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Routing more than 16 outputs from VEP into Logic

Srikant K

Srikant K

New Member
In my VEP instance, I've loaded 4 Kontakt instances (each containing 4 instruments). So I have 16 instruments with corresponding 16 MIDI channels, and hence 16 stereo outputs ready to be routed out of VEP into Logic Pro.

When I load the next Kontakt instance and insert an instrument, I need to be able to assign MIDI ch. 17 to it, so that I can control that instrument from Logic with AUX channel VEP 33-34 (which is the 17th AUX).
Any way to achieve this ?
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Within VEP settings, you can increase:

1) The number of audio inputs and outputs coming to and from VEP to your DAW.
2) The number of midi ports coming into VEP.

There are only 16 midi channels, so you have 16 channels per port. Kontakt only allows up to 16 channels per instance when being ran inside a DAW or VEP. Port A is the only thing available to you.

To get around this, you will need to use for example:

VEP:

Midi Port 1: Channel ALL

Kontakt:
Port A, and each instrumetnt loaded will be channels 1-16.

Midi Port xyz: Channel ALL

Kontakt:
Port A, and each instrumetnt loaded will be channels 1-16.

For more instances of Kontakt, you just keep adding more Kontakt instruments and increment the port number as needed. If you need separate routing from your kontakt patches, within each kontakt instance you would set your 16 instruments to go out stereo 1-16. Then, you activate those outputs on the instrument track within VEP. From there, just reroute said Kontakt's outputs within VEP to wherever you need—whether you are sending individual channels to your DAW, consolidating, or creating extra busses etc.
 
Logic does not support multi port midi unless you use the AU3 version (which is beta still I think). My preference is to just use 16 channels of MiDI per instance of VEP and Logic because the AU3 multi ports don’t support MIDI from the aux outputs in Logic... ie you can’t trigger MIDI regions from auxes on any ports except 1. So for anything above channel 16, I’ll just do a new instance of VEP in a new instrument track.

There are some key switch kontakt scripts that will let you access the additional ports in Kontakt (B-D)... like orange tree samples mind control. But only as a key switched instrument from a single “input” midi channel.
 
AU3 will give you more midi channels but it doesn’t work with the undocumented trick of using aux source tracks in logicpro. As of now anyway. Send a feature request to apple but don’t hold your breathe waiting for it.

It is, however, possible to seek out a few more midi channels into kontakt by using articulation sets to set a pc switch representing kontakt ports A-D, and then using a multi script inside kontakt to direct to the right kontakt port. You can effectively get 64 midi channels per kontakt instance that way. I have a multi script for this that I made I will share this afternoon
 
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Except actually the aux track trick will simply not work past 16 source tracks, so you’re probably SOL if that is a requirement
 
here is the Kontakt multi-script I mentioned earlier in case it helps anyone. Basically this converts PC messages 1-4 into Kontakt routing instructions to send notes to each of the A-D ports inside Kontakt. So you can hypothetically get 64 midi channels in one Kontakt instance this way.

Code: 
on init
    declare $runningPort
    declare $channel
    $runningPort := 1
end on

on midi_in  
    { Detect PC#127, only for BYTE2 values 1-4 }
    if ($MIDI_COMMAND = $MIDI_COMMAND_PROGRAM_CHANGE)
        if( $MIDI_BYTE_1 < 5 )
            $runningPort := $MIDI_BYTE_1
            ignore_midi
            exit
        end if
    end if

    {All other midi events, rechannelize to port based on last running port# }
    $channel := ($runningPort-1) * 16 + $MIDI_CHANNEL
    set_event_par($EVENT_ID,$EVENT_PAR_MIDI_CHANNEL,$channel)
   
end on

However, like I said... you still have the problem that you are wanting to use the undocumented Aux track trick in LogicPro to send midi tracks directly to relevant midi channels. When you get to the 17th track it will just use midi channel 1 again, actually you can change the midi channel to whatever you want, but still you only have 17.

If you can figure out a way to insert a PC message in front of every note in this mode, then the above KSP script will access a 17th sound in Kontakt. I messed with it a few minutes this morning, an Articulation Set is not the right way to handle this and I'm not sure what would be actually...

if you can live without AUX tracks, then just use AU3 and have plenty of midi port/channels to do whatever you want.
 
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A further word about the undocumented AUX track trick. This capability has been a convenient little undocumented feature in LogicPro going back for years, but however it works...documented or not...it only works across 16 midi channels as of now. I doubt Apple will do anything with this since its like a hidden little old feature that somehow has slipped through the cracks, but doesn't really follow the normal paradigm for how Apple has chosen to provide multi-timbral capabilities in LogicPro. It could go away entirely for all we know, and unlikely to be increased beyond 16 channels most likely. You can always ask Apple in feature request, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Main benefit I see of the AUX trick is that you can automate the returning audio in lanes directly below the midi track. Also, I believe the Mute/Solo buttons work as you might expect on the track headers, directly connected to the audio of each AUX. And the track header meter too. There are some downsides, for example AUX tracks don't allow track delay setting. There might be some other downsides, I can't remember now.

In any case, if you use the documented modes of multi-timbral...that would be by either using multi-timbral instruments the normal Apple way..which means the Solo/Mute/Meter on the track header are all wonky and are all linked to the first set of audio outputs, while all the other midi tracks have useless things happening on the track header for mute/solo/meter. But on the other hand, track delay works. Another downside is that if you want to do any automation on the audio coming from each AUX, you have to still create an additional AUX track, just as a place to put the audio automation, while the midi will be on a separate midi track. Yea I hear ya...but it is what it is...

The other approach is to use the environment. now if you use the environment you can easily cable in something that will insert PC messages and obtain the 64 tracks per Kontakt instance with my KSP script. You still end up with separate midi and returning audio tracks (if you want to automate the audio, otherwise you don't need an AUX track). And the mute/solo/meter also work per-track, but they operate on midi rather then audio. but anyway, this is still a fairly documented approach and I would consider it more likely to be supported by Apple.

Lastly you can use AU3 version of VePro...which with either of the above approaches will give you as many as 768 midi channels feeding into VePro to use as you wish...

So you have options...but the AUX track trick..while kind of cool...does have its limitations and I think its unlikely that Apple will expand it to work with 25 midi channels (matching LogicPro's limitation of 25 audio returns from multi-timbral plugins).
 
Hi all,
I’m creating an instance of VEPro that has more than 16 channels by using multiple ports. How do I get Logic to connect to the same instance of VEPro and access what would be the 17th midi channel, but I’m making it the next midi port, channel 1?
 
what version of LogicPro are you using? The only way that LogicPro official supports multiple midi ports to VePro7 is by using the AU3 version of the VePro plugin, which is considered beta still for whatever it's worth. I have used it without problems, I have heard rumors that 10.8+ might have problems, but you know what they say about rumors.
 
I’m using 10.8.1, and the AU3 version of the VEPro plugin. Maybe that’s it. Any chance you could take a screenshot of your routing in Logic for that “17th (+)” channel?
 
Note that it was written quite a long time ago and some things have changed since then. I am going to get the mod over there to let me edit the top article of the post to bring it more up to date, should happen in next few days, but in meantime, just make sure to read the whole thread all the way to the end to get up to date. Some of the bugs reported initially have been resolved by Apple and VSL
 
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