Question about controller data in Xequence 2

LeftyChris

Xequence gives the option of having a separate track for controller data. This message appears when you import a MIDI file:

The manual says that it is often easier to work with controller data as a separate track:

But I don’t really understand what this is all about. Could someone explain it? I’ve never seen it before. What would the advantage be to having separate tracks? Does it make anything more difficult?

wim

X2 is flexible in that you can have as many tracks as you like all pointing to the same instrument. For instance, if you're sending midi to a drum app, you might like to have three tracks. One for the kick and snare, one for the hats, and one for percussion. Why? Well, one use would be to have a different swing on the hats. Or, to be able to have the hats patterns not always on at the same time as the rest, etc.

Putting the controller data in another track can be handy for better visibility and easier editing. Rather than seeing a track with the notes and the controller data superimposed on one another, it might be less confusing to have the controller data showing separately. Or, you might, say, have a shorter clip of notes that is duplicated over many bars, but you might want an automation clip that spans all those bars.

SevenSystems

@wim has explained it perfectly, that should go verbatim into the manual! 😃 (although I find 30 BPM a bit slow to be honest 🤔)

LeftyChris

@wim said:
X2 is flexible in that you can have as many tracks as you like all pointing to the same instrument. For instance, if you're sending midi to a drum app, you might like to have three tracks. One for the kick and snare, one for the hats, and one for percussion. Why? Well, one use would be to have a different swing on the hats. Or, to be able to have the hats patterns not always on at the same time as the rest, etc.

Putting the controller data in another track can be handy for better visibility and easier editing. Rather than seeing a track with the notes and the controller data superimposed on one another, it might be less confusing to have the controller data showing separately. Or, you might, say, have a shorter clip of notes that is duplicated over many bars, but you might want an automation clip that spans all those bars.

Fantastic! Thanks for explaining it. It certainly makes intuitive sense now. With those advantages, I wonder why other DAWs and sequencers don’t have it.

SevenSystems

@LeftyChris said:

@wim said:
X2 is flexible in that you can have as many tracks as you like all pointing to the same instrument. For instance, if you're sending midi to a drum app, you might like to have three tracks. One for the kick and snare, one for the hats, and one for percussion. Why? Well, one use would be to have a different swing on the hats. Or, to be able to have the hats patterns not always on at the same time as the rest, etc.

Putting the controller data in another track can be handy for better visibility and easier editing. Rather than seeing a track with the notes and the controller data superimposed on one another, it might be less confusing to have the controller data showing separately. Or, you might, say, have a shorter clip of notes that is duplicated over many bars, but you might want an automation clip that spans all those bars.

Fantastic! Thanks for explaining it. It certainly makes intuitive sense now. With those advantages, I wonder why other DAWs and sequencers don’t have it.

I wondered that kind of thing many times, that's why I made it 😉

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