Multitimbral instruments in Live
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:31 pm
One question I keep getting is how to set up multitimbral instruments in Live so that you can generate multiple tracks with a single instrument using only one instance of that instrument. My experience is that this does save significant processing power, at least in my Mac environment, compared to using multiple instances of the same instrument.
First, what is a multitimbral instrument? It is an instrument that can independently produce more than one sound at the same time. Prominent examples of multitimbral soft synths include such well-known Spectrasonics products such as Stylus RMX and Omnisphere. Each of these synths has a mixer page showing up to 8 tracks. Each of these tracks can have a different preset on it (or any other customized setting, of course), and each track responds to incoming MIDI signals totally independently of the others. Another examples if the Virus TI Desktop synth, which is 16 parts multitimbral. Again, in Virus Control, you can navigate to the mixer page and see the ability to put in place up to 16 different programs on their own tracks, and again, each one responds to MIDI signals independently.
What this boils down to is this: With one instance of, say, Stylus RMX and the Virus TI each, you can have up to 24 separate tracks in Live. And the great thing about a synth like the Virus TI is that the great bulk of the processing load takes place off your computer CPU. Sixteen separate tracks you can add with basically no incremental load on your CPU. Nice.
So here is a step by step example of how to set it up. I will use the example of Stylus RMX, but it the approach is basically the same for any multitimbral synth, including the Virus TI.
In Session view, create an instance of Stylus RMX. By default, you will note that right above the fader and send section, the output indicator shows that this MIDI track is outputting to the Master. That is just fine; leave it as it is.
Now, create an additional MIDI track next to the one you just created with Stylus RMX on it. Now, in the output section of this new midi track, click the drop down menu. You will see a choice for "Stylus RMX", which is the instance you just created above. Select that. Click right below that, and you will see a choice of channels on the Stylus available to output MIDI to. Select the first channel.
Now, re-activate the first MIDI track you created with Stylus RMX on it. The Stylus RMX plug in window will appear (if it doesn't, find the representation of the Stylus RMX plug in at the bottom of your Live Session View and click the wrench to display the window). Go to the mixer page on Stylus and make sure that track 1 is selected (it will be, by default). Click on the chooser for the track to active the Stylus RMX browser menu and choose a program to put on that track (can be any Stylus loop, including a full kit or maybe just a bass drum or high hat from "groove elements"). When you find something like that, drag and drop the loop from the Stylus RMX window to the second MIDI track you created (*not* to the track that has Stylus RMX on it). When you activate the scene, that MIDI track will send the information from the MIDI loop to the Stylus RMX track based on the routine we've put in place above, and you should hear the loop playing. You will notice that the VU meter under the Stylus RMX MIDI track will register that audio is playing. The metering under the Channel 1 MIDI track, the one we dragged the MIDI loop to, will have instead of an audio meter the vertical array of round dots indicating that it is showing MIDI trigger information, not audio.
You continue by adding additional MIDI tracks, sending the MIDI output again to Stylus RMX, and then specifically directing the MIDI output (in the drop down menu right below that one) to Channel 2 of Stylus, then Channel 3, then Channel 4, and on until you have enough or you reach the maximum number of tracks that Stylus can handle (8). As you do this, make very sure you select the CORRECT CHANNEL in the mixer onboard the multimbral instrument BEFORE you look to change the preset to create your new track -- otherwise you will change the preset on the track you've already created (and these plug ins dont always make it easy to "undo" or find the previous sound you had).
When using something other than a drum synth, such as the Virus TI, to record an individual track once you've set it up as indicated above, you simply arm the relevant MIDI track. When you play your midi controller, you will hear the multimbral instrument respond with the program that you have on just that track, and you can record as you usually would in Live with a separate instance of the instrument.
I find it helpful to keep the "children" MIDI tracks in Session view with the one "Parent" track on which the instance of the multitimbral instrument resides. Even more helpful is to make all of those Session tracks the same color so you can quickly see how they are grouped.
The downside to using this approach is that all audio from the one instance of the instrument is summed and mixed at the instrument level, so you can only change the volume for all of the tracks together using Live's fader, or you can only apply Live effects (or Live plug effects) to all of the multitimbral instruments all at once, not to individual tracks within the instrument. While that is a draw back, in the case of instruments like Virus TI, Stylus and Omnisphere the VST/AU plug itself gives you a high degree of control not only over individual track volume levels, but also over panning and effects for each track individually. Plus, you can automate all of these controls individually. Tracks launch in Session view as if they were separate instances of the instrument. So this limitation is really not that much of a problem in practice, and the efficiency of using the multitimbral approach is easily worth having to re-orient yourself slightly to this way of working. Of course, if you absolutely must need to place some particular VST/AU effect on an isolated track, you can always break down and create a second instance of the plug in.
