MIDI Punch & SOS recording: How to hear existing sounds

[thus]

I'm having trouble using both Punch and SOS (sound on sound) because I cannot hear what I've already recorded on the same track. This makes 2 scenarios nearly impossible to perform, playing with a midi controller:

1. Re-play some bars of an existing melody or chord progression. Need to hear the parts before & after the punch region.
2. Play additional drum sounds (e.g., add snare hits to a track that already has kick). I need to hear the existing sounds.

Since I am a relatively new user, I may be overlooking something obvious. Is it possible to hear the existing parts on the same track that you are recording on in these scenarios ?

[Support]

1. Re-play some bars of an existing melody or chord progression. Need to hear the parts before & after the punch region.?

What kind of MIDI instrument are you using? You should hear the parts before and after punch with all instruments except for 'External' and any of the available 'Virtual MIDI Apps'.

2. Play additional drum sounds (e.g., add snare hits to a track that already has kick). I need to hear the existing sounds.?

You shouldn't use Punch for this.

Giel Bremmers

[thus]

What kind of MIDI instrument are you using? You should hear the parts before and after punch with all instruments except for 'External' and any of the available 'Virtual MIDI Apps'.

Ah. All my instruments are external, driven by MIDI from MultitrackStudio for iPad.

You shouldn't use Punch for this [layering new drum sounds onto an existing drum track].

Sorry for not being clear. I'm using SOS, not Punch, for building drum tracks. Again, external instruments.

This is my essential problem. Without MIDI being sent to my external instruments when in Punch or SOS mode, those features "lose their punch" (pun!). I would be very grateful if those features could be made to work with both "External" and "Virtual MIDI Apps."

Thank you very much for your most excellent DAW for iPad, Giel! I truly love it, and regularly recommend it to other music-makers. I hope to purchase the Pro IAP soon.

[KenHardy]

On Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014 I posted a similar request:

"I've just started using MIDI RECORDINGS in my compositions again, and want to start singularly using MTS for iPad, rather than my complex old array of external (and internal) hardware sequences. Related, I have a pretty simple question: How do I get MTS for iPad to send recorded MIDI data to my external MIDI keyboard when doing punch-in MIDI recording? I have no problem recording the MIDI OUT of my Kurzweil keyboard to MTS, and no problem playing back that recorded MIDI track from MTS to my Keyboard. However, if I try to use my external keyboard to record to a MIDI TRACK that I am working on using the punch-in function, then I lose that track's MIDI output to my ext. Keyboard (and thus generate no audio from my keyboard) until I reach the punch-in point, even though I have full "punch in/out monitoring" activated. I've never have this problem when punching-in/out audio to MTS. So I can't play along with my previously recorded data and monitor both the track's midi output and my own keyboard playing, from my keyboard until after I reach the punch-in point (and then I lose it again immediately at the punch-out point). I have noticed that if I use MTS's internal General Midi sound library to generate audio instead of my external keyboard, then I am easily able to play/record my keyboard into MTS, and monitor MTS's General Midi audio output from my iPad prior to, during, and after the MIDI track punch in points (which is exactly what I need). Thus, at present I am forced to use MTS's internal general midi sounds, instead of my more sophisticated external sound generators for composition, recording, and punch-in/out purposes. Again, I am probably just doing something wrong in setting up MTS to input/output/record/playback MIDI data from external instruments, so I would greatly appreciate a heads up.

Thanks, Dr. K."

This is still a problem for MTS MIDI users working with external instruments. Giel replied that midi looping would occur if that was allowed, possibly cutting off notes if ext. instrument polyphony was minimal. However, modern electronic keyboards usually have 32-64 note polyphony, so note cuttoff would unlikely be a problem even playing with all ten fingers. The larger problem is truly the absence of MIDI output back to the performing ext. keyboard prior to the punch in point during recording. I completely agree with the comments of THUS.
Dr. K.

[thus]

This is still a problem for MTS MIDI users working with external instruments. Giel replied that midi looping would occur if that was allowed, possibly cutting off notes if ext. instrument polyphony was minimal. However, modern electronic keyboards usually have 32-64 note polyphony, so note cuttoff would unlikely be a problem even playing with all ten fingers. The larger problem is truly the absence of MIDI output back to the performing ext. keyboard prior to the punch in point during recording. I completely agree with the comments of THUS.
Dr. K.

Thanks, Dr. K. I was sure this had to be a problem for others. Clearly using external instruments is a common use case for a MIDI sequencer and DAW.

I will post this feature request in the main feature request thread.

-thus