Connecting MIDI Keyboard to PC

R

rocco2002

New member
Can someone help me please! I have a Technics KN6500 keyboard attached to my Crystal SoundFusion soundcard via MIDI cables into the gameport. I am using Cubase SX but nothing works, what settings should I make in Cubase, on the keyboard or on the soundcard to get my PC and keyboard talking to eachother? Please send a reply to my email.
 
Did you install the proper driver for your port ? If haven't, then you have to install it first. I didn't know KN6500, nor your card. But most GM capable keyboard/synth/module can make it. Almost joystick port also can be MIDI port if you set the driver right. Now, take your card's installation disk/CD, and install the driver for the card. Try use Media player first to play standard MIDI files. If it doesn't work, then check your Windows control panel, and click audio/multimedia property, click and check your MIDI output port. Set to your card's MIDI out, and check with Media player again. If you do it right, then the KN6500 should make sound... come back again after try, and bring new clue, what's your Windows, driver, and mode in KN6500. I'll be here trying to help.
:cool: Papa James :cool:
 
OK I (somehow) have managed to get it so that when I play a midi file in Cubase SX it comes out of the keyboard but when I play anything on the keyboard it isnt being sent to the PC. I know a bit about soundcards etc and have gone into the properties and changed everything a million times to get it working but nothing happens!
 
Have you selected the MIDI input in Cubase to your sound card's MIDI In ? And does KN6500 has anything similiar to turn on/off the MIDI Out function ? Some certain kind of keyboard have this feature (Called MIDI Filter). Have you turned it on ?
 
I've set all inputs and outputs to my Soundcard in cubase and tried every setting on my keyboard to see if cubase receives a signal but there's no luck. It might be to do with the keyboard but the manual is incomprehensible and the technics website is useless. Help!
 
If you haven't already, make sure cubase is set to Omni on its input - otherwise the keyboard might be sending on Midi channel 5 and Cubase set for a different channel? Not familiar with Cubase, but Cakewalk needs the specific input selected or nothing works. Know what you mean about manuals, I have a few pieces of Roland gear. Great sounds, great quality gear, total suck for manuals... Steve
 
You're right Steve...
I remember the old years where I hook my Roland E86 as controller, and it sent through channel 4 instead of 1. "One man band" keyboard (the one which came with auto accompaniment) like KN series I think just do the same thing. Spliting Upper / Lower / Drums / Bass / etc... by channels. Try open blank project contains 16 tracks, assign each track corespond to channel 1 to 16, hit the record, go record the MIDI and see what track has been recording the signal. That's the global channel.
 
Like I said, I don't have Cubase - In Cakewalk, if you double-click on the SOURCE column of the track you are working with, a dialog box pops up with options such as left audio, right audio, stereo audio, midi omni, midi ch.1, etc - If you choose omni, then that track will respond to any midi channel that comes into the software.

Double check the midi cable from the keyboard's OUT port - make sure, if there are 3 connectors, that you dont have it connected to the THRU port.

Also, I have had exactly ONE bad midi cable out of about 75 or 80, and it was made bad from the factory. Just ONE of the pins was molded in RECESSED, so at first glance it looked OK but wouldn't quite reach - sometimes it touched and tried to work, though - drove me nuts til I found it and cut it into little bitty pieces...

If none of this works, try James' plan of setting up a 16 midi track projuect in Cubase, arming all 16 tracks, and recording. Find out if ANY midi channels are transmitting.

Look thru whatever menus/controls are available on your keyboard and see if you can find which midi channel it is transmitting on, if you didn't find that out by doing James' experiment.

Pray...
 
