Recording with two interchanging MIDI channels

[amireldor]

Hi, I'm new to Tracktion so I'm not sure what would be the preferred workflow for this.

I have a single EastWest instance with, say, a short trumpet sound and a sustain trumpet sound, which I assign to midi channels 1 and 2. Now suppose I want to record a phrase which is built of both long and short notes. How would you approach that?

What I have in mind is to record everything in channel 1 and then change specific notes to channel 2, but that's currently not possible with Tracktion/Waveform AFAIK, that is, changing channel per note. So do I duplicate the content to another midi track and apply some comp magic? Does this make sense? If yes, how?

Another solution which wouldn't be possible performance-wise is to record only the short notes of the phrase and then overdub it with the long part. A terrible expressiveness killer.

A third possible solution is probably changing the channel on-the-fly while recording using a midi button or pedal or some other arcane midi magic. Again, if this real-time channel change was not perfect then you can't edit the single notes' channels if needed (because it's not possible per-note in Tracktion/Waveform).

How would you approach this? Thanks.

[jabe]

I think I'd go with copying the MIDI from the track you recorded it on to another, and deleting the short ones from one and the long ones from the other. I assume EastWest is a plug-in, so you could have that on both tracks. This would give you more control over the sounds of each of your trumpets, if you want it. You could render and merge them later, perhaps.

[zzz00m]

Wouldn't it be simpler to use MIDI keyswitches between articulations (short and sustain) within the same MIDI track? This is not a technique specific to any particular DAW, but is only limited by the capabilities of the sample playback engine of the plugin you are using.

EastWest 101: Learn The PLAY Engine - 22. Using Keyswitches

[amireldor]

The keyswitch instruments on the EastWest Hollywood Orchestra I use do not have all articulations I may or need in a song. The keyswitch approach is in the right direction I think. I will try to find a way to make my own keyswitches out of several sub-instruments loaded into the PLAY engine.

[zzz00m]

SampleTank 3 for $99 has some keyswitched classical solo brass. Includes bass trombone, flugelhorn, French horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Articulations vary by instrument, but the trumpet has sustain, staccato, mute, staccato mute, portato, portato short, portato long, etc. Also has ensemble trumpets, trombones, and french horns, with articulations. Not too bad for a cheap ROMpler...

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/sampletank3/