One MIDI track, multiple soft synths

[Starship Krupa]

This is such a basic thing that I must have just missed it in the documentation. Playing multiple instruments from a single source is something MIDI has been able to do for 37 years, so there must be nothing to stacking 'em up inside Cakewalk.

I have a recorded-in-real time MIDI track that I want use to drive 2 different soft synths.

My MIDI track seems to allow only a single output, and I can't see any way to "stack" or daisy chain soft synths. Some equivalent to the hardware synth "thru."

I've tried different combinations of Synth tracks, Simple Instrument tracks, MIDI channel assignments, examined the Synth Rack, still, nada. I tried creating a Simple Instrument track and putting the other synth I wanted to use in its FX rack. Nope, no matter what I choose as the MIDI track's output, only one synth at a time makes a sound.

The way I've always done it in Mixcraft is that all of their "Virtual Instrument" tracks are similar to Cakewalk's Simple Instrument tracks in that both the MIDI data and the synth are part of the same track. There's a "rack" on each track to insert one or multiple soft synths. Record the MIDI data and you're free to change synths or add and subtract as many as you want to your heart's desire.

I thought I had it working at one point, then saved the project, but when I exited Cakewalk and came back to it the next day, it was back to not working, so that may have been a fluke or late night confusion.

Is it a matter of routing? In Mixcraft if you want to go in the other direction, say use multiple tracks of MIDI information to work one synth with multitimbral abilities, you have to do a little bit of routing.

[scook]

7 minutes ago, JohnK said:

Are there any synths bundled with Cakewalk that support MIDI Out?

No

Try one of the free Code FN42 plug-ins mentioned above. They both load up as synths and are designed to pass MIDI data. On their own they make no sound but will still need a Simple Instrument Track or audio+MIDI pair. For plug-ins like these I use a SIT.

[JohnK]

6 hours ago, scook said:

No

Try one of the free Code FN42 plug-ins mentioned above. They both load up as synths and are designed to pass MIDI data. On their own they make no sound but will still need a Simple Instrument Track or audio+MIDI pair. For plug-ins like these I use a SIT.

AAAArrrrgggghhhhh! I'm getting the exact same behavior. Only the single destination track that has focus at any one time, receives and plays the MIDI. And correspondingly, if none have focus, none will play.

 

[Nigel Mackay]

@JohnK That means that Midi Ch Gilt probably does not do Midi Out. When the source DOES do MIDI Out then it DOES work. 

Have you checked if Nelda SoundFactory Lite has the MIDI through setting? It is a free plugin. The full version works.

Very few VSTs do actually do MIDI Out. The fact that they say they do is meaningless.

Full version of Kontakt works. Have you tried the free Kontakt Player?

[Nigel Mackay]

8 hours ago, JohnK said:

 

The fact that Ample Guitar is provided as a part of a default Cakewalk install, I would really expect it to work.

Apart from Ample Guitar not being bundled in CbB, why should any VST bundled with CbB do MIDI Out?

None of the SI instruments do. They say they do, but they don't.

[JohnK]

22 minutes ago, Nigel Mackay said:

@JohnK That means that Midi Ch Gilt probably does not do Midi Out. When the source DOES do MIDI Out then it DOES work. 

Have you checked if Nelda SoundFactory Lite has the MIDI through setting? It is a free plugin. The full version works.

Very few VSTs do actually do MIDI Out. The fact that they say they do is meaningless.

Full version of Kontakt works. Have you tried the free Kontakt Player?

MIDI Channel Filter is ALL about MIDI out, and ONLY about MIDI out. It makes no sounds of its own. It's meant to filter the MIDI in, down to a list of user selected number of MIDI channels (that are played into it, and hence the name). And it is doing it, but Cakewalk is only playing the MIDI out to a single track at a time. Either I am doing something wrong, or Cakewalk is, and in both cases, changing the VSTi again, would simply result in the same. To mis-quote Albert Einstein - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

I have no idea what "Nelda SoundFactory" is, nor how it would do anything more/different than a specific MIDI out VST i.e. "MIDI Channel Filter".

People keep saying Kontact Player, but the "MIDI Out filter" VST (and multiple other VST's I have tried) does do MIDI out, but it appears that Cakewalk is not transporting the MIDI out, to all the tracks in unison, but only to one at a time (NB: MIDI out IS however going out). I do not wish to get into a trailing of synth after synth after synth. If MIDI out works, its not only going to be the Kontact Player that it works for.

[JohnK]

40 minutes ago, JohnK said:

Either I am doing something wrong, or Cakewalk is, and in both cases, changing the VSTi again, would simply result in the same.

OK, I now know it was ME! 

I read the instructions at https://www.codefn42.com/faq_routing_cakewalk.html and I was missing the MIDI echo being turned on. The selected MIDI track has an AUTO MIDI echo enabled when it is selected and is turned off, when another track is selected, so that explains what I was seeing with only one working at any one time.

 

[abacab]

FYI, I have found that Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol works as a lightweight MIDI patch point. Some may already have this one, but it is included as a freebie in the free Komplete Start bundle... https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-kontrol/

You don't even need to load any instruments in KK to use it this way. Insert KK,  then route your MIDI track to KK, and then set all of the other VST instruments to KK as input and set MIDI Echo on for those tracks. Done!

And yes, the LoopBe virtual MIDI cable works fine too, for connecting multiple MIDI outputs! Another fine freebie! Set the virtual  output on the MIDI track, and then the virtual input on your virtual instruments that you wish to stack.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by abacab

[Promidi]

A simple VSTi that sends MIDI Thru is MIDI monitor from Snoize.  You can also use this for diagnosing MIDI issues.

Version 1.4 is only for Mac.  However version is 1.3 has a windows version.

https://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/MIDIMonitor_1_3.zip

For more information, see:

https://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/