KVR Audio

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:49 pm

Hi there,

Questions to the folks making music:

1. How many instruments can you control simultaneously (say playing live) with only one keyboard?

2. How many instruments can you control simultaneously, taking your full setup into account (more keyboards, pedals, midi controllers, etc)? In this case could you please describe your setup?

Is this relevant to you? If you could increase the number of instruments you could play simultaneously, would that have a major impact on your compositions?

Thanks in advance for your comments & Cheers!

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:16 pm

Not really relevant. I don't want to ever control more than one instrument from a keyboard simultaneously unless I'm stacking them, in which case, I'm basically playing it like it's one instrument.

Maybe if I had a 76 or 88 key controller (instead of using a MicroBrute as a controller) I'd occasionally split it, but more likely I wouldn't anyway. I have always disliked split presets as far back as I've encountered them (on the Korg DS-8).

Likewise, while my Maschine controller has 16 drum pads and each could theoretically be an "instrument", that's like arguing whether every piece of a drum kit is an "instrument" or whether the kit itself is one.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:28 pm

Thanks,

Besides split presets (or something like playing lead voice with the right hand and bass line with the left hand), I'm also asking in the direction of "telling" a computer how to play some programmed background track based on chord information given by the left hand / other input.

Or giving some "instructions" to an automated machine so 'it' can play with you (but in a controlled manner).

Protocol_b · Post by **Protocol_b** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 6:13 pm

Oh. Math hmmmm.... OK, I use a MIDI guitar through 2 guitar-midi converters for total 12 *initial* channels but I split/combine/modify those inside the DAW. Some of the 'instruments' are step-sequencers/arpeggiators controlling further instruments. Some are multi-timbral so not sure how to count those - one instrument or multiple?

But on average, depending on your definition, I am controlling 10 - 20 devices at a time with the only upper limit being confined by the CPU and RAM.

Would I like to control more? But of course. Thousands.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 6:24 pm

jackoo wrote:Or giving some "instructions" to an automated machine so 'it' can play with you (but in a controlled manner).

I would rather micromanage every tiny detail, but then I don't play live.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 6:33 pm

Protocol_b wrote:Oh. Math hmmmm.... OK, I use a MIDI guitar through 2 guitar-midi converters for total 12 *initial* channels but I split/combine/modify those inside the DAW. Some of the 'instruments' are step-sequencers/arpeggiators controlling further instruments. Some are multi-timbral so not sure how to count those - one instrument or multiple?

But on average, depending on your definition, I am controlling 10 - 20 devices at a time with the only upper limit being confined by the CPU and RAM.

Would I like to control more? But of course. Thousands.

Wow! That sounds impressive. Do you have by any chance a track somewhere, using that technique?

Thanks!

Protocol_b · Post by **Protocol_b** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 6:57 pm

jackoo wrote: Wow! That sounds impressive. Do you have by any chance a track somewhere, using that technique?

I *did* but only in 'live' format, not recorded. My tragic tale - I wanted more flexible MIDI routing so I tried to get away from Logic/Mainstage. While experimenting I put a 'VST Shell' or two into Mainstage (I tried Bluecat Patcher, FL Minihost, some others) where I could stuff Numerology, Thesys and NORA in various parallel or serial configurations. Will a shell host a VST inside an AU host? Yes, but don't get too 'fancy'. At some point Mainstage became so corrupted I had to reinstall it, and the concert itself was so corrupted that it would re-destroy Mainstage every time I tried to recover it. So the moral is I'm an idiot for not creating a separate concert to do my Frankenstein experiments on. Sometimes basic file handling rules escape me when I'm obsessed with tinkering.

But I don't mind too much, since I'm never that happy with my product anyway! (If you had heard it you would have said 'That is an unremarkable composition produced via an allegedly interesting technique.') But now I can create new-improved-now-with-more-fiber tunes.

You are the first person to ever display the slightest interest in my mad apparatus - thank you for that!

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:08 am

I recently made an arrangement of Push in Session mode and controlling more than 12 tracks was already difficult. That beging said, I can play (poorly) drums or trigger effects with the other hand.

Still, I'm studio dweller and not life performer. Live control is nice, but not the purpose on its own.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 7:45 pm

jackoo wrote:1. How many instruments can you control simultaneously (say playing live) with only one keyboard?

A lot, and the bigger the midi keyboard the better.

Say you got a 76 key midi keyboard, within your DAW you can assign a vst plug to each key if you just want to trigger them, or an octave if you want to be able to play a little as well.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:10 pm

Numanoid wrote:
jackoo wrote:1. How many instruments can you control simultaneously (say playing live) with only one keyboard?
A lot, and the bigger the midi keyboard the better.

Say you got a 76 key midi keyboard, within your DAW you can assign a vst plug to each key if you just want to trigger them, or an octave if you want to be able to play a little as well.

I'm sorry but I think you missed the whole point of my question.
That cannot be used to make anything meaningful musically.
Do *you* actually make music that way?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:17 pm

jackoo wrote:Do *you* actually make music that way?

Yes, but I would only split the midi keyboard in 4 or 5, having drum samples in one section, bass arp in another, and then pad and lead either vst or samples in the rest.

With this I could be able to play a lot of a track live with only my hands.

I thought the question was playing live?

You should dig up some videos showing how Alan Wilder prepared and played the Emulator II live with Depeche Mode.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:44 pm

Numanoid wrote:
jackoo wrote:Do *you* actually make music that way?
Yes, but I would only split the midi keyboard in 4 or 5, having drum samples in one section, bass arp in another, and then pad and lead either vst or samples in the rest.

With this I could be able to play a lot of a track live with only my hands.

I thought the question was playing live?

You should dig up some videos showing how Alan Wilder prepared and played the Emulator II live with Depeche Mode.

Thanks. Now this answer is much more meaningful.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:49 pm

Also check out Liam Howlett using the Roland W30 sampler workstation, he prepared and played all of those classic early Prodigy tunes more or less directly using only that.

Amazing

rp314 · Post by **rp314** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:16 pm

Protocol_b wrote:
If you had heard it you would have said 'That is an unremarkable composition produced via an allegedly interesting technique.'

Think of how much art created during the second half of the 20th century could be said to have been made by such a process.

Protocol_b · Post by **Protocol_b** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:31 pm

Hahaha (I don't 'lol'), true, and so far in the first half of the 21st as well... ! Well put Sir.

How many instruments can you control at once?