multi midi-channel sound modules?

I've been playing through a EMU Proteus 2000 module for years. One of things I like best about this module is it can recieve on multiple midi channels simultaneously, therefore I can access different patches with different controllers at the same time.

I recently bought a Roland JV-1080 to add some different textures to my patches, but I found it can only recieve on one channel at a time, therefore making it inefficient for my use. (I know there's a way to access different patches simultaneously through Performance mode, but this still doesn't work if I want to switch patches on controller A while leaving controller B alone. At least I don't think it does.)

My little bit of searching doesn't find any Roland sound modules that receive on multiple midi channels simultaneously. Are there any that do? Or any modules by any other manufacturer that do this?

Thanks in advance.

http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pdf/Jv1080sq.pdf

Yes it will work like you want it.

the above link will show you how to do it.

The old Kurzweil 1000 modules are multitimbral.

Thanks for the link, but I'm not seeing where I can do this. Or maybe I didn't explain myself clear enough:

I need to be able to have Controller A play sound #1 on the JV1080. And also have Controller B play sound #2. I can see where I can do that if I set up a "performance", but how do I set it up so I can switch Controller A to play sound #3 without switching what is also going on with Contoller B?

Yeah, unfortunately not a big variety of sounds there.

Strange. After owning the Proteus for so long and knowing how old it is, I just assumed that all modules would be able to recieve on multiple midi channels in the same way. I guess not many modules do.

My best guess would be to set up, for example, two performances. So performance 1 could be set up to have controller A play sound 1 and controller b to play sound 2. Then your next performance could be to have controller A play sound 3 and controller B play sound 2 (again). You could use either a midi merge to bring the two midi cables coming from the two controllers into the midi in of the jv1080 or use a midi thru port in one of the controllers and daisy chain them. Midi Solutions makes midi merge. Also maudio used to make one. You can find them on ebay.

The JV-1080 does this. You need to use it in performance mode. I have 2 JV-1080's and use it in this manner all the time.

Edit: never mind. You're not asking what I thought you were asking.

Set controller A to broadcast on channel 1. Set controller B to broadcast on channel 2. Therefore, A will play Part 1 on any given performance, and B will play Part 2. Simple, really.

the "old" proteus stuff did a heck of a job as far as user friendly multi-timbrality went... I'm still trying to wrap my head around the big japanese 3's concept of "performances" and "multis" etc...

I love EMU's no-nonsense approach to polyphony and multi-timbrality etc...

you should be able to have controller A send it's midi on one channel, and controller B on another. Then send patch changes from the controllers to the module,and it should change the patch that corresponds to that channel in the performance.

It sounds like you want to set up different sounds on every part of the performance and then switch over to those sounds by scrolling over to them or something like that, but I think you are overcomplicating it. Use 2 slots in the performance, one for each controller, and allow the patch changes to call up the sounds you want.

Yes, I use the midi merge now. I thought of doing what you described, it just becomes complicated after awhile. For example, if over the course of six songs I use 12 different patches on Controller A but Controller B only plays the same organ patch, I would need 12 different Performances. I could run out of Performances pretty quickly. Not to mention that changing things on the fly gets more complicated.

It looks like I'm going to have to resort to having separate modules for each controller. Which is OK except that my rack is already bigger than I want it to be! I thought it was pretty cool that I got so much work out of my single-space Proteus 2000. Now I've got a 2-space JV-1080 that only does half as much.

I'm thinking that now I'll probably replace the 1080 with an 880 for one of the controllers and another single space unit (maybe a Korg TR-rack) for the other controller.

The "performance" concept seems built around the whole workstation concept, and is really useful when you're using the workstation as a midi controller-especially if you're using sequences and the like--but they've dropped the ball somewhat when it comes to what should be more simplisitic notions of live performance controlling.

I love my Motif, for example, but find it annoying and a bit odd that I can't access the internal sounds from another controller unless I want to set up a complicated "song" mode sequencing thing. I don't really want to have to go through all that simply because I want to layer a Motif piano patch onto whatever I'm playing on my other controller.

EMU's concept seems simple enough: It receives on all 32 midi channels simultaneously and separately and you can turn off any number of channels should you need to. But I'm not an engineer. Maybe there is something complicated about doing this? Maybe it somehow interferes with the "performance" mode concept that, as you say, the "Big 3" are all welded to?

That Proteus I picked up for a couple of hundred bucks used on Ebay several years ago has really been a workhorse for me. 128-note polyphony, it is the core of many of my patches, and after adding the Vintage Synth and B3 sound cards, I've got sounds for days. A lot of power in a single-space unit.

Hmmm..I'll have to try this again. No, I'm not over-complicating it, I simply want to do what you described in your first paragraph. But I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to change patches within a performance. If I can do THAT, I'm home free!

I'll be damned! That works perfectly and pretty simply. Thanks Dan! I take back everything I said about what these units don't do. It's a matter of the user being an idiot.

Yeah, what you're failing to consider is that the Proteus has just one "Performance". That's all the "multi" setup in the Proteus is -- equivalent to a single Roland Performance. So, if that's all you want to bother with, then just use one Roland Performance. Each of the 16 parts in a Roland performance is set to its own MIDI channel.

But the Roland has 32 performances. Why? So that, _for each Performance_, you can setup different patches for the parts, different effects settings, sounds going to different outputs, different volumes, different responses to various controllers, etc. And to change all that stuff, you simply change to a different performance. You don't have to go into an edit mode every time you want to change something, and tweak all the various settings in a single Performance. You can setup different Performances with the various settings you like to use.

Yep. I'm figuring that all out now. Looks like I'll be able to do everything I wanted to do with this module and more. I went from being rather depressed last night to estastic today. (Us musicians can be soooo easy to please sometimes!) Right now I've got to get my setup into a simple gig-mode because I've got to drive 2 1/2 hours for a show tonight, but I'll no doubt be spending the majority of my free time next week creating some gloriously-layered and thick patches for my next show!

I'll be damned! That works perfectly and pretty simply. Thanks Dan! I take back everything I said about what these units don't do. It's a matter of the user being an idiot.

Awesome! And no, it's not an idiot thing, it's just getting used to a different synth's capabilities.