Mark Bastable

Like you, I arrived at midi as a guitarist. No. Actually it's worse than that. As a singer who played some guitar. Thing about midi, I think, is that it's really easy, once you've figured out the mechanics, to make something that sounds, y'know, pretty good. By which I mean, competent, acceptable, crafted, musical. The next bit, which is much more difficult, is to make something that sounds original, emotive, compelling, unique. And to achieve that, you have to do a whole lot of stuff that requires the sort of hands-on, inventive, self-critical hard work that - wouldn't you know it? - all creativity demands. And that's what I Iike about using midi. It's like having painted for forty years using the colours of the traditional spectrum, and then a new colour's invented. Your first instinct is to use it all over the place, splash it across every canvas, just because it's so cool and arresting. But, in the end, you realise that it's just another element in what you do, and so you have to figure out what to do with it - and that's work. Some artists you know will create whole exhibitions using that colour as the main theme. Others won't think it needs to be there at all, because Michelangelo managed without it. You have to figure out how it can help you make the pictures you want to make, or provoke you to make something you wouldn't have made at all had that colour not been invented. ....I can spin pretentious metaphors like this all day. But you see the point....

There are threads on this, but no recent ones that I can see, and the tech changes fast. Can anyone recommend an iOS app to control transport from the other side of the room when you’re hemmed in by mikes on your Martin? That’s all I need it to do - start recording and stop recording. Thank you…

….which brings up an interesting development idea. Thinking aloud here…. If manufacturers stick to the convention, it must be possible to produce a damn-nearly-universal drum map. And if you can do that, it should be possible to create a ‘just change the unusual things’ GUI, to map the bits that differ from one VST to another. But, then again, the manufacturers know where they’ ve modified the convention, so they could provide that map, or just the delta. So the map could be part of the download. So it could be loaded in the DAW with the VST. So Drum Map could replace Piano Roll as the default midi editing mode for percussion. So why are we managing Drum Map libraries and explicitly invoking Drum Map use as an Output assignment? …or have I missed something?

Ah, so there's a convention that they tend to stick to. That helps. Thank you.

I'm pondering the logic here before I actually do it and give myself a whole bunch of grief. The midi drums I have already recorded using MS Power were triggered by given pads on my MPD 218, and subsequently edited by me, using both piano roll and a drum map view. The drum map shows piano key > drum sound. I don't have a pianomidicontroller, but I assume that that mapping is specific to the VST, rather than generic. In other words, the snare on the MS Power might be C3, but the snare on another drum VST might be D3. So if I were to change from one drum VST to another, would I have to create drum map that, as it were, maps MS Power's key assignments onto the new VSTs drums? Or is there an easier way round this?

I have three. Though not a chromatic. There’s no way I could play what I need played. And actually, I disagree that they’re easy to play. Though they’re very easy to play badly.

Thank you for replying. I'll do some tests and get back to you. Edit: Bear with me. I will get around to doing a controlled test of this.

@Promidi Certainly. Sorry for the offhand tone of the question. Version 2021.06, Build 53, Windows 10 running on sixmonth old Lenovo laptop with 16gig of memory. Quantize works fine, and instantaneously. Audition Quantize gives the Circling Blue Doughnut of Thought, forever. Well, fifteen minutes is the longest I’ve left it before killing the Cakewalk process.

I've been using DSK's, but out front with nothing but an acoustic guitar behind it, it sounds a bit synthy. Difficult to virtualise a harmonica, I suspect. It's quite a complex noise. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Aha. Thank you, John.

I have a midi track that's output to a French horn VST. (See pic,) I run it, I hear the French horn - all good. I want to try it with a different VST instrument. However, if I pick another VST from the dropdown, I hear nothing. But actually, although that's a problem, it's not the main problem. The main problem is that I want to use another VST entirely, not one in the dropdown of instruments that are already in use on the track. This is obviously a reasonable thing to want to do, so I must have done something stupid at an earlier stage. Is it that I should have set up a separate instrument track to send to? And if that is the answer, what have I actually done here? Is the midi track I have now inextricably married to the French horn?

Ah, very cool. Thank you.

Triffic reply. Thank you very much for your time, and clarity.

Yep, it's on my desktop. Not too inconvenient to have to go there. Thanks.

Ah, I thought it might be useful, though I haven't found out why yet. Sending to different outputs? So, what I have to understand is the difference between Bounce to Clip, which I thought meant 'flatten all the little takes in this lane into a single clip' and 'Bounce to Track' which I've definitely seen somewhere or other. If Bounce to Clip means, 'Shift it all up into the parent track', what do you use to 'flatten all these short clips into one clip but don't necessarily promote it to the parent'? Ah, maybe you'll say, "How come you have lots of little clips in a lane if you've been creating separate lanes for each take?" And the answer to that, I'm afraid, is "Damned if I know." Also, is it right that I don't see the 'Flatten Comp' command?

A tip appears in the documentation... Note: If you prefer to always use offline Help, go to Edit > Preferences > File > Advanced in your Cakewalk software and select Always Use Offline Help. But I don't have that option, at least not in that path. Is it elsewhere? (Version 2021.06, Build 53)

I have different drums of a midi kit on several take lanes, and I want to get them all on the track, as it were. The manual says right-click the desired take and hit 'Flatten Comp'. But I can't see that command. Maybe this is because you only get that for audio takes. So, how do I get all my midi drums on one midi track? Or do I not need to? Or should I have not recorded them in separate take lanes in the first place? And if not, how should I have done it? Standard disclaimer: Newbie, learning curve, slightly embarrassed to have to ask.

....every time. Is this usual?

Sorry, should have responded to this one sooner. All good, thank you. That DIM thing's rather useful, I think.

Yes please

I tried out the suggestions given, but the results were inconclusive. As far as I can tell, and I may be wrong about this, some kind of weird harmonic has come in from the audio-to-midi conversion and it is triggering something I can't see. I have no idea if that makes sense. I don't think it does, logically. Anyway, I got really frustrated and started again. And played it better anyway. Thank you all. As always, the support here is both fascinating and friendly. That's not as usual on forums as it ought to be.

Has anyone ever experienced the phenomenon of a midi track playing a note that just isn't there? I've deleted everything in the measure - no velocities showing in the lower pane - and still, when I send it to a VST piano, it plays a note. I've also, as an experiment, copied the apparently blank measure to another bar, and it plays there too. I mean, I guess I could live with it, but it's not even in the right key. It's driving me nuts.

The Darkness are one of those bands it's possible to really like and really dislike at the same time, without feeling that any contradiction arises. Neat trick if you can pull it off. See also, CSNY, The Talking Heads and The Gang of Four. (I mean, I'm noting the phenomenon in general. I'm not suggesting anyone other than me would nominate the same bands.)

Got it. Thank you for the heads-up.

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out and maybe resort to actually ponying up some money. But, you know how it is - I've got fixated on finding this thing, and I'm going to give it a couple of days before I give up. EDIT: Found it. I misremembered. It's not free... https://www.fabfilter.com/products/pro-q-3-equalizer-plug-in