The rackspace is quite specific to my own needs while playing keys in a band but I thought I’d share it in case it is of use to someone. It allows me to change the routing and sound of hardware and software instruments during rehearsals, jams and gigs very quickly. Everything is just a click or two away:
“How does it sound if we sequence the Piano instead of the Pro3?”
”Can we pull some of the mids of the Rhodes?”
”How does it sound if we layer the piano with the synth?
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Setup
- Sequential Rev2 (Hardware synth)
- Sequential Pro3 (Hardware synth)
- Oxi One (Sequencer)
- Hardware Reverb (Empress)
- Hardware Tape Delay (Strymon Volante)
- Kontakt (virtual instruments, piano, rhodes etc.)
- Interface (RME fireface 802)
I wanted to have flexible routing but without routing the audio of the hardware synths through the computer for two reasons:
- Redundancy (I can still play the synths if the laptop dies)
- Low latency (no roundtrip)
All of that can be achieved by remote controlling the RME software TotalMix via OSC. Besides routing and levels I can also control the built-in TotalMix EQs.
Sections
Input Routing
Use any input device as controller for any output device. Examples:
- Sequence a Kontakt Piano from Oxi One
- Play Piano with the Rev2 Keybed while running polyphonic sequences on the Rev2
Output Routing
Route any output device (Rev2, Pro3, Oxi One) to a mix bus (Bass, Sequence, Keys). With the globally linked “Sum to Stereo” switch, all mix busses are summed to stereo, e.g. if we mix ourselves or for rehearsals. Set to off, the mix engineer gets outputs for each mix bus for more flexible mixing options.
Inserts
The two hardware effects can be used as an insert on any route. Example: Rev2 → Delay → Reverb → Keys bus.
Transpose, Patches & Levels
What it sais on the tin.
EQs
Those control all parameters of the totalMix EQs. Playback channels (Kontakt) don’t have an EQ, that’s why there are only two. Could add controls for a software EQ after Kontakt at some point.
Code
Here are the gigfile & scripts. I didn’t have too much time and with the limitations of the language it is not as clean and reusable as I would have liked but if someone wants to reuse parts of it, let me know, I can explain what’s going on or refactor some parts to be more generic.
Cheers, Daniel
