Recording all channels

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eyeball kicks

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Right, this might be a stupid question from someone new to MIDI, but I 'll ask it anyway.

I have a cheapo MIDI keyboard (in the Yamaha PSR range).

I have some cheap-to-free recording software on my computer (N-track, Jazz, some other stuff).

I am able to record what I play on the keyboard, no problem.

What I want to do but can't do is this: record auto-accompaniment patterns from my keyboard, with each channel kept seperate.

If I try, all the notes played by it (even the drums) end up on one track, with one instrument, which sounds horrible.

The manual for my keyboard says that the auto accomp. is on channels 3-10.

But I'm fed up with the computer treating it as if it's all on one channel.

How do I fix this, cheaply?
 
how do you plug in your keyboard? is it in the line input? mic input? MIDI IN/OUT of the soundcard?
 
I've got it set up correctly, using MIDI in and out.

Here's what happens in, for instance, n-track: with the program open, if I play the accompaniment on my keyboard, I can hear everything nearly correctly from my computer speakers. This must mean that the keyboard is connected to the computer correctly, doesn't it?

If I press record, however, the information from all the channels is recorded onto one midi track. The whole arrangement, including drums, is turned into one very messy piano track.

I'm thinking the problem is with the software I'm using, or, more likely, my inability to configure the software correctly.
 
I don't have n-Track but it must be similar.

You set up multiple tracks before recording. The first is set to accept message from only MIDI Channel 1, the second from Channel 2, etc.

The keyboard must be able to send all its messsages on separate channels. Since the accompaniment pattern seems to sound acceptable (what did you mean by "nearly correctly?"), I presume that it is sending MIDI that way.

So then you arm the three tracks or however many tracks, hit record, and start your auto accompaniment. MIDI messages sent on MIDI Channel 1 should be recorded only on the track that is set up to accept them, etc.
 
Okay, by "nearly correctly" I meant that the drums sounded like drums, but all the other instruments were set to piano. The fact that drums sounds are being made at all makes me think that my computer is recognising different channels. Also, the overall sound of the instruments - albeit all piano - sounds okay. I'm not too bothered about the instruments being all piano, because I'm assuming if I could the thing recorded on individual tracks I could change that easily.

But when I try to record, everything goes on the one track, and even the notes that are supposed to be drums turn out like piano. What's more, the whole thing sounds like a tape being chewed up sometimes.

I was really excited about your suggestion, but when I went to n-track and created lots of blank midi tracks and specified channels and everything, after pressing record it just recorded on one NEW track.

Here's what I want to do: the accompaniments on my keyboard sound, as you might imagine, not very good, and you can't mix the levels on the keyboard at all, so there's no point recording as audio. However, some of the arrangements aren't bad, and I want to use PARTS of them, i.e. maybe a bassline, or a lead part, edit them, turn them into audio and use effects, etc. I can do all this easily if only I can find a way to record the individual instruments in the first place.

If I can't record channels to seperate tracks simultaneously, I would be happy to have a program that could easily record one channel at a time, and at least I could line things up afterwards myself.

So what I'm asking now is for someone to tell me a program that is either free/cheap or has a trial period, where I would definitely be able to do this kind of thing.
 
Cubase has a function where you can "explode" a multi-channel track to a set of tracks, one per channel. Dunno if n-track does that, though.

OR:

If you don't need the separate tracks, but just need to keep the instuments separate, you can record patch selections for each channel on separate tracks, and leave all the notes on the single multi-channel track. You can do the same with controller data, if you want to adjust the volume, or use a mod wheel for one of the channels. THIS approach should work on any seqencer.
 
Exploding tracks is only really useful if all the parts are in distinct parts of the song's pitch range, with little or no overlap. You might be lucky with the bass part but the drums and keys will have notes in the same part of the staff and it would be impossible to identify which was which automatically, and way too painful to try to pull it apart manually.

General MIDI defines that drums use channel 10. So nTrack is detecting channels effectively but all the other parts are either being sent on the same channel or your tracks are not configured properly.

Did you arm all the channels to record before you hit Record?

Are you sure the PSR doesn't give you the option of sending messages on individual channels?
 
It sounded like the channel info is in his (single) track. I don't think range will matter.

As to piano being on everything, I think that's just cos it's the default patch. So he's sending on 15 different channels, but they're all piano. Hence my comment about building the patch messages.
 
Thanks for all the help! I have now solved the problem!

At first what I tried was the unbelievably tedious task of just using the piano roll to delete notes to isolate tracks, saving what I'd salvaged from the bassline, then beginning again with a different instrument. I did this for an hour or so and got bored as hell.

But then when I exported some of my edited tracks to another program I quickly realised (because I'd not managed to delete all the notes) that although n-track only plays back a midi track through one channel, it still contains (and saves) all the channel information.
 
Also, I wanna say that I have downloaded dozens of freeware/shareware programs to do midi editing, and most of them I've given up on immediately. But I downloaded something called Midi Locator Free this evening. I've been using it for like an hour or so and it is fantastic.
 
n-track might let you specify "any" channel (or channel 0) for playback. Cubase does "any", and my old Master Tracks (Gawd, am I dating myself) does the channel 0 thing. It's not immediately obvious that that's how you need to handle multi-channel playback in those programs --- so mebbe n-track does something similar.

Daf
 
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