Newbie Studio SetUp Suggestions

[johnpc5]

Hi all,
I'm a complete newbie and wanted a suggestion or two on how to setup the following equipment. I usually record everything live and mess with it in Ableton but I haven't taken advantage of MIDI for layering sounds or for simple equipment management (manually removing MIDI cables from each piece of equipment when wanting to play each piece). I would like to use one keyboard, my Roland D-5 as the controller for all the sounds modules and not have to take it apart each time I want to use one module. I have tried daisy chaining the units but have an issue with whether to use OMNNI or POLY mode on my units to have them respond to separate channels. Again, sorry for the newb question but I appreciate the help.

I have:
Roland D-5,
Emu Orbit V.1
Yamaha TG-55
MidiSport Midi Interface 2x2

 

[Riverdog]

Hello and Welcome!

Welcome to the forum! It's always great to have a new person asking questions... Don't feel foolish about what you ask... It's MORE foolish to sit in your 'studio' and not be able to do anything...


There's a couple ways you can hook your system up...
One is "no computer direct route":

- Hook the D5 out to the MidiSport in
- MidiSport out 1 to Emu Orbit
- MidiSport out 2 to Yamaha Tg55

Your D5 will play at the same time the other units will...
You need to turn the keyboard off... This separates the sound part of the D5 from the keys... It's usually called "Local On" or "Local Off"... -OR- you can turn the volume down...

Next - You need to "separate" the MIDI channels on your units... The MIDISport 2x2 Runs In "parallel" mode when it's not hooked to a computer...

(Background: One MIDI port usually transmits and receives on 16 channels at a time - Buy a more sophistocated unit and 8 out ports will transmit on 16 different MIDI Channels each... - Simpler units like the MIDISport will tend to join the ports when it's not being controlled by a computer... That means you only get 16 MIDI channels over BOTH MIDI ports (One set of 16 channels))

Therefore, you should set the MIDI channels on the Orbit to channels 1 - 8 and set the MIDI Channels on the TG to 9 -16... You need to turn off the unused channels on both units so they won't sound off over the sounds you want... This effectively splits up the 16 MIDI channels between the two units... And since you're only going to play the D5 You can leave those channels the way they are...
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The other way to plug these units in is to use a computer to control the switching... This will vastly expand your capability with respect to usage of the instruments...

Plug the USB port of the MIDISPort into the computer Plug the out of the D5 to the in of the MIDISport, Plug one out of the MIDISport to the IN of the D5... Plug the THRU of the D5 to the IN of the Orbit / / Lastly, Plug the second OUT port of the MIDISport to the IN of the TG55...

What this will allow you to do is use all 16 MIDI channels of the TG55 for sequencing and You can split the last 16 channels of the second two units up for the D5 and Orbit... Or you can change this around and plug in the TG55 from the D5 and the Orbit to the second out on the MIDISport giving the Orbit more channels.... Your choice...

THEN - you need a sequencer / Never used Ableton but if it works with MIDI, then you need to assign one track in Ableton to one MIDI channel on one of your units.... Continue assigning tracks until all MIDI channels are assigned and you're ready to go...

I know this is really short... Hopefully you can catch some of the concepts as you work to assemble the studio in the fashion you want...
If you need anything else - Keep asking!
Good Luck...