Please Help Me. URGENT: Recording MIDI into Pro Tools and triggering Maschine

This has been a total nightmare trying to figure out.

I've watched every video on youtube and searched all types of threads and couldn't figure out how to do this.

All I want to do is make Maschine work with Pro Tools 10... but I don't want to just drag and drop it and have an audio wav form of my drums.

I need to be able to edit each drum sound individually, (kick, snare, etc) in the PRO TOOL's Midi Editor. So basically what I need someone to please tell me how to do is route the pads from the RTAS maschine so that they record on an individual track in Pro Tools in real time, but the track must show the midi drum so I can work with it in the Midi Editor on Pro Tools.

PLEASE Help

 

please use Sounds MIDI Batch Setup.

you use this to put each Drum Sound on a separate MIDI Note, you can choose which note is the Root Note for Sound 1 in a Group.

if you want to use the Maschine Controller to trigger the Sounds, you need to press Shift + Control to put the Maschine Controller into MIDI Mode.

you then use the Group buttons to get the Maschine Controller to play back on different Octaves.

please consult your manual for more details.

does this help?

sowari

 

Thanks for your response. I've consulted the manual numerous times, but it doesn't get into detail about how to route each midi sound to Pro Tools. I don't really care for using Maschine as my sequencer, I just want to know how to route each pad to its own track in pro tools 10. For instance on snare pad to it's own track, one hi-hat to it's own track and then be able to modify these midi sounds in the Midi Editor.

I tried going to midi batch setup and selecting different options to no avail. I feel like what I want to do is simple, I just need someone to dumb it down for me because no matter what I try it doesn't work. It seems that machine cannot transfer the midi data to Instrument, Midi or Aux tracks, only Audio and this comes out in wav form which is not able to be adjusted in Midi Editor.

Don't mean to be a pain, just using the last resort because no one has been able to help so far.

 

I've set this up, its not really worth it imo. Atleast I did It in Live, I prefer to work within maschine. Maschine VST is always midi channel 1, so you can't use this channel, so I think that leaves 15 available channels to route to pro tools

 

To each his own. Appreciate the input either way. I think you are able to load multiple instances of Maschine though so you can have more than 15 channels.

 

good point, I always forget how much more can be done with multiple instances

 

forgive me but you needs to know how to do this in Pro Tools. i hardly use Pro Tools any more, but if i remember correctly you can set up MIDI Tracks in Pro Tools and route those MIDI Tracks to play Maschine.

and btw robbieds - you can route MIDI Channel 1 to Maschine.

so to clarify, you should be able to send MIDI to the Maschine Software, if you have the Maschine Controller in MIDI Mode. if you use Sounds To MIDI, you should be able to put each 16 Sounds slots of a Group on separate MIDI Notes and have the Maschine Controller play them.

spencersdope, you need to give exact details of what you have tried.

sowari

 

OK here is exactly what I just did:

1. Opened an instance of Maschine in a new Instrument track in Pro Tools.

2. Under the "Sound MIDI Batch Setuo" I applied "Sounds To MIDI Channels"

3. Routed 3 different pads to 3 different MIDI tracks in Pro Tools using the first three Maschine channels (1, 2 and 3).

Now with this setup; When my MIDI track that is routed to the first pad on Maschine through Channel Output 1 is record enabled, I DO SEE that it hears the sound in the PT Midi Track, however when I start recording it does not record the sounds on Pro Tools, only Maschine.

As for the other two pads that I routed through Maschines next 2 channels into separate midi tracks, they do not even show that Pro Tools is hearing them even when they are record enabled.

 

firstly here is a video tutorial which shows you how to route Pro Tools MIDI Tracks to a plugin loaded on an 'AUX' Track and also using Pro Tools 'Instrument' tracks if you just want to use one MIDI Channel in a plugin.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZPbZgvmn2w"]Pro Tools: Record Virtual Instruments With Instrument Tracks | WinkSound - YouTube[/ame]

with Maschine i suggest you load the Maschine Software onto an AUX Track, and use MIDI Tracks to send MIDI into Maschine - as shown in the video.

if you want to send use 16 Pads to trigger 16 Sounds loaded into a Kit, you need to use Sounds To MIDI Notes not Sounds To MIDI Channels, as you have done.

if you have a Bass Sound on Sound 1 and a Keyboard sound on Sound 2, then you use Sounds To MIDI Channels.

to clarify, a Drum Kit loaded into a Group, usually has all sounds on the same MIDI Chanel, but each Sound has its own MIDI Note. you choose a Root Note of C3 - the default - the first Sound will use C3, the second Sound will be C#3 and all the other slots will be a semitone above.

does this help?

sowari

 

Yes it's helped me understand a lot more and I appreciate it Sowari.

I've come to the conclusion that it MUST be something I'm doing wrong when routing the channels IN MASCHINE that's not allowing the MIDI track to record the sounds... because I tried to use the Aux and MIDI track with Xpand and it worked brilliantly.

I don't know why it doesn't seem to work with Maschine. Is it something I'm doing in Maschine when routing the channels?