Hope this is helpful to some people out there who haven't yet unlocked the power of their multitimbral VSTs and AUs.
First, what is a multitimbral instrument? It is an instrument that can independently produce more than one sound at the same time. Prominent examples of multitimbral soft synths include such well-known Spectrasonics products such as Stylus RMX and Omnisphere. Each of these synths has a mixer page showing up to 8 tracks. Each of these tracks can have a different preset on it (or any other customized setting, of course), and each track responds to incoming MIDI signals totally independently of the others. Another examples if the Virus TI Desktop synth, which is 16 parts multitimbral. Again, in Virus Control, you can navigate to the mixer page and see the ability to put in place up to 16 different programs on their own tracks, and again, each one responds to MIDI signals independently.
What this boils down to is this: With one instance of, say, Stylus RMX and the Virus TI each, you can have up to 24 separate tracks in Live. And the great thing about a synth like the Virus TI is that the great bulk of the processing load takes place off your computer CPU. Sixteen separate tracks you can add with basically no incremental load on your CPU. Nice.
So here is a step by step example of how to set it up. I will use the example of Stylus RMX, but it the approach is basically the same for any multitimbral synth, including the Virus TI.
In Session view, create an instance of Stylus RMX. By default, you will note that right above the fader and send section, the output indicator shows that this MIDI track is outputting to the Master. That is just fine; leave it as it is.
Now, create an additional MIDI track next to the one you just created with Stylus RMX on it. Now, in the output section of this new midi track, click the drop down menu. You will see a choice for "Stylus RMX", which is the instance you just created above. Select that. Click right below that, and you will see a choice of channels on the Stylus available to output MIDI to. Select the first channel.
Now, re-activate the first MIDI track you created with Stylus RMX on it. The Stylus RMX plug in window will appear (if it doesn't, find the representation of the Stylus RMX plug in at the bottom of your Live Session View and click the wrench to display the window). Go to the mixer page on Stylus and make sure that track 1 is selected (it will be, by default). Click on the chooser for the track to active the Stylus RMX browser menu and choose a program to put on that track (can be any Stylus loop, including a full kit or maybe just a bass drum or high hat from "groove elements"). When you find something like that, drag and drop the loop from the Stylus RMX window to the second MIDI track you created (*not* to the track that has Stylus RMX on it). When you activate the scene, that MIDI track will send the information from the MIDI loop to the Stylus RMX track based on the routine we've put in place above, and you should hear the loop playing. You will notice that the VU meter under the Stylus RMX MIDI track will register that audio is playing. The metering under the Channel 1 MIDI track, the one we dragged the MIDI loop to, will have instead of an audio meter the vertical array of round dots indicating that it is showing MIDI trigger information, not audio.
You continue by adding additional MIDI tracks, sending the MIDI output again to Stylus RMX, and then specifically directing the MIDI output (in the drop down menu right below that one) to Channel 2 of Stylus, then Channel 3, then Channel 4, and on until you have enough or you reach the maximum number of tracks that Stylus can handle (8). As you do this, make very sure you select the CORRECT CHANNEL in the mixer onboard the multimbral instrument BEFORE you look to change the preset to create your new track -- otherwise you will change the preset on the track you've already created (and these plug ins dont always make it easy to "undo" or find the previous sound you had).
When using something other than a drum synth, such as the Virus TI, to record an individual track once you've set it up as indicated above, you simply arm the relevant MIDI track. When you play your midi controller, you will hear the multimbral instrument respond with the program that you have on just that track, and you can record as you usually would in Live with a separate instance of the instrument.
I find it helpful to keep the "children" MIDI tracks in Session view with the one "Parent" track on which the instance of the multitimbral instrument resides. Even more helpful is to make all of those Session tracks the same color so you can quickly see how they are grouped.
The downside to using this approach is that all audio from the one instance of the instrument is summed and mixed at the instrument level, so you can only change the volume for all of the tracks together using Live's fader, or you can only apply Live effects (or Live plug effects) to all of the multitimbral instruments all at once, not to individual tracks within the instrument. While that is a draw back, in the case of instruments like Virus TI, Stylus and Omnisphere the VST/AU plug itself gives you a high degree of control not only over individual track volume levels, but also over panning and effects for each track individually. Plus, you can automate all of these controls individually. Tracks launch in Session view as if they were separate instances of the instrument. So this limitation is really not that much of a problem in practice, and the efficiency of using the multitimbral approach is easily worth having to re-orient yourself slightly to this way of working. Of course, if you absolutely must need to place some particular VST/AU effect on an isolated track, you can always break down and create a second instance of the plug in.
Hope this is helpful to some people out there who haven't yet unlocked the power of their multitimbral VSTs and AUs.
moly....