Free Range Split Note Soup

Find ways to slice a MIDI note in half, and separate the Note On portion from the Note Off message.

Forget I ever mentioned that Bug Loop Soup bug. It's small potatoes. Yesterday's news. OK, I guess that I should give credit where credit is due: This little anomaly was the inspirational seed for refining the "technique", and provided the general roadmap. A stepping stone.

What's even better than using the Bug Loop is to find ways to slice a MIDI note in half, and separate the Note On portion from the Note Off message. That way, you can choose note values from the entire range [C0-G10] of the MIDI spec, and not be limited to the selection available to Bug Loop Soup.

I've been able to pull this off with just about any MIDI controller, but the exact method will vary from KB to KB. Remember, the important thing is to interrupt a MIDI note(s) after the Note On, but before the Note Off release of your fingers. That may help you out in customizing this method to your own controller. Here's one way:

Load up any synth and patch, and enable the Arpeggiator at default settings. That includes a MIDI Process channel setting of Channel 1.
Play a held chord, transmitted over MIDI Channel 1. This is usually the default transmit channel of most controllers.
Make sure that the Note On segment of the chord happens in MIDI Ch. 1, and use your controller switches to change the KB transmit channel to 2 or above, while still holding the chord.
Release the chord [Note Off] while in MIDI Channel 2 mode, and the chord will arp forever.
Repeat, and repeat again. New chords and notes can be added from anywhere on the KB to the "phrase looper", as if it were in sound-on-sound mode.

The difference being that the new notes will continue to build the looping pattern and modify its length, and all of the same controls remain active (as detailed above in Bug Loop Soup). You can construct huge cascading flurries of Note Ons without a way home. If things get too crowded, you can "edit" the orphaned notes using that double-click technique on the Editor's preview KB. As you recall, the stuck notes appear blue in the preview KB, and you can filter any note out of the "loop" with a double-click.

This can get a little tricky, because the "blue" doesn't go away, even after removng the actual sounding note from the stack. The only way to truly reset all is to double-click the CPU meter in P5. But you can eliminate all of the ghost notes one-by-one in this manner, and it's more reliable [100%] than it was in the original Soup recipe.

M-Audio-ites: I didn't forget you this time around. I know that you're (mostly) all stuck with that convoluted series of keystrokes that change MIDI channels. Too complicated. Just play your chord in MIDI Channel 1, and instead of a channel change, hit the MIDI Select (or similar) button to take you out of performance mode. The Note Ons @ Zero Velocity will be severed from their companion Note Ons by entering the programming mode, and hitting the MIDI Select again will bring you back to performance mode. Then you can play along with the stuck notes, and see exactly where you want your next surgical stroike to be.

Nothing to be really concerned about here, but glance over at the CPU meter once in a while. These stuck notes can add up the cycles, and if you go crazy with this you might start to tip into the danger zone. Just something to be aware of.

Trigger Finger users: you have your own bug to exploit. I having a hard time "breaking" the regular Note Ons, but Note On/Off Togle works well. I'll let you know when I crack this. Novationers: as you know, you're all set. You can even set up the programmable buttons to Notes for editing or sliding in a single broken Note Arp while you're playing. If you really want to get 12-tone with this, MIDI Remote Control the Pitch Offset with something like velocity. And don't neglect the possibilities of programming a KB slider to change Shapes.

Have fun ...