Divisimate with LogicPro and VePro

[Dewdman42]

I will assume you already know what DivisiMate is, and how it is useful.  Divisimate is capable of addressing large DAW templates with up to 512 unique instruments listening on seperate midi ports/channels.  Unfortunately LogicPro is limited to only being able to record-enable a max of 32 instrument channels at once.  There are ways to work around this using multi-timbral instruments.  In this case I am going to explain 3 working examples of using Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 (VePro) to record enable as many as 512 tracks at once for full Divisimate capability.

DivisiMate Details

Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that Divisimate provides 32 IAC midi ports, each one capable of 16 midi channels.  32x16=512 total unique midi routes that Divisimate can use to send midi to your DAW.  

Make sure Divisimate is running before attempting these instructions, in order to see the IAC ports.

AU2 Approach

The first most simple approach will be using the AU2 version of the VePro plugin.  This plugin is single-midi-port only, which means each VePro instance can host at most 16 instruments listening on 16 midi channels.  In order to accommodate 512 total instruments, it will be necessary to use up to 32 VePro instances, each one listening on 16 midi channels.

1.  First create your VePro instances with the instruments loaded in whatever organization you want, 16 per-instance.
    
2. In LogicPro you can create 16 multi-timbral VePro tracks easily with the the New Track wizard.  Make sure to check the multi-timbral box and set it to 16 parts.  This will create 16 tracks, all pointing to one VePro plugin/instance, on midi channels 1-16
   
   
    
3. Now go into each of the track settings for each track and assign the first 16 Divisimate IAC ports successively as the INPUT midi port for each track, but while we're in there, we need to change the input midi channel for all of them to channel 1.  Leave the output channel as is.
   
   
    
4. Create the next 16 tracks again using the New Track wizard, again with 16 parts.  Go in and do the same thing as the previous step #3, except starting Divisimate port 17.  
    
5. Repeat both steps #3 and #4 again to create 32 more tracks.  However at this stage, instead of setting the INPUT midi channel to 1, set input midi channel to 2 this time.  Now you will have 64 tracks.
   
    
    
6. You can repeat these steps #2-5 until you have a maximum of 512 tracks, using 32 VePro plugin instances.  For each set of 32 tracks you create this way,  make sure you increase the INPUT midi channel by +1 for each one until you reach a maximum of 32x16=512 total tracks.
    
7. Now go into each of the VePro plugins, connect to the proper Vepro instance, and you're ready to go.

Notes

In Divisimate, for each Divismate preset, you will need to specify which IAC port and midi channel to use.  Each preset can use up to 32 routes out of the 512 total available.  The default to use to use ports 1-32 on midi channel 1.

This method is very straightforward to create, and it matches somewhat instructions from NextMidi except we have added the need to specify midi channels properly in order to accommodate more than 32 tracks.  This also uses AU2 version of VePro, so there will be no beta-quality problems that sometimes happen with the AU3 approaches described below.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Something else worth mentioning now is that the midi channel number is a little different then normal.   You will notice that DivisiMate tends to default to using 32 ports on one midi channel.  All of their presets use this approach, so we will stick with that now.  This means you will see tracks in your DAW with the input port being sequential and when that sequence repeats, then the midi channel advances, etc.  This may seem reverse of what you are typically used to where its the other way around.  So for example:

Divisimate port 01 - chan 1
Divisimate port 02 - chan 1
 .
 .
Divisimate port 32 - chan 1

Divisimate port 01 - chan 2
Divisimate port 02 - chan 2
 .
 .
Divisimate port 32 - chan 2
 .
 etc

Here attached is a template with the first 64 tracks created so you can see how it needs to end up, you can expand this template using the above instructions.

Next post will detail approach with AU3

 

 

 

DivisiMateAU2.zip

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dewdman42

[Dewdman42]

AU3 Multi Approach

The next approach uses AU3 version of the VePro7 plugin.  This provides multi-port midi and up to 127 tracks per VePro instance.  This means that a 508 track Divisimate template can be made using only 4 VePro instances which some people might prefer, including me.  However setting this up is a more complicated and it does require the use of VePro7.AU3, which is still in beta.

This is a fairly complicated process.  I have included an attached LogicPro project with a partially created template with 127 tracks.  You can also start with that and use these instructions to expand it to support 508 total tracks.

