cubase 6 midi help with two hardware synths

Cubase
1

hi

i have a DSI mono evolver keyboard and a nord rack 2x. my interface is a focusrite safire pro 24. i would like the evolver keyboard to trigger the nord as well as any vst synths. current it is setup like this:

evolver out > nord in
nord out > safire in
safire out > evolver in

it plays the nord but cubase isn’t receiving midi from the nord or sending midi to the evolver. i am a bit stuck here, is this possible?>

thanks

2

I don’t know the nord, but in the MIDI configuration menus, does it have a thru mode or a local ON/OFF mode?

3

Evolver out > Saffire in (think “all keyboards lead to Cubase”)
Saffire out > Evolver in (Nord does not have a MIDI Thru port, Evolver does)
Evolver thru > Nord in (let Evolver’s hardware MIDI Thru port forward all MIDI Events to Nord)

  • Make sure you turn MIDI Local Off (Evolver). This will prevent the Evolver keyboard from sending MIDI data internally to its synthesizer engine, which will prevent you from playing the Evolver without Cubase on, however MIDI Local can be switched On/Off at any time.

  • Make sure that MIDI Thru (Evolver) is not set to some quirky mode.

  • The MIDI thru ports are generally hardware, with a software switch on/off, which is why I would elect to connect your devices this way. (This is versus having a device having to “replicate” the MIDI data in software.)

So think of Cubase as being your MIDI router… you play the Evolver keyboard which it sends to Cubase, which in turn monitor/process them and then sends the MIDI Events to the currently selected Track.

Now all you have to do is choose MIDI Channels for the Cubase Tracks and onboard the two MIDI Devices, and they will receive the MIDI as you want.

Remember that each MIDI cable is like a water hose, but with 16 smaller hoses inside it, that each is a MIDI Channel. Each device on a MIDI cable chain can listen to one or more channels (usually configurable).

4

For these situations, it´s great to use MIDI > USB devices. You can use up to 8 MIDI Ports by one USB. You can connect output of any device to input of this MIDI > USB. Your devices are separated by this.

5

that works! awesome, thank you!