MIDI Mayhem - Pro Audio 9

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HomeRec

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I've been trying to use MIDI with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and my Alesis QS7.1. To a certain extent, I've been successful, but I'd like to streamline the process a bit.

With the Alesis QS7.1, if you want to play MIDI using multiple sounds, you use a Mix (multi-channel sound collection) and play back the recorded MIDI through the appropriate channel. In each channel of the Mix, you have three options to set "Yes" or "No": MIDI In, MIDI Out, and Keyboard - all fairly self-explanatory. The standard setup is MIDI In and MIDI Out both ON, and Keyboard OFF. This allows the sound to travel to Cakewalk, then be sent back through the keyboard to be played through the monitor speakers.

The trick is, I often end up with every or several channel(s) in the Mix playing at once. Therefore, If I want to record a MIDI flute track on channel 3, I may end up having to listen to a combination of strings, horns, drums, synth leads AND flute while recording. It plays back correctly, but is quite difficult to deal with when recording.

My question is, how do you set up Cakewalk so it only allows the keyboard to control the sample(s) currently being recorded? My guess is it's an internal setting in Cakewalk regarding the MIDI controller channel, but I have no idea. Since my version of Pro Audio 9 came with an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 card, I don't have a printed manual to help, and I haven't checked the electronic help extensively on the subject, as I've had a bit of difficulty finding what I've needed in the past.
 
project ---> midi input

make sure all the midi channels are selected, and that the checkbox says auto.

that way, whatever track you have selected in cakewalk will be the sound that you play on the keyboard. when you select a different track, then the sound associated with that track will be controlled by the keyboard.

having said that, try not to change tracks while you are actively playing the keyboard... sometimes the notes stick.
 
Thanks, crossstudio - I'll give it a try. Just a minor point of clarification - by "selected", do you mean the Record ("R") button active, or just selected (the selector on that particular track)?

Also, your comment on sticking notes brings to mind an interesting phenomenon... every once in a while, I get stuck in a "loop" where the last few seconds of playing on the keyboard keeps cycling over and over, even though I haven't recorded anything. Is this a similar effect? I think it happens when I open a new project or possibly when I create a new track.
 
crosstudio said:
project ---> midi input

make sure all the midi channels are selected, and that the checkbox says auto.

that way, whatever track you have selected in cakewalk will be the sound that you play on the keyboard. when you select a different track, then the sound associated with that track will be controlled by the keyboard.
Click to expand...

Hmm... I checked, and those are the current settings. Is there another possibility, or is it a keyboard issue?
 
so what you are saying is that if you have a couple of track already recorded lets say for instance:

acoustic bass ---> channel 1
rhodes + nylon --> channel 2
brass fall --> channel

and you want to record a flute on channel 4.

you create a new midi track, you select the channel out as channel 4, you select your bank and patch for the flute sound. you arm that track for recording and when you press a note you hear the bass, nylon, brass, and flute all playing each note that you play?

then, once you've recorded, the flute plays its notes properly while the other instruments play their tracks accordingly?

if that is the case, then somehow you've got the midi output set for omni during recording.

if you don't have any tracks armed for record and you select a particular track, do all of the tracks sound the notes you are playing?
 
Your example is correct. Let's say, Piano on channel 1, Flute on 2, Harpsichord on 3. A new channel (channel 4) is created on the keyboard, and assigned a bass sound. Then, a new track is created, using the correct MIDI input channel. When I hit "R" and start to play the bass part, I hear bass, piano, flute and harpsichord together. However, the software only records the bass MIDI sequence on the track, and plays it back correctly after recording.

As far as track selection, when I don't have the song loaded, the keyboard doesn't play anything (since the "keyboard" option on the keyboard is disabled, this is the way it should be).

With the song loaded, regardless of the number of tracks armed/selected (including 0), it plays every sound on every channel when I hit a note on the keyboard.

It could be that there is a way to specify the MIDI channel the track outputs to. As of now, I've only seen the MIDI device itself listed in the output port seletion (unlike the input, which allows to select a channel). However, if this was the case, wouldn't every track play every instrument?
 
my remembrance of PA9 isn't 100% but i believe that you can select the midi in channel and the midi out channel.

i know that this is possible in Sonar2 (i just double checked to make sure).

there shouldn't be a need to setup the track and the sound on your keyboard before you set it up in PA9. when you create a new midi track in PA9 you give it midi in/out channel, port, band and patch parameters. those parameters are transmitted to the keyboard when the song starts to tell the keyboard which parts are on which tracks.

do you have Program Change Control set to external on your keyboard? what keyboard are you using BTW?
 
crosstudio said:
my remembrance of PA9 isn't 100% but i believe that you can select the midi in channel and the midi out channel.

i know that this is possible in Sonar2 (i just double checked to make sure).

there shouldn't be a need to setup the track and the sound on your keyboard before you set it up in PA9. when you create a new midi track in PA9 you give it midi in/out channel, port, band and patch parameters. those parameters are transmitted to the keyboard when the song starts to tell the keyboard which parts are on which tracks.

do you have Program Change Control set to external on your keyboard? what keyboard are you using BTW?
Click to expand...

Originally posted by HomeRec
I've been trying to use MIDI with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and my Alesis QS7.1. To a certain extent, I've been successful, but I'd like to streamline the process a bit.
Click to expand...

I solved the problem. Everything was set correctly except for the MIDI Channel parameter in CWPA9. Once I set those, everything worked correctly. I had set Input (MIDI channel x) and Port (Direct Pro 24/96), but had not set MIDI Channel (Channel x).

As for the keyboard, you have to set up a "Mix" in Alesis QS boards, which is essentially a collection of Programs (voices), each assigned to a channel (up to 16). In fact, if you specify a MIDI channel in CWPA9 that has not been enabled in the QS Mix, it defaults to Cakewalk "SoftSynth".

So, short form, problem solved. :) Thanks for the input.
 
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