Stylus RMX and MIDI

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:54 pm

A question for any Stylus RMX users on Live 4 here:

I currently have a half decent tune going using stylus RMX to provide most of the percussion.

I don't, however, know how to automate various elements of the various beats in stylus. As far as I can get is mute various tracks during the tune. For example, just say I want to take the kick out of the track for a certain amount of time, I will open the stylus plug-in and mute that track, then turn it back on again at the exact time I want it to kick in again.

There must be some way I can import this into MIDI so I can simply remove those beats or create a separate scene for that particular style of percussion? I also want to do things like have a certain time where the kick element of the stylus groove plays very quickly in succession (in time for a build up).

Stylus say you can drag the MIDI straight into the host from a special button they have on the plug-in, but this doesn't seem to work with live, only Logic.

In laymens, I am looking for a way to

A) automate stylus
B) create a MIDI pattern in live of what is happening in stylus so I can edit that as needed (take out beats here, put them in again there….etc)

gaspode · Post by **gaspode** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:29 pm

Live does not support drag and drop of files (midi or audio) from an external program atm...

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:31 am

There must be a work around for this???

::mic-minimal:: · Post by **::mic-minimal::** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:41 am

the work around is to drag and drop files from a folder on your desktop or where ever you keep your audio and midi files at, then access that folder from your live browser.

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:59 am

Do you mean drag them FROM stylus RMX to the desktop? I haven't tried that before does it work does it? I would have thought you needed some sort of host program to accept the MIDI.

SIXTO · Post by **SIXTO** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:52 am

no it works.. this is what i did.. I created a folder in Ableton named stylus and then created a short cut on my desktop... drag and drop into there (i put it in the lower left hand corner for easy acces) then i open ableton folder in the live browser and then open the stylus folder and drag it into live.. and works fine... good luck

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:46 am

Thanks guys, this works a treat - in terms of exploring midi from RMX into Ableton.

Now, this is probably a question based on my lack of knowledge with RMX, but here it goes:

When I do as described and put that MIDI file onto a MIDI channel associated with RMX and play it, I don't get the groove that I have set up in the RMX mixer, instead I get some other percussion kit playing at me.

I assume this is because I haven't told RMX to spread that particular groove over the keyboard, how is this done?

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:08 am

You'll have to route the midi data from the midi track (column in session view) you loaded it into, to the correct "channel" in the stylus track.

Use the "midi from" & "midi to" drop down menus to do this.

If you want to set up Stylus RMX as a multi-timbral instrument you'll have to create multiple audio & midi tracks properly routed to & from the RMX.

Be sure you start with the correctly corresponding RMX midi files (the ones you dragged) in the right tracks. Otherwise it won't sound right to you.

But after you've done this you can experiment with moving a file originally meant to trigger a kick-snare loop to the hi-hat channel.

You can also put additional effects on each multi-timbral channel.

Cool stuff.

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:10 am

jim110110 wrote:When I do as described and put that MIDI file onto a MIDI channel associated with RMX and play it, I don't get the groove that I have set up in the RMX mixer, instead I get some other percussion kit playing at me.

I assume this is because I haven't told RMX to spread that particular groove over the keyboard, how is this done?

RMX has 8 different midi channels/parts, so lets say RMX 1 is a loop, RMX 2 is another loop. In Live you need to create a new midi track and assign the midi output to RMX 2. Basically Live has to be sending midi the appropriate midi channel in RMX to play that channels loop. It should be in your Stlylus tutorial videos. The concept is the same whether you use Logic, Cubase, Live, etc..

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:26 pm

Hi there,

Just a follow up to your response to my post on RMX vs MIDI:

Can I use this example?

Just say that I have a RMX groove like this:

RMX Ch 1: Kick
RMX Ch2: A little groove
RMX Ch3. Hihat

I want to have complete control over when the kick actually 'kicks' and not just go by what the pre assigned RMX way is, so based on my message above, I have to have MIDI control over it.

Does this mean I have to create three MIDI channels, load RMX vst into each of them them and separate the arrangement out like this

MIDI Ch 1 ----------------> Kick
MIDI Ch2 ---------------- >A little groove
MID Ch3 ----------------- >Hihat

How would I assign a particular midi channel to the Kick, hihat in this example?
Is there a way I can do it without creating three instances of RMX?

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:46 am

Sorry this took so long , I've just finished a 14 hr shift at my day job.

What you want to do is absolutely possible! And you DON'T have to have multiple instances of the RMX !

I wish I knew how to insert screenshots to explain this but I don't so here goes.

Let's say you drag your Stylus RMX device from the browser to the 1st midi track in a default Live set (that'll be track 3 I believe). I have the "Monitor" on this track set to "ON" and I have "Midi From" set to "All Ins" & "All Channels" but I don't think it matters. I have "Audio To" set to "Master" because nothing else made any sense to me for now. Next to the fader on this track I've had to switch the Speaker button off because 1 track I had delivered some low level leakage here.

