Cubase reads midi, but doesnt plays it :/

Leandrusi

New member
cubase midi problem.jpg

As you can see in the image, Ive got an "instrument" channel with a piano from kontakt loaded. I play from a controller but even when midi activity is coming, kontakt doesnt reads it. Any idea on whats going on here? Thanks in advanced!!
 
Nothing obviously wrong here - is it that particular Kontakt instrument, or ALL vsti's that don't respond. Two things to try - create a MIDI track and set the output to the Kontakt instrument AND a direct create instrument kontakt track do they both fail to make it play? The only other thing I can think of is output routing. Is the Kontakt instrument routed to the stereo busses? It says it is - but does any output 'emerge'. The only other thing would be that one of the controller channels is at zero - so 7 and 11 come to mind, plus of course 10 - which occasionally trips me up because 0 in the box oddly mutes things on some patches (strings, I have found).

Other than that - you probably need to bring in a midi track you know works, and change one to that instrument and see off that works?
 
Nothing obviously wrong here - is it that particular Kontakt instrument, or ALL vsti's that don't respond. Two things to try - create a MIDI track and set the output to the Kontakt instrument AND a direct create instrument kontakt track do they both fail to make it play?

midi track.jpg Here´s my midi-track-with-kontakt-as-output attempt

new instrument.jpg and the direct New Instrument > kontakt one

None of the tracks produces any midi activity within kontakt, therefore no sound is heard. I tried with some other vst, like the ones included with cubase like Monologue and it doesnt sounds neither. Im transmitting from ch.1 from my controller (I checked many times now)...
Later I will try the next of your recommendations, thanks man
 
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While you fix it, can you confirm that none of your vsti instruments work at all? Including the ones with built in keyboards on screen, or drum pads? I'm left wondering if there are any drivers installed for your midi interface? How is your controller connected, and what to? My controller driver occasionally crashes and I have to power down the controller keyboard and then power up again which reloads the driver. What are you using? Something with MIDI out, going into an interface of some kind, or a USB cable?
 
Your links appear to be invalid - asking me to contact an administrator.
I re-uploaded them, they were down for some reason (uploaded from using the "from my computer" option)


While you fix it, can you confirm that none of your vsti instruments work at all? Including the ones with built in keyboards on screen, or drum pads?

Currently there are no vst, built in or external, not even midi tracks with microsoft wavetable synth that play any sound, although midi activity is shown in the midi bar next to the main level bar. I tried every vst I have, nothing works, as if cubase wasnt receiving any midi, but it does.

I'm left wondering if there are any drivers installed for your midi interface? How is your controller connected, and what to? My controller driver occasionally crashes and I have to power down the controller keyboard and then power up again which reloads the driver. What are you using? Something with MIDI out, going into an interface of some kind, or a USB cable?

I forgot to mention, last time I used cubase everything was working perfectly. Anyway, my setup is this: Cubase 5 running in win 8 from a Lenovo g40 (i7, 16ram). The interface is Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and Kawai mp6 as midi controller. 2i4 has midi in, so mp6 to 2i4 thru midi cable (cubase reads "focusrite midi" as midi device), but I also tried conecting the mp6 to the computer directly with usb cable (cubase reas it as generic midi device), but same problem.
 
First thing then is to see if the issue is the computer or Cubase before you change too much - download a midi file from the net and open it in the windows default programme - and see if that gets routed to your sound device. This will at least tell you where the issue is. PC or Cubase. I'm struggling to remember how Cubase 5 deals with MIDI routing as it's so old. If I'm understanding this correctly - selecting the focus rite midi device and creating a midi track records nothing at all? Or does a track with midi data appear, but just won't make any sounds? Have you tried updating/re-installing the focus rite driver?
 
Been a long, long time since I played with this stuff (and I was not THAT clever with it then!) but two things come to mind?

In Cubase there is a box to tick about "MIDI Thru". If you don't, does not play. Secondly, in XP there was a program glitch whereby, about once a month the "synth slider" in the Windows sound mixer would reset to zero. Maybe something similar has happened?

Dave.
 
In Kontakt change midi ch: (A)1 to "any" and tell us if the problem is still happening.


I'm actually a littler purplexed because "A" is usually the default from the DAW and I see you have cubase set to channel 1 so technically this should be working BUT just in case change that setting in Kontakt and let us know if you still don't hear anything.
 
Also, there is something very puzzling in the second picture you posted where you have pure pulse loaded.

In the instrument channel in cubase I don't see an output midi channel... and that is REALLY weird.

But go ahead and do what I said and let us know if it's still not putting out any audio.
 
