Please help me figure this one out... no communication from CPU to keyboard

[kirkhere]

Hi.

I'd appreciate input from anyone who may have some ideas for me here.

I have a P3-500 Win2K system with an SBLive Value card, the SB MIDI cable, and a Korg X5D synth. The drivers for the Synth, and any software I know of that talks to it, are all pretty old (1995-1997 vintage), although there is a driver for WinNT on the Japanese Korg site.

After installing the original drivers, and even after trying the updated drivers, both of which appear to install fine, I am unable to communicate with the keyboard.

I have setup the keyboard with the settings for MIDI comms. I have doublechecked the cabling (I do a lot of video work, so I've got the in-to-out thing down pretty well!). But when I run XEdit (a shareware Korg manager) and it asks me to select the midi ports, I run into trouble. No matter what combination of in and out ports I choose, I get an error moessage about the midi port being unavailable.

My first question regarding this, is that for IN I have choices of Korg MIDI, Korg Bank A, Korg Bank G, and another option whose names escapes me. Which do I choose? Is this because I can control only one bank at a time? I'm a little confused here, since I'm new to this synth (and MIDI too).

What I had wanted to do (and thought I was doing!) is connecting the CPU and X5D so that I may send it new patches, download and edit existing ones, and then arrange some tracks and play it from the computer.

At this point, though, I've spent several hours installing, uninstalling, rebooting, and seeing no signals pass between the computer and keyboard.

I'm pretty frustrated.

Thanks for any help or tips you can offer!

kirkhere

 

[the Ozlee]

In reading your post I wasn't able to get any clear idea of what might be happening. But reinstalling drivers makes it appear that it is not the problem. You did not mention what sequencing software you are using and this may be where the problem is.
Also, I have heard that sometimes the bios will not recognize a particular port in which case switching your card might make a difference, but I would only try this after I have made sure there are no irq conflicts , but I am not sure that this is what is causing the problem. I assume you have a midi interface connecting to your computer and all of those connections are correct which makes me think that this is more of a software routing problem than a hardware conflict, ie assigning keyboard and module to their prospective channels and then selecting patches accordingly. I assume you are new to this midi thing, just as I am, and learning the in and out of your software has a learning curve if you are not a computer wiz. The worst thing I think you can do is get frustrated, which is natural, but it just makes it harder and we tend to repeat the same mistake over and over.

The computer can not recognize the hardware and it is probably something very simple that you have overlooked in the software setup and has nothing to do with drivers, although updating them to the most recent version is a plus and I recomend that you do that.

I hope I have not shown my ignorance and have been of some help. You have come to the right place to get your answers, if you can get the attention of the right people.

Keep the faith, Ozlee