Hey Rick, that was one of those "top o the haid" comments, lessee if I can come close to backing it up - first, I was including spares/gig cables, but for the actual studio stuff, I have

MQ 8 port 8 x 8 MIDI patch bay, EFX include Quadraverb, Yamaha Rev500, 2 Midiverbs, 2 Digitech harmonizers;

Sound modules/keys - Roland XP-50, RS-9, SC-55 piano, EMU Proteus, + one of their Pro-Formance+ piano modules, a Korg piano module forget the #, aDX7II with breath controller, an FB-01, a Casio thing I keep for two sounds out of all it does, and a Roland SK-88 pro;

Drumkat controller with extra Roland pads, an expanded Roland V-custom drumpad set with TD-8, upgraded 2-zone cymbals, 2-zone hihat and extra low tom pad, Alesis HR-16 drum machine, Pro-cussion module;

Peavey PC-16 and JL Cooper fader boxes;

I think that's about it for stuff with actual MIDI connections, looks like about 30 or so actual MIDI cables in use, maybe a few more.

OK I lied, so sue me... Steve

Oh, forgot about the 2 VIRTUAL MIDI cables in the DAW, that allow Cake/Sonar to talk to Samplitude for SMPTE/MTC...

Whoops, forgot about the stuff on the floor - add a Digitech RP-10 and RP-2000, so 4 more MIDI cables (like to be able to do SysEx dumps to Cake from ALL MIDI boxes)
 
Ok, I give. I only asked that as you said one time(I think) I have a really large midi system. Its nothin compared to yours, thats all. :D Say Steve, could you possibly enlighten me a bit? I've been wondering this one for years. How and what do you use, for midi controled parameter and patch settings, on FX boxs with midi capability(probably all of them now days huh?) I don't understand. I have a computer with most of the sequencer and digital audio programs right now, but haven't even used them as I'm still trying to get all the analog hooked up.:rolleyes: I thought I could control different units with midi, even though the I/O is analog. Just don't know how. Thanks
fitz:)
 
Many people seeing MIDI for sequencer purposes only. I did, in fact, back to ten years ago, when I first get hooked by Cakewalk DOS version... (remember that old dayz buddy ? MPU-401 ? MQX 32M ?) I used MIDI for sequencing, and gig (hooking my old module Yamaha FB-01 to Korg M1). Now, after years, I have used MIDI for vary things. Patching, change the devices setting, sometimes syncronizing, and so on. I've got ...mmmmh... I never count 'em yet :D anyway, perhaps about more than 40 MIDI cables messing around in my home studio... Jess...

James
 
Yeah James, been there too, glad things have advanced though -

Rick, depending on the capabilities of each MIDI module, you can do a lot. The least I do with MIDI capable modules is NOT store the patches for a particular song with the module. This way, I don't care how many or few memory locations the box has, or whether my kid just changed patch 56 and screwed up my latest song - I always figure out how to get each module to send SysEx to the sequencing software, and when I'm happy with a particular FX patch I send that patch sysex to the sequencer and store that info with the sequence. That way, 3 years from now I can call up a song file and have everything in the studio be just like it was when the song was last saved.

As MIDI gear has advanced, most of it now lets you do programming from a remote controller (Like the PC-1600 and the JL Cooper Fadermaster I use), and if you record all those changes real-time, you have FX automation happening.

My RP-2000 lets you access something like 64 different parameters per patch, including multiband parametric EQ, volume, crunch, channel switching, etc, so you can really go crazy there. After recording the dry guitar part, you re-amp it thru the FX box, tweaking it as you go in whatever way turns your crank. Then you can play it back, edit whatever you don't like, and still not modify the original audio track. That way, if you change your mind again 3 weeks later, no harm done. just change the MIDI info. Lotta possibilities there.

Imagine listening to a guitar part that sounded cool soloed, but doesn't quite sit in the mix. If you're re-amping with a MIDI controllable box, you can listen IN CONTEXT and assign the 16 faders on the PC-1600 to every parameter of a 4 band parametric, have 4 faders left over for things like reverb or chorus parameters, and tweak while you listen, til you're happy with the way the track sits in the mix. Then, while STILL leaving the original audio file intact, you can dump JUST THAT PATCH SysEx to the sequencer; now you have the sound you want every time you load that sequence, and can STILL change it later.

Lots more possibilities, but I'm short on sleep and long on work for the next few days - hope that gave you some ideas... Steve
 
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