Arpeggiator Signal Flow

Introduction

The Project5 V2 arpeggiator is awesome. But some users have wanted to send the arp's MIDI output to an MFX plugin and ran into a brick wall because the data flow is hardwired such that MFX plugins are ahead of the arp in P5V2. But, all is not lost. This tip attempts to workaround this configuration by using two additional pieces of software which are freely available: the RGC MIDIOut DXi Plugin, and the MIDI Yoke. This tip is a result of a thread in the P5 forum.

What You'll Need

Fetch and install these two software items if you don't have them and are using Project5 2.0 (if you have Project5 2.5 then you already have MIDI output capability so you probably don't need the RGC MIDIOut DXi and you can interpolate the instructions where it is mentioned):

• RGC MIDIOut DXi  (No longer available for download from Cakewalk, so you can grab it from my server instead)
• MIDI Yoke

Now Set It All Up

Now, in Project5 V2 do the following:

1. Create a new blank project.
2. Using the "Options | MIDI Devices" menu add a "MIDI Yoke" port to the "Active MIDI Input Ports" list.
3. Add a new synth track containing the MIDIout DXi synth (or MIDI track in Project5 2.5) and set the MIDIoutDXi track's MIDI input device to be your real MIDI input port to which your MIDI controller/keyboard is connected.
4. Set up the arpeggiator the way you want on this new track.
5. Open the MIDIout DXi synth GUI interface
6. Click on the "MIDIOut" text to get the MIDI port list.
7. From this list select the "MIDI Yoke" port that you enabled in step 2.
8. Add a new synth track containing our favorite awesome synth (Dimension, of course) and set up a sound in it.
9. Set the Dimension DXi's MIDI input port to the MIDI Yoke port from step 2.
10. Add the MFX plugin of your choice (I'll use the Cakewalk Transpose MFX for this example) and set its parameters.

If you got everything in the above steps done appropriately you should now find that your controller sends data to the arpeggiator on the MIDIOut DXi track. The MIDIOut DXi sends the arpeggiated MIDI data to the MIDI Yoke port. The MIDI Yoke port routes the MIDI data to the Dimension DXi track. The Dimension DXi track routes the MIDI data through your MFX plugin and then into the Dimension synth. The Dimension synth responds by playing the MFXed arpeggio.

Cool, eh? Yeah, I know...it's a lot of extra setup work (and if you screw it up you'll get a MIDI loop for sure--trust me).

Armed for Recording

You can also arm the synth track for recording and this will record the arp's MIDI output to the synth track. Once you have the arp recorded into patterns you can edit them to your hearts content and save them for future reference.