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Old 04-19-2017, 09:51 PM   #25
michael diemer
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Maine
Posts: 1,153
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pcartwright View Post
The fact that Sonar automatically changed the MIDI channel when dragging notes from one track to another is completely backwards. It may stem from its earlier MIDI centric says (maybe they only allowed 16 tracks - one for each MIDI channel).

Anyway, Julian's summary of types of channels is accurate and concise.

Personally, I primarily use MIDI channel 1 on all tracks and only change channels to leverage articulations loaded into different channels of the VSTi. This means that each track is its own dedicated instrument. For example, flute I and flute II would each be on its own track. I also load the VSTi on the same track as my MIDI data. This is vastly different from Sonar. Any MIDI effect would go before the VSTi while any audio effect would go after and/or be leveraged via parent or sends. This setup keeps my tracks from getting too cluttered (I have one track for my solo trumpet instead of a track for MIDI and a separate track for audio), removes the need for MIDI sends in most cases, and makes it easy to freeze tracks on large projects.
I've thought about a dedicated track for literally each inst, but have been content so far to put flutes 1 and 2 on the same track. I do occasionally separate violins out when divisi gets too complicated, but that isn't often.

As you say, Sonar has been around so long that the way they do things may be different than newer DAWS. This particular issue is a good example, it really threw me when I switched to Reaper, a newer DAW that treats midi in a more modern fashion. Fortunately, looks like it's resolved. And I have learned quite a bit, both here and on the Sonar forum. All forums should be this good!
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