Hi Terry,
currently, I have a rack for my main keyboard and one for my secondary.
Each rack has multiple MIDI output ports:
- notes --> sends nothing but notes, all controllers filtered out
- aftertouch --> only channel pressure messages
- modulation --> only CC1
- pitchbend --> only pitch bend messages
- ribbon (for my Kurzweil main board) --> CC21 hi-res
For pedals, I have a separate rack with the output ports:
- sustain
- soft
- expression
Two reasons for the separate rack: first, I treat pedals as independent from the keyboard - sometimes sustain applies to the upper, sometimes to the lower keyboard -, second: I have a MidiExpression box in my rack that I can connect pedals instead of directly to the keyboards. That one gets mapped in the pedal rack as well, so I can just use whatever makes sense.
So when I build a song, I can create very explicit routes from the keyboards and the controllers like:
- main keyboard notes to piano and strings
- sustain to piano and strings
- main keyboard modulation converted to CC7 and routed to strings --> control string volume via modwheel
- main keyboard aftertouch converted to CC14 and routed to strings --> control string filter cutoff via pressure
- second keyboard notes routed to lead synth
- second keyboard aftertouch scaled to 0…48 and converted to CC1 --> pressure on lead keyboard creates modulation, but not too much
This song contains three input racks: Main Keyboard, Second Keyboard, Pedals. All the connections above are made by creating routes from their specialized outputs to the respective destination. This makes things very easy to create, understand and diagnose (Route Keyboard 1, notes --> StringRack, MIDI In).
There is also a fourth rack called “faders” which combines fader input from main and second keyboard plus my Novation LaunchControl into dedicated ports like “MainReverbLevel”, “MainDelayLevel”, “MainKeysLevel”, … and sending CC7 to each of them. This way, whenever I change fader assignments or use a different piece of hardware for main or second keyboard, I simply edit the “Faders” rack and everything’s fine for all songs.
Cheers,
Torsten