Recording MIDI events of drumset the right way

Hi,

I’m having a bit of trouble recording the MIDI events of my drumset (Alesis Forge).

I use multilayered drumkit instruments with trigger set to “One-Shot” and NNA set to “Continue”.

My goal is to to end up with separate tracks for each drum, e.g. all C-2 notes go to “Kick” track, D-2 to “Snare”, E-2 to “Hi Tom”, etc. as I want to process them individually.

Currently the workflow to get that is really cumbersome. All note events for the entire drumset are recorded into one single track and I have to manually distribute them afterwards to dedicated tracks.

So, here are my questions:

  • is it possible to record MIDI events into multiple tracks, e.g. all C-2 go into Track1, all D-2 into Track2, etc. ? if this is not possible:

  • is it possible to have each note recorded into a dedicated note column in the same track, e.g. all C-2 go into Column 1, all D-2 into second column, etc. - and if this is not possible:

  • is there some tool that helps to distribute notes after recording from one single track into multiple tracks the way I want it?

Great thanks!

Yes - you can create split maps for MIDI input, which only listens for a specific range of keys and assigns recorded notes to a specific track.

This is done the instrument MIDI tab

E.g.

Instrument #01 : listen for notes between C-2 and C-2, route to track #01

Instrument #02 : listen for notes between D-2 and D-2, route to track #02

etc…

The process is a little cumbersome, but you only have to do it once (save as template song?)

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Instrument #01 : listen for notes between C-2 and C-2, route to track #01

Instrument #02 : listen for notes between D-2 and D-2, route to track #02

etc…

Does this mean that I would need to have multiple copies of the instrument? (currently i have one single instrument with multiple samples and keyzones)

Because I don’t see how to route more than one note rangeto the same instrument.

Does this mean that I would need to have multiple copies of the instrument?

Yes, it would…

You can use xRules however, if you want to have more powerful, flexible MIDI routings in Renoise.

I made a ruleset for you which routes C-2 and D-2 into separate tracks, without the need to duplicate anything.

https://gist.github.com/bjorn-nesby/899e95a7b0525960a01dd24a05393aa0

You can use xRules however, if you want to have more powerful, flexible MIDI routings in Renoise.

I made a ruleset for you which routes C-2 and D-2 into separate tracks, without the need to duplicate anything.

https://gist.github.com/bjorn-nesby/899e95a7b0525960a01dd24a05393aa0

I quickly tested it and it doesn’t work.

The white LED left of the ruleset is lit whenever it receives a MIDI event, so it seems to be configured OK, but your script doesnt do anything.

The XRules dialog is also quite buggy it seems, sometimes I can’t change the cycle buttons, sometimes “Save changes” is greyed out although I changed the code.

I also tried to simplify your code just to see if it does anything:

["call_function"] = [[
 track_index = 2
]],

But nothing.

I will test it a bit more over the weekend.

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

I quickly tested it and it doesn’t work.

Hm, strange - this rule works without problem here. I’m just using a regular keyboard to test.

An “octave” in MIDI is always a bit loosely interpreted - just to be sure, when the xRules MIDI message in Renoise, you can use the MIDI Input Monitorto see the actual octave.

Also, but not really related to the issue, be aware that xRules treats MIDI messages separately from “regular” Renoise MIDI inputs.

In other words, you can completely customize/replace your MIDI setup with this tool, or you risk that messages arrive / are recorded twice (!).

But hey … probably a good idea to get this simple scenario working first :smiley:

Finally, yes xRules is not perfect - issues are listed here:
https://github.com/renoise/xrnx/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+xRules

Edit: I think the one about changing the code without being able to save changes is because your code contained a syntax error. This will disable saving.

https://www.renoise.com/tools/split-into-separate-tracks

https://www.renoise.com/tools/split-into-separate-tracks

Thanks, this one simplifies my workflow a lot!

However, when recording the MIDI notes end up in the first, second or even third note column of the selected track depending of how many drums I play at once.

After using the split tool I end up with tracks which have multiple columns - so I manually have to go through each pattern and cut + mix paste + delete the additional columns for each track.

It would be perfect if the split tool would have a checkbox for collapsing all notes into a single column while splitting.

@fladd would that be easy to implement?

I was looking into a way to do that for quite a while. I think Danoise’s Voicerunner tool can do it. I’m not sure how easy it is to take over this functionality. Maybe Danoise can help?

I was looking into a way to do that for quite a while. I think Danoise’s Voicerunner tool can do it. I’m not sure how easy it is to take over this functionality. Maybe Danoise can help?

Eheh, yes so one tool does sorting in tracks and another one can compact the notes. But running two tools to clean up things, that’s not exactly optimal…

I don’t think it would be trivial to port the note-sorting logic from VR into your tool, unfortunately.

@vitaminx: I still wonder why xRules didn’t work for you, because then you would get it right the first time. And something but occurred to me: did you enable the OSC server in Renoise (Preferences > OSC)?

It’s the one responsible for receiving the notes from xRules, so nothing would work without this running. Once you have enabled the server in Renoise, you need to specify the same settings for OSC in the xRules options - by default, that would be 127.0.0.1 over port 8000…

did you enable the OSC server in Renoise (Preferences > OSC)?

Oh, I probably didn’t. :blush:

I think Danoise’s Voicerunner tool can do it.

I’ll check both tools again later today.

tried your ruleset and it did nothing to me, even added the wrong c-3 note. also tried to do my own ruleset and while it didn’t added the wrong note, the result was bad, like it was not working at all.

also, i find it strange that midi monitor shows, for example c-3, d-3, but recorded notes are c-2, d-2.

also, i find it strange that midi monitor shows, for example c-3, d-3, but recorded notes are c-2, d-2.

that confuses me long time too

the difference are, where defined your keyboard/sequenzer the middle C

this layout is similar to my roland/yamaha drums

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