Does this kind of RE exist?

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Alrighty, so I think we can all agree that a super combi would be magically delightful. But here is why I need a super combi - Reason (to my knowledge) only allows you to play one instrument track lane at a time. I use Reason extensively in a live setting and have about 8 combi instruments I want to be able to play at the same time. Selecting different patches or clicking the laptop is poop, as my rig is wireless and this issue binds me to having to stand near my laptop. Obviously for this task I would need a RE that would be able to send Gate CV Out, Note CV Out, Mod Wheel CV Out, and Pitch Bend CV Out (something the RPG-8 happens to have all of).


THE QUESTION -
Is there a CV device that you can "play" as an instrument, basically as a pseudo midi controller, that could send all of my note/sustain info to multiple combi's at the same time via CV?

[JiggeryPokery]

A Reason (to my knowledge) only allows you to play one instrument track lane at a time.

You can play as many separate instruments/tracks as you have midi inputs available (4x16), it's one of the four options in the hardware interface (look up "Surface Locking")

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Perhaps I didn't quite say that right, but I don't want to play each of the combi instruments separately, I want to play them all at the same time with one midi controller. Is that possible?

[DinoJ]

Can you not use RPG8 maybe not in Arp mode though if you do not require Arp and take each of the 4 (note, gate, Pitch and mod) and use a CV splitter to split them all into 8 of each and then use them to feed all 8 x combinators. Then when you played something on the RPG-8 lane, it would feed all 8 simultaneously?

Sorry if I have misunderstood your question.

[JiggeryPokery]

Perhaps I didn't quite say that right, but I don't want to play each of the combi instruments separately, I want to play them all at the same time with one midi controller. Is that possible?

Ah, sorry, I getcha

I know this is a kludge, but you know what I do? I just drag all the synth components (Thor, NNXT etc) from each Combi into just the one Combinator. That way all the separate instruments are still routed to their own effects chains in their original Combinators or Mix Channels, but all are triggered via the same sequencer track.

This is far easier/quicker than dicking around with RPG-8 or cv splitters

Don't forget you can use the programmer of the "global" Combi to set specific trigger ranges (C0-B2, C3-C7) or velocity ranges (0-64, 65-99, 100-127) etc for each of the instruments.

[bgold]

I know of at least three ways:

Use your device to play the RPG-8 with no arpeggiation, and use Spider CV splitters to send the note and gate (and pitch/mod/aftertouch if you need them) to the CV input on all your devices Combis.

A much older solution is that you can set your MIDI device to go to all buses (A,B,C,D) in the "Sync" preferences, then in the rack's hardware interface (advanced MIDI), for each bus you set the appropriate channel (probably 1) to go to the device you want. You can play four instruments at once this way, and I think a fifth if you pick another one with the normal assignable input in the sequencer.

The other alternative might require some rewiring, but that's to put all those instruments inside a single huge Combi. It might be worth doing if you're playing them all together most of the time anyway.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I know this is a kludge, but you know what I do? I just drag all the synth components (Thor, NNXT etc) from each Combi into just the one Combinator. That way all the separate instruments are still routed to their own effects chains in their original Combinators or Mix Channels, but all are triggered via the same sequencer track.

Haha, this is actually what I have been doing for the last 5 years. The problem is that everything can not necessarily be dumped "easily." Here's what I have run into: 1) If you completely remove the internals of Combi 2 and dump them into Combi 1 and re-route the end of the chain from Combi 2 into an internal mixer inside Combi 1, the sound actually changes from how it sounded from Combi 2. 2) Let's say you go the more "ghetto" route, just throw in the internals of the Combi 2 inside Combi 1 and don't re-route the to mixer, you can then maintain the same "sound", but you leave behind a combi carcass that is then only used as a volume control. This is not attractive, nor is it is a great solution as I may need to make tweeks to the internals of of the merged combi, and my new "Mega-Combi" can't be saved without having the exact same combis that were used are pulled up. 3) Let's say you're still cool with the above, well now with 8 Combi's worth of devices lodged into one, you are likely to have 65+ devices to go through and finding the "breaks" between which grouping is which is a bit of a pain unless if you are using Selig's ReMark (which again, is doable but adds another chunk in the chain)

Thus! It would be infinitely more useful to have a some sort of a "midi-controller RE" that could control all of the other Combis, allowing me to edit and save them as individuals as needed, as well as keeping things clean and not an internal routing nightmare. It truly would not be a difficult RE to make (it's basically just a CV input and output machine with perhaps some added features such as track lane device soloing), and if there is a developer that would like to combine forces with me on this, I would absolutely be more than happy to share my GUI idea of layout for this *wink wink, nudge nudge to them devs out there* and I think that for many of us who use Reason live, this would really change the game. I even think from a non-live user who has feared using Reason live for the limitations explained, this might also help push them into the live game as well.