Plugin to split chords to discrete MIDI channels?
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- KVRian
- 587 posts since 8 May, 2012 from E.U.
Hi folks,
Picture this:
I play a chord on my MIDI controller.
In my DAW, the armed track has a plugin (either VST-i or VST audio effect) that will take that chord and send each voice to a separate MIDI channel.
So if i play 3 notes, it will send to MIDI channels 1, 2 & 3.
If i play a 5 note chord, it'll send to channels 1,2, 3, 4 & 5.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!
Picture this:
I play a chord on my MIDI controller.
In my DAW, the armed track has a plugin (either VST-i or VST audio effect) that will take that chord and send each voice to a separate MIDI channel.
So if i play 3 notes, it will send to MIDI channels 1, 2 & 3.
If i play a 5 note chord, it'll send to channels 1,2, 3, 4 & 5.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!
- KVRAF
- 13958 posts since 19 Jun, 2008 from Seattle
I'm not a musician, but I've designed sounds that others use to make music. http://soundcloud.com/obsidiananvil
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- KVRAF
- 2751 posts since 15 Apr, 2004 from Capital City, UK
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- KVRist
- 207 posts since 7 Oct, 2015
Divisimate is the pro answer.
https://divisimate.com/
https://divisimate.com/
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Analog Dessert Analog Dessert https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=379044
- KVRer
- 2 posts since 7 May, 2016
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For anyone finding this thread from search: I recently released a Max for Live device for this exact use case, called Pie Plate. Ableton-only (sorry!) -- but worth a mention for people landing here, as I've been looking for something like this for 10+ years, and it never came into existence, so I decided to make it.Sits between Divisimate (looks super complex) and midiPolyphony (super bare, bland, almost unuseable, lol).
The thing it adds over the simpler free splitters is has a stable voice assignment mode, where: the lowest note of a chord always lands on Synth 1, the middle on Synth 2, etc, regardless of which key your fingers actually hit first. That keeps chord voicings consistent across a stack of synths instead of scrambling on every play.
15 routing modes: simple poly, round-robin, random variants, chord memory, minimal-movement voice leading for pads, bass+lead duophonic split, and more. Up to 16 voices, each on its own track.
For Ableton Live 11/12 only, via Max for Live!
https://analogdessert.com/downloads/pie ... er-router/ (https://analogdessert.com/downloads/pie-plate-midi-chord-splitter-router/)
It "just works" out of the box, even though the GUI looks pretty intimidating.
Last edited by Analog Dessert on Fri May 01, 2026 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 587 posts since 8 May, 2012 from E.U.
Nice!
Question: did you include the "release finger to trigger chord" feature?
This feature allows you to trigger the chord only once a finger (any finger) releases, then triggers the chord (optionally with the exact timing that it was played in) ...... this solves the problem of the plugin not knowing if you triggered all the intended notes yet.
Someone made me a chord midi splitter app with the "finger lift" feature a few years ago, more info here:
https://maxforlive.com/library/device/1 ... e-splitter
I was thinking of revisiting the idea (what with the advent of Claude Code and all that), but i've got so many projects on the go, i'm note sure I'll ever get around to it!
Question: did you include the "release finger to trigger chord" feature?
This feature allows you to trigger the chord only once a finger (any finger) releases, then triggers the chord (optionally with the exact timing that it was played in) ...... this solves the problem of the plugin not knowing if you triggered all the intended notes yet.
Someone made me a chord midi splitter app with the "finger lift" feature a few years ago, more info here:
https://maxforlive.com/library/device/1 ... e-splitter
I was thinking of revisiting the idea (what with the advent of Claude Code and all that), but i've got so many projects on the go, i'm note sure I'll ever get around to it!
Last edited by Mr D on Fri May 01, 2026 7:31 am, edited 3 times in total.
- KVRAF
- 9579 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
Bitwigs instrument selector can do that nicely as well…
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 587 posts since 8 May, 2012 from E.U.
- KVRAF
- 2483 posts since 22 Sep, 2016
I personnaly prefer piz ... as far as I know the look-bitwig-can-this-and-that-like-plugin-x trick is not able to reliably number lowest notes to channel 1, regardless of using 3 notes or 4. Afaik bitwig instrument selector does this by round robin a fixed number of slots, doesn't it? But nevertheless, if this is what you need it's fine.
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- KVRist
- 54 posts since 14 May, 2012
For Reaper users there is also Tale's "Dynamic poly/mono MIDI router" JSFX from https://www.taletn.com/reaper/mono_synth/ which works quite well and has a few modes for voice allocation.
- KVRian
- 909 posts since 27 Apr, 2018
I don‘t know any tool, which does this dedicatedly, rather some stuff like MIDI manipulation environments, which means, you need to put some effort on it. If you don‘t wanna use the tools from the DAWs, but wanna stay DAW-agnostic, one obvious tool, which you might have, is Reaktor. This is the way I‘d try it.
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Analog Dessert Analog Dessert https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=379044
- KVRer
- 2 posts since 7 May, 2016
No, I handled it a bit more eloquently for musicians; there's an internal note settlement timing window (that is imperceptible to musicians, sub 5ms); but enough time to account for the micro/nano/milliseconds between note strikesMr D wrote: Fri May 01, 2026 5:51 am Question: did you include the "release finger to trigger chord" feature?