Please read the previous post before this one to ensure background info.

1. First create a new instrument track and assign the VePro.AU3 plugin to it.
    
2. Next use the track settings to define both input and output midi port and channels (4 settings).  In this first track we use Divisimate port 02, channel 1 input, channel 1 output, port 1 output.
   
   
    
3. While this track is selected, press CTRL-RETURN 15 times to create new tracks on new midi channels.  Look at the track attributes window, the last track you created this way should say output midi channel 16 and output midi port 1.
    
4. If you are using LogicPro 10.7.4(?) or newer, then continue hitting CTRL-RETURN 111 more times.  Rather then try to count, watch the track attributes window, the very last track should say output midi channel 15, output port 8, with a total of 127 tracks.  Then skip the next step #5, which is for older versions of LogicPro.  
   
   NOTE - DO NOT TRY TO CREATE 128+ tracks.  If you do you will have to beg for help and use the environment to fix it.  Make sure port 8, channel 15 is the very last one you create with CTRL-RETURN as just described.
    
5. if you are using LogicPro older than 10.7.4(?), do not use step #4 above, instead do this:
   
   After hitting CTRL-RETURN 15 times in step #3 above, select the last track and change its output midi channel to 1 and its output midi port to the next higher value.  Then select the track above it and hit CTRL-RETURN again.  Then select the last track, that is now configured as port 2, channel 1, and hit CTRL-RETURN 15 more times again as in step#3 above.
   
   Repeat this process until you have a maximum of 127 tracks.  Do not try to create 128 tracks.  the last one should be port 8, channel 15, as explained in step #4 above.
    
6. Now you should have 127 tracks numbered successively from port 1, chan 1 to port 8, chan 15.
   Go back to each one of them and set the midi input and output port and channel appropriately.  This step can be a little confusing.  As in previous examples, you want Divisimate port to be the thing that increments for each track, cycling around every 32 tracks.  So first you have 32 Divisimate ports 1-32 with midi chan 1, and then 1-32 with midi channel 2, etc.  The output midi channel and port should be set to match the input settings.
   
   
    
7. When all 127 tracks have been setup using that midi channel/port scheme, then you can repeat steps# 1-6 to create another 127 tracks using another VePro.AU3 plugin instance.  However, note that you should increment the midi INPUT channel to start at the 5 instead of 1, since 4 midi channels were used for the previous set of 127
   
   After doing that, you can repeat two more times, with INPUT midi channel starting to 9 and 13 respectively, to end up with a total of 508 tracks.
   
   
    
8. Now connect the VePro instances to the VePro servers and you should be ready to go.

 

DivisiMate508.zip

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dewdman42

[Dewdman42]

AU3 Midi Track Approach

This approach is the most complicated of all, but does provide 512 Divisimate-ready tracks using one single VePro instance.  Also it uses midi tracks, which may be a pro or con depending on how you like to work.

You should start with the template I have attached below, which already has the first 96 tracks created.  You can view them to see how they work and expand the template with these instructions:

1. Create an external midi track
    
2. right click on the track header and select reassign track and dig through the menus to look for VEP1->Port 01->Channel 4  (or rather the next unused port/channel)
   
   
    
3. While the track header is still selected, configure the track attributes so that the midi input port and channel matches what you just assigned above.  The Divisimate input port # should match the one just assigned for the track in step #2.  Make sure output midi channel matches the input channel.  Also make sure Midi out port is set to OFF here.
   
   
    
4. Repeat steps #1-3 above until you have created the first 32 tracks, all using midi channel 1 with successive values for the port # 1-32 for each new track you create.
    
5. Now you can repeat steps #1-4 using midi channel 2, iterating through the 32 ports as before. Then you can do for midi channel 3, etc.. until you finish with channel 16, total of 512 tracks.  For example:
   
   
    
6. Connect VePro to the server and you're ready to go.

You can use the attached project file as a starting point which has the first 3 midi channels already setup as 96 tracks.  See the above instructions for expanding it through all 16 midi channels, 512 tracks.

 

 

DivisiMate512.zip

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dewdman42

[Dewdman42]

Feel free to post comments or questions about how to use or how to expand, I will probably not get around to expanding them any time soon as its rather time consuming to do.