MIDI connections?

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guitar ed

guitar ed

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Can I pleeeeeeze get some help here? I have the following MIDI equipment: Yamaha W7 keyboard workstation; Alesis HR-16 drum machine; Line6 POD. The W7 has MIDI in, out, and thru. The HR-16 and the POD have only MIDI in and out. I have tried almost every conceivable combination when it comes to hooking this stuff up, and I always end up with one device that doesn,t respond. I'm using a standard joystick port interface. I need to use SoundDiver to edit the POD and the W7. I need Sonar to be in communication with the W7 for recording and playing back MIDI. I need the HR-16 to talk to the W7 for composing drum tracks. Isn't there a way to MIDI this stuff all together, so each device responds to its designated MIDI channel without having to disconnect and reconnect cables all the time? Is the fact that I have only one device with a MIDI thru preventing me from getting the desired results? Am I just gradually going brain-dead due to extended periods of time submerged in the pits of MIDI hell? Any insight on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
ed
 
I'm afraid you won't be able to connect that the way you want, due to your connections. Just remember, the thru is a copy of the in and the out only works for the midi that specific machine transmits.


I have drawn a little diagram here, and I can't see the solution for your connection. The main cause of your problem is that you just got one midi in and out on your soundcard, so I'm afraid you'll have to reconnect all the time.

I would connect the in of the comp with your out of the W7 and vice versa, and go from the truh of the W7 to the in of the alesis.

When you want to use sounddiver for your POd, you'll have to change your cable, sorry:)
 
thanks for the reply.you've confirmed what I was afraid of. What about a MIDI patchbay, or a MIDI thru box? Wouldn't one of those make my desired connections possible? thanks again
ed
 
no problem, if you have an extra midi-in and midi out on your comp you can connect the POD. If you think that money spent is worth not having to switch cables, you should go for that solution

greetingz

Brett
 
I'm thinking I could just build a MIDI thru box, with one MIDI In and maybe 5 thrus. The Yamaha is the only device that actually has to be routed back in to the puter. The other problem is with the Alesis drum machine. I want to use it as a master device to compose drums. I could do it on the Yamaha, but it's just a lot quicker and easier on the Alesis. Then I need to use the Yamaha as a sound module, being triggered by the Alesis, so running from the Yamaha thru to the Alesis In is actually backwards from what I need. Right now I have the puter in and out connected to the yamaha , and the Yamaha thru going to the POD IN, and those two devices are working just fine. I can edit both instruments with SoundDiver, and I can also play and record MIDI in Sonar. I'm afraid I have no choice but to swap cables when I want to dump the Alesis into the Yamaha, but I suppose I can live with that! Thanks again for your input (no pun intended!)
ed
 
There are midi thru boxes you can buy if you dont want to get out the soldering iron.

Check your manuals to see if the midi out's on the Pod and the HR16 can be set as a THRU. Some units let you do that.

It's common to use multi midi interfaces when you have a few devices. As you have found out you run out of daisy chain options and probably midi channels pretty quickly.
 
i can set the hr-16 to echo midi in to midi out, which sounds like the equivalent of a thru port. There's just no way that I can find to use the alesis as a master device and still use the yamaha as my main midi sound source. I found a happy medium, though, and it involves minimal cable swapping. I'm just one of those guys who has to have everything hard-wired! thanks
 
They also make midi mergers so you can hook up 2 controllers to send on the same midi cable.
 
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