MIDI pan using the default "AU DLS synth 1"

Lid's icon

Hi there I've got the global pan working but I'm wondering if it's possible to pan the individual notes somehow (I'm using program 10- percussion sounds).

I'm on Mac OSX.

-Lid

ludwig_sears's icon

Unless you have MSP and the vst~ object, I can't think of a way. With MSP, you could split different groups of notes to one of several vst~ objects each running DLS synth.

But it might be time to look into getting a software sampler or a drum module whose individual notes you can pan.

"Wouldn't a fiddle of solid gold be hard to hold up, and sound really crappy?" --Lisa Simpson

Adam Murray's icon

I'm not 100% sure (can't check right now), but I think the pan setting is per channel. So you can pan each channel differently, and then you'll have to devise a system where you send notes to the correct channel depending on how you want them panned.

Hmmm, although you are specifically using channel 10 because you want percussion. Not sure if you can get those sounds out of another channel. Maybe there is a certain program change for using drums on another channel. If not, then I'm not sure what you can do about this.

MIDI's limitations can be so annoying...

dalinnen's icon

yes, most of the familiar midi messages apply to entire channels, which includes all continuous controller messages, which includes panning.

if you want the drum sounds on any midi channel, first send a controller 32 message with a value of 1, and then send your program change message. i don't know if this works on everything gm, but it does work on the au synth in max for me.

if you want background on midi (and you should want at least some), start by looking here and on this site...

--dave linnenbank

Adam Murray's icon

Cool, so one channel per pan position is the way to go if you need simultaneous notes panned differently.

That link for the midi spec shows controller 32 is for bank change. This seems familiar, I think it is standard for general MIDI to have bank 0 be the standard instrumental sounds and bank 1 to be percussion. So IIRC this approach should work fine with other GM synths.

Quote: dalinnen wrote on Mon, 15 September 2008 15:22
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> yes, most of the familiar midi messages apply to entire channels, which includes all continuous controller messages, which includes panning.
>
> if you want the drum sounds on any midi channel, first send a controller 32 message with a value of 1, and then send your program change message. i don't know if this works on everything gm, but it does work on the au synth in max for me.
>
> if you want background on midi (and you should want at least some), start by looking here and on this site...
>
> http://www.midi.org/techspecs/midimessages.php
>
> --dave linnenbank
>
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Lid's icon

thanks for the info. Just an update to let you know I got it working, though I'm not entirely sure how the Bank Select/LSB thing works for standard MIDI. For instance, I thought the least significant bit concept just added resolution to the possible values... I don't really get how panning per channel fits in there...

nevertheless, it's up and running now works great (needed to use MIDI to save on CPU resources).

thanks again

-Lid