midi channels

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Videos show users often fill up the VST rack in Halion or Kontkt with 5-10 sound presets and assign a different midi channel number to each one. Up to 16. Then they make a midi track for each one. Not multi sounds but one at a time. Why are they doing this??
 
If i understand what you are describing i would guess that they are using the channels as a "filter" so that each instrument responds only to midi data sent on that channel rather than to any or all midi date. For example, separating the midi files for the kick drum and the bass on different channels so only the instruments on that channel play back, not both playing back the same note values at the same time.
 
I can only talk about cubase, but what your describing is just alternate ways to do things - each to his/her own.

Things like Halion, for example - 16 slots to match the maximum 16 MIDI channels. You can open one instance of Halion, and then create 16 MIDI tracks and in the inspectors end the sax to the sax MIDI channel in Halion, the piano to the piano channel. I don't do this. In Kontakt, you can create multiple instruments each on a different MIDI channel.

I don't do it. If I want a sax sound, I'll pick the right VST instrument and it becomes the track. No MIDI channel, just the instrument channel. I can then treat it exactly the same as an audio track, and use sends, reverbs, eq and pan it exactly as if it was an audio track. If this means ten instances of Kontakt, and a few Halions running to, plus all he rest - all is good, and I can get to things quickly. If I have MIDI tracks, then I have to remember that that just controls another track, and it slows me down, so I don't create MIDI channels at all - just instruments. Sometimes I might even have umpteen versions of the drum VSTi - one for each individual sound. It works fine this way for me, and I've been doing it this way for years now.
 
People say that, but I've never found running one instance multi-channel is different to running multiple individual ones. Since the last three versions of Cubase upgrades, I've not had any glitches at all and the performance monitor shows load is actually well with the processor's capability.
 
I've been using MT Power Drum Kit - assigning each voice to it's own track in the DAW, similar to [MENTION=178786]rob aylestone[/MENTION].

Also, I'm just getting into using it's grooves to assemble all-in-one tracks, while splitting some off to separate tracks for further processing.
 
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