Screen 1: The instrument track options.
DP’s enhanced instrument tracks offer some powerful new options.
In DP 11.1, MOTU introduced updated instrument tracks. For the first time, DP users can instantiate a virtual instrument (VI), record it and edit it on a single track. Previous versions of DP required an instrument track and a separate, linked MIDI track for any virtual instrument.
The new instrument tracks have plenty of useful features and options. The more you understand them, the more creative control you’ll have over your MIDI production in DP.
Getting Started
You can create an instrument track by going to the Project menu and selecting Add Track / Instrument Track. You’ll then be presented with a list showing the developer names for any AU, VST or MAS instruments installed on your computer. Choose the developer and the desired instrument from the sub‑menu, then release the mouse to create the track. If you hold down the Option/Alt key while accessing the menu, the word Multiple appears before each instrument in the menu. When you then choose an instrument, a small dialogue appears allowing you to create two or more instances of that instrument in one operation.
Screen 2: The Add Instrument Track dialogue.As you can see in Screen 1 above, there are several choices in the Project menu for creating instrument tracks. Selecting Instruments with Options opens the Add Instrument Track dialogue, which allows you to create more than one instrument track. It also gives you the option to add a multitimbral instrument; that is, one that receives on multiple MIDI channels simultaneously (Screen 2).
One of the fields in the Add Instrument Track dialogue allows you to specify the number of instrument tracks to create. It enables you to assign them all to one instrument or leave them temporarily unassigned.
The dialogue also lets you specify how many MIDI tracks to add to an instrument track. This option is handy if the instrument track you’re creating is for a multitimbral virtual instrument — for example the free UVI Workstation, which can support up to four parts on separate MIDI channels (DP owners can download a free soundbank for it). You’d choose Instruments with Options, assign the track to UVI Workstation and specify four MIDI tracks, with or without a Folder. The MIDI tracks will appear above the instrument track in the Sequence Editor and are organised by MIDI channel number.
If you have a session with many instruments, DP’s Folders can help you stay organised in the Sequence Editor or Tracks window. An open Folder shows all of its tracks. A closed folder hides everything but the Folder itself. If you choose the Folder option, the instrument track will be at the bottom, and its associated MIDI tracks will appear above it, as in Screen 3.
Screen 3: MIDI tracks assigned to UVI Workstation in a Folder.
Screen 4: You can add multiple unassigned instrument tracks with a single click.Another option under Project / Add Track is Unassigned. It creates a single unassigned instrument track. In that same menu, you can also choose Multiple Unassigned Instruments, which opens up a modified Add Instrument Tracks dialogue (Screen 4), the sole purpose of which is to specify how many unassigned instrument tracks to create.
Another way to create instrument tracks is via Project / Create Tracks, which allows you to conveniently add any combination of multiple audio, MIDI, aux, or virtual instrument tracks, with consecutive channels and output assignments.
Making Changes
To assign a virtual instrument to an unassigned instrument track, go to the Mixing Board and instantiate the instrument in the Track’s instrument insert slot (second from the top and shaded green). Or, if you have a MIDI track that you want to assign to an instrument track, do so using the MIDI Output menu in the track settings panel, as shown in Screen 5.
Screen 5: The MIDI Output field lets you change channels or VI assignments.
If you have several existing MIDI tracks and want to combine them into a single instrument track, select the instrument track and the various MIDI tracks, and hit Shift+Spacebar (or go to Setup / Run Command). In the Search field of the Run Command dialogue that pops up, type Merge by Channel (Screen 6). Select the command and hit Enter to invoke it. DP will merge the MIDI tracks into the instrument track. If they were assigned to different MIDI channels before the merge, they’d keep those assignments because DP supports multi‑channel MIDI tracks. If you want the various MIDI tracks to play on the same channel, ensure the output assignments of the tracks are the same before invoking the Merge by Channel command.
If you decide to split them out of the instrument track later, use the Split by Channel command. That will work on any multi‑channel MIDI track.
Screen 6: The Merge by Channel command can combine multiple MIDI tracks into one instrument track.
For older projects with legacy instrument tracks, DP offers an option to convert them to the new format the first time you open the project in version 11.1 or higher. You’ll need to do this if you want them to have the latest functionality. If you initially choose not to convert them, you can do so later, at any time, by opening the Run Command window and using the Convert Legacy Instrument command (Screen 7).
Screen 7: Using this command, you can convert instrument tracks from older sessions to the new format.
DP’s new instrument tracks are hybrids, because they have MIDI inputs and audio outputs.
Drilling Down
Screen 8: You can insert MIDI effects and audio plug‑ins on instrument tracks.DP’s new instrument tracks are hybrids, because they have MIDI inputs and audio outputs. The topmost insert slot on an instrument track is for insert presets and the second insert from the top (shaded green) is for the instrument plug‑in itself; in this instance it is nanosampler.
Directly below that is a section of insert slots for audio plug‑ins, followed by a second group of inserts for MIDI plug‑ins. These insert slots are shown in Screen 8.
