Sonny, you sure seem to know a lot about MIDI. Alas, I do not. ;(
I purchased MOTU MachFive for PC a few months ago, which I am using as a plug-in within Pro Tools 7.3.1cs1. I have a few questions regarding the MachFive's interpretation of Arco and pizzicato midi data.
FWIW, I use Sibelius 4.0 to notate all of my compositions. I've been exporting MIDI files of my compositions out of Sibelius into Pro Tools. Once the MIDI files are in Pro Tools, I then route them through the MachFive to figure out which string samples sound the best for a given compositional idea. My questions are as follows:
1.) For some reason, some of my string samples cut in and out, omitting certain notes while their midi track is playing through the MachFive. Is this simply because the range of the particular string sample that I chose doesn't have a very large sampled range? Could this be why several notes (like, VERY high contrabass notes, etc.) are missing? Is there a way to "add" more notes to whatever library I would pull from?
2.) One of the viola tracks that I wrote in Sibelius contains both Arco and pizzicato markings, which change frequently throughout the piece. When I exported that particular viola track as a midi file, I could hear each Arco and pizzicato change while listening to this midi file within an ACID session. HOWEVER, once I routed the same MIDI track through the MachFive, using a Prosonus viola patch, I only heard the Arco portion. Is there a simple way to route through MachFive to make it interpret EVERY bit of data that is on a given MIDI file? I've heard that people will sometimes route the same MIDI file through separate Arco and pizzicato samples and the edit and mix them together until they are seamless. UGH! There's got to be a better way to do this.
I am not an experienced MIDI user, so, is there is a string library out there that will let me use just one sampled sound to get both Arco and pizz or is this just out of the technical logistics of MachFive's MIDI interpretation abilities?
3.) Lastly, does it make sense to import midi files into Pro Tools that contain NO DYNAMICS and are all exported at the same volume and pan settings? I figure this couldn't hurt, since I am simply mixing the MIDI files and then re-recording them in Pro Tools on their own audio tracks. If you guys use Sibelius to compose and then dump MIDI files into Pro Tools, how do you guys do it?
I would appreciate any answers you can give me!! Please e-mail me at
[email protected]!!
Cheers,
Jay
www.jayterrien.com (http://www.jayterrien.com)
Another way of utilizing both techniques is with multi-timbral VIs.
I create an instrument track and put something like Plugsound Pro or Miroslav Philharmonik on it, load up a number of different patches on separate MIDI channels and routed to separate outputs.
The first sound will be routed to the instrument track's MIDI channel and audio input. I will then create separate MIDI tracks and auxes for the other patches, assigning the MIDI outputs to the respective channels on the VI and the Aux inputs to the corresponding outputs on the VI.
This gives me one instance of the instrument but individual tracks for programming and mixing, keeping CPU down and not wasting instrument tracks, which are limited to 32.
Of course, this will only work with multi-timbral VIs (the two mentioned above, Reason, Sampletank, BFD, Kontakt are examples of others). Xpand would not work in this fashion for instance.
Peace
Sonny