Multitimbral - Possible w/ Live 2 w/ VSTS (Amateur Question)

For the longest I have been using the Live 2 as standalone or controller mode with exclusively the mpc software (Not as a vst in a daw), but I am wondering it is possible to have a multitimbral setup?

When I used to use my 1000 with Cubase I had it setup in this fashion:

- The mpc was connected midi to my interface and I would have a template made in cubase that had a template within the mpc and cubase for midi and vsts (battery for my drums, and like 10 other instrument midi channels for my vsts). So like instrument channel 1, battery or fxpansion, channel 2 omnisphere, channel 3 Kontakt, and so forth.

- I could create the entire track on the mpc (with all the midi channels corresponding to each other), and dump the midi onto cubase. This made arrangements very easy, in a FL Studio sense.

- I also could do this with Maschine. I could open up a vst instance of it in Cubase, build a whole drum track within the machine vst, and then just drag the midi out (i.e. kick, snare, hihat on separate instrument/midi tracks within cubase).

It was always better to dump midi instead of audio because Cubase allowed me to always tweak my sounds, and when I was completely happy and need to save CPU power, I could freeze the track into like audio.

I'm wondering can I do something similar with the live 2 or mpc vst software like in a sense with the maschine example above?

Yes it is possible to do that with the MPC Live 2.

This is my set up, except with cakewalk. I go one further and have all my synths then connected to the midi out of the MPC. So all the the MIDI from my PC goes either into the MPC or via it. This enables me to create using the tools with DAW, I use scaler, and some arp and step sequencers VSTs to help create the midi, to play in the soft synths in the MPC, or my hardware synths. The trick I believe is going to Preferences > Midi Sync > and setting the MPC (input Ports) to Track only. This allows multiple midi channels to go to different tracks (It's the same thing for having more than one keyboard playing different tracks in the MPC). You then assign each track a midi channel.

Then scroll down the same Midi Sync page, set RECIEVE to Midi Time Code(MTC). In Cakewalk I have it set in the preferences to 1. Transmit Midi/continue/stop/clock and 2. Transmit MTC (Midi Time Code). (I don't know how these are titled in Cubase, but probably very similar) This allows any parts and effects playing from the MPC to be in sync with the DAW. In Cakewalk, there is also an option to zero CC when play stops. This tends to mess things up for me, so I leave unchecked.

There is a Midi bug to be wary of where the same midi not across different midi channels can cause note off problems as though the note off was on the same channel (I think this is what's happening). So where some synths can be transposed, I transpose them one octave one way and the in the DAW one octave the other to cancel out the transposition, and make space. When mid get busy to do this, I record the midi from my DAW into the MPC and mute the track in the DAW, in case I need to come back to it. Then the MPC sequences that midi part.

Can't edit that other post, but scrub that second paragraph. Sometime I loose my settings when I turn off my audio interface before my MPC, so although it was working, it's not how I normally set up. I noticed yesterday the arps weren't syncing in the MPC . The MPC is set now to Receive Midi Clock, not MTC, so the DAW doesn't need to send it. Just Transmit Midi/continue/stop/clock, and not to zero controllers on stop.