Better Midi Capabilities

Got a great idea for the future of LMMS? Post it here.
Forum rules

Make sure to search to see if your idea has been posted before! Check our issue tracker as well, just to make sure you are not posting a duplicate: https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues

Theres no way to have a midi track that plays solely from midi and audio.

For example, lets say you have a big vst that allows you to have 16 different instruments all at once. If you can have midi tracks it would save you time and CPU to use multiple midi tracks for the different instruments and only need one Vst active.

Because there's nothing like that, you're limited and forced to put multiple copies of the same vst just for each individual sound. Which one of those Vsts would cost alot of cpu already, now imagine 16 of them! Yikes would be a understatement.

It's a common feature on almost every other DAW: Cubase, Reaper, Cakewalk, Albeton LIVE.
This really needs to be added and would benefit many people greatly, not just one genre, but any that would need alot of instruments.

I probably am saying it wrong but hopefully you know what I mean.
SpooderBoi wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:56 am
Theres no way to have a midi track that plays solely from midi and audio.
This i do not understand
For example, lets say you have a big vst that allows you to have 16 different instruments all at once. If you can have midi tracks it would save you time and CPU to use multiple midi tracks for the different instruments and only need one Vst active.


The way i understand this is an option to have one VST to able to play multiple presets, at once?!
and you claim this is possible in other DAWs?
You're forced to put multiple copies of the same vst just for each individual sound.
Yes, i believe that is normal in all DAWs
Can you link to a video that describes a DAW doing what you claim?
Sorry if I worded it wrong. Multichannel is what I meant.
Some vsts like a abandonware Edirol Synth called Super Quartet lets you use multiple channels and in result you can use multiple instruments and only need one vst open.

What you do is set midi channels and set each instrument in the vst to said channels.

Here's a video on it

https://youtu.be/cacS51r7KHk
SpooderBoi wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:37 pm
Sorry if I worded it wrong. Multichannel is what I meant.
Some vsts like a abandonware Edirol Synth called Super Quartet lets you use multiple channels and in result you can use multiple instruments and only need one vst open.

What you do is set midi channels and set each instrument in the vst to said channels.

Here's a video on it

https://youtu.be/cacS51r7KHk
T.y. No lmms does not have anything like that
That's quite interesting - and the video helps - but doesn't it really just shift approximately the same computing load to another part of the system? The overall load on the computer might still be similar.

In LMMS the SF2 player can play lots of different instruments, but using different instances must still increase the processing load, surely.

In the suggested approach to VSTs I suppose it might make a difference if the VST code is large, and multiple instances are needed, and that reduces the available storage, thus giving rise to problems.

I have seen similar suggestions about other aspects of DAWs, but whether they really help I'm not sure.
SpooderBoi wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:56 am
Theres no way to have a midi track that plays solely from midi and audio.

For example, lets say you have a big vst that allows you to have 16 different instruments all at once. If you can have midi tracks it would save you time and CPU to use multiple midi tracks for the different instruments and only need one Vst active.

Because there's nothing like that, you're limited and forced to put multiple copies of the same vst just for each individual sound. Which one of those Vsts would cost alot of cpu already, now imagine 16 of them! Yikes would be a understatement.

It's a common feature on almost every other DAW: Cubase, Reaper, Cakewalk, Albeton LIVE.
This really needs to be added and would benefit many people greatly, not just one genre, but any that would need alot of instruments.

I probably am saying it wrong but hopefully you know what I mean.
LMMS is not perfect but it imports midis pretty well if you follow these simple steps:

1. Choose a good midi soundfont: google for Arachno, ColomboGMGS2, Timbres of Heaven...
2. LMMS menu: Edit/Configuration/Paths -> insert your "soundfont" path into "Default soundfont"
3. LMMS menu: File/Import -> Select midi file to import.

...you're done.