Playing More Than One Combinator On a Single Midi Track

[StephenHutchinson]

I know this may seem like a strange or perhaps even dumb question.. but after trying to use a Line Mixer 6:2 and then the Mixer 14:2, I can't figure out a way to get 2 or 3 combinators to play at the same time when hitting a note on a keyboard. Not sure if this is even possible but any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[K.Markov]

put RPG-8 in first combinator (with shift pressed to not connect auto), arpeggio off, and connect from that RPG cv & gate to second combinator (and so on)

[StephenHutchinson]

put RPG-8 in first combinator (with shift pressed to not connect auto), arpeggio off, and connect from that RPG cv & gate to second combinator (and so on)

Thank you so much. I'll give that a try.

[diminished]

There's a little neat little trick I learned from Carly PoohBear. You can add your MIDI keyboard multiple times to your list of controllers (as generic MIDI Keyboards, but with the same input), disable them being used as master keyboards (I don't remember if that's necessary) and pick "Separated" at the bottom.
You can now right click your instruments and "lock" these duplicate controllers to your instruments. You can now play multiple instruments with just one physical keyboard, and record them at the same time as well if you arm the tracks.

carlytrick.JPG (77.52 KiB) Viewed 1396 times

[StephenHutchinson]

There's a little neat little trick I learned from Carly PoohBear. You can add your MIDI keyboard multiple times to your list of controllers (as generic MIDI Keyboards, but with the same input), disable them being used as master keyboards (I don't remember if that's necessary) and pick "Separated" at the bottom.
You can now right click your instruments and "lock" these duplicate controllers to your instruments. You can now play multiple instruments with just one physical keyboard, and record them at the same time as well if you arm the tracks.

carlytrick.JPG

Woah.. that's insanely cool! I only have one keyboard at this point, but definitely worth looking into. Thanks for the info!

[lowtom]

Drop one CVPT Player RE (it's free) on one of the Combinators and route CVPT Gate and Note outputs to other two.

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... layer-tap/

Now if you select first Combinator to play the other two will follow.

Only issue here is mono note triggering.

cvpt.png (670.25 KiB) Viewed 1355 times

For poly signals it is better to use MIDI-CV Converter:
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... converter/

[diminished]

There's a little neat little trick I learned from Carly PoohBear. You can add your MIDI keyboard multiple times to your list of controllers (as generic MIDI Keyboards, but with the same input), disable them being used as master keyboards (I don't remember if that's necessary) and pick "Separated" at the bottom.
You can now right click your instruments and "lock" these duplicate controllers to your instruments. You can now play multiple instruments with just one physical keyboard, and record them at the same time as well if you arm the tracks.

carlytrick.JPG

Woah.. that's insanely cool! I only have one keyboard at this point, but definitely worth looking into. Thanks for the info!

No problem! Found that really helpful myself, so thanks to Carly. Just in case that was lost in my message, you only need one actual keyboard. All you do is pretend that there are multiple ones.

Having all that said, in other DAWs all you gotta do is have one MIDI track and route it to any VST of your liking with the click of a mouse. No hacks required. That "feature" is probably almost as old as the MIDI standard itself.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

Drop one CVPT Player RE (it's free) on one of the Combinators and route CVPT Gate and Note outputs to other two.

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... layer-tap/

Now if you select first Combinator to play the other two will follow.

Only issue here is mono note triggering.

cvpt.png


For poly signals it is better to use MIDI-CV Converter:
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... converter/

I really prefer the Midi CV Converter over the CV tap for doing things like this..

The biggest issue joining combinators using players is you have to handle the Performance Data manually, I find the Hamu helps here.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

If you do use the CV tap you could wire it like this.

[mcatalao]

First and foremost, when i have these situations where i'd like to control 2 combis at the same time, most of the times i end up merging the 2 combinators. For that, just select the 2 combis, and combine them. The result is a single combi with all the devices. You have to do some additional mingling and if it isn't in one of the base combis, add a mixer and route the instruments accordingly, but imho, this is the best way to do it as it is a good solution for sequencing, CV or a live performance... And with all due respect to others, a way SIMPLER and future proof (just save the final combi for future uses) instead of having to save a complete project.

That being said... since for recording context you can merge 2 combinators, or simply copy/paste the midi data from a track to another, I'll assume this question is for a performing situation. For this, and if you really don't want to merge the combinators, I would use the External control and the advanced midi section in the hardware controller.

