Multiple sounds in MIDI

[SixChurchStreet]

OK, another "i'm new to midi..." question.

say i want to record 3 midi tracks... different sound or "patch" on each one. Can i get these to trigger and play back all at once. The problem i am having now. is all my midi tracks will only play the current patch i have selected. how do i assign them successfully to different sounds and have them playback simultaneously. something to do with splitting the keyboard? is this something i can do in ProTools or settings in the Keyboard or what? I have a Roland XP-30 by the way. thanks!

- kip

[QuikDraw]

That's what MIDI "channels" are for. MIDI channel 10 is normally used for drums. I've heard that channel 16 is also considered a drum channel, but I've never seen drums on anything other than 10.

So, you might assign your piano track to MIDI channel 1. Maybe your Sax track to MIDI channel 2. Your synth bass maybe on ch 3. Etc...

Get the idea? Each instrument needs to be assigned a different MIDI channel.

I'm not all that knowledgeable in MIDI. I only know the basics. But as far as I know you should not need to do any keyboard splitting in order to get several instruments to play back simultaneously. That keyboard splitting stuff is for live performances where you want to be able to play several different instruments depending on what area of the keyboard you are playing on. To have PTLE play back several different sounds at the same time, all that should be required is that you assign a different channel to each MIDI track, and then choose whichever patch you want that channel to control.

This is all done in PTLE. I don't know your keyboard. There may be something that needs to be done at the keyboard as well that I'm not aware of.

Have fun!

Mike

[Mr_Seven]

You keyboard needs to be switched to multi mode or sequencer mode for it to receive on seperate midi channels and play accordingly.