Please tell me there is a way to disable midi recording per sound/group?

Infrabass
Infrabass Member Posts: 39 Member
edited October 22 in Maschine

Another wall hit this evening (the list starts to be quite long 🥲).

Before that, 2 words about my improvised composition setup:

I use an external sequencer to add semi-generative feature to the M+, the Torso T-1.
It controls almost everything in the M+ but I also play live a few instruments using an external midi keyboard, the Sensel Morph (begging to use it's aftertouch capabilities btw).

Basically I use the M+ as a multitimbral engine.

Now there is a problem.
During a performance, very often I start improvising a melody or harmony on my keyboard. Sometimes I like it to the point that I want to record it on the fly into a Maschine pattern.

The issue is that if I hit the record button, EVERY midi note received by the M+ will be recorded, including all the midi sequences played by the external sequencer.
My midi sequences (let's say a drum pattern) end up playing in double:
one time from the sequencer and a second time from the M+ recording.

I can't find an option in the INPUT > MIDI page to disable recording for a pad or a group.

If it's not possible, please NI, add this crucial option, it should be pretty easy to implement.

I'm curious if anyone found a way to achieve this.

Best Answer

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 3,484 mod
    edited April 2 Answer ✓

    There is a way but it's all or nothing. You can set the Pad MIDI Input to "none", it won't record but also won't playback anything coming from the external sequencer since it's input is now disabled so it prob won't fix the issue.

    Altho Maschine can be used for performance it's really designed for production, there's no "arm to record" so it's designed to record one thing at a time and moving on.. So, as a workaround, you can record whatever generative stuff the Torso T-1 is sending to a Pattern then stop the T1 before proceeding to record a melody.

    I'm guessing you want constant generative stuff so after the melody is recorded you can go back to a Pattern with nothing recorded from the T1 and re-enable it (press play on it I guess). Not sure how practical this approach is tho but maybe worth a shot.

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Answers

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,911 mod

    Hello,

    this feature is unfortunately missing.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 3,484 mod
    edited April 2 Answer ✓

    There is a way but it's all or nothing. You can set the Pad MIDI Input to "none", it won't record but also won't playback anything coming from the external sequencer since it's input is now disabled so it prob won't fix the issue.

    Altho Maschine can be used for performance it's really designed for production, there's no "arm to record" so it's designed to record one thing at a time and moving on.. So, as a workaround, you can record whatever generative stuff the Torso T-1 is sending to a Pattern then stop the T1 before proceeding to record a melody.

    I'm guessing you want constant generative stuff so after the melody is recorded you can go back to a Pattern with nothing recorded from the T1 and re-enable it (press play on it I guess). Not sure how practical this approach is tho but maybe worth a shot.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,911 mod
    edited April 2

    One way could possibly be, to set different midi channels on the pads/groups and change the midi channel on the torso t-1 for playing/record then the different sounds, you have up to 16 channels so this should be possible that way - don't know why I did not thought about it then first post.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,760 Expert

    A Pattern belongs to a Group and also holds and records all events for that Group. If the Sounds for the T-1 sequences are separated in their own Group (B), none of those events should make it into a Pattern of your improvised melody sounds in the original Group (A).

    Just make sure to change the global Settings -> MIDI -> MIDI Input -> Default to NONE.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 3,484 mod

    But if he does that then he stops listening to the Sounds that the T1 is triggering, if I understood correctly he wants to solo over whatever the T1 is doing.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,760 Expert

    Don‘t know how to test but… it should work if all the Sounds to be triggered by the T-1 are properly set up to receive MIDI (from a dedicated input/channel).

  • Infrabass
    Infrabass Member Posts: 39 Member

    Hey @D-One

    Thanks for the suggested workflow, it's smart although not as immediate as to be able to record whenever I want/need.

    @ozon

    The record button activate recording for every groups.

    If I set the midi input settings to None I don't receive any midi notes from my external sequencer anymore.

    I want to record the midi information from my external keyboard not from my sequencer but any pads set to midi input setting other than None and receiving midi information are recorded.


    Basically, we need an option in the M+ to disable midi recording other than setting the midi input to none to be able to still send midi notes.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,911 mod

    Have you thought about recording the loop as audio, that should work as you want, but of course has also some downsides.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,760 Expert

    @Infrabass

    The record button activate recording for every groups.

    If that is the case (which I doubt because it makes little to no sense but who knows with Maschine), you simply must not have a Pattern active for the Groups which are controlled by the T-1. Maschine cannot record anything without a Pattern, and a Pattern belongs to a specific Group. No Pattern, no recording (except if you’re working with Clips but that’s a whole different story).

