Ableton Forum

I've searched and searched and still haven't found the answer. To me it appears that Live completely ignores the actual MIDI channels that are used for external keyboard controllers and routes everything as if though it were Ch.1 (sorta), let me elaborate on the setup:

Roland A50 MIDI KB Controller set for Ch.1 (connected to 4x4 Input A)
Akai MPK49 MIDI KB Controller set for Ch.2 (connected to 4x4 Input B)
M-Audio 4x4 MIDI Interface

A single instance of Trilian, (or Omnisphere, or RMX - all of which are multi-timbral)

Ableton MIDI = All Ins / All Channels

Now...the issue here is that when I play both KB controllers, they will only play Part1/Ch.1 of Trilian, Part2/Ch.2 of Trilian is ignored. Ableton behaves as if though it ignores the actual incoming MIDI Channels for the KB controllers and wants to spit everything into Trilian as Ch.1. This is not how Cakewalk SONAR works (which I'm used to using). SONAR will actually see the two separate MIDI channels coming in and will play each Part in Trilian on it's corresponding channel.

Why doesn't Ableton do this?

i doubt it's midi, probably audio output settings instead. My guess is that, if a VST synth has multiple outputs, sonar automatically sets up tracks for all the outputs for you. ableton only defaults to setting up the main out (outs 1 and 2). If trillian has a midi active notification or something (like kontakt has a little light that lights up when it receives midi), you can verify if it's actually receiving midi or not. If so, you just need to either remap the audio out, or add a track with an external instrument on it, route it to trillian, and pull off the right output.

If you put your VST on one track, then you can point to the "part" you want to hear

an example, (your MIDI assignments may vary)

track 1 has vst, but audio output muted
track 2 is an audio track set to get audio from track one, part one (midi ch1)
track 3 is an audio track set to get audio from track one, part two (midi ch2)
track 4 is an audio track set to get audio from track one, part three (midi ch3)

etc.

A bit confusing at first.

(You can use external instrument as well, but I see no real benefit.)