Been a long, long time since I played with this stuff (and I was not THAT clever with it then!) but two things come to mind?

In Cubase there is a box to tick about "MIDI Thru". If you don't, does not play. Secondly, in XP there was a program glitch whereby, about once a month the "synth slider" in the Windows sound mixer would reset to zero. Maybe something similar has happened?

Dave.

THANKS! that did the trick! it was that damm "midi thru" box
midi thru.jpg

Now it sounds, but a new little problem came up: it doesnt record! Maybe its some other box I need to check/uncheck?
This looks ok to you people?

midi filter.jpg
 
Do you mean it won't record the AUDIO from the MIDI data or it won't record the data?

Once again, long time ago but. I don't think you can record the audio "on the fly"? I think you have to record the data and then "render" it to a track?
You certainly should be recording the data but you need to setup a "bus" IIRC?

Back in the day (about 4 years) son and I were SO be-boggled by Cubase and computer recording in general that I used two computers (one was a very cheap and low low powered) and linked them by S/PDIF so we could run Cubase and its MIDI ***t on the fast one and record the audio on the other!

Dave.
 
You've got something very odd going on here. MIDI through simply allows midi coming in, to be sent out again - and for a lot of people, turning it OFF is vital, because with an external keyboard connected, you press say C1, it sounds, but then Cubase sends it back to the keyboard a fraction of a second later and it sounds again - creating double notes, and even worse, some keyboards also have midi thru engaged and send it out again, and every note you play records two! If you create a VST instrument and then use the MIDI output routing too play it, you may need thru on. On my system - you do NOT. If you create an instrument track, then again MIDI thru is not needed, because you do not want the output sent anywhere.

Has this instance of Cubase ever worked properly? None of these problems are common, so it suggests either the installation is badly mangled, or somehow you have done something. The MIDI filter section is something you shouldn't need to fiddle with unless you want things to be done slightly differently, or need to filter out continuous data that either chokes a busy feed, or causes timing issues - stuff like that. I do use it for some things but that's just because a couple of external synths are very picky. Using only internal VSTis you wouldn't;t normally have these issues.

So -
has it ever worked playing internal sounds?
Do any of the internal sound work (I think you said no)?
Both instrument and ordinary MIDI tracks no not record any data at all when you hit record, but the midi activity meter says midi is there?

One thing you can try to move us along.

Create a MIDI track manually - so you have MIDI data absolutely there! Create a few bars of a new midi track, double click it to open the editor and enter random notes with the pen tool - any old rubbish will do - then see if this can be copied and pasted to an instrument track and produce sound.

Report back.
 
Rob, as I say, I (we) struggled with Cubase but it gave the lowest latency for son's kbd with a 2496.

We started with Cubase Elements 3 and then moved to Essentials 4. In both cases we could not get a peep out of the software unless the Thru' box was ticked.

Don't know if it matters but the keyboard was an Evo EKeys 49 "dumb" controller?

Re Cubase filters? Came in handy because the Evo developed a "wandering" pitch pot and we could turn it off. Took a while to get us heads around how to do it tho!

Dave.
 
THANKS! that did the trick! it was that damm "midi thru" box
View attachment 103033

Now it sounds, but a new little problem came up: it doesnt record! Maybe its some other box I need to check/uncheck?
This looks ok to you people?

View attachment 103034

Uncheck Note in MIDI filter. Now you are filtering notes out so that they don't get recorded. You can see this in the second picture of your original posting #10. So just uncheck Notes there, and they will be recorded as well.
 
I've tried the MIDI thru setting in cubase 9.5 pro and it has no effect at all on internal VSTi's. It does stop the MIDI outs sending it back out again. I dug out an old PC that had Cubase 5 on it and SX3, and creating an instrument track, then adding some random notes plays back fine on the internal sounds - the meters and lights flash as expected. In short - my copy of Cubase 5 works by default exactly correctly.

The only way I was able to make 9.5 behave like the problem one was by messing with the drivers. I did manage to put it into a state where the VST instruments would not respond. The routing and setup information still showed my Tascam interface - but instead of the usual multiple ins and outs, it showed up with just chi and ch 2 on input and output - no access to the usual other channels was possible, and I could not produce any sound in this mode. Switching off the Tascam and then powering up again reloaded the drivers and then sound worked again.

I'm not sure this really helps - but could be worth trying a driver download.

I had also not realised how much Cubase has moved on since 5. I;d strongly advise you to consider something like elements 9.5 - because it's better by far. It can't be cost because you've lashed out on Kontakt - and that isn't cheap. Spend a bit on upgrading Cubase - as clearly your installation is a bit sick (traditional sick, not the modern positive sick)
 
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