midi issues for newbie

[jay29]

i've just started recording and recently added a midi player to my cubase le/ presonus interface. i can record the midi tracks, however, i cannot monitor/playback the track through the mixer (subsequently the outputs to amp)--as it will only be monitored/played back through the midi player(keyboard) itself. the track shows up on it's assigned strip but not on the mixer master--as well i am not able to add effects to the track. the input and output is selected as my midi interface (not connected and system link 1) are the only other options. i noticed that my audio tracks are bus1 and they are sent to the mixer fine. help me--i'm lost and/or uneducated.

[legionserial]

Originally Posted by jay29

i've just started recording and recently added a midi player to my cubase le/ presonus interface. i can record the midi tracks, however, i cannot monitor/playback the track through the mixer (subsequently the outputs to amp)--as it will only be monitored/played back through the midi player(keyboard) itself. the track shows up on it's assigned strip but not on the mixer master--as well i am not able to add effects to the track. the input and output is selected as my midi interface (not connected and system link 1) are the only other options. i noticed that my audio tracks are bus1 and they are sent to the mixer fine. help me--i'm lost and/or uneducated.

If you are making a MIDI track, it needs to be run through an instrument such as a VST instrument for example. In this case, when the instrument is added, it will have it own track. the MIDI track is then output to the VST instrument track. And that is the one you add effects to and control he volume with.

I probably havn't explained this very well. Basically the MIDI track contains the information about what notes to play etc. It still needs an instrument to be sent to though. I dunno, it sounds like you have a hardware synth that you want to use. Is that the case?

Perhaps if you could give more detail on what exactly you are trying to do, or what instrument or sound you are trying to make it make. For example, piano? strings? Basically my explanation could be more helpful to you if I could 'tailor' it your specific needs.

[jay29]

thanks brother, i've got it working now, but the input volume is pretty low even with high "instrument" settings on the lm-7 drum machine. do you have any advice as to getting it higher without using the strip slider. as well, i would like to be able to send the tracks to strip effects, but it won't allow it as a midi track. is there a way to convert it to an "audio" track so that i can do this--or any lateral manueveres are welcome. p.s. sorry if the lingo or descriptions aren't up to snuff -- i'm trying..

[legionserial]

I'm going to explain this with pictures as it is easier for me.

This is what we see. I have added an FX track. I'll explain that later.

[legionserial]

If you open up the MIDI track. You will see this....(you can't do much with it)

[legionserial]

Here we have the track view again. But this time, I have circeled the little 'e' on the LM-7 track...

[legionserial]

If you click that little 'e'. It will open this...which you can do a lot more with. This is where you want to control the volume of the LM-7, plus add inserts, do some EQing, and later I'll stick a picture of how to send to an FX track using this window. In the picture in the above post, if you click on the LM-7 track, the one with the red circle over the 'e', you can ontrol stuff like volume and panning from the inspector on the elft of it, as you would with a normal audio track. It basically functions entirely like an audio track.

[legionserial]

This is the track window again. In the first picture you saw an FX track. I put a reverb on that...In this picture, I am selecting that FX track from the sends panel on the left...

[legionserial]

This is the same window again. Only with the FX channel now selected. The thin horizonal blue bar just underwhere it say FX1-reverb, is how you control how much of the effect to mix into the track.

[legionserial]

That's pretty much it. Apologies if I oversimplified things.

If it's stll too quiet with the volume all the way up on the LM-7 track, you could send that to a group track, and use the volume on the group track to push the volume further.