Rig Manager and MIDI Channel Switching

I need a little advice here. I have a keyboard that transmits only on MIDI channel 2 and another one that transmits on MIDI channel 1.

Normally when switching rigs, I would simply re-assign the keyboard in rig manager but this doesn’t work because my plugins expect notes on MIDI channel 1. I can re-assign MIDI Ch 2 to MIDI Ch 1 within a MIDI Input block but that kind of defeats the purpose of having rig manager because I have to do this in each of my rackspaces.

What is the most elegant way to handle this situation so that I don’t have to individually map all of my MIDI in blocks in my rackespaces? Should I just put a MIDI in block in the global rackspace and send it to local rackspaces and then re-assign MIDI channels in the single MIDI in block there having all keyboard input sent from the global rackspace? Any other suggestions?

SteveC

You can remap MIDI channels in the Rig Manager.
See 11. h)
Link: Rig Manager

Hi,

Thanks, I’ll check it out when I’m back on my computer. The thing is, the keybead of the APCKey 25 keybed is in MIDI CH 2 and the controls on the top are on MIDI CH 1. So 1 MIDI port carrying 2 channels. Maybe I map 2->1 for the keybed and 1->2 (or some other MIDI Channel for the controls on top? That way performance is on MIDI CH 1 and I can map the other buttons on the same controller to other control functions? I think that will work.

SteveC

You could also create a rig manager script that does nothing but change the channel of all incoming messages.

As much as I like playing with gpscript, if there is a way to do it without, it is usually cleaner if another user wants to use my gig file.

It looks like I can map all incoming MIDI messages in Rig manager to a given MIDI channel but that does not do what I wan’t because the buttons on MIDI CH1 need to be mapped to another MIDI channel. Notes come through fine from my keybed, CH2>CH2 but also notes come through from my buttons. It would be nice is you could reuse the MIDI Rechannelizer tool in Rig Manager where you could reassign any specific channel to any other channel as you can currently do do in the MIDI rechannelizer block. I would map it as shown below for my case

SteveC

Having for configuration stuff like this in the rig manager is on our list

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I guess I’m missing something…
Do you want multiple MIDI channels…or do you want everything on Channel 1?

I want incoming channel 2 mapped to outgoing channel 1.
I want incoming channel 1 mapped to any other outgoing channel other than 1.

That way my keybed will send on MIDI CH 1 instead of 2 and the other buttons I can put on any other channel. Most of those other buttons are note buttons and I don’t want to play notes, for instance, when pressing a button that is suppose to be rotary speed.

The APC Key 25 has 40 buttons in a grid pattern with notes 0-39. They transmit on MIDI Channel 1.

SteveC

In this example Channel 2 becomes Channel 1.
Channel 1 becomes all other channels except Channel 1. You can turn off any channel not needed.

Yes, but I need to do this in Rig Manager so it can be handled globally instead of each rackspace.

It would be nice if these buttons were programmable as in Arturia Mkll’s. Hopefully, the future Rig Manager will have this option.

Right now, the only way is to add

Include $rig$ in a gig script and reinjected all incoming MIID Messages and changing the channel

If you’re only using one of them at a time, why don’t you just make a preset of a MIDI In block with both channels 1 and 2 mapped to channel 1 and then insert that preset everywhere

I don’t want to go through all of my rackspaces and update my blocks in every rackspace. Then if I change my keyboard, I would have to do that again because another keyboard may have a completely different mapping in rig manager.

Or maybe I’m not understanding the concept of a “preset”.

You can save the current values of any plugin by clicking “Save GP User Preset”

Then that preset becomes available in the menus and through quick plugin finder - same concept as for favorites

So the preset would essentially be the MIDI In Block with the desired channels already set?

But still when changing a rig, I would have to go through all of my rackspaces and change the preset block depending on the current rig.

I’m sure I can do this all with scripting until there is a more robust channel mapping tool at the Rig Manager level.

To be honest, I don’t use my APCKey 25 very often, but when I’m at my desk I want a small footprint. Most of the timer I would be using at least a 61 key keybed, like my Roland APro800

What I am suggesting is that if you only have ONE keyboard at a time, and one of your keyboards sends on channel 1 and the other sends on channel 2, then your preset MIDI In block channel mapping could look like this

In other words, regardless of whether the message comes in on channel 1 or on channel 2, it will be converted to always be on channel 1

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But with one of my keyboards, I need to map MIDI CH 1 to 2 and visa versa when I use the other keyboard I need just CH1. If I did this with input blocks, I would have to change this on all “My Keyboard” input blocks any time I changed keyboards, even after redefining “My Keyboard” with Rig Manager. For now I will likely just put a MIDI Input block for my keyboard in the global rackspaces and send it to back to the other rackspaces for driving my plugins. That way I will only have to redefine the channel mapping in only one MIDI input block.

Steve

You lost me there — it was my understanding that the problem was that one of your keyboards was on channel 2 and you needed it to be producing messages on channel 1.

Sorry if I was not clear. The APCKey 25 keybed is on MIDI CH2 and the buttons above it are on MIDI CH1. If I put everything on MIDI CH1 then both sections will send the same MIDI messages.

This is not a big deal for me since I’m not a gigging musician and primarily use GP to help others. I just tripped of this situation the other day so thought I’d let you know and also if anyone else runs into this, I want to be able to advise them.

For me, I created only 3 rackspaces, so if I change keyboards I have to:

  1. Update the keyboard definition in Rig Manager
  2. Go to each of 3 rackspaces and remap the keyboard channels in the MIDI Input block

or if I put the MIDI Input Block in the global rackspace to send to other rackspaces

  1. Update the keyboard definition in Rig manager
  2. Update the MIDI Input block in the global rackspace

Steve