Using One Instance of VI Instrument for Multiple MIDI Tracks

[adam79]

I have the Audio Assault Westwood Drum VI. The option to send each drum/cymbal to it's own track doesn't work in Pro Tools (the developer is still working out the bugs). The only way I can do this is to split up the Instrument track by pitch.

So now I have 11 tracks that all use the same Instrument plug in, and my CPU runs out of resources when I have 11 instances of the Instrument. Is there a way to have just one instance of the Instrument that feeds all 11 tracks? The only other thing I can think of is to bounce each MIDI track and turn them into audio tracks.

Thanks.

[Benoni]

Why would you be using 11 instances instead of routing the different MIDI tracks to one instance of the VI?

[adam79]

Originally Posted by Benoni

Why would you be using 11 instances instead of routing the different MIDI tracks to one instance of the VI?

Exactly. That's my question.. how do I route all 11 tracks to one instance?

[Sardi]

Insert VI on an Aux track and create 11 MIDI tracks routed to the Aux track.


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[adam79]

When spliting the notes by pitch, PT creates audio tracks for each MIDI pitch. When sending the 11 audio tracks to an Aux bus, with the VI instrument, there's no audio output.

If I create a new MIDI track, drag the MIDI notes from the main Instrument track to it and then split the notes up via this midi track, it creates 11 MIDI tracks and everything plays from the one instance on the Aux. The problem with this is that you can't add any inserts or sends to the MIDI tracks! So it's pointless, as the reason for splitting them is so I can add plugins to the individual drums/cymbals.

Is there anyway to get this method to work the first way, with the audio tracks?

Thanks.

[Benoni]

You could commit each MIDI track and get audio tracks for each drum. then add plugins.

[adam79]

Originally Posted by Benoni

You could commit each MIDI track and get audio tracks for each drum. then add plugins.

That seems like the only way I'm gonna get this to happen. The drum VI has it's own mixer and all the drum kits have FX and pan info. When splitting the track by pitch and commiting to audio, will whatever the pan is set to become it's new center? Besides removing any FX I don't want, I should probably set all the pan to dead center, to avoid any confusion, ya?

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by adam79

That seems like the only way I'm gonna get this to happen. The drum VI has it's own mixer and all the drum kits have FX and pan info. When splitting the track by pitch and commiting to audio, will whatever the pan is set to become it's new center? Besides removing any FX I don't want, I should probably set all the pan to dead center, to avoid any confusion, ya?

I have Westwood, but I haven't really tried splitting things out, so I don't know about pan info. I think it should respect that since it will be running MIDI through the plugin and printing to a stereo track.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Benoni

You could commit each MIDI track and get audio tracks for each drum. then add plugins.

That was my first thought, too. You have the exact same situation with Boom, where you can't have separate MIDI channel inputs or AUDIO outputs per kit part.

1) Create your drum track
2)Point the MIDI track to the Drum VI to play the track.
Now, if you can solo individual drum parts on your Drum VI (like you can with Boom, you won't have to create 11 MIDI tracks
3)Solo the first Kit part (kick, say) and commit to Audio (Be sure to properly label the track so you know what's what.
4)Rinse and repeat for each kit part until you have the entire track down.
5)You might want to create a stereo track of the entire track as well to EQ like you might overheads or room mics.

Then EQ and add FX to your heart's content on each part.

I would set up a submix AUX bus to send all the drum parts to, for a final overall tweak to the entire kit, such as add the reverb (if any) here.

Good luck!

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by adam79

That seems like the only way I'm gonna get this to happen. The drum VI has it's own mixer and all the drum kits have FX and pan info. When splitting the track by pitch and commiting to audio, will whatever the pan is set to become it's new center? Besides removing any FX I don't want, I should probably set all the pan to dead center, to avoid any confusion, ya?

I'm not familiar with your particular Drum VI, but if its anything like Boom, any rhythm preset usually comes with panning preset. So, what I do is note the panning of each part BEFORE I commit to audio, then I center the pan in order to commit to audio, then when with audio of the kit part, I readjust the pan to match what was in the preset.

Why would I do this? Because, I also like to create a stereo audio track of the entire drum track with the panning all set (kinda like you would with room or overhead mics) and then I eq those tracks like I would overhead or room mics, to add some depth. So I want the pannings to match

Of course, you don't have to keep the preset pannings...you can set your own...just be sure your stereo full mix panning and the individual kit part pannings match. You don't want the snare left on the individual track, and right on the stereo full kit track!