Modulations

this makes this do that

Sound to Sound MIDI routing in Maschine 1.6

by Peter Dines

One of the things I wanted for Maschine 1.6 is to be able to route different length patterns from one sound and group to another – so I can have a 12 beat pattern, a 14 beat pattern and an 8 beat pattern going to the same Reaktor drum machine, triggering different sounds. It’s kinky and fun to have phase shifting patterns. Anyhow, there’s no obvious way to do that within the program.

As usual, IAC bus to the rescue! Set up an IAC bus in OS X (or get Midi Yoke for Windows), then activate it for MIDI in and out in the Maschine.

Next step is to set up a track with MIDI out to your virtual MIDI driver (IAC or MIDI Yoke as the case may be):

Choose a channel that won’t interfere with what you’ve already got set up.

Next, set up a different group and sound to receive on that channel:

…aaaaand when you hit play, you should hear the pattern in the MIDI out channel driving the plugin you just set up to receive.Well, it works for me. And I don’t think it interferes with anything – I can still play another sounds in a third unrelated channel without any cross-triggering or any such nonsense. If you try it out, let me know if it works for you too, or if you encounter problems.

, , , , ,
8

8 Responses

  1. musikmachine

    Yeah works with loopbe too. Can use it with plugins like Attack to play the polyphonic parts but you have to create an instance for each synth part.

  2. Peter Dines

    I didn’t know about Loopbe. Have to try it next time I boot Windows. Do I understand you correctly – with Attack, you have to create an instance of the synth for each timbre?

  3. frabo

    hmmm, it works, but it plays only when I select the group with my instruments! 
    And my 2nd pattern restarts when the instrument pattern starts. – try to create a simple example: first pattern with instrument play notes on 1/4 in one bar, on the second pattern/group just two off-beat-notes in a pattern shorter than one bar (1.4)

    is this working for you ? 

  4. Peter Dines

    Something weird is going on with your midi routing because I can get it to work even if I select a third group that is neither sending nor receiving. Do you have the group muted? Correct midi channels selected for send and receive? Are you using Mac or Windows?

    The restart of patterns is dictated by how they stack up in a scene – all patterns restart when a scene restarts, and a scene restarts when its longest pattern ends. I don’t think at the moment there’s a way to not trigger shorter scenes to restart when the scene restarts.

    A possible workaround is to create a pattern in the scene that is a lowest common denominator of the lengths of the other patterns in the scene – it can even be a dummy pattern. That should make scene looping sound more natural, or more like what you’d expect.

  5. Meh

    hi,

    thanks for a great and simple tutorial but this produces a shortcut or a feedback loop using loopbe on a pc.
    (same app using midi in in and out)
    can someone verify if midi yoke indeed works without shortcutting?

    fyi – in order to make it work one needs to enable midi under status on both groups.

    thanks again for a great tip.

    cheers

  6. Peter Dines

    That’s interesting – are you sure your target group isn’t also set up to send midi out, or your send track to use midi in?

    I’ll check it out myself next time I boot Windows.

  7. Meh

    thanks for you response peter,

    group A has a vst loaded, group B set to send midi. both are midi enabled under status. same internal midi port set under in/out options.
    both patterns do trigger sounds of the vst for a few seconds. then the midi data builds up apperently and one hears a feedback sound. 

    this makes sense since loopbe(free version) is to be usually avoided using on midi in and out of the same application. i am wondering if midi yoke has a workaround. any inf would be great.

    cheers,

  8. Drew

    Thanks Peter,

    I feel like a moron but I’m giving myself a break because I’m new to this. I’m trying to have Audio Damage’s Axon trigger sounds from the free AAS player or Reaktor which are assigned to different pads and I’m not getting a result… the pad that sends the midi out cannot have an instrument attached to it as midi out can only be selected in the instrument selection tab (first of 4). How then is this midi out pad connected to the pad actually sending the midi? I’m sure this is something simple but, as I said, I’m new…

Leave a Reply

A link to the archives