Virus TI Keyboard: Play One Sound on Virus Keyboard, Another from External Keyboard?

[kanthos]

I'm not a Virus owner yet, and I have a question that I can't figure out from reading the manuals.

I intend to use a Virus TI of some sort for live playing, without connecting to a computer. I also would like a second physical keyboard, so to kill two birds with one stone, the Virus Keyboard seems like the best choice (I prefer 61 keys and a semi-weighted action). I just need to give some thought as to how the Virus would work with my other keyboard, a Korg M3 workstation.

I want the capability to be able to play either physical keyboard and have either keyboard produce the sound. Each keyboard using its own sound engine is trivial, and I see that I can use the keys on the Virus to play the M3 by creating a Multi on the Virus with a part that doesn't sound and turning Keyboard To MIDI on for that sound.

The case I'm not sure how to handle is if *both* keyboards are going to be used to play two different sounds on the Virus; a lead sound to solo and a pad for background, for example. I realize I could just play both sounds using the Low Key and High Key settings for each part in my Multi, but I'd rather have a larger range for both sounds by using two keyboards instead of trying to cram both into a 61-key range.

I'd set up a Multi on the Virus with two different parts (or more, if I was going to layer them, but let's keep it simple and discuss only two parts); the two parts would be on different MIDI channels. Let's say the lead is on channel 1, and is to be played by the Virus keyboard, and the pad is on channel 2, to be played by the M3.

I know how to make the M3 play the pad; what I don't know is how to get the Virus to *only* play the lead. If I go into Config mode, to the Keyboard section, I see the Mode setting; I'm not entirely clear how it works.

If I set the Mode to One Channel, does that mean that all parts sharing a MIDI channel with the active part will all sound from the keyboard (so I can layer several parts to make a rich pad?) Or does it mean that the active part is the only one that will ever respond to the keyboard? From the manual, the latter seems to be the case, but then the only way to layer sounds would be to set the mode to Multi Channels, which would, it seems, make *every* Part sound when you play the keyboard. If that's the case, then using Multi Channels would mean that I couldn't play two different Virus sounds, one from the Virus' keyboard and one from the M3's keyboard. And, since this is a global setting, I don't want the hassle of switching it during a gig.

I suspect I can use One Channel, and all parts assigned to the active channel will be layered; then, as long as my lead was the active track, on channel 1, I could play the Virus and only trigger the lead sounds, and play the M3, transmitting on channel 2, to trigger the pads. I'd just like to be sure, since the nearest music store that stocks the Virus isn't local, and testing this kind of thing in-store would get a bit tricky. I'd appreciate it if someone could clear this up.

Thanks!

[TweakHead]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

So here's what you can do: the Virus enables you to use up to 16 parts on a single midi port. You can set up keyboard ranges plus (and this is important) chose which channel to use for each part, so you'd be able to layer sounds together simply by selecting the same channel for more then one part. So you can either play one part here, one part there, or two parts layered together, it's depends on how you set things up. But the answer to most of the questions you ask is YES.

You can also reserve some key range for the M3 and use the midi out connection to send midi information for it. But you'd need to clear the key ranges of both instruments from within the instruments themselves: both on the Virus and M3. They both can be triggered by their own keyboards or some external midi connection simultaneously, the way both machines will interpret how to handle the information is set up within each.

What you can't do is set up some part on a multi to act as an external midi controller for some other instrument. Much easier and convenient to place the key ranges set apart, or in other words reserve some key range for each.

This would all be configurable from the instruments themselves and dispense the use of a computer or another midi interface that you'd have to carry with you.

You can play parts of each instrument from the other's keyboard, once you've laid out the key ranges for the parts of each instrument and making sure they don't overlap. Just takes some planning and afterwards all you need is to save the multi on the Virus (that saves all this settings along with it), and do the same for the M3 and you'd be good to go. Bare in mind that by doing this, the two keyboards would act exactly the same: the same key pressed on either the Virus or M3 would trigger the exact same sound on both.

Hope this helps. Cheers

[TweakHead]

^this would be how I'd go about doing what you're trying to do.

But what you've said about the parts and keyboard modes could also deliver. Even though I think it's just introducing unnecessary confusion.

For each part on a multi program you can turn 'KeybtoMidi' either on or off. This does work with the key ranges to! So it enables you to send notes to an external instrument (like M3) without it triggering any sound on the Virus for a select number of keys of course.

To my mind this only makes sense for those planning on using just the Virus to control itself plus some other external units, all from the Virus. Like if you wanted to trigger some hardware sampler on an octave, while playing some riff on other keys or something like that...

But the Virus does have the flexibility to enable a part to send midi out within a certain key range, and of course other instruments are able to pick this up and act accordingly.

[kanthos]

Thanks for the detailed reply! I think I'd end up using it slightly differently than you described, but I get the idea. Generally, I wouldn't want to use splits; I only have two hands, so I can only really play two parts at a time, so I wouldn't want to mess around with keyboard ranges unless I needed three parts at a time (eg. to trigger an arp or something). Sounds like I could do this, where I'd want the lead instrument to always be played on Virus' keyboard:

Virus Pad and Virus Lead: Set the pad parts to use the MIDI channel transmitted by the M3, set the lead to use a different MIDI channel, and make sure the active part is one of the parts for the lead. M3 keyboard plays the pad; Virus keyboard plays the lead.

M3 Pad and M3 Lead: All setup for this is done in the M3, beyond having the Virus have one active part, transmitting MIDI, and not playing any sound (as I understand it, the best way to do this would probably be a bare-minimum monophonic part with the volume turned down, using the simplest oscillator type, no effects, etc.)

M3 Lead and Virus Pad: Virus has a silent part that is active; the M3 uses that MIDI channel for the lead. The Virus has other parts used for the pad, on a different MIDI channel, and the M3 transmits on that MIDI channel.

M3 Pad and Virus Lead: Neither keyboard has any parts using the MIDI channel that the other keyboard transmits on, so both keyboards only play their own sounds.


If all this makes sense, I only have one more question before I can conclude that a Virus Polar or Keyboard model will work. (I have been able to compare the Virus synths to other synths, so I know sonically I want a Virus). In the first scenario, with both keyboards playing Virus sounds, can I layer sounds for both parts and use the full range of the respective keyboards? In other words, something like this:

Part 1: A lead sound, using MIDI Channel 1.
Part 2: Another lead sound, using MIDI Channel 1.
Part 3: A pad sound, using MIDI Channel 2.
Part 4: Another pad sound, using MIDI Channel 2.

Now, if either Part 1 or Part 2 is the active part on the Virus, I should be able to make both parts sound using keys on the Virus, and as long as the M3 is transmitting on MIDI Channel 2 (and NOT on MIDI Channel 1), pressing any key on the M3 should make both pad sounds play?

[DJKeys]

Correct-

-dj

[TweakHead]

yep. all of that is entirely possible!

[kanthos]

Thanks again, guys!