.

Instead of using an instrument rack with 'ext. instrument' devices on it to route MIDI, is there another way I can use a chain selector to route MIDI to that Instrument Track?

thanks in advance.

[wearemindflux]

So are you trying to swap between different sounds in 1 rack?

Have you set up your midi controls in the midi preferences

[mu71rd]

no, I'm trying to use the chain selector (which I can control) to switch where my input MIDI signal is routing to.

MIDI comes in the channel, currently goes into an instrument rack with chain selector. Each chain in the rack has an 'external instrument' device routing that chain's MIDI into a plugin. I can control which 'instrument' plays by changing the chain selector. Exactly as per thishttps://youtu.be/YQKSaUs6FFA?t=284

The issue is one of my plugins for some reason doesn't appear in the list. Presumably a design 'feature'.

Is there a different way, using racks and chain selectors, to route MIDI signals to other tracks in the session?

[raindog]

Hey MU71rd,

Did you end up finding a solution to this? Having the same issue here with the Arturia stuff not appearing in 'midi to' list

Thanks

[SoundsMagic]

Just in case someone stumbles upon this old thread looking for the answer: Only multi-timbral plug-ins appear in the "MIDI TO" dropdown of the External Instrument. As for a solution, I myself have so far managed with keeping all mono-timbral plug-ins in their own Instrument Rack, or one Instrument Rack with all of them. Although I've just started playing with a new band where the live show is quite demanding for my Ableton Live set, so I'm currently researching and laborating with alternative solutions, using ClyphX Pro/Max4Live/scripting.

[zman818]

Hoping there might be some daylight on this? I have essentially the same requirement as the OP. I have multiple physical instruments represented as midi tracks that I want to map (1:1, or split key) to VSTs I have sitting on other tracks. For various reasons, every direction I've gone (native routing, racks, Max4Live MIDI routers) has fallen short.

Ultimately a device I can put in a rack that will forward all midi it receives to a given track (regardless of multi-timbral) is what I think I need.

TIA!

[zman818]

I've made some progress.

Example:

* I have a single midi track taking its midi from from my Impact GX61
* I have various VSTs on other tracks. Those tracks are marked as Midi From : No Input
* On my input track I have an Instrument Rack I named "Impact Router". I created a chain for each route I want my midi to take.
* Each route has the following M4L MidiRouter device on it: https://maxforlive.com/library/device/7509/midi-router.




One critical piece is that the MidiRouter device must be taking signal from its associated Instrument Rack route (not the input track itself), otherwise the chain selector will be ignored and the route will always get signal.




With the above setup, I'm able to easily move through chains, and my midi signal is routed to the respective tracks. I can get as complicated as I want with the chains. I can even start to leverage different channels on my keyboard (with different input tracks taking directly from the channel(s)), and create a sort of virtual soundbank, though that's going beyond what I originally wanted to do with this, which was simply be able to route my midi signal from a single keyboard to various instruments based on the chain selector.

I have noticed that the MidiRouter device doesn't remember it's Midi Out settings when try to use it via hotwapping presets. This is also beyond my use case, but I'm going to reach out to the device author and see if that's a limitation that can be addressed. It DOES remember the output settings when I save/load Sets, which is all I really was shooting for.

One important advantage (for me, anyway) that this has beyond simply using midi channels is that this approach allows CC messages to continue reaching every device in the rack, which means if I change my route/instruments I don't end up with an unclosed damper pedal press, for example. My routing using chains can also be much more complex than simple channel-based routing allows.

Hope this helps someone out someday.

Cheers.