multiple MIDI channels

[laura woodswalker]

OK here's the question. How do you get a DAW like Reason to play multiple MIDI channels thru a hardware seq like the electribe?

I was saying how the Electribe is great but its sound pallette is limited, and wondering if I could use a soundbank for better sounds. Along came my son with a Macbook loaded with Reason. I was like 'great, we can use Reason synths for the parts on the Electribe."

Alas, when I hook the Electribe up to Reason, all its parts only play out of ONE Reason device.

In fact I have never succeeded in getting multiple MIDI channels out of any of my setups! what's up with that?

[Sir Nose]

You could just sync the electribe clock with the computer and use a software sequencer. Plenty of nice freeware sequencers. If you are using the electribe to sequence live, sequencing in the computer would be more of a pain. If you are playing back prerecorded sequences, the computer to sequence the computer sounds might be the way to go. Another reason to sequence in the computer is, the electribe can only sequence monophonic tracks externally. If you want chords you have to use multiple tracks. The electribes user interfaces is what makes the device; so, you could record a track with the electribe sequencer and send the pattern to the computer once it's created. That way you don't need to write on the computer.

Which electribe are you using? If it's the one with the sampler, ES I think, you can sample the reason sounds into it.

From what I could find in the ES electribe manual, It looks like all track are sent on the same channel. "The same MIDI channel is used for
both transmission and reception." This implies to me that all tracks are sent on the same channel.

It looks like you can set 3 different channels on the EM.
MIDI ch 1...16
You can set the MIDI channel of synth part 1, synth part 2, and
the drum part. The same MIDI channel will be used for transmission
and reception. The factory settings are listed below.
Part Channel
Synth part 1 (global) 1
Synth part 2 2
Drum part (1—6B) 10
1. Use the cursor keys to select MIDI ch (the corresponding
LED will light).
2. Press the part key for which you wish to change the MIDI
channel (the key will light). For the drum part, press any
one of the eight part keys (all of the drum part keys will
light).
3. Turn the dial to select the channel.

If you are not using the full keyboard range for the sounds you want to play from reason, you could assign different sounds to different ranges of the keyboard. A bit of work to set up but it could work.

I currently want a performace set up that is laptop free. I don't jive with a computer for music production much at home either. But, a computer crash during a live performace scares me too much. If I were to use software, a knob job midi controller to interface with software would be a must, mouse use just interrupts my work flow too much.

I use an E-mu command station (XL-7, PX-7, or MP-7) for my sequencing needs. Assigning what midi channel is assigned to a track is very straight forward. I never worked with midi much before getting it and it was a snap to set up. You can multi track two tracks where different notes can be assigned to different midi channels. There are 2 midi outs so you have 32 midi channels to work with. They can be had for as little as $200, but go around $300 more often. The internal synth engine is deep, but does take time to learn all the short cuts. Three different sequencing modes, though I only really use two. They orignally shipped with one ROM (MP-7: hiphop, XL-7: dance/electronica, PX-7: drums). There are about a dozen other ROMs that you can add to any of the four slots (expansion can cost more than the unit though).