Accessing MIDI Instruments in Cubase LE on a Power Mac G5

[Spillenger]

I just made the switch from PC to Mac. I have a Power Mac G5 Quad, OS 10.4.4.

When I wanted to play a pre-recorded MIDI file on my PC, I imported it into Sonar, and it played. Period. No problem. I guess Sonar automatically accessed some instruments for the MIDI file to play. I routinely converted a Band-in-a-Box song file to MIDI, and then imported it into Sonar so I could play along and record myself on an audio track.

Now my setup includes a Presonus Firebox and Cubase LE, which came bundled with the Firebox sound card. When I import the same MIDI file that worked fine on the PC with Sonar into Cubase, I get levels on the software meters but no sound. For some reason Cubase isn’t controlling or accessing the Mac’s MIDI instrument banks. I tried importing this same file into Garage Band, using drag and drop, and … it played! So, clearly Garage Band is automatically set up to have MIDI data control some kind of onboard soft synths.

But I am still perplexed about why I can’t make Cubase LE work as it should. Since this is a free, “light” version of the software, Steinberg doesn’t offer any support.

So my question is: Does this sound like I just haven’t gotten Cubase to control MIDI instruments on the Mac? If so, are there such things already installed on the computer? (Because when I do the Cubase MIDI setup, it doesn’t find anything.) Or do I have to buy something for Cubase to control?

Thanks for any light you can shed.

Paul S.

 

[travelin travis]

First, I don't know anything about Macs so I hope that things might be pretty similar for Cubase for mac/pc. If not, this will probably sound like dribble. Also, I'm on SX so there might be differences there too.

You have to setup a vst instrument for the midi file to control. In Cubase go to devices, vst instruments, click an empty slot, and choose a vst instrument from the popup menu. Create a midi track, drop in your midi file, and set the midi track's output for the vst instrument that you just created.

That should get ya goin.

I'm not 100% positive but I would say that the firebox does'nt have any type of built in synthesis like the soundblaster type cards do. That's probably the reason why you are'nt getting any kind of gm midi sounds out of the firebox when you load a midi file into Cubase. Soundblaster type cards have there own built in FM synthesis that creates GM sounds like cheesy drums, piano, etc.

 

[altitude909]

You should not need to use a VSTi if the Mac has a GM player built in, it should be available as a midi output