Subject:Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Posted by: jahardo

Date:8/27/2002 7:40:25 PM

Perhaps I missed this, but is it possible to automate the volume and pan envelope on midi tracks? I am aware of automating these items on their respective softsynth tracks, but what if one is using an external synth? Am I missing this or was this an oversight? I see how you can fake volume changes using the velocity envelope in the editor, but sometimes velocity changes other things besides volumes, such as filter frequency, etc.

If this is possible please let me know. If not please let the programmers know. Either way the addition of midi is very cool. Now if we could only use all those wonderful vst plugins to go along with our vst instruments...

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan???

Reply by: jahardo

Date:8/29/2002 5:47:08 PM

Hello???


Is this question just too stupid that no one bothered to answer it? I'm sure someone knows about this, or can point me in the right direction. Anyone from sofo have any clues? please don't leave me hanging...

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: CDM

Date:8/29/2002 6:16:44 PM

yes. Just use the Buss Tracks (hotkey: U) Scroll through the Soft Synth tracks until you find the one you're looking for. If you have multiple Acid tracks going to this softsynth and you want to affect them differently, you have to separate them before you do this. I believe this is the only way.

someone else please chime in since I'm not at my machine right now.

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: pwppch

Date:8/29/2002 6:18:48 PM

Correct. There are no CC envelopes in ACID, you have to use the softsynth bus tracks.

Peter

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: jahardo

Date:8/29/2002 10:46:06 PM

so what you're saying is, there is no way to automate volume and pan for midi tracks going to EXTERNAL synths? i knew you could automate the softsynths, but i'm looking for a way to control my outboard synthesizers.

but from what your saying this is not possible?

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: nlamartina

Date:8/29/2002 11:08:24 PM

Jahardo,

Why not control the volume through a MIDI message in the synth track?

- Nick

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: pwppch

Date:8/30/2002 3:17:51 PM

Correct. There are no CC envelopes in ACID 4, so there is no way to paint an continuous volume/pan/etc change to external gear. You can insert all the CC msgs into the sequence using the list editor. I know that this is not the ideal way of doing this.

The other alternative is to record your pans in realtime and then use this new track a means to control the CC's you want. Again, not ideal, but a workaround.

Peter

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: jahardo

Date:8/30/2002 5:08:26 PM

thanks for the help. i'm not much on lists, but i can live with that.

Subject:RE: Midi Volume and Pan??? (in acid 4.0)

Reply by: nlamartina

Date:8/31/2002 1:46:19 AM

Jahardo,

If you've got a decent MIDI controller, you should be able to do this pretty easily. My Oxygen 8 arrived today, so I was able to do a little bit of experimenting for you.

1. Open your project.
2. Get all your MIDI stuff in order.
3. Click "Record" and select MIDI as record type.
4. Select your MIDI controller as the input (in my case, "Out KeyStation USB"), and your external synth (or MIDI out port) as the thru (in my case, Absynth or kX UART).
5. Start recording. Everything will be playing normally.
6. When you get to a part that you want to automate, just start turning knobs and or moving sliders. If I remember correctly, Controller 7 is volume and Controller 10 is pan (typically).
7. When you're done, click Stop. You won't see any MIDI graphically drawn in the new track, but there's a bunch of MSB data embedded inside. As long as the track is allowed to play, the synth attribute will automate perfectly. Just always make sure the track is assigned to the appropriate soft synth or port (in the case of an external device). In some cases, this is actually advantageous to envelopes as it gives you much more control and ease when doing complex automation tasks.

Hope this helps,
Nick LaMartina