You'll set up your 3 channel RMX groove internally in the RMX first. Then you need to have 3 more Midi tracks & 3 more Audio tracks. I would ignore Audio tracks 1 & 2 to keep everything in order. Then I would alternate them so it would go Track 4 Midi, Track 5 Audio for the kick. Track 6 Midi, Track 7 Audio for "your little groove". And Track 8 Midi, Track 9 Audio for the hi-hat. Just use the INSERT drop down menu for this stuff.

Now you need to do the routing. On all of the Midi tracks you can leave "Midi From" set to "All Ins" & "All Channels" and "Monitor" to "Auto".

We'll do Track 4 Midi 1st:

This is the Important Part. Set "Midi To" to "3 Midi" if you haven't renamed the track you inserted the RMX on. If you have renamed it "Midi To" needs to be set to "whatever you named it".

This will be the same for all of your midi tracks. When you do this another drop down menu appears below it. It should say "Track in". When you click it to open it, it will show 16 Stylus RMX channels.

Choose "1-Stylus RMX" which is the channel your Kick is on.

Right next to this is Track 5 Audio where you need to set "Audio From" to "3 Midi" ("or whatever you named it") as well. When you do this the menu below it says "Track Out".

After this I had something happen when I opened it that didn't make sense. It listed all of the Stylus RMX channels in pairs, which is fine but it started with "3/4" instead of "1/2". I don't know if this is a bug or if I did something wrong. Anyway I selected the first pair which of course was "3/4".

Below this you want "Monitor" set to "ON" & "Audio To" set to "Master".

Follow this procedure for the rest of your 3 RMX channels.

Be sure select the next sequential item for "Track in" on the Midi tracks and "Track Out" on the Audio tracks. This will keep the right sound on the right track. (Ch.1 Kick, Ch.2 "A little groove" & Ch.3 Hi-Hat).

Now we drag the proper sequences from the RMX to the proper MIDI tracks in Live. You can get them from file broswer page in the RMX or from the Chaos Designer page after you've modified & captured a sequence there. Remember you have to drag to the desktop or a folder on the desktop 1st.

After all of this you can hit play in Live & work with the different sounds individually, set up multiple scenes in session view and;

To answer your other question you can double click a midi file you have dragged to a midi track and it will open for you to edit. It will be ascending chromatically as the notes represent slices of audio (similar to a REX file), but it's pretty easy to isolate what you're after and make a new groove.

I'm still learning Live, Stylus RMX & other pieces of software but knowing how to do all of this was a really big priority for me so I sat down and spent a whole weekend with the tutorials other documentation to figure it out.

I hope this helps you and anyone else who had questions about it. Lord knows I've lurked these forums learning tons & tons from the geniuses here and OSX Audio. I'm hoping this helps to pay back a little.

Sorry this is so long winded, and DAMN I wish I could type.

p.s. Stylus RMX works great in Logic Pro 6 too

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:40 pm

Wow, thanks a lot for that, AZ, both you and MarkH have helped tons on this. Now all I need to do is finish the tune!

I hope you don't mind Mark, but like A did, I will post your PM so it may benefit others.

Cheers

jim110110 · Post by **jim110110** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:43 pm

MarkH's PM to me, I hope this helps others:
-----

You have to tell RMX whether you want to use Multi Mode or Kit Mode. In Multi Mode you are working with loops and kit mode you are working with individual sounds. I don't think there is a way to have some loops, some single hits. It's either one or the other.

Let's say you're using Kit mode to program your own beats. Starting with a completely blank Ableton song where you have one Midi track, drag Stylus RMX plugin to that track and the VST instance will be added. Rename your midi track to RMX. Now open your RMX plugin and in the 8-part mixer select Kit Mode. Now you can load kicks, snares, hi-hats, etc. into each of the 8 parts. Keep in mind that each part is a different midi channel but in Live your midi track you named RMX default to midi channel one. Playing your keyboard will only trigger the sounds that are loaded in 1 in the plugin's mixer.

Next create another blank midi track in Live. Just above the fader you will see two drop-down list. Click the upper drop-down (furthest away from the volume slider) and you should see "RMX". Select "RMX" then click the drop down list below that one and you should see the additional midi channels and now you select 2. What you're doing here is telling Live that the midi you play on this second midi track should be sent to the track called RMX on midi channel 2. Since the Stylus RMX plugin can receive notes on 8 different midi channels, you keep adding midi tracks in Live by repeating these steps only after you select "RMX" you will select 3, 4, 5, etc.. You should end up with 8 midi track in Live all pointing to RMX 1-8.

You can also follow this same pattern for RMX audio output in Live's mixer. On the Spectrasonics site you can login to the RMX community and there are tutorials. You can also join the Spectrasonics group at groups.yahoo.com.

Rx · Post by Rx » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:14 am

as a sidenote to this topic: anyone automating stuff in RMX? i looked and practically all the parameters are numbers. i haven't tried messing with them yet - i assume they're at least mapped to actual parameters?

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:40 am

jim110110 wrote:I hope you don't mind Mark, but like A did, I will post your PM so it may benefit others.

I have no problem with it. I'm glad it was useful.