General model for MIDI note routing ?

[mderouss]

Hi folk,

[ insert standard 'I'm a newb, please don't hit me' paragraph here ]

so, I've got this ancient old keyboard ( Yamaha PSS-480 ) that will generate MIDI msgs, and I'm trying to figure out how to use it with my selected tool, i.e. Mulab 5 XT.

After some frustration and much semirandom button pressing, I've got things so that pressing the keyboard keys makes notes in the basic synth ( keyboard is on channel 1 ), the latency is tolerable for my primitive purposes, and I can record them and play them back.

Now what I want to do is have additional tracks using different synths. I want to use the keyboard to play them, such that eventually each track contains a different sequence of midi notes directed to a different synth/instrument, and I can then mix those tracks.

This is where I'm stuck. My mental model of the way things are working is that MIDI note info on a particular channel is being routed by Mulab to a particular synth, which plays notes according to how it has been configured. I'm ignoring all the other things that MIDI can potentially do with a device, all I care about here and now is notes.

However, I cannot work out how to make synth's other than the basic synth respond to notes. By 'respond', I mean 'the level meter shows something is happening'. I can see three possible 'solutions'.

1. I have to arrange to route MIDI channel 1 to a different synth somehow whenever I want to play that synth.
2. I have to arrange to copy MIDI channel 1 to all the synths, and just record the relevant one somehow.
3. I have to assign a different channel to each synth somehow, and switch the channel on the keyboard when I want to use a different one.

Which of these should I be trying for ?

[MuTools]

I'm not sure if i understand your question but i think you simply want to play the instrument that is currently selected, right? By default, this is done automatically: Whenever you click a rack or part or plugin editor, MuLab will switch the MIDI input focus (which is shown in the top-right panel) to that specific instrument/effect. It should work 'out of the box'. Doesn't that work for you?

[mderouss]

Absolutely right That's what I thought it should do, so I was wondering if I'd missed something fundamental at the architectural level.

Apparently not, and I've solved my issue now .

It seems that one of my earlier experiments ( there were many ) when MIDI input was not working properly ( with crazy 1s latency - I do not know what I eventually changed to fix it ) had been to Edit MIDI Input Channel Targets such that channel 1 was mapped to a specific device, rather than following focus. Now that I've fixed that, everything is unsurprisingly fine, ahem !

Thanks for the quick response anyway - and I anticipate having some real problems quite soon now....

[pljones]

Depending what you're after, "Edit MIDI Input Channel Targets" is very useful -- but target racks, not devices directly, in the main, as it's more flexible to changes you make. You can then just have one rack per channel, regardless of adding and removing stuff. It's also maybe a good idea to force MIDI channel 1 for everything, too (that's the right-hand column).