How to deal with multi-timbral synths?

[carillonaudioblog]

Hello All,

I have an Ensoniq ASR-X which I have created a panel for, but I am lost on how to use CTRLR with a multi-timbral synth such as the ASR-X.

Within my DAW do I need to drop an instance of CTRLR on each of 16 tracks, then change all the output channels within CTRLR to channels 1-16?

Or do I create one track which is the CTRLR track and change the output channel to whichever midi channel I want to control in realtime, even if that midi track is separate from the CTRLR track? Example: I want to tweak the synth on midi channel 6 so I set the output to channel 6 while I want to tweak channel 6. Then change it manually if I want to tweak channel 4. ad nauseum.

Or do I open one instance of CTRLR on said 3rd party track and open 16 “panels” within it. Each one outputting to channels 1-16? When I do this, moving a knob on one panel has an effect on another panel unless I change the VST index number.

Or is there some more appropriate way of doing this? I am using Ableton, and I have tried both of the methods mentioned above, but I am having no luck. It seems fiddley and isn’t working properly.

Thanks,
Nick

[Puppeteer]

On windows, most MIDI interfaces aren’t multi-client, so you can only have one ctrlr panel (and not the host) talking to that MIDI port.

The panel can, however, pass through data on channels that you aren’t using (eg note data can be passed through ctrlr to the synth.) If you want to edit on multiple channels however, you’ll need to program that into your panel.

I had a MIDI Channel drop down on my PC3 panel to achieve this, but will do something more advanced for my next panel. You can use layers in ctrlr to reference each channel individually, but as you have noticed, each knob on each layer will need to have a different VST Index.

In ableton, you can redirect multiple tracks to a track that hosts the ctrlr plugin, an that’s how you can manage multitimbral sequencing in Ableton.

On the Mac I don’t think you have this limitation, so you can have a separate ctrlr instance on each track.

The Puppeteer
http://godlike.com.au

[carillonaudioblog]

Thanks Puppeteer,

That is how I work with CTRLR for my mono synth as well, but I was trying to avoid having to program a panel with 16 channels (each on a different tab) due to the overwhelming number of VST indexes that would be needed. I use Ableton on a Mac and it doesn’t like to control too many knobs (when the VST index is over 64 things get wonky), although this could be related to CTRLR. I recall reading about having to set the Max number of VST indexes.
Anyway, it just seems like a hassle to program 16 separate tabs. I hoped to be able to plop a CTRLR plugin on each midi channel, but that too has been causing issues with repetitive VST indexes. The alternative of having a channel select on the panel makes it difficult to have recall on parameters too.
More exploring…

Again, Thanks for your input.
Cheers,
Nick

[human fly]

Roland multitimbral synths have an address+offset address system,
whereby you sum address+offsets to get parameter addresses on any ‘part’,
and you access modes other than just ‘tone edit’ that way also.
maybe something similar with your synth?

i don’t think programming multiple tabs would be too problematic,
just do the 1st one exactly as you want it, all objects in a group,
and then copy-with-chidren (maybe lock everything first 😉 ) and
paste into as many channels/parts as you want to do.
as for VST index…mmm maybe make an ‘editor’ standalone, and then
a ‘performance map’ for the controls most likely to be used for
real-time?

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by human fly.

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