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Separate channels for drums

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Craig
Posts: 1
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hi,

I am trying to program my midi controller to control a drum VST in ableton live. The VST in question has 16 pads and the documentation states that each pad has its own midi channel. The manual then goes on to say that each channel has various controls that can be mapped i.e. filter resonance which is on CC#32.

The controller is the Novation SL MKIII which uses the components software and I have set CC#32 on channel 1 which indeed changes the resonance on pad number 1 within the VST. So far so good! Next I set CC#32 on channel 2 to see if it changes the resonance on pad 2 but this does not work.

I have used midi ox to troubleshoot this and can only suppose that the problem is something to do with LSB and HSB and having read a little about this, I'm now at a loss.

Thanks in advance

🙂

 
Posted : 21/02/2020 3:20 pm
Geoff
Posts: 1043
Noble Member
 

I assume that you are concerned with drums ONLY. Using ALL your channels for drums seems somewhat OTT, but I can see that the way this system operates will allow you to apply CC (controllers) quite differently between different drum instruments if that is needed.

I'm used to most drums being all on Ch 10. What am I missing out on??

Insofar as things are not working as you expect, it would be a help is you could record (as midi) a short piece of playback. I believe you can do this with MIDI-OX. Then attach the midi file to another message - the file will need to be ZIPped as attachments cannot be .mid but can be .zip (odd ?? for this forum). Then I can look at the data and see what should be happening - I'm not sure if I can PLAY the piece as I may not have the right controllers.

Geoff

 
Posted : 21/02/2020 4:17 pm
Dmitry
Posts: 27
Eminent Member
 

Pads/triggers are typically set to respond on different notes (with keys mapped according to either standard GM/GS Drums layout, or some custom layout) on the same MIDI channel. CC #32 is Bank Select LSB and typically goes in pair with CC #0 Bank Select MSB - for example, CC#0 with a value of 121 selects GM2 bank, and subsequent CC#32 with values 0/1/2 select variation banks for the current Program. Filter resonance would be controlled by CC# 71 Timbre / Harmonic Intensity.
MIDI controller keyboards are typically programed to include these standard controller changes on their faders/sliders and pads/butttons.

I guess the prevailing control method today is to use automation, since VST offers much finer control and the number of channels/buses is infinite. MIDI CCs would only control the ''offset" - i.e. all connected pads would shift their asssigned oscillator/filter/LFO/AG/EG parameters proportionallly according to a relative change from the default value.

Typically the plug-in UI will let you draw automations in some user-friendly way - see for example this tutorial for Xfer Nerve plug-in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3r7y1_7n2M

 
Posted : 27/02/2020 12:25 am
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