How to convince a virtual instrument to use a certain controller when all it has is Learn mode

[Herbert Chong]

i mostly do orchestration which means i work on other people's MIDI files and mix to a final audio track. it's just for fun and these are mostly downloaded MIDI files.

I've run into a problem with my virtual instruments that don't have a control panel where i just enter the CC numbers to be used to control certain aspects of the instrument, say vibrato. my most frequent problem is that the incoming MIDI file expects to use Controller 11 for one thing and Controller 1 for another exactly opposite to the default for the virtual instrument. the only way out is to Learn because the specific software doesn't have direct controller configuration entry. my digital piano doesn't have anything other than pedals and the wind controller only lets me choose between CC2 and CC11 for controller outputs. inputting a long stream of controllers into a Cakewalk track and playing it seems to not work because Cakewalk is outputting a volume controller as it starts playback. all my virtual instruments in learn mode are learning CC7. i am thinking i need to get a hardware controller device of some kind where i can program it with an arbitrary CC number. then i can just have the instrument configured on a track, put it into Learn mode, and cause the device to send whichever CC number i want. am i missing something in Cakewalk that lets me have an instrument in Learn mode and play a track full of CC events? otherwise, what's a good programmable controller i can use for this. i'm never going to perform with it.

Herb...

[mettelus]

Hopefully someone who uses these can chime in on which is preferred, but there are MIDI Mapper/MIDIMapper (some need to be found without using the space) VSTs that can be inserted between a controller/MIDI track and the virtual instrument you are driving to reconfigure the data. Some are very specific on what they can modify, but a handful specifically support CC mapping.

[Herbert Chong]

58 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Hopefully someone who uses these can chime in on which is preferred, but there are MIDI Mapper/MIDIMapper (some need to be found without using the space) VSTs that can be inserted between a controller/MIDI track and the virtual instrument you are driving to reconfigure the data. Some are very specific on what they can modify, but a handful specifically support CC mapping.

i don't mind getting a hardware programmable controller if that's the most flexible solution. it's been 30 years and tons of things have changed since i was active doing this kind of thing. i didn't have to worry about virtual instruments not having enough controls. the rack was big and heavy but all the sound modules had ways to configure realtime controllers to different parameters by entering numbers.

the other thing i can do because i'm actually decent at programming CAL scripts is to write one to change or swap controller numbers. it's not ideal but if an incoming MIDI file is full of controllers already sometimes that conceptually is easier. the vast majority are CC1 or CC11 and it turns out about half my virtual instruments want CC11 to control dynamics and the other half want CC1.

Herb...

Edited 15 hours ago by Herbert Chong

[Amberwolf]

TenCrazy MFX includes CCMap that will convert one CC to another in realtime or offline, and can also choose the range of numbers it responds to, and you can even use it to flip the whole range on it's head. 

Pretty sure one of Viramor's MFX can do this kind of thing, too, but I don't remember which one. (his thread has info on all of them and a link to his site with them). 

There are others I don't recall the names of.