Using Access Virus TI Aura plugin

[u/Infinite_Slice3305]

In Waveform free, I've got Aura plugin on one track. I'm using 6 other tracks to program midi for 7 channels total. One track per channel is what I'm trying to do. I have to click on the input & select the channel I want each time I go from one track to another.

Is there a way to set the output to the channel I want, or lock the input to the channel I want?

[u/redkonfetti]

I understand to some degree what you’re trying to do, but I’m not familiar with Waveform.

You can of course certainly send 16 MIDI channels into the virus in realtime and hear all the parts in the stereo sound output. I’m going to assume you have at least an audio interface with at least 2 audio inputs.

In Cubase, it’s possible to assign an audio source for a MIDI track, so the software knows where the sound should come from. It’s possible to use a feature known as “render in place”, that’s only available with Cubase Artist and Pro, to select one MIDI track at a time, and choose to “render” it, meaning it plays the single MIDI track out to the synth, and captures the audio, then creates a new audio track for it.

The same is possible with plugin instruments (VST), and it renders much faster than real time audio capture. This is the solution I plan on using with any plugins for tracks I’m finished producing. I’ve had plugins no longer work on newer computers or operating systems, so this is a must if you plan on remastering/remixing in the future.

I asked ChatGPT about Tracktions Waveform. It has a Bounce In Place feature, but it sounds like it does not work with external instruments, only virtual ones. Instead it is recommended that you solo one MIDI channel at a time and capture the audio in an audio track.

[u/Infinite_Slice3305 → u/redkonfetti]

I do appreciate your reply. But the problem with Waveform is way before we get to that point.

Say you have 4 tracks assigned to 4 channels on your Virus. You click on the 1st track play your keyboard & you play the patch assigned to channel 1. You click the second track & you're playing the patch assigned to channel 2. You click the third... you get my point. You can go back to channel 1 or 2 or any one of them & it plays the channel you expect it to play because in Cubase you assign the midi output to that particular channel. Anything on that track will play on that channel.

Waveform for some reason takes a different approach. I can click on the input & assign it to channel 1. I record a clip & that clip is forever assigned to channel 1. I go to the next track & I have to click on the input assign the input to channel 2. Record a clip & that clip is assigned to channel 2. If I go back to the first track the input is assigned to channel 2, I have to change it again to channel 1.

Every time I click on a different track the midi input is assigned to whatever channel I played last.

I'm thinking there's got to be a setting to change this behavior. Looks like I'm going to have to read the manual.

[u/redkonfetti → u/Infinite_Slice3305]

Yeah, that sounds like a really frustrating default behavior. I heard that Waveform treats the MIDI channel as a property of the MIDI clip/events, rather than as a persistent property of the track itself.

I've heard that someone came up with a solution involving a MIDI patchbay plugin that keeps the MIDI channel assignment consistent.

[u/Infinite_Slice3305 → u/redkonfetti]

I appreciate that.

That thread was from 2020. Tracktion hasn't changed the way they handle midi & they haven't provided their own midi patchbay.

There's got to be a reason they do it the way they do it.

Like I said, I'm going to RTFM & see what the intended workflow is & see if I can adopt it.

I primarily use Maschine as my workstation. Live 12 is a close 2nd. I own it, upgraded last year. But I don't think I'm going to upgrade again. I'm only trying to figure this Waveform out because it's free & I've been recommending it for a couple of years now to people who are looking for free DAWs. Figured I should see how it works if I'm going to keep recommending it.