Recording 2 or more virtual instrument tracks at once, using two keyboards

Hi guys

Hoping you might be able to help me out with a question about recording multiple MIDI parts from different MIDI keyboards, at the same time.

I've done this in the past, however only with MIDI tracks, not with virtual instrument tracks. I am familiar with the "auto demix by channel if multitrack recording" option for MIDI, which allows me to simultaneously record MIDI parts to different tracks by setting a different MIDI out channel for each keyboard.

Where I'm not having any luck is doing the same thing, but for virtual instrument tracks. I'd like to be able to record two different virtual instruments to separate tracks, using two MIDI keyboards. So far there seems to be no way to make that happen. The method used for standard MIDI tracks doesn't seem to work.

If you happen to have any ideas on how to do this, I'd love to hear them!

Cheers and thanks

Mike

Where I'm not having any luck is doing the same thing, but for virtual instrument tracks.

It's the same process. Make sure you follow ALL four steps in the following tutorial: https://www.logicprohelp.com/instruments-tracks-midi-channels/

What do you mean "record two different virtual instruments to separate tracks". You're recording MIDI, and not the audio, right? Which virtual instruments are playing those MIDI notes is determined after the fact, you can move the MIDI regions, or change the VI on any track, right? So they're just MIDI tracks/regions, right? They just happen to be routed differently. So the same way you sent the different MIDI streams to separate tracks that went to external MIDI synths should work the same with your Vis. Go back and try it again.

I'm not in the studio right now, but I'm pretty sure it can be done very neatly in the Environment as well, I'll take a look in the "morning".

But can you clarify a little? Do you mean you want to monitor the output of two keyboards triggering two separate VIs as you're recording, or is it enough to assign them after you've recorded, as long as you have two distinct tracks for the two MIDI streams?

Do you have the two keyboards coming into two distinct MIDI ports?

Can you assign a different MIDI channel for each keyboard right on the keyboards?

Hey, thanks for your thoughts! I'll clarify what I'm trying to achieve - sorry I didn't make it as clear as I could have in the original post.

I'm looking to record MIDI, not audio, onto separate VI tracks. So for example, I might have one keyboard's MIDI channel assigned to a track that has an Omnisphere instrument, and another of my MIDI keyboards assigned to a track that has Spitfire's Symphonic Strings. I would then set both tracks to record, and play both keyboards at the same time - in this (slightly questionable!) example, I might be laying down an Omnisphere lead and a Spitfire string part, respectively.

In answer to your question about monitoring vs assigning the separate streams later - yes, for what I'm hoping to achieve, monitoring the separate tracks in realtime is important, as they will be played live either by me, or in some scenarios, by me and another keyboardist.

Each keyboard in my studio comes through a separate MIDI port - two are through a MIDI interface, as they are older keyboards which only have DIN MIDI, and the others are USB, so they are effectively treated as separate MIDI ports.

All my keyboards can have manual MIDI-out channel assignments, so they can be demixed by channel in Logic.

Thanks so much for your help, keen to hear your thoughts once you've checked in your own studio.

Cheers and thanks

Mike

What do you mean "record two different virtual instruments to separate tracks". You're recording MIDI, and not the audio, right? Which virtual instruments are playing those MIDI notes is determined after the fact, you can move the MIDI regions, or change the VI on any track, right? So they're just MIDI tracks/regions, right? They just happen to be routed differently. The same way you sent the different MIDI streams to separate tracks that go to external MIDI synths should work the same.

 

I'm not in the studio right now, but I'm pretty sure it can be done very neatly in the Environment as well, I'll take a look in the "morning".

 

But can you clarify a little? Do you mean you want to monitor the output of two keyboards triggering two separate VIs as you're recording, or is it enough to assign them after you've recorded, as long as you have two distinct tracks for the two MIDI streams?

 

Do you have the two keyboards coming into two distinct MIDI ports?

Can you assign a different MIDI channel for each keyboard right on the keyboards?

Mike, did you see my answer? It should be exactly the same process as what you've done with external keyboards.

Hey David,

Sorry about that - somehow, I didn't see your first answer. I'm going to try the process again when I'm in the studio tonight. I'll let you know how I go.

Cheers

Mike

Sorry about that - somehow, I didn't see your first answer. I'm going to try the process again when I'm in the studio tonight. I'll let you know how I go.

Sounds good. It should be a very easy process, but it's easy to miss a step. Let us know if you run into any trouble.

Mike, David’s method is the simplest because it lets Logic do the behind the scenes de-muxing for you.

But if you can't achieve exactly what you want with the standard GUI and menus, don't be afraid to instead go into the environment and run some wires between strips in the Mixer View. Create a test project sometime to do some good old trial and error until it makes sense enough to use. Wanting it to map 100% to the Tracks screen world, I find it just gets "paradoxical", so I just ignore that and use what I see working. You can do all sorts of tricks you cannot do in the Tracks screen.

You can let all MIDI go to a default track and then go to the Environment Mixer and wire away from that strip. There’s a Channel Splitter object you can create that lets you pick up each MIDI channel on its own wire, so if you wire the default track to a Channel Splitter, you can connect the individual outputs to whatever mixer strip(s) / tracks that you want to respond on that MIDI channel. You can insert objects to scale, transform, do anything you want on the way. It’s a good idea to always insert Monitor objects in the paths to see what’s passing through.

Let us know how it goes by either method.