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Coming from 90's Cubase to Qtractor
Hi - first off, what a great piece of software. So glad to have this on my Linux setup.
I've decided to get back in to my music and get all my old synths back out. Got myself a new MIDI keyboard (Casio CDP-120) and a USB-MIDI converter (Roland UM-ONE).
My Old Synths:
DrSynth DS330 - MIDI Channels 1-16
DrRhythm DR660 - MIDI Channel 10
Novation BassStation - Midi Channel 16
Yamaha TX81Z - Midi Channel 15
Roland TB303 - with the Kenton MIDI Conversion - Midi Channel 14
All synths are connected up to an old 1 in 8 out MIDI expander unit (therefore the UM-ONE controls all synths), except the new Casio which has a direct USB connection.
In the past I had the DS330 accepting all 16 MIDI channels and I individually set the sound level of channels I was using for the other synths to 0. I then configured each channel on the DS330 to suit the song and ran a SysEx at the beginning of the track to configure it prior to playing. Unfortunately - things are not as easy as they used to be...
It's doing my head in! This used to be so easy!
It nearly looks like I need a USB-MIDI adapter for every synth! But that cannot be right, surely! or a MidiSport 8x8 equivilent (recommendations?)
I hope someone out there can help me out with this - I am hoping it is just a simple setting I am missing.
With QTractor - I have managed to get communication with each device on each MIDI Channel set to it (whoo hoo!). This is playing with the CDP-120 and from QTractor - all good news.
There is still a problem with the Dr-Synth resetting itself and/or giving a Error Message every time QTractor goes back to the beginning of Segment [Time Sector 00:00] although this seems to be intermittent.
(In QTractor - I do miss drawing the velocity curves with the pen tool - can this be done?)
After some testing with SysEx - I am coming up against not been able to dump SysEx data into QTractor - looks like I need an Instrument set-up. But you need an instrument file .ins or .sf2 first ???
Regarding Program Change and Control Change messages how are these configured / controlled?
best
Layolayo
Re: Coming from 90's Cubase to Qtractor
you don't need a different midi adapter for each outboard synth;
usually, it's just a matter of patience and mapping each instrument to a precise and unique midi channel; if that can't be done at the h/w side, or if you have more than 16 devices, then yes you'll probably need several midi ports/adapters and then connected to separate s/w midi input buses on the qtractor side.
by the way you list your midi channel mappings, í'd recommend having a midi port dedicated to the DrSynth DS330 (port 1: channels 1..16) and another one to all the rest (port 2: channels 10, 14, 15 and 16)
I do miss drawing the velocity curves with the pen tool - can this be done?
not there yet, though becoming a popular issue:
ticket #13 - draw lines to modify MIDI controllers
hth.
cheers
resize tool
Hi Layolayo!
The ability to draw lines to modify MIDI controllers is one of my top 3 most wanted qtractor features so I found it funny that you should post to these forums asking about it on the same day I officially requested it on the bug/feature tracker.
I'm sure Rui will implement it soon so we'll all shut up about it but he forgot to mention the current workaround which is the resize tool. You select the controller bars (you may need to draw some first if they're not there already), right click -> Tools -> Resize. Then you can choose 'flat' to set all selected controllers to a constant value or 'ramp' to set a range to resize from/to.
re. draw lines to modify MIDI controllers
indeed i'm already (thinking to:)) work on this. the way i'll be doing it only applies to the event values view pane (velocity bars) and target will be current selected events, so you will always need to select them first before start drawing with the mouse pointer (click-n-drag).
cheers
re. draw lines to modify MIDI controllers
there's news on svn trunk rev.3033+ (aka. qtractor 0.5.6.6+)
- Free-hand retouch of event values, while on the MIDI clip editor's
view pane below the main piano-roll (eg. velocities or controllers),
is now possible provided the target events are selected, otherwise
the usual painting edit sub-mode applies (cf. menu Edit/Select Mode/
Edit Draw). (EXPERIMENTAL)
hth.
Midi Ports and Configuring Channels
Thanks for the quick response - Hopefully (without sounding too numb) I can ask for a little more info regarding ports and channels - As I understand my current set-up I only have 1 midi port (the Roland UM-ONE USB-MIDI Interface Dongle) - This then connects to a breakout box 1 in 8 out (although this is passive and is not registered as 8 ports on the PC), my other MIDI port is the direct USB connection to the Casio Keyboard.
Therefore I have to send all 16 channels over the UM-ONE, and this signalling is then received on all devices.
Great news on the pen-tool looking forward to it. The Ramp function is excellent workaround for now though - thanks for pointing it out.
With regards to the mapping - is this done with an .ins or similar file? - ie It looks like if I want to dump the sysex data from DrSynth I need to have an Instrument set-up. Is 'mapping' equivalent to 'Instrument' ?
re. Midi Ports and Configuring Channels
With regards to the mapping - is this done with an .ins or similar file? - ie It looks like if I want to dump the sysex data from DrSynth I need to have an Instrument set-up. Is 'mapping' equivalent to 'Instrument' ?
i'm not sure what you're really after for, but no, instrument definition files (.ins) have no relation to sysex dumps whatsoever. they have a strong relation to bank-select/program-change mappings though.
if you want to dump sysex from the drsynth you probably need to record it into a regular smf (.mid) file for instance or you can also use `amidi -r ...` which will get you a raw sysex data file (.syx).
cheers
re. Midi Ports and Configuring Channels
i'm not sure what you're really after
I simply want to record the sysex messages from the DrSynth and have them play back to the DrSynth when restarting the track.
I tried recording a track and choosing Dump SysEx from DrSynth, but nothing appears in the clip.
amidi -r ... works a treat - thanks for this. Is the option for recording into a regular smf file available in QTractor?
Thanks for your help - much appreciated!
re. Midi Ports and Configuring Channels
I simply want to record the sysex messages from the DrSynth and have them play back to the DrSynth when restarting the track.
alas, qtractor won't be effective in recording if the input is only sysex data; you would need to get some midi channel events (eg. notes) for the recorded smf file to be legal :)
but now that you can get the sysex dump right (with amidi) you can setup a qtractor MIDI bus with it, just go on View/Buses..., select MIDI/SysEx... and import the recorded dump file (.syx) into it.
byee
re. Midi Ports and Configuring Channels
Nice one Rui - that works perfectly!
Now back to the tunes! ... :) gnight
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