Screen 9: To Solo the Clav track in this multitimbral UVI Workstation instrument track, both must be soloed.Instrument tracks can be soloed or muted, just like audio tracks, with one important difference. If you’ve instantiated a multitimbral instrument and want to solo one of its nested MIDI tracks, you need to select solo on both the instrument track and on the specific MIDI track of the instrument (Screen 9).
The solo behaviour changes if you turn on DP’s Partial Solo feature. Partial Solo lets you solo one track in a multitimbral instrument and still hear the rest of its MIDI tracks, but lowered by a user‑adjustable percentage of the MIDI velocity (Screen 10).
To turn on Partial Solo, Option/Alt‑click the Solo button in the Control Panel. This will open the Settings window with a MIDI Solo Setup field in the middle. You’ll see a pop‑up menu that says Off. Open it, choose a percentage and click Done.
Screen 10: The field for turning on and setting the percentage for Partial Solo is highlighted.
CCs & Host Automation
For a single instrument track with MIDI data in it, the track’s fader and pan knob can be used to write audio automation, just like on any audio track (these will be referred to as audio volume and audio pan, and you can edit this audio automation data in the Sequence Editor). But if you’re using a multitimbral instrument with multiple MIDI tracks, audio automation will be applied to all of the parts at once — to apply it to just a single part in your multitimbral instrument, use MIDI CC7 for volume and CC10 for pan. Be aware of this when editing automation data in the edit windows.
Resource Management
When building a large DP template, instrument tracks can be temporarily disabled by clicking on the enable button in the Tracks Window ‘ENA’ (enable) column. Disabled tracks don’t use up any CPU resources, and they load very quickly when opening a project. You can freely enable and disable them as needed.
Virtual instruments and audio effects can be processor‑intensive. Fortunately, like audio tracks, you can freeze instrument tracks in DP. To do so, select the instrument track and its contents, open the Audio menu and choose Freeze Selected Tracks. DP will render the track onto a new audio track with the word “freeze” after the track name.
However, there’s a critical difference between freezing an audio track and an instrument track. With the former, DP automatically disables the original track after it freezes it. With an instrument track, you must manually turn it off by assigning its output to None. The reason is that you might want to do more than one freeze with a multitimbral instrument.
Because DP freezes a track at its output, a frozen track will include all volume, panning, automation and effects that are on it. On a multitimbral instrument track, all the parts from the various MIDI channels will be rendered together on one frozen track, as in Screen 11.
Screen 11: Unlike an audio track, DP doesn’t automatically disable an instrument track when you freeze it, so remember to do so after the freeze.
If you’d prefer to freeze the individual parts from within the multitimbral instrument onto separate tracks, you’ll have to solo the parts one at a time — along with the instrument track they belong to — and run separate track‑freezing passes for each. That’s because DP uses the same destination track to freeze each part of a multitimbral instrument track. Although it retains all the freezes in the Soundbites window, it doesn’t keep them all on the destination track.
An easier workflow is to freeze the part, use the Add Similar Tracks command to create a new audio track below it, and copy the newly frozen track into its own audio track.
Bouncing VIs
In addition to freezing tracks, DP11 allows you to bounce VIs, either in real time or offline (faster than real time). Select the MIDI data (or region) in one or more instrument tracks and choose File / Bounce to Disk. Choose Outputs and/or Tracks depending on the audio routing for the instrument tracks. Many virtual instruments offer multiple audio outputs once they are instantiated and enabled. These channels will be presented as available instrument bundles (and show up in the input column for audio tracks). Use aux tracks in DP to monitor or bounce the outputs. Input‑monitored stereo audio tracks could also be used to print additional outputs from virtual instruments in real time.
Additional Tips & Shortcuts
There are a variety of ways to open and view the UI for the instrument instantiated on an instrument track:
- Double‑click the VI name in the Tracks window, Sequence Editor, or Edit window.
- Double‑click the VI name in the Track Inspector.
- In the Sequence Editor, choose Open Instrument from the Track Settings menu. You can also assign a shortcut or invoke it from the Run Command window (Shift+Sacebar).
- In the Mixing Board, double‑click the track’s instrument insert.
Track Assignments (Option/Alt+A) is a useful command for assigning selected audio and MIDI outputs at the same time. Insert Presets can be created and saved to recall an instrument track along with any additional audio and MIDI plug‑ins. Simply create an unassigned instrument track and then choose the saved Insert Preset (from the track’s topmost insert menu in the mixer, as shown in Screen 8).
Instrument tracks can be moved into a V‑Rack for shared use across multiple sequences (chunks) in the DP project file. To do so, select one or more instrument tracks, right‑click on any selected track’s name, and choose Move Selected Tracks to V‑Rack. When doing so, DP will leave an assigned MIDI track in the Tracks window after moving the instrument track to the V‑Rack.
The MIDI data in instrument tracks can be viewed in the QuickScribe Editor, even if the data is packed into clips.
Choose Setup / Enable Live Performance Mode to run all instrument tracks and audio effects in real time. This eliminates any audio interruptions when opening and closing effects and instruments while working. Keep in mind, however, that this may place very high demands on your computer’s CPU, depending on how many effects and instruments you have instantiated and how processor‑intensive they are.