Not just a Cubase Question.

[merman_93]

Big Dillema for Merman!

This question sounds more like one of those," ...there are two trains,...one going west at 5 miles an hour one going east at 10,..." types of questions, but...

My System, so far,...Windows XP pro SP2, Cubase SL3.0, Halion 3.0, D'Cota 1.01, Edirol SD-20, Roland GR-20 guitar to MIdi/Synth, Roland VGA-7 digital guitar system, Zoom mrt3b, Midiverb4, and a Behringer FCB 1010. I have a Tascam FW-1082 that is my audio/midi interface, my mixer and control surface. It has two sets of Midi in/outs. I also have a Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Pro sound card for my day to day purposes. The Platinum Pro has a Midi in and out, and they appear in Cubase under devices, and show as active.

I have set up all of my Midi devices in Cubase, under their respective control channels, (Ithink,,,).

I wish to create a very flexable Midi exchange.

The GR-20 is my only device sending Midi notes, and also receives back Midi data, (local off) dedicated to channel 1.

The VGA -7 receives on channel 2 ,( this unit receives a 13 pin in from the gr-20 with the basic 6 channels of info from the guitar). This unit sends the audio to the mixer from the guitar. It only needs to receive program change messages from Cubase over midi.

The FCB1010 is a Midi foot controller, (and doesn't fit well into my system yet). It has the ability to send various Midi data, not only patch change, as it has two CC's that are assignable, and I would like to be able to utilize them on D'COta. (Ive tried it and it works great, but I want to be able to change things in the software not in the hardware by plugging unplugging etc.)

The Edirol seems to be in omni on mode only, and receives all channels all the time,( the documentation is not very good). Assigning this unit as the "out in the Inspector" is the best way to controll this unit.

It's even more complicated but I'll start here,...

The GR-20 is plugged in to Midi in 1 and Midi out 1 of the Tascam. Midi out 2 is sent to the Zoom mrt 3b drum machine for sync. Currently, the FCB 1010 is midi'ied directly to the VGA-7 to change the amp settings manually for recording purposes. The midi verb is not connected to Midi.

It's already confusing,... I want to have the fcb 1010 connected into Cubase, and be able to use it for recording program changes on the fly.
I'll also then need the VGA-7 Midi'ied out from Cubase to receive program changes.

I should be able to connect the FCB 1010 to the Midi In 2 of the Tascam, and the VGA-7 to the Midi out from the Platinum Pro, Right? Then I still need to have the Midiverb4 receive data from the VGA-7's Midi through.

Forgive me but, I'm going through that "awkward stage" just past,"hook it up and use it NOWWWW!" and, "OK, lets get it organized".

Any assistance is very much appreciated.

[elektro80]

Hmm.. I am still mainly using Cubase 5.x VST 32 / mac OS 9 + Steinberg midex 8. That probably means I cannot help you ..

[paul e.]

it's a question of sorting your out from your thru's..

you wanna make sure you are chaining via the thrus to maintain the control data throughout the chain

[Kassen]

I think everybody deals with these matters. You need to sort out the outs, thrus and the outs that also act as a transparent through. It´s tricky and everything documents it in a different way.

I don´t have any expereince with these particular programs and boxes but i can say that one of the ways to get your desired midi flow is to make maximum use of the elements that can be configured arbitarily. Computers exell at this, you can get little midi loopback drivers that make virtual midi ports so you can patch the physical ones as desired. If push comes to shove you could considder the purchace of a midi splitter and/or merger. Quality ones aren´t cheap but you also need to considder the hours and the frustration you might otherwise expend.

It may seem strange but one of my most valued tools when trying to solve matters like this is long evening walks. It´s not much but those are my strategies.

[zynthetix]

It reads as if you have this pretty well thought out. I'd try what you've said. Connect the FCB 1010 into one of the tascam MIDI IN ports. You can set up a track on cubase to receive the program changes on the correct channel and port, record them, and route them out to any channel of any port (a port on your creative card for example).

As an alternative, you could output the MIDI data via cubase to the MIDI OUT port 2 on your tascam device, connect your VGA7 to that, and use the MIDI ports on your creative card for the syncing purposes you mentioned earlier. Using the MIDI thru on your VGA7 sounds like the least hassle way of distributing verbatim MIDI data to another peice of gear, but the program changes will also be sent to the device (if you want that).

Let us know if these ideas work. I use SX, not SL, but I am under the assumption that SL is a version that merely limits the number of tracks you can use, so MIDI device set-up should be the same.

In regard to brain frying studio wiring, whenever some new gear is required and a complex studio set up needs to be re-wired accordingly, I find the best tools to be a penicl and paper. It might sound lame, but it helps me to physically draw how everything will be routed and add channel/port numbers to the diagram. Its a fail-safe way of checking myself to make sure I'm not missing anything when I wire it all up.

[diskonext]

I have no idea how well you can monitor/filter/rewrite MIDI in Cubase, but there are two programs I can't do without:

MIDI Yoke and MIDI-OX (both found at http://www.midiox.com). PC only, but for you that's okay.

They offer virtual MIDI-ports on your system and a way of monitoring/routing/rewriting MIDI-streams. Great for debugging your gear and setting up complicated or simple routings.

And it's free!

-diskonext

[merman_93]

I'd like to thank everybody for the replies!

I'm up for a long walk,.. and then I'm grabbing a pencil and paper, and getting right on the issue.

If I'm not satisfied with the results, I'm thinking about throwing some more money at Steinberg for the Midex8, or Edirol for their 8x8 unit. I understand that they are both well respected units, and utilize seperate strategies for "quick" midi exchanges. But where is the challenge in that?

Again, Thanks for the support.