UPDATED GIG-FILE! PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE NEW VERSION BELOW!
Changes:
- Proper keyboard separation for Pitchbend, Modwheel and Aftertouch messages
- Proper NoteON/NoteOFF filtering on initialization/activation of the rackspace
- no need to re-assign widgets if a lugin is exchanged (please see “important notes” for how to exchange a plugin properly!)
- automatic VST-name recognition
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Hi folks,
someone recently wanted to know if it was possible to use two keyboards and choose on the fly, which one of eight plugins is played on the upper or lower keyboard.
Of course, everything should be happening within one single rackspace… 
Well… yes, we can! 
Since i liked the idea and i thought this could also be useful for myself someday, i built a rackspace containing 8 diffrent plugins and two MIDI-in blocks (upper & lower keyboard) to play them.
Important notes:
-
Of course you would have to re-assign the two Midi-In blocks in the wiring view to your own ones! Rightclick the respecting MIDI-block (UPPER/LOWER) and choose “Change MIDI input device”, then select one of your available midi devices which you want to use!
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Also you most probably won’t have the plugins i used and in the wiring view you will see red placeholder plugin blocks (the so called “Chameleon Plugin”).
To use your own plugins, please right-click the Chameleon Plugin and then choose “Replace Plugin” and then select a plugin of your own list. This will keep the existing Script-Handle which is needed for proper functionality!
After that you have to to switch to the panel-edit mode and re-assign the respecting “OPEN” widget on the panel to the new plugin and the “Open/Close” parameter from the plugin’s parameter list:
(CHANGED: Opening a plugin’s GUI is now done via scripting. No need to re-assign any buttons anymore!)
But that’d be about all you might have to change. Now for the facts & features: 
On the panel are 8 plugin “channel strips” which contain two rows of 8 pads - one row for the upper keyboard selection, one row for the lower keyboard selection. Each of the 8 pads selects, which plugin is to be played with the respecting keyboard. Each plugin has its own volume control. On the top of each “plugin strip” are two markers which indicate the state of the corresponding Noise Gate and the bypass state of the connected plugin. On the bottom is a button to open the particular plugin.
Enter the panel edit mode to MIDI-learn your controller’s buttons to the select-pads.
The wiring view might look a bit “wild”, but it’s built quite logically…
On top of the tree sits the MIDI-In block (one for upper and lower keyboard). That’s where the notes come in!
The following signal flow then is the same for each plugin…
The midi signal goes into a MIDI-Filter block (internal plugin), which will block or pass through incoming NoteOn messages and NoteOff messages. This is needed to avoid hanging notes or cut off notes while playing. (The logic behind this filter control is done by a rackspace script, which takes care of the various conditions that may occur while playing and switching plugins.)
This is done for each of the two keyboards separately!
The MIDI messages from upper and lower then merge into the respecting instrument plugin block, whose audio output goes into a mixer to allow separate volume control of the plugins.
Connected to each of the eight plugins is a “Envelope Follower” (internal plugin) which also contains a “Noise Gate”. This is used to detect if a plugin is “silent” (the little orange indicator on the panel is connected to this parameter, so you can see, if a plugin produces sound or not).
A plugin will only be “auto-bypassed” if all of the following conditions are true:
- The plugin is not selected to be played from either one of the keyboards
- The plugin’s audio output is silent (noise gate state)
This ensures that unused plugins will be set to bypass, so they won’t consume any CPU power, but also it allows a plugin to first ring out before being sent to sleep.
After the mixer is an additional gain block to adjust the MAIN VOLUME for the whole rackspace.
That’s all… have fun!
PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS NEW VERSION (V2):
8 plugins JAM rackspace V2(GP5).gig (3.2 MB)
