Automate MIDI plugin bypass?

[philbrown]

I've searched here and in the manual.
Is there a way to automate bypass of a MIDI plugin?
I need to automate the Quantize plug on and off on lots of songs in a big project.
The workaround is clunky to the point of unusable.
I could automate an internal parameter (Strength) but that's a longer shot still.
After reading about hundreds of options in the MIDI section of the manual,
this seems like an odd feature omission.

Thanks,
Phil

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Hey, Phil!

I know that I've always had trouble getting MOTU's AUDIO plugins to automate the "by-pass" button in DP 9. It seems to work intermittently, but not reliably. Instead, I have to automate parameters within the plugin, which works fine. It's probably the same with MIDI plugins. To me this appears to be a long-standing bug which "MOTU MUST FACE"

Doug

[bayswater]

You're way ahead of me Doug. I haven't been able to get automation of a MIDI plugin bypass to work ever. I tried to assign a MIDI controller to the bypass button, or find some place to create a lane for this, but nothing.

[philbrown]

Thanks, guys.
I thought I had it figured out this morning but no luck.
Like I said earlier, it seems an odd omission amid an ocean of MIDI features.
I would suggest it to MOTU but I've had zero success in that dept.

Thanks, again.

[HCMarkus]

Are these approaches too clunky?

1) Create Similar MIDI track and enable Quantize on that Track only. In your window of choice, drag regions of MIDI Data from non-quantized track into quantized Track

2) Apply Quantization within the MIDI Track in the required regions only. If concerned about losing non-quantized data you might someday need, work from a duplicate take.

The thing I like about Option 1) is you can always easily tell which data has been quantized by looking at the tracks.

[philbrown]

Are these approaches too clunky?

1) Create Similar MIDI track and enable Quantize on that Track only. In your window of choice, drag regions of MIDI Data from non-quantized track into quantized Track

2) Apply Quantization within the MIDI Track in the required regions only.

If concerned about losing non-quantized data you might someday need, work from a duplicate.

Thanks, and those were my workaround thoughts as well.
Probably use #1 so I can tweak quantize parameters as I go, which I will need to do per song.

[HCMarkus]

Cool Phil!

As I noted in my edit, #1 allows one to see where data has been quantized

[stubbsonic]

Or you can have two copies of the track (with different quantize states), and automate mute states to toggle between them.

There are tricky aspects to bypassing/enabling MIDI plugins because there are time-domain processes like quantize or time shift, that can create issues related to having to chase notes and CC's in the time domain. I can understand MOTU not wanting to become time cops in that regard.

[philbrown]

Here's what I'm working on:
My wife and I are planning to move back to our hometown of Kansas City.
Our drummer agreed to record our whole song list which is about 40% originals.
He recorded everything on a Roland electronic kit, so now I'm using the MIDI
to trigger Addictive drums and mixing down to use as live backing tracks.
The tracks are pretty good, but still need some massaging.
That will enable my wife and I to travel and play as a duo with real drum tracks
and play smaller venues at any volume we want.
We just bought an RV so we'll hopefully be able to travel around and still gig easily
with great sounding and feeling drum tracks.

[philbrown]

There are tricky aspects to bypassing/enabling MIDI plugins because there are time-domain processes like quantize or time shift, that can create issues related to having to chase notes and CC's in the time domain. I can understand MOTU not wanting to become time cops in that regard.

Interesting - sometimes there IS a reason. LOL

It's mostly all the song ending ritards (and a few other spots) that I need to bypass quantization.

[HCMarkus]

There are tricky aspects to bypassing/enabling MIDI plugins because there are time-domain processes like quantize or time shift, that can create issues related to having to chase notes and CC's in the time domain. I can understand MOTU not wanting to become time cops in that regard.

Exactly.

[stubbsonic]

I usually do quantizing destructively, and for things like tempo moves-- the MIDI can either go off grid, or I just do tempo shapes in the conductor track until it's right. Talk about tedious. The tempo T's are microscopic, like clicking on a single celled organism on my screen and then dragging it.

Doesn't help that my new lenses/Rx suck. My new screen is so high res, my old eyes are ... not.

[philbrown]

I usually do quantizing destructively, and for things like tempo moves-- the MIDI can either go off grid, or I just do tempo shapes in the conductor track until it's right. Talk about tedious. The tempo T's are microscopic, like clicking on a single celled organism on my screen and then dragging it.

Doesn't help that my new lenses/Rx suck. My new screen is so high res, my old eyes are ... not.

I'm with ya! Just this morning I was just looking at monitor stands for progressive lenses.
How low can it go?? Can I just set it on my lap? lol You should see my weird setup to
basically set my iMac directly on my desk. Hint: don't look behind my desk.

All this drum edit stuff is pretty tedious, but after first trying to move around audio drum hits
thank [your deity here] for MIDI editing!

Also Addictive Drums is killer. Anything I've wanted to do, I can easily do.
It's amazingly powerful and sounds great.

[bayswater]

There are tricky aspects to bypassing/enabling MIDI plugins because there are time-domain processes like quantize or time shift, that can create issues related to having to chase notes and CC's in the time domain. I can understand MOTU not wanting to become time cops in that regard.

Exactly.

That sounds like a good reason at first. But the Bypass button works in MIDI plugins. So how is automating the bypass button any worse? Sure, you’ll get some strange glitches, as you do when click on Bypass. With quantize, that actual position of the MIDI notes doesn’t change, just the playback tim. So there will sometimes be a note or two that don’t play at the correct time, but I can live with that. Maybe if we promise not to post tech links when we hear the result, MOTU will do it.

[stubbsonic]

That sounds like a good reason at first. But the Bypass button works in MIDI plugins. So how is automating the bypass button any worse?

Good point! I was just venturing a guess from my "writing-code-must-be-hard" perspective.

It seems that MOTU's improvements rarely lean into the direction of new MIDI features.