new to midi...help

  • Thread starter Thread starter dennis.heney
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dennis.heney

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Hello,

I am pretty new at midi. Can you help me connect the following equipment together?

Pro Tools LE (Eleven Rack interface)
one keyboard controller
a Yamaha Motif-Rack XS
a Dave Smith Tetra tabletop synth
various internal plug-in instruments

Do I need a multi midi interface (and if so, how do I use it) or will this all connect to each other? I only need to play one instrument at a time.

Many thanks! :eek:
 
yes, i'll help if you give me your dave smith. really, if you have specific questions, i can help, but i'm not going walk you through a whole education in midi. :D at least make a mess of things, and then come back for help.
 
ha ha! No way you get the Dave Smith! Thanks for the reply.

Right now, I have the 11R connected to my computer and a midi cable going from the keyboard to the midi in of the 11R. This runs my plug-ins just fine. I have midi cables running from the dave smith and the yamaha that I simply plug and un-plug into the controller as needed. So I can play each synth OK. But I really don't want to plug and unplug these cables. So I got an inexpensive midi interface, plugged it into the computer, then plugged all the cables into that...but then nothing worked at all. There must be a way that they can connect together, but I don't know what I am doing wrong.
 
I don't feel like looking up all the gear you listed... :(

Does any of the gear have USB and do you realize that gear with USB can send MIDI through the USB cable and there is no need for MIDI cables with gear like that?
 
Thanks! No, I did not know that. If I can connect the two hardware synths to the computer via USB and then the keyboard controller to the midi port on my interface, that should allow the controller to talk to everything?
 
dennis.heney said:
ha ha! No way you get the Dave Smith! Thanks for the reply.

Right now, I have the 11R connected to my computer and a midi cable going from the keyboard to the midi in of the 11R. This runs my plug-ins just fine. I have midi cables running from the dave smith and the yamaha that I simply plug and un-plug into the controller as needed. So I can play each synth OK. But I really don't want to plug and unplug these cables. So I got an inexpensive midi interface, plugged it into the computer, then plugged all the cables into that...but then nothing worked at all. There must be a way that they can connect together, but I don't know what I am doing wrong.
Click to expand...

i don't know which daw you use, but i'd think that you should have midi config settings in any of them. assuming you installed the driver correctly, you might only need to enable the interface in your daw's midi settings, and from there, you might need to enable each port of the interface.
 
dennis.heney said:
Thanks! No, I did not know that. If I can connect the two hardware synths to the computer via USB and then the keyboard controller to the midi port on my interface, that should allow the controller to talk to everything?
Click to expand...

Try it - I would think it would work. The thing with USB is that you can't run USB from one device to another, the USB cables all connect like you said - to the computer. And you need to have the drivers for those devices installed in the computer for it to work.

Whatever DAW program you use (I use Cubase) will do all the routing and allow one device to "talk" to any of the others.

The good part about USB is that it provides two way communication whereas MIDI requires a MIDI in cable and a MIDI out cable to do that (MIDI is one-way).

For some things the USB cable can provide power as well and eliminate the need for an ac adapter - my M-Audio controller is like that.

They don't explain it very well but MIDI is a code that can be sent via MIDI cables or USB cables. In general you only need MIDI cables when you are hooking up older pre-USB gear. But there are other times, like when you aren't using a computer at all, like just having two synths at a gig, where MIDI cables are still useful. MIDI cables require no drivers, are plug and play and hot swappable.

Before you install the USB drivers (probably just called the drivers) it's good to go to the manufacturer's web sites and make sure you have the latest drivers... when they put out a new product usually they have to tweak the drivers in response to users having problems. There's no way they can anticipate all the screw ups people will have with all the gear out there. Typically the drivers on the CD that comes with a product are not the latest.
 
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Ah. I was missing the whole driver thing. No wonder the midi interface did not work. I will try this again, as I can get the drivers from websites as you say. Many thanks, and sorry for being such a rube!
 
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