MIDI Channel Automation

[George2000]

Hi all,

Pulling out my hair here- tried searching in the PT manual and on this forum but cannot find out how to automate a midi channel change. Is there a way to do this? I don't want to have to create a new track simply to change the midi channel...

Thanks.

[George2000]

I think I found it in the online help actually. It seems that it is not possible:

"MIDI tracks in Pro Tools cannot contain multiple channels of MIDI data."

Not sure if they mean at the same time or if it's just not possible to switch channels. It seems like the latter though.

[albee1952]

No, its not something you would or should automate. Why don't you describe what your goal is and see if someone has a solution?

[smurfyou]

Duplicating your current MIDI track is trivial and these tracks use minimal resources. One track per channel is pretty standard.

[George2000]

Well I want to use a different instance of an instrument within Kontakt. Sure, the easy thing would be to just setup another track with it's own midi channel assigned.

But this is for two different string articulations. So for example: I start off using violin longs, then want to switch to another instance of the violins using pizzicato. Unfortunately with this instrument I cannot just do a keyswitch, the articulations I want to switch to are in a different instance of the instrument plugin.

All is fine with setting up another track, until I want to print a score. So now I have the violins playing longs on one track, then the violins playing pizz on another in the score. I really want them to just be on one staff in the score.

So... I'm not sure there is a way around this?

Thanks again for the help/responses!

[Philthy]

You can't switch channels on one track. You can set up dummy score tracks to make your score look nice, without worrying about playback. So basically the full MIDI part on a single track, without a real output, just for display as notation. It's a kludgy workaround, yes, but all things considered, the level of notation integration in ProTools is pretty great considering how few use it.

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by George2000

Well I want to use a different instance of an instrument within Kontakt. Sure, the easy thing would be to just setup another track with it's own midi channel assigned.

But this is for two different string articulations. So for example: I start off using violin longs, then want to switch to another instance of the violins using pizzicato. Unfortunately with this instrument I cannot just do a keyswitch, the articulations I want to switch to are in a different instance of the instrument plugin.

All is fine with setting up another track, until I want to print a score. So now I have the violins playing longs on one track, then the violins playing pizz on another in the score. I really want them to just be on one staff in the score.

So... I'm not sure there is a way around this?

Thanks again for the help/responses!

One way would be to automate the mute or volume of the individual instruments. Might be a little clunky but it could work.

[massivekerry]

Originally Posted by George2000

Well I want to use a different instance of an instrument within Kontakt. Sure, the easy thing would be to just setup another track with it's own midi channel assigned.

But this is for two different string articulations. So for example: I start off using violin longs, then want to switch to another instance of the violins using pizzicato. Unfortunately with this instrument I cannot just do a keyswitch, the articulations I want to switch to are in a different instance of the instrument plugin.

All is fine with setting up another track, until I want to print a score. So now I have the violins playing longs on one track, then the violins playing pizz on another in the score. I really want them to just be on one staff in the score.

So... I'm not sure there is a way around this?

Thanks again for the help/responses!

Sounds like you’re trying to do 2 different things with one thing:

1 - Have the separate articulations in different instances for more thorough control of sound.

2 - Have only one MIDI part, so you can easily print/export the written part.

Usually, I either have multiple tracks and just let my orchestrator handle it, or if I printing the part, I will take my multiple tracks and copy them onto one “dummy” MIDI track, where I can then use to just make the part look pretty and conform note lengths (that doesn’t actually play a VI) , irrespective of how the samples sound.

Alternately, I guess a way to do what you seem to want is to have the MIDI part routed to multiple Instrument Tracks that have the different articulations loaded, and automate the Audio Mutes on those channels to “switch” between the articulations.

[smurfyou]

Ah ok. I think the dummy track for printing sounds like a good workaround.

[George2000]

OK, thanks for the ideas all!