KVR Audio

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:40 am

I've been playing with the Live4 demo. I've done the tutorials and they work fine.

But now I've imported a multi-track midi song and can't seem to get things to work right. I dragged each track of the midi file into its own clip (is that the right way to do it?).

Now each clip seems determined to ignore the original midi channel and will only output on channel 1. But it doesn't ignore the patch change that's in the midi file, even though I've changed it in the vst and was hoping to override it.

There doesn't appear to be any midi editing/viewing mode except piano roll. There's no event viewer/editor as far as I can tell.

The program is pretty cool for certain things, but if its midi is really this weak, I'll give up now.

I'm used to using Sonar. All this kind of stuff is trivially easy in Sonar, but seems impossible in Live. The manual is no help - glosses over the details.

Am I missing something???

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:09 am

Oh man, Live is SO strange! I set up to use a multi-timbral vst (sfz with a GM set) and had the 6 clips share one instance of sfz. Works ok, but I still don't know how to override the patch changes.

But the nasty thing is that I can't solo any of the clips or they all quit playing.

I'm still probably missing something.

fladd · Post by **fladd** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:13 am

The normal sfz player has only one stereo output, how can you mute one of the instruments without the others?

fladd

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:20 am

> how can you mute one of the
> instruments without the others?

Sonar does it - just shuts off the midi stream for that track, I guess.

pornstar · Post by **pornstar** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:26 am

Never used Sonar, but Live is the most intuitive program I've ever used. Give it a chance and you'll end up loving it.

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:34 am

I tell you what - I WANT to love it. It's got some very very cool features and is mostly pretty easy to use, but there's a few things bugging me about it that if I can't find a way to work around, I'll wait for version 5.

I've used Sonar in many various versions since it was called Cakewalk and ran on my old XT 8086 DOS box. Long before windows came out. V2.0? I forget. Long time ago.

r_module · Post by **r_module** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:51 am

futz wrote:But it doesn't ignore the patch change that's in the midi file, even though I've changed it in the vst and was hoping to override it.

double-click your midi-clip to show up the clip parameters. the "notes"-section contains dropdown menus to select banks/programs.

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:00 am

> the "notes"-section contains dropdown
> menus to select banks/programs

You'd think that would work, wouldn't you? It doesn't. Has no effect. Very odd.

r_module · Post by **r_module** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:11 am

futz wrote:Has no effect. Very odd.

you need to restart the clip. it works (tried it atm).
every clip in a track can have its individual bank/programs.

futz · Post by **futz** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:20 am

> you need to restart the clip

Aha!!! Eureka!!! She blows!!! That did it.

So the midi handling is a bit kludgey. And multi-timbral vst use is a little messed up, but by god I've got it worked around.

They'll fix it all up on the next go around. Meanwhile, even with the quirks, it's a very cool program and I like it a lot. Maybe I'll buy...

Thanks guys.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:29 am

Nothing wrong with the midi my side.

Rusty Shackleford · Post by **Rusty Shackleford** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:37 am

futz wrote:Oh man, Live is SO strange! I set up to use a multi-timbral vst (sfz with a GM set) and had the 6 clips share one instance of sfz. Works ok, but I still don't know how to override the patch changes.

But the nasty thing is that I can't solo any of the clips or they all quit playing.

I'm still probably missing something.

This is because soloing tracks disables every other track including the midi track that triggers the part that you want. You can 'solo' these parts in the session view by clicking Stop All Clips and then triggering the MIDI sequence you want, then just click Back To Arrangement to get back to work when you're satisfied

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:38 am

futz wrote: They'll fix it all up on the next go around. Meanwhile, even with the quirks, it's a very cool program and I like it a lot. Maybe I'll buy...

Thanks guys.

MIDI in Live 4 is on the barely-usable level. It's still worth it but I'm sure it's one of the things they'll focus on for the next version.

FaX · Post by **FaX** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:58 am

kuniklo wrote:
futz wrote: They'll fix it all up on the next go around. Meanwhile, even with the quirks, it's a very cool program and I like it a lot. Maybe I'll buy...

Thanks guys.
MIDI in Live 4 is on the barely-usable level. It's still worth it but I'm sure it's one of the things they'll focus on for the next version.

That's hysterical - barely useable LMAO

That's why the stuff I'm working on has at least 14 midi tracks w/VST's per composition.
It's as useable as a Yamaha QY / MMT8 / QX-1 or ASQ-10 hardware sequencer anyday of the week.
Don't know what drqks you're all on seriously.
ACID 4.0 is barely useable midi .
Or cant you guys hits record and play a keyboard ?

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:03 am

FaX wrote: That's hysterical - barely useable LMAO
That's why the stuff I'm working on has at least 14 midi tracks w/VST's per composition.
It's as useable as a Yamaha QY / MMT8 / QX-1 or ASQ-10 hardware sequencer anyday of the week.

I think I just reached my limit for host pissing contests for at least a month.

Glad you like it.

Is Live 4 really useless for MIDI?