Record multiple Midi channels to separate tracks, at the same time?

Pyramid
1

Hello to the community

I do not yet have a pyramid, because I’m not sure that the unit can do what I’m looking for. Any and all thoughts are very much appreciated.

The scenario is this:

  1. I have a live, improvisational, electronic jazz group. MIDI drums, Midi guitar, ETC.

  2. Our process starts with live jamming, and then we have been using audio loopers to create loops. The drummer has been doing most of the looping.
    2a) Our sounds come primarily from the E-Mu
    proteus 2000 series of romplers. The
    seqeuncer functionality built in to the E-Mu
    is too cumbersome for what we need.

  3. We are looking to loop multiple Midi channels, and record them all at the same time. For example: kick on track 1, snare on track 2, hh on track 3, etc.

Is this possible with the squarp pyramid?

Thank you all very much

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Also, I should mention that I have read all of the manual, watched as many videos as I could find, and did my best to search through this forum before asking.

3

I currently own a Pyramid and I have wondered the same thing for some time.

So far it does not seem to be possible. Only the currently active track can be recorded to as far as I understand.

If someone has figured it out, I’d love to hear about it though!

1 Like
4

Thanks PatientFrog!

I may admittedly just be speaking from ignorance or naivete here, but, that such a simple concept has yet to be enacted in the 30+ years of MIDI, especially with the growth of popularity in looping in the last 15, blows my mind.

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I second this! Haven’t even received my pyramid yet and I’m worried about this in particular!

Let us loop multiple tracks at a time, Squarp!

1 Like
6

you can record multiple tracks at one time…
(not sure why others are saying you cannot ?)

it is just like doing any other multi-channel operation on the Pyramid.

you must set midi in to multi-bank A (or similar)
then simply arm record, and midi is recorded on any track as per channel information.

the main limitation is its really fixed length recording
what you’ll find is if you have live looping on , then it will only adjust the length of the active track, the others will use their current lengths.
(this is kind of understandable - as with the pyramid your not arming individual tracks, and live looping is a destructive process… so really what we are doing here is like ‘overdubbing’)

I do really like the “live looping” feature (i.e. loops not having predetermined lengths) - but increasingly I’ve realised that I often don’t need it, if I plan out what Im going to do ‘roughly’ - in some ways it makes things a little easier, as I then have a structure in mind.

7 Likes
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Yo Technobear, thanks for the info!

I would be happy to PayPal you an amount, for you to make a short tutorial video on how to do it, if you’d be interested?

And, I do hear what your saying about the live looping be a bit unecessary with planning, but how many drummers do you know? :slight_smile:

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Further, I don’t know what equipment you use, but I would even understand if you did it with a keyboard with split midi channels.

I’m showing my age here, because when REAL music shops still existed it was the salesmans job to show you: how the gear worked, and how it would do what you need. That’s all over now!

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sorry, I don’t know any drummers into electronic/midi stuff (only acoustic), and i tend to ‘program’ drums (either step or programmatically, rarely finger drummng ) … so yeah no experience in them in a live looping context :slight_smile:

for ‘controller’, I primarily use my Virus TI,
which can work in various modes , in seq mode, which means each ‘part’ is on different midi channel. this means with multi-channel mode on the pyramid, I just switch parts on the keyboard, then it’s using a different track on the pyramid. (so I avoid having to keep reaching to the pyramid to change track)
and I use “multi-mode”, for splits , if I want record things on different tracks

apart from that I have multiple other ‘controllers’ connecting by using a bloka.io midihub which i use to merge midi - this varies a bit, from an organelle being used as a ‘creative sequencer’, norns running on a rPI, or a KMI softstep midi pedal.
(the useful thing about the midihub, is it means i can alter midi message ‘in-flight’, so for example change midi channels, note-ranges… basically get around oddities in various synths/controllers)

it took a while to figure out, how i wanted it to work - but once done, it meant I can just turn things on, and just play - without thinking about midi channels :wink:

I think I’m going to do a video on this setup around the same time as Blokas launch the midihub on Kickstarter, which should be fairly soon.

from your original post, I guess the thing is … you might be better to do the drums on one track rather than splitting them up. so each drum is a note # , not on a different channel.

this might mean you need to do some ‘midi manipulation’, Ive done this with the Spectralis, as it requires each drum hit on a separate channel - so i use the midihub, to convert a note number into a note on a particular channel… so the pyramid sees each ‘drum’ on a separate note, but the Spectralis gets them on a separate midi channel.

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Just an update, I just procured the Pyramid, and will be updating my progress on this approach here. I again thank youse for helping, and I’m sure that we will be in contact soon.

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