The advanced midi controller allows you to select a midi port from 4 different controllers and 16 different channels and route them to whatever track you want to send it. And the best part is that you can make 4:M routings, because you can assign 4 different banks to the same controller.

So for using the Advanced midi controller have to go to Preferences->Sync and define your midi controller as one of the mid bus sources in the Exernal control. In here, you just have to select the same controller for bank 1 and bank 2 (assuming you can't control what midi it is sending).

preferences.JPG (30.97 KiB) Viewed 1264 times

Then on the rack you open the advanced midi control section in the hardware controller and select bank 1 channel 1 route it to the first combi,

Bank 1.JPG (46.19 KiB) Viewed 1264 times

and then do the same for bank 2 channel 2 and route to the second combi.

Bank 2.JPG (45.78 KiB) Viewed 1264 times

Now the first channel of your cotroller will be sending midi to 2 different tracks at the same time. However, the midi comming from the advanced controller is not recorded to the tracks even if you use it while record armed, so as i was saying in the begginning of the post this is a solution for performance situations.

If your controller can send multiple channels, and if it has a way to control zones, you can setup 2 zones in midi channel 1 and midi channel 2 and send the zones to bank 1 and just use channel 1 and 2 in the first bank.
The advanced midi section is usually forgotten functionality but an interesting feature to use reason with more "obscure" sequencers, or hardware sequencers, and in this case to use up to 4 devices and have more direct control and not being bound to the master control, surface lock, and normal midi behavior with 1->1 connections that are enough in a normal sequencing situation.

In live situations, what i used to do to have more control was having my main instruments as master controllers, and i had a second controller reouted to bank 1 and then have a bunch of different routings to 1-16 channels. This allows to have a bigger though stable project for a full gig with banked instruments mapped to keyboard zones and the 2 master controls could go up and down in the tracks dynamically.

Both these solutions are effective for mono or poly instruments too.

I hope this helps!

[mcatalao]

There's a little neat little trick I learned from Carly PoohBear. You can add your MIDI keyboard multiple times to your list of controllers (as generic MIDI Keyboards, but with the same input), disable them being used as master keyboards (I don't remember if that's necessary) and pick "Separated" at the bottom.
You can now right click your instruments and "lock" these duplicate controllers to your instruments. You can now play multiple instruments with just one physical keyboard, and record them at the same time as well if you arm the tracks.

Interesting hack, didn't know it worked.

However, if in a new version reason starts to check the midi port ignoring the remote config, this will stop working. Thus the CV or Hardware control solution are better future proof options, imho.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

There's a little neat little trick I learned from Carly PoohBear. You can add your MIDI keyboard multiple times to your list of controllers (as generic MIDI Keyboards, but with the same input), disable them being used as master keyboards (I don't remember if that's necessary) and pick "Separated" at the bottom.
You can now right click your instruments and "lock" these duplicate controllers to your instruments. You can now play multiple instruments with just one physical keyboard, and record them at the same time as well if you arm the tracks.

Interesting hack, didn't know it worked.

However, if in a new version reason starts to check the midi port ignoring the remote config, this will stop working. Thus the CV or Hardware control solution are better future proof options, imho.

The one big advantage of using my method is you can record on all the devices you have locked to at the same time.

The disadvantage is you have to remember to either disable them or lock them to a dummy device when not in use if not you get the record short note recording issue. (the Seq. throws a fit when receiving multiple notes on for the same key without a note off LOL )

However I have now moved onto using the Midi CV Converter for stacking (as my original method predated players)...

[selig]

However I have now moved onto using the Midi CV Converter for stacking (as my original method predated players)...

I actually love working this way, it's the closest thing to having actual MIDI cables in the rack. Only limitation is the lack of controllers (sustain, mod wheel, pitch bend, etc.) which CAN be a little limiting/frustrating at times.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

However I have now moved onto using the Midi CV Converter for stacking (as my original method predated players)...

I actually love working this way, it's the closest thing to having actual MIDI cables in the rack. Only limitation is the lack of controllers (sustain, mod wheel, pitch bend, etc.) which CAN be a little limiting/frustrating at times.

FYI if you see one of my above pic's I use the Hamu to get performance data back into combinators, Pitch and Mod are straight forward but you have to assign the others which can work out better...sometimes...