Patch bay AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

[johnr75_99]

I have been building my studio now for about 6 months and I’m still having technical problems with my Midi Sport 8 x8 patch bay.

I’m using Logic Platinum as my main sequencing software package which I’m happy with however I’m still not 100% ok with all the facilities and functions on it and I’m not sure whether I might have over looked something..

I’ve set up my enviroment window with all my multi – instruments and set up my arrange window with all the channel I want to work on however I still can’t get Midi port 1 and 3 on my patch bay to record midi and play back how ever if I go into the matrix window I can step right no problem and it plays the midi back and sends it to the patch bay port no. 1 and 3 and the out red light flashes to indicate midi out messages being sent.

But I still can’t hear and audio from these ports...

Here’s my equipment list and patch bay setting…………


MUSIC EQUIPMENT

Behringer 1804 Mixer
Lexicon MPX100
Alesis Midi Verb III
Korg Prophecy
Korg X5D
Yamaha CS1X
Roland 303
Midisport 8 x 8

PC

Pentium 3 1Ghz Processor
128Mb SD Ram
14Gb Hard Drive
Sound Blaster Platinum with front panel
CD R-W
Omega 250mb Zip Drive

SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Logic Platinum
Cubase VST24
Cubasis
Rebirth
Renovator
Sound Forge 4.05

Patch Bay Port config.
Midi Port 8 – X5D (Working fine no problems)
Midi Port 1 – Korg Prophecy (Can step right in logic platinum and plays midi back and lights up port no.1 however no audio is played)
Midi Port 2 – Lexicon MPX100 (Have got this to work but unsure how to configure in arrange window in logic as a instrument or multi instrument need some help here!!)
Midi Port 3 – Roland 303 (Same as Port 1)
Midi Port 4 to 7 – ( Not in use)

Sound Blaster Platinum
Midi Port – Yamaha CS1X ( Working fine no problems however only one performance sound but what the heck it’s a nice synth)


Any help would really be appreciated.

John

[skippy]

This may or may not help- but have you checked the instruments themselves to make sure that they are set up to actually receive MIDI inputs, and are listening to the correct MIDI channel or channels (each port on the 8x8 can support any number of the 16 MIDI channels)?

I had a similar problem with my Alesis DM5: I could send MIDI events to it on channel 1 on the correct port, and it was listening on channel 1, but it would not respond. I had to configure its MIDI through setup to allow it to merge incoming MIDI events with internally generated trigger events (local-control = thru).

The light blinking on a port only tells you that data is going out, not that anyone is listening. I know nothing whatsoever about the specific instruments you list, but if you are sending MIDI events to them on a MIDI channel, and they are configured to listen for MIDI events on that channel, then they really ought to make some noise. If they aren't, then either a) they aren't listening, b) they are listening, but possibly to the wrong channel, or c) there's a cabling problem...

Hope that helps.

[johnr75_99]

hi skippy,

well i've setting up the korg prophecy which is a monophonic keyboard anyway.... on channel 5 on both my sequencer and keyboard........

i know that the send and receive channels r right on the keyboard but it's the settings in logic in the enviroment window that i'm not sure about because i think you can add in midi links between midi instrument perhaps to use the X5d as a midi controller..........

[skippy]

I'm truly out of my depth here, so this is a shot in the dark. I'm a Cubase guy, not a Logic guy, so I know nothing of what Logic might be doing to remap the MIDI channels on the data's trip to the port. However, a fishing expedition might prove instructive.

Since you know that events on _some_ channel are going to the port (since the light is blinking), and you have your keyboard configured to listen- why not try cycling the keyboard through each of the 16 channels in turn, and see if you detect events on any of them? If it turns out that the events are actually going out on channel 11, instead of the channel 5 you are currently listenting for them on, then that gives you something to look for in the Logic setup stuff.

That's all I can suggest. You might want to post a pointer to this thread in the MIDI forum with a different title- I don't know how many MIDI mavens will be looking through articles in the "Other Equipment" forum titled "patchbay"! You're going to need help from someone with a much greater depth of experience than me: though I understand patchbays, I'm pretty much a MIDI neophyte myself...

Best of luck!