Route MIDI from folder

[Stirner]

I want to layer some intruments and play them together, like piano and strings or such. I place both instruments in a folder. If the folder track is armed and routes MIDI to the instruments track, no MIDI is sent to the children. But if the same track is not a folder, than MIDI is sent. Is it possible to send MIDI from folder to children?

I can of course create a pseudo track in the folder that sends MIDI, but than I have to expand the folder to arm the track and if I collapse the folder, I don't see the events in the folder.

My goal is - a collapsed folder, that can be armed with single click and the MIDI items are placed on the folder (visible in collapsed state) and are shared by the children. Is it possible?

A related question - can collapsed folders show the children items? In Cubase they are shown in collapsed state too, so if you have submixes collapsed, you can still see where they contain anything.

[domzy]

Originally Posted by Stirner

Is it possible to send MIDI from folder to children?

you need to "Allow feedback in routing" (project settings / advanced)
though it's not necessarily a good solution

[nait]

EDIT: shit, sorry, I see you already are aware of this (read the whole post, Nait!), but I'll leave it here anyways in case this is useful to someone else.
As far as collapsing folders, I usually just manually shrink down the ones I'm not needing to see (i.e. drag up from bottom of track/folder), and leave the MIDI track larger. Maybe not super ideal.

IIRC, I believe the way I do it is keep the midi track at the same level as the tracks that you're routing the midi to, then put all of that into a folder. So, something like:

--> Track 1 - Parent folder for grouping everything
-----> Track 2 - for MIDI, routing MIDI to tracks below. All your MIDI notes/etc goes in here.
-----> Track 3 - receives MIDI routing from track 2 (leave routing as is - aside from what you routed from track 2)
-----> Track 4, etc.. - receives MIDI routing from track 2 (leave routing as is - aside from what you routed from track 2)

The only routing you need to change is for line two, where your MIDI track routes off to the tracks receiving the MIDI. I tend to do this with drums, in particular.

So a real world example:

--> Drums
-----> Drums MIDI
-----> Kicks
--------> Kick 1
--------> Kick Click
-----> Snare
-----> High Hats
-----> Toms

Then route the 1/2 MIDI from Drums MIDI to Kick 1, Kick Click, Snare, High Hats, Toms.

[Stirner]

Originally Posted by domzy

you need to "Allow feedback in routing" (project settings / advanced)
though it's not necessarily a good solution

Why not?

Are there any settings for displaying children items in a folder in collapsed state?

I just discovered - and it was very surprising - that just inserting two VSTi in a track works too! The simplest method of layering two instruments, if you don't need finetuning each instrument.

[nait]

Originally Posted by Stirner

I just discovered - and it was very surprising - that just inserting two VSTi in a track works too! The simplest method of layering two instruments, if you don't need finetuning each instrument.

Yup.. the only downside to that though is you can't apply other effects to the individually (aside from effects that are built into the VSTi) such as EQ, compression, etc., if that matters to you.

Really though, I personally prefer to split the MIDI between tracks with their own VSTs and effects, and then group that all under another folder, but it doesn't sound like you like the look of that. I usually don't collapse my folders all the way down though (I just go so far as you can where you can still see the MIDI).

[domzy]

Originally Posted by Stirner

Why not?

Because it can cause nastiness unless you keep an eye on your routing - their is high potential for audio or MIDI feedback (which is why it's disabled by default). Also you lose the benefits of PDC, so stuff can play out of sync (depending on whether the plugins you are using use PDC or not)

Originally Posted by Stirner

Are there any settings for displaying children items in a folder in collapsed state?

Only the three preset settings, i think (cycle through them by clicking the triangle) - but maybe other themes have other options?

[domzy]

Originally Posted by nait

Yup.. the only downside to that though is you can't apply other effects to the individually (aside from effects that are built into the VSTi) such as EQ, compression, etc., if that matters to you.

that's not true - you can apply FX to just one of the synths individually if you wish. You just need to have your routing set up correctly within the track (having made it multi-channel)

[nait]

Originally Posted by domzy

that's not true - you can apply FX to just one of the synths individually if you wish. You just need to have your routing set up correctly within the track (having made it multi-channel)

Oh right, I hadn't thought of that for that (I only have ever done that for side chaining, typically), but that makes sense, thanks!

[ashcat_lt]

There is the option to hide tracks (like the folder track) in either the TCP or MCP or both.