Midi and Cubase

[EvaEva]

I have been in months of aneurysm agony trying to make my midi setup WORK!!!! A@$_@*%+)@#+^!!!!.... sorry..... OK...breathe... I can record directly singing into to my very nice AKG Perception 220 into my very nice M-Audio 410 Firewire box, but when I try to just play a sound library virtual instrument using my midi drum pad controller or keyboard controller, Cubase (4.0) will just not play through, and I am truly losing my mind. I see the signal registering to the Cubase transport panel, but nothing goes further than that. Please please please SOMEBODY out there tell me that you know how to get Cubase to behave, and relieve of my abject misery. I'm drowning!

[Bigduggieface]

Originally Posted by EvaEva

when I try to just play a sound library virtual instrument using my midi drum pad controller or keyboard controller, Cubase (4.0) will just not play through, and I am truly losing my mind. I see the signal registering to the Cubase transport panel, but nothing goes further than that.

At the risk of insulting your Cubase skills, the basic way to set up a VST instrument in Cubase is as follows:

1. Play your MIDI keyboard and/or drum pad trigger and watch for MIDI activity with the red meter at the right of the transport bar. It sounds from your post that you are seeing input activity which means your MIDI controller is communicating with Cubase.

2. Press F11 to call up the MIDI Instruments panel.

3. Choose a MIDI instrument. Cubase SX 4 will ask you if you'd like to create a new MIDI track. Choose YES. This will automatically set up the virtual MIDI instrument on MIDI channel 1.

4. If MIDI now communicates with the VST instrument you have chosen, you should now hear the VST instrument as well as see audio output activity at the extreme right of the transport bar.

If this DOES NOT work for you, the problem may lie within your MIDI controller. Make sure your MIDI keyboard and / or drum pad is transmitting on MIDI channel 1 or better yet, in OMNI mode.

This is the absolute basic method. If this DOES NOT work, let us know and I or one of the other forum members can help you to troubleshoot step #2.

[EvaEva]

Hello Bigduggieface,

No insult taken, however, I have done steps 1-4 repeatedly with whatever variations were possible. (as in perhaps this will work, or that...) The only signal I am seeing is a tiny bit of activity in blue color at the right of my transport bar - the exact location being the left channel of the very far right indicator. No indication of signal from the skinnier indicator to the left of that (also at the far right of the transport bar).

I've got input set to "All MIDI Inputs", and have tried output set to
1 - the MIDI controller,
2 - to the VST itself,
3 - to my Firewire box,
all with nothing but that same tiny blue sign if signal.

I thought last night that perhaps that even though the chain SHOULD support the use of the USB connection from my MIDI controller to DAW, and then to Cubase, that perhaps I need to plug the MIDI controller directly into the Firewire box, however, if that were the answer, it would work only for my drum pad (AKAI MPD16), but not for my plain MIDI controller keyboard (M-Audio KeyRig49).

Thanks for any info you and/or your colleagues can provide.

Oh, P.S., I have uninstalled and re-installed Cubase 4 a couple of times, and I have downloaded the latest updates - not that that should really matter here, but whatever. I had Cubase SX3 for a short time before upgrading to Cubase 4, and had the same problem with SX3.

[Electriclight]

Just out of curiosity, Wwat virtual MIDI instrument are you trying to play through? Sometimes words mean different things to different people.

[tacman7]

Originally Posted by EvaEva

I've got input set to "All MIDI Inputs", and have tried output set to
1 - the MIDI controller,
2 - to the VST itself,
3 - to my Firewire box,
all with nothing but that same tiny blue sign if signal.
(

So the only one of those that would give you any sound would be the VSTi.

1 - sending the midi back to the midi controller wouldn't do anything unless you had a real keyboad (sound module) plugged into its midi out port.

2 - the one to use.

3 - Once again no sound unless you plug in a keyboard to its midi out.

You could try different VSTi's.

Do a test, set up a midi track set it to your VSTi then get a pencil and draw on the lane, like 4 bars, then get the arrow back and double click on what you drew. Then get the pencil and draw some notes, you should hear them as you draw or play what you drew and you should hear it.

If not then your problem isn't the midi but the sound source - getting your VSTi to work.

If you hook up your keyboard to a track and record does it do anything, do you get a recording (data block)? If so you can look at it by highlighting what you recorded and under midi choose list view.

You should see note messages.

Import a midi file and see if you can get it to play on your VSTi to test your VSTi.

[EvaEva]

Originally Posted by Electriclight

Just out of curiosity, Wwat virtual MIDI instrument are you trying to play through? Sometimes words mean different things to different people.

Very euphamistic of you to attempt the euphamism, but I can hear your real meaning. Do you mean to ask me if I know what I am talking about? Yes, I do.

It's simple. I've got a very large library of virtual instruments; ie; swarplug, native instruments, eastwest quantum leap, etc...
I am just trying to play and record with them using my midi keyboard and drum pad. I cannot understand why this has become such an impossibility. It's ridiculous, and I can't do any new work until this is resolved. I am not about to set up literally thousands of program changes just to play instruments from my library - it is absurd. There is no point in having the instruments if it is so labor intensive to use them.

[Electriclight]

Originally Posted by EvaEva

Very euphamistic of you to attempt the euphamism, but I can hear your real meaning. Do you mean to ask me if I know what I am talking about? Yes, I do.

It's simple.

Actually, I just asked what virtual instrument you were trying to use. You haven't answered my question or, really, anyone else's. I hope you resolve your issues. Dave

[EvaEva]

Originally Posted by tacman7

So the only one of those that would give you any sound would be the VSTi.

1 - sending the midi back to the midi controller wouldn't do anything unless you had a real keyboad (sound module) plugged into its midi out port.

2 - the one to use.

3 - Once again no sound unless you plug in a keyboard to its midi out.

You could try different VSTi's.

Do a test, set up a midi track set it to your VSTi then get a pencil and draw on the lane, like 4 bars, then get the arrow back and double click on what you drew. Then get the pencil and draw some notes, you should hear them as you draw or play what you drew and you should hear it.

If not then your problem isn't the midi but the sound source - getting your VSTi to work.

If you hook up your keyboard to a track and record does it do anything, do you get a recording (data block)? If so you can look at it by highlighting what you recorded and under midi choose list view.

You should see note messages.

Import a midi file and see if you can get it to play on your VSTi to test your VSTi.

Re: your question about a data block, I'm not sure - what do you mean by data block? What do you mean by "hook up my keyboard to a track"?

I was able to get sound on a couple of occasions;
1 - using reason as a rewire instrument through cubase, however I was not able to record anything.

2 - I tried out ableton (which is ok, but I wouldn't use for serious stuff), and was able to record a short midi phrase once, but not using a virtual instrument, I was only able to record the sounds that came with the software for the KeyRig49 keyboard. Unfortunately, I tried to replicate that same scenario to see what I had done to go even that far, but was unable to repeat.

I will try your suggestion of the test you describe, though based upon my two points here, I think it is a question of getting the virtual instrument to work with cubase. there is some setting somewhere that I am missing.

[tacman7]

>>What do you mean by "hook up my keyboard to a track"?

Just set the input of a midi track to the midi port where your keyboard is.

Doing that should show movement of the tracks meter when you hit a key, then you know the signal is getting that far at least.

Then you set the output of the track to the VST instrument and you should hear it.

I know that if cubase isn't connected to your soundcard (Devices/VST connections/output) then you won't hear anything. Some VSTi's have to have a patch or sound loaded on them before they will sound but most have a default sound.

That's the only two reasons I can see why you can't hear anything if you have midi signals getting to a VSTi.