    If I set the midi input settings to None I don't receive any midi notes from my external sequencer anymore.

    Then the MIDI routing for the Groups/Sounds doesn’t work properly.

    I always change the global Settings -> MIDI -> MIDI Input -> Default to NONE if I hook up a MIDI keyboard to control a specific Sound and set that Sound to the input and channel of the keyboard. Works for USB and MIDI which I verified for another forum thread this week.

    You must set up each Sound individually to receive MIDI from a specific input and channel and not rely on the global default routing (which is everything for everyone).

    I will try to reproduce this whole setup if I find a way to use another standalone sequencer beside M+. Maybe an iOS app could be used…

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,760 Expert
    edited April 7

    I just did some experiments using the BLEASS Arpeggiator on iPad and a Seaboard Blocks keyboard.

    • Seaboard via USB-A to Group A/Sound 1 set to receive from Seaboard/channel 1.
    • BLEASS/Audiobus/iPad via USB-B to Group B/Sound 1 set to receive from USBM+/all.

    It took me some time and fiddling to get BLESS MIDI working at all and I had to use it within Audiobus to route the prodoced MIDI notes to the Maschine Plus.

    While BLEASS arpeggiator triggered a kick sound in Group B, the Seaboard controlled a Monark instance in Group A. This works perfectly to improvise a Monarksynth line along to the percussion generated by BLEASS.

    Now I selected Group A/Sound 1 a hit shift record to capture a melody from the Seaboard.

    And WOW!

    MIDI recording is indeed pretty broken!!

    Not only are MIDI events recorded in Groups that are not active, the Pattern length auto growing is also broken as soon as MIDI events in two Groups are detected and the recorded Patterns are just 1 bar long.

    One workaround I found is that the Pattern length can be manually set to a large value (e.g. 64 bars) to prevent the 1 bar restriction with auto grow.


    I‘ll have to do more (tedious) experiments to gather intelligence about this behavior, but it’s definitely going to a bug report.


    PS: I have an idea why recording behaves as it does, but have to verify. I guess you can start recording a beat and switch seamlessly between Groups while recording, and the first switch determines the length of the Patterns.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 3,484 mod
    edited April 7


    Like i said Maschine is designed to record one thing at a time, record your Kick, then move on and record your Monark - This is the intended use case; nothing you do will get around the fact that as soon as something (MIDI) is sent to another/non-focused Group it will then became focused and record the incoming MIDI - A possible workaround is to stay within the bounds of a single Group for your specific example... Then you can Record both but OP's case is even more complicated.

    I dont have that 1 bar restriction you mentioned, both Patterns grow indefinitely for me.

    OP's usecase: needs to receive external MIDI to trigger a Group/Pad and hear it's outcome while recording MIDI to another Group/Pad = impossible as Maschine will record both. If he turns off one of MIDI-inputs so it doesent get recorded then he no longer hears whatever the external sequencer is triggering...

    I wouldn't say it's broken, it's always been like this since Maschine exists... Now if you say that Maschine should only record to the currently focused Group and ignore (as in no to record) MIDI that is being sent to non-focused groups I'd say thats fair.

    Internally theres probably a big relation between all of this recording stuff and the focus system which i suspect is reallllyy baked into the whole SW back end.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,911 mod

    Absolutely then with maschine only record audio will work, cause then you can record on group or pad, whatever you want.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 3,484 mod
    edited April 7

    Sure, either Audio or MIDI... Which doesn't make much difference (I think), OP still has to stop the external sequencer from sending MIDI to Maschine when he wants to record the solo to avoid the Group focus from jumping back and forth. The main point is it has to be one thing at a time and after the solo is recorded he can re-enable (start playback again) on the T1 - Meaning: temporarily store the generative stuff somehow, either thru MIDI or Audio.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,911 mod

    But if you use the internal sampler does it also jump back and forth with midi? I will give it a try. Also an external looper or loop station could be a solution.

  • LostInFoundation
    LostInFoundation Member Posts: 4,461 Expert

    I think those are all things NI should think at as top priorities when guessing how to improve Maschine.

    Being able to use multiple controllers without all that “focus” shenanigans, being able to record on multiple groups (cmon…any DAW can record enable multiple tracks from…ages…)…even only changing a pattern on Jam without the focus changing on MK3 is still impossible…

    That is something I never understood…it seems like when they decided to make using multiple Maschines together so unpractical and inefficient, somebody thought “let’s find a way to try to diminish our chances to sell multiple Maschine controllers to a single user”…practically NI working against NI

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