PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I have a general MIDI setup question. I've always been fortunate enough to have a MIDI patch bay with 128 presets. All of my MIDI devices are plugged into the patch bay. My main preset is: controller->sequencer->all outboard devices. When I need to record automation from a particular device, I switch to a preset: sequencer<->device. This setup works for me because I have multiple controllers and multiple sequencers (h/w & s/w). My question is, how would I wire all of this if I didn't have the patch bay? I could send controller out into sequencer in, sequencer out into first device, first device thru into next device, etc... How would I record automation of any of the devices back into the sequencer? Am I missing something here? I'm just curious how it would be done without the patch bay. BTW, I use a Pulsar II.

Thanks,
chisel

Without a patchbay, you still have Scope: a patchbay with MIDI I/O/Thru as available on the card(s). With a single card, that's pretty limited, but extra cards add extra ports. Although Scope hasn't got routing presets like your standalone patchbay that change instantly with a simple MIDI message, it can be changed by loading another project which isn't, for that purpose, so fast.

Without the patchbay, you can think of different ways to make use of the existing ports on your hardware devices, use a Thru on the hardware sequencer for example, and send the Master keyboard through the sequencer to Scope, then both can send their MIDI to Scope. Such a 3-device chain won't influence the timing really, but longer chains will accumulate a little delay with each throughput.

Take a sheet of paper, make a little block diagram with each hardware device and its ports on it. And maybe even add the software ports: A sequencer can serve as Thru for not-so-time-critical controller data but might introduce too much delay for a master keyboard. Draw of couple of routings and try to find one that suits you. This is something you alone must understand and comprehend, since it's you who knows the little pro's and con's in practical use of your routing setup.

Read the manuals of your devices and see what MIDI filtering/forwarding options they have. For example, when routing the master keyboard to hardware sampler to Scope, it might be usefull to filter out Active Sensing (sent by the keyboard) at the sequencer, and then you can use the MIDI out on the sequencer instead of the Thru.

It all depends on the consensus you find: a workflow with which you feel confortable according to your hardware specifics..

One great thing about multiple cards is each HARDWARE I/O provides an additional 16 channels also, no biggie for recording, but live it gives one 16 channels for synths, 16 for sampled instruments, and 16 channels for controls on a 3 x card DAW.
I am unaware of any other way to achieve this in the virtual world.