MIDI routing problems

guitar ed

guitar ed

New member
Can someone here tell me what I need to make all my MIDI gear work together? I use Sonar as my sequencer, and I have the following MIDI devices: Yamaha W7 keyboard/synth; Line6 POD; Roland GP-16 guitar processor; Alesis HR-16 drum machine; and a Digitech MEQ Dual 14 MIDI EQ. The problem is, the POD, the drum machine, and the EQ are all lacking MIDI Thru jacks. The Yamaha and the Roland have MIDI Thru. I just want to hook all this stuff up, and be able to control it all from Sonar using the corresponding Instrument Definitions, without having to get behind it all and swap cables around all the time. I'm looking around for info on MIDI patch bays and thru boxes, but I'm not sure exactly what I need to get this happening. Any suggestions? I appreciate it.

ed
 
I might add that the drum machine and the EQ don't necessarily have to be part of the chain. I do have to get the POD, the W7, and the Roland back into the computer, though. So, it seems that a MIDI thru box is only going to get the data to the devices, but not back to the PC. Would it work if I went PC out to W7 in; W7 thru to Roland in; Roland thru to POD in; and POD out to PC in? I set it up this way, and sent a bunch of random program change messages with success, but I wasn't succesful getting info back to the computer from Sound Diver with this configuration. I closed Sonar first, so there are no MIDI driver/port conflicts. I would appreciate any insight on this. Thanks

ed
 
It sounds like you really want multiple MIDI interfaces. From a single interface you can only get 16 channels to do different things with. Your MIDI arangements would have to be really sparse to be be able to dedicate a few channels on communications with the POD and GP-16 and the WEQ.

A pathc bay will only really allow you to redirect channels to different devices. Solves the pluggin and plugging cables problem but not the limit on 16 channels.

Something like the Midiman MIDISport 4x4 gives you 4 independent MIDI ports, each with 16 channels, so you could always leave everything hooked up and address it and have plenty of channels available for all the musical parts.
 
Thanks. It's not so much a question of having enough midi channels as it is how do I get them all communicating. I use SoundDiver to edit my midi gear and store libraries. I've had this keyboard for a long time and I have edited sounds coming out the wazoo. So if I want to use a particular patch, I need to load it into the keyboard from SoundDiver, then I have multiple .ins files sitting there in Sonar waiting to be used. Same with the POD. I have lots of libraries, and each one is in Sonar as an instrument definition. When I load a particular library, I have all the patch names there. So you can see that I have a lot going on where I need to have the devices both sending and receiving. I have the POD on channel 16, and the Roland GP-16 on channel 15. I can send program changes and controller messages on those channels, so I'm really not hurting for channels. I still have 14 left for midi instruments. I just think that the POD not having a midi thru port is what's causing all my greif. As it stands now, the POD is ignoring all but ch 16, and the Roland is ignoring all but ch 15. I think I'll get this sorted out, and I'll keep trying til I do! I just want my little studio to be all wired up and ready to go at any moment, much like everyone else would want. But this crap of having to constantly be swapping midi cables between 3 or 4 devices just really slows me down, and I'm sick of it!! If you have any other input, I'm open for suggestions. Thanks again.

ed
 
Thanks, I've already checked out the Midi Solutions and the Phil Rees stuff. I might just have to live with it the way it is until I get a better interface. I know it's that durn POD!! Thanks for your help.

ed
 
Maaan, I came a little too late, Seems like the master AlChuck has given you a right answer. Using MIDI patchbay is wisely recommended. You need to concern more of your music than tweaking your gear... :D
 
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