Assume you have a setup consisting of an N-channel MIDI processing plugin, an instrument+aliases sending MIDI to this processor on the corresponding channels as well as an arbitrary setup of N instruments to which the processed multi-channel MIDI data should be routed. As 3.1β currently behaves, the last selected routing destination of the MIDI plugin or its aliases remains the sole one - i.e. all the data will be sent to that particular instrument.
I understand this is due to the limitation of the current channel handling and it works like charm in single channel setups. However, as renoise already has a great support for multi-timbral instrument plugins, this should probably be also the case for multi-channel MIDI ones.
One possible solution would be to add a MIDI channel pass-through filter in the MIDI Routing section in the instrument plugin’s properties and default it to be the same as the input channel. This would also allow non 1:1 channel mappings, routing a channel to multiple destinations by means of aliasing, as well as routing this data to Renoise’s native instruments without a hassle (as they don’t have a concept of channels).
In this times the lead even-more-new-features-negator, yes.
I think I get your problem. Using MIDI generators which do send out MIDI on multiple channels, for example a hypothetical step sequencer with 16 different tracks, each sending out MIDI on a different channel. are not really usable right now. You’d need to create multiple instances of them in Renoise then.
A pass-through filter, the ability to route each channel to a different target instrument would indeed solve that. But it’s of course also not making things easier. Maybe this idea somehow also could be combined with the wish to route MIDI to more than just one instrument at once - to layer instruments.
An alternative could be adding an option to pass through MIDI channel information as provided by the plugin. So you could at least connect it to one multi-timbral plugin, which then plays different stuff for different instruments. This is clashing a bit with the idea of aliases in Renoise though.
I think an output filter would solve most of the dissatisfaction that people are encountering with multi-channel usage. An output filter with 4 possible behavior options would be ideal:
Static- whatever is selected is what it is, always.
Channel- multichannel midi is routed to an output based on channel number(great for multi channel midi plugs)
Program change- a program change number can select/shift the current output
Note- first in, first out- cycles round robin, up/down, etc amongst selected outputs(a midi dispatcher, in other words)
Most of these are a direct copy from the MIDI splitter in bidule (plus a channel filter). The Note FIFO there could work better imo.