I created the Aux track with Maschine loaded in.
I created the MIDI track and assigned the output to Maschine 1 Channel-1 , and left the input at "all".

This is where I think I might be doing it wrong - I load a series of sounds onto different pads in Maschine.
I then go to the "Sound tab" then the "OUT" tab for that sound in maschine and set it to channel 1.
When it is set to channel one the Aux track hears it, but the MIDI track doesn't record it.
When I set the next pad to the next available channel (channel 2) the Aux track in Pro Tools does not hear it... for some reason it can only hear pads on channel 1. And either way the MIDI track is not recording the Channel 1 even though it's assigned to it in the output like I did with Xpand which worked.

Side note: I tried this under both MIDI Note and MIDI Channel.
Do you think I should just get an MPC? Even though I love the Maschine. I hope I'm just doing it wrong and it's possible on Maschine.

 

you are still not doing this correctly

why are you setting the Maschine Sound Tab to MIDI Out? i though you wanted to load sounds into the Maschine Software and record MIDI into Pro Tools which would then trigger the Maschine Sounds - is that correct? please leave the Sound Tab alone for this.

please try something very basic. create a MIDI Track in Pro Tools, create an AUX Track and load Maschine onto that AUX Track. in Maschine load the 909 Kit without the Patterns. go the Group dropdown and choose Sound MIDI Batch Setup. then choose Sounds To MIDI Notes and leave the default Root Note to C3.

back in Pro Tools, arm the MIDI track - click on the Record button so that it flashes.
put your Maschine Controller into MIDI Mode - press SHIFT + CONTROL. then press the E Group button on your Maschine Controller. this makes the Controller send MIDI C3 on Pad 1. your 16 Pads should play all 16 drum sounds. can you hear the 16 Sounds?

create another MIDI Track in Pro Tools - it should defualt to MIDI Channel 2, make sure it sends to MIDI Channel 2 for Maschine. in the Maschine Software, go to Group B, and in the Group dropdown choose Sounds To MIDI Channels. load a Bass sound into Sound Slot 2 - yes i did say Sound slot 2 because that will receive on MIDI Channel 2, which is what we want!

back in Pro Tools arm the MIDI Channel 2 track - by making sure the Record button is flashing - you should now hear your bass sound! then go back to the MIDI Track 1 track and arm it - you should not hear the Drums!

if you then create another MIDI Channel in Pro Tools - and make sure that is sending on MIDI Channel 3 to Maschine - and load another Keyboard sound into Slot 3 in Group B, you should hear that if you arm the Track in Pro Tools.

i am including a simple Pro Tools project created on Pro Tools 8 LE - so it should work on Pro Tools 10 - which has 3 MIDI Tracks triggering a 909 kit , an Analogue Classic Bass and a Mark II Keyboard sound. depending on which MIDI Track is armed in Pro Tools, you should hear the different Sounds.

let me know if you get this to work.

sowari

 

YES! Amazing, it works. Thank you so much for your expertise and patience man no one else on the net was able to tell me how to do it, they all said it was impossible. Let me ask one more little thing and I SWEAR it's the last post.. lol

Since I frequently use Pro Tools Plug-Ins like AIR-Lo-Fi and others on certain drums/sounds I'm forced to load these plugins on the Aux-Maschine track (because the MIDI track does not allow any plugins) resulting in every sound in every group loaded on Maschine being effected by the Lo-Fi plugin. Question being is there any way to bypass or disable the Lo-Fi plugin for only certain sounds?

 

okay you need to learn a bit more about Pro Tools and Maschine

firstly you need to learn how to send certain Maschine Sounds and/Groups to different Outputs. Maschine can use up to 16 Outputs! so for instance you can send your snare to a different Output to all the other Sounds in your kit. by doing that you can put Reverb just on your Snare. please consult your manual about assigning Outputs. to help you, you should see OUT as a choice for Sounds and Groups (there are 4 buttons marked SRC, GRV, MCR and OUT). if you click on Out you should see Main, and you can change the default Output here.

in Pro Tools you can route Audio between AUX Channels and between Instrument Channels and AUX Channels. you need to create new AUX Channels for each Effect. in the Input Section for the newly created AUX, you should see a choice labeled plugin. Click and hold here and you will be able to choose Maschine Out 2-16. choose whichever Output from Maschine you want coming into that AUX.

with these extra AUX Channels, you can use the Inserts for FX or Sends to send the signal to another AUX track with a Reverb - as an example.

btw, you can actually put Maschine on an 'Instrument' track and send MIDI to that Instrument track fro, your MIDI Tracks. in other words you have a choice of whether you want Maschine to be on an Instrument Track or an AUX Track.

let me know if the above makes sense? please also realize i am using Pro Tools 8, so i am not sure if certain things have changed.

you might need to learn about the difference between Inserts and Sends. if you want more than one sound sharing a reverb, you should use 'Sends' if you just want a specific sound to have Compression, EQ, you use 'Inserts'.

sowari