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RealBand
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Joined: Dec 2010
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Can someone education me on how they assign a channel to an instrument?
I read in the REALBAND manual "In order for the recording of mixer moves to work correctly for MIDI tracks, please make sure each track has its own unique MIDI channel in the Tracks window. Also, keep in mind that mixer moves will only be recorded onto the current track, so you can only record mixer moves for one track at a time."
Okay that sort of makes sense to me. No two instruments should be assigned to the same channel (CH). I found out that the DRUMS use CH 10 and NO other instrument should be assigned to CH 10. But what about the other instruments? What channels should they be assigned to? I found out that some real squirrelly things can happen if two MIDI instruments share the same channel.
What I have been doing is assigning the instrument track number to the channel. For example: If the BASS Track is on Track 1, I assigned it to Channel 1, Guitar = TRK 2, then I assigned it to Channel 2, etc. I make sure none of the instruments are assigned to the DRUMS channel #10.
Is this correct?
What do you folks do as far as assigning channels to instruments?...if anything....
Oh and I am using MIDI instruments here should that be a need to know.
Just need some in-site here.
Thank you
Mark
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RealBand
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I have never seen any rule about channels except that channel 10 is for drums. The only time I can think it would make a real difference is if your synth uses "performances" (which is another way of saying that the patches and effects are pre-assigned to each channel for that "performance")
Patch settings in a performance override the patch settings in a sequence. So, If you had a bunch of performances set up and wanted to rapidly change patches & effects in that way, it would make sense to ensure that your midi sequences conformed to the same instrument lineup as the synth performance.
In other words, if all your performances had a guitar patch on channel 1, a bass patch on channel 2, a keyboard patch on channel 3 etc, you'd want the sequence to be the same... otherwise, each time you changed performances, you'd be sending an inappropriate patch to all your instruments
It is hard to get too obsessive compulsive about using the same channel only for one instrument as a rule, because each port only supports 16 channels, but there are wayyy more than 16 possible instruments
In summary, if you are NOT using performances and you ARE setting the patches in your sequence using the patch select dialog box, then it doesn't really matter what channel each instrument is on. You are programming it, so you can make it however you want.
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RealBand
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Joined: Oct 2008
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Quote:
I read in the REALBAND manual "In order for the recording of mixer moves to work correctly for MIDI tracks, please make sure each track has its own unique MIDI channel in the Tracks window. Also, keep in mind that mixer moves will only be recorded onto the current track, so you can only record mixer moves for one track at a time."
the reason why it is important to assign separate channels to each track is because when you start a sequence, the program goes through each track one at a time and applies the midi parameters you set up for each channel.
Let's imagine you have two different tracks assigned to channel 7, for example. The first track contains your bass track, and the second contains a flute passage.
When you start the sequence, and the bass track activates a bass patch for channel 7, the flute (also on channel 7) will get the same bass patch.
As the sequence continues, when it activates the flute patch on channel 7, it will replace the bass patch for the other track that is using channel 7.
In a nutshell, when midi data gets sent to a channel, all tracks usingthat channel get the same midi data. So the only way to control each track uniquely is to give each track a unique channel
But there may be times when you want two or more tracks to use the same patch. If I am writing harmonies for the same instrument I sometimes put each part on a separate track, but assign the same channel to both tracks. That way, if I want to change patches for the harmony, I don't have to change each track separately. One change affects all tracks on that channel
Mixer moves are another kind of MIDI data, so it is best to address each track on a unique channel in that case too.
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RealBand
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Joined: Dec 2010
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OP
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Pat,
Thank you for your explanation. I believe I understand what you are saying here. I have found that by accidentally assigning the Sax Track and BASS Track to the same channel produced undesirable resulting sounds from the Sax Track and I didn't know why. I reviewed each instruments CH setting and discovered the SAX and BASS tracks were on the same channel. That got me digging into the books to learn more about how Channels worked, but there really wasn't a good explanation to be found.
Thank you for the explanation of the instrument harmonies as well. I played around with a 3 part harmony and assigned them all to the same channel and did discover during mixing that if you adjust the volume of one of the harmonies, they all seemed to follow as well. That way you don't have 3 sliders to contend with...only one. I did not know (and do now) that if you change the PATCH of one of the instruments assigned to the channel, ALL of them get reassigned to that same PATCH...very good information.
Thank you!!!
Mark
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RealBand
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You're quite welcome, Mark! Glad to know that one of my long rambling posts actually got read!
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RealBand
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And Mark, there's nothing special about the drums being on ch 10 either. That's only because of the General Midi standard. GM puts drums on 10 and Biab defaults to the GM standard but that too is up to you. A lot of us in order to keep things simple will keep our files as GM. If you go online and start to download midi files, most of them will be GM with drums on 10 but not all. GM midi files will also be called SMF for Standard Midi File. As you get into this and maybe start buying some better midi synths, you'll find lots of them don't have a GM soundbank and people with more experience working with midi don't care about GM at all because of it's limitations so you can find files with all kinds of different instruments including drums on different channels.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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