Omni video4 midi channels

I've just bought the Omnisphere video and am watching video 4 of it.

In it Jonathan opens up the muilti tab and puts two instruments, the Lush Ambient Strings on 1 and the Spacey Sine Arps on 2 (around 1.51m)

He then changes midi channel on his midi keyboard to hear either one (1 to 2).

I have an Axiom and know how to do this, what I noticed is that you can stay on midi channel 1 (within the Axiom) and change to midi channel 2 in the track parameter box to hear the Spacey Sine Arps.

This has the same effect as changing the midi channel on the axiom, though are they the same thing?

Thanks

Hi Juno,

Interesting! Is the Axiom sending on All MIDI channels or specifically Channel 1?

Try setting the Axiom to transmit on Ch 2 and then load parts on Ch's 2 and 3 in Omnisphere. Do you get the same behaviour?

Thanks & enjoy Omnisphere!! It's an amazing instrument.

Rounik

Hi Rounik,

I actually don't know how to get the Axiom to send on all midi channels. When you press the Glob Chan the screen says c01 (channel one) is there a button to send on all channels.

What I've done is set the Track Parameter Box to Midi Channel: all ( I gather this means this track is receiving on all Midi Channels)

Set up three different sounds/instruments on Ch1, Ch 2, Ch 3 on Omnisphere and set the Axiom to midi channel 3. What I'm hearing is channel 3 of Omnisphere.

However I then change the Track Parameter Box, Midi Channel from All to 2 (keep in mind the Axiom is set to 3).

I then hear channel 2 of Omnisphere, does this mean it overrides the Axiom which is still on channel 3?

Confused!

Yeah, its very impressive massive sounds!

Yup... Logic will only allow playback on that channel to be MIDI Ch 2 then, regardless of your Axiom settings...

Have you setup a Multi-timbral Omni in Logic? This way you can effortlessly play the different patches in Omni by simply switching to the relevant track.

:)

Rounik

I see what your saying about the channels.

Haven't set it up like that yet, though no doubt I'll be asking you something about it very soon; )

Just 2 points,


On video 7 Jonathan uses program changes. I haven't a clue of what they are, would they be set them up in the environment?

Though more importantly..

On video 8 he uses Midi CCs to change the patches/parts. I thought Midi CCs was to do with 1 = modualtion, 7 = volume and all that? Is he using 'free' ones to change them?

He's talking about button press, though whats he pressing? The numbers are 71, 119, 21 and 23 how did he choose those for it?

Hi Juno,

There are a few different MIDI message types, e.g. note, control change (CC), aftertouch, pitch bend, etc.

Program Changes are designed to recall patches or programs for an instrument in the MIDI world.

In video 07 Jonathan shows how Omnisphere can be setup in Live Mode so that Program Change messages sent from your MIDI Controller Keyboard or (in this case a Text Fader in Logic's Environment) to select the different Parts in Omnisphere.

In Video 08 rather than use Program Changes to select the different Parts in Omnisphere, Jonathan shows how you could use MIDI CC values instead of Program Changes.

He's pressing a Button on his MIDI Controller Keyboard. The velocities sent from the buttons would be setup on the Controller...

The method you use would depend on whatever CC / Program Change buttons you have access to on your Controller ... or whether you wish to set this up in Logic's Environment :)

Hope this makes sense!
Rounik

Hi Rounik,

I see what program changes are all about now. I have an original Axiom 61, was following the manual on how to do the program changes, though nothing was happening with it. I understand what the video is saying and the online Spectrasonics manual on how to set them up, so everythings ok with that, though for now its not happening.


With Midi CCs, the bit I'm confused about is that aren't certain values taken already with midi ccs. E.g. volume is number 7, so I can't use number 7? Like the modulation wheel is midi cc 1 ? He uses midi cc 71, 119, 22 and 23. Though you mention that its set up with velocities.

Finally, doing the multi-timbrel thing, I see that you can have Omnisphere as multi-output, though that's not multi-timbrel. Any ideas how to set that up multi-timbrel up, you'd have three tracks set to midi channels 1,2 and 3 and one instance of Omnisphere? I've seen the video, Jonathan has two midi keyboards in it, I got a bit lost.

As ever many thanks

You can have Omni as multi-output and multi-timbral :)

Create a new Software Instrument track and make sure to click the "Multi-timbral" check box. Choose "8" (for 8 stereo outputs).

Then insert a Multi-Output version of Omni on that Track... you'll notice that all the 8 tracks share the same CHannel Strip and each has it's own MIDI Ch. input.

Hope that helps,

Rounik

Thanks for that, the multi-timbral thing has been bugging me for ages. Love using one omnisphere with 8 different sounds!

Though,I'm curious to know...

Say I've set up a multi-timbral instance of Omnisphere or something like Play and want an individual instrument to have some delay, reverb or distortion (I know you can do this internally on them). As there's only one instance of it, which means there only one track in the mixer, if you send on bus 1, this will apply for all of the multi-timbral Omnisphere instruments.

I noticed that in the mixer on the multi-timbral Omnisphere track, there's also the + symbol, pressing this would make it, multi-output too, would this be how you do it?

I know the EXS and UB are multi-output as well, and you can route, snares, kicks to their own auxs and tailor them there.

Thanks again!

Hi Juno,

That's exactly right. Multi-timbral basically lets you play the different sounds from in Omni on different MIDI Channels.

Multi-output routes those parts/sounds to different Aux channels and allows you to process them individually in Logic's Mixer.

Yes! I'd go Multi-output too... though if you're happy mixing the 8 parts within Omni - then you might not need to.

Cheers
R

This is all much clearer now, regarding multi-output and multi-timbral, been wondering bout it for ages. Especially about routing the muli-timbral sounds to auxes via multi-outputs, gonna check that out.

I was reading an article on SOS about this and it said that Logic has two mulit-timbral synths, the EVB3 and the EXS (end of second paragraph).

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep07/articles/logictech_0907.htm

Though in the manual itself it states on page 228 (logic 9 user manual pdf)

"None of the included Logic Pro instruments are multi-timbral".

One of them has to got be wrong, right?

Thanks

Hey Juno!

Sure... only one can be correct...

That SOS article is using Logic 7, though that shouldn't make a difference...

I guess, I never thought of the EVB3 as multi-timbral despite how it responds to different MIDI Channels... at least, it's not Multi-timbral in the way that Stylus RMX, Omnisphere, NI Kontakt etc are Multi-timbral.

I'd put this down to semantics - but personally I'd go with the Logic 9 manual on this one.

btw, there's some really cool tips on working with Multi-timbral synths in Logic in Steve H's TNT 2 series (videos 18-25).

Hope that helps...
Rounik

Hi Rounik,

Thanks for clearing that up about the article and the manual. I was reading them and thinking somethings not right.

I'm watching lesson 24 right now, have two questions.

In the examples there's a keyboard at the bottom (01.12m) with the notes C2, C3 and C4 though the samples above seem to be labeled an octave higher then the keys at the bottom?

And at 03.05 he mentions velocity zones, is the example given/graphic a mix of velocity zones and keymapping? As the between D4 and D#5 there are zones for every note and 3 velocity zones for each note. But when we get to the F5 mapping and velocity zone, it covers about 9 keys (all on the same pic)?

I noticed in this pic again (01.39) like my first question, if we take C3 to C4 on the keyboard at the bottom, the samples above the keys (C3 to C4) are all C4 to C5 an octave higher. Am I missing something fundamental?

Thanks once again!