Cubase not recording midi note off

Hi all
I have Cubase Elements latest 8.0.10 under Win7 64bit and a problem recording input from a keyboard via midi-USB adapter. This happens randomly with single notes or combinations/chords. About half of the notes played do not record a midi OFF, and continue ON to end of recording. Pressing the same key just adds a further midi note on, and again randomly, a note off. It does not appear to be any particular note. The actual instument sound/audio out (e.g. whilst recording), turns off fine, whatever VST instrument is being used, including 3rd party plugins (eg Native Instruments).

Do you have any suggestions please? Ive tried changing all the midi default settings and nothing has any effect on this problem. I’m assuming the keyboard is sending correct note off. Can I examine the midi instruction list produced to see what is being recorded?

How is it that the instrument performs fine whilst Cubase randomly records no note off?
It’s unusable to record any midi unless I find out what’s causing it.
Has anyone else had this and solved it please?

thank you

First I’d open the Midi Monitor ( Midi Inserts) and see what’s going on ( and off).
Do you have a midi feedback loop happening? If you are using one of those adapters with the 2 midi plugs, see what happens if you unplug the one to the “midi IN” port.
Or “disable midi through active” in prefs

Hi,

@Philskeys, Cubase Elements doesn’t contain MIDI Inserts, unfortunately. But it would be great to have this information from the MIDI Monitor, I agree.

@LowTech: Upgrade to the latest Cubase Elements 8.0.20, please. Would be great, of you could use any MIDI Monitor application to test, if the MIDI Note Off message comes to the computer. I’m using MIDI Monitor.app for Mac OS X or MIDI-OX for Windows.

Thank you
Philskeys - apparently I dont have a midi monitor panel in Elements (odd?)( thank you Martin, and have upgraded now).
I dont think there’s a loop. I’m not using keyboard IN (not required) only OUT to IN of USB adapter. It’s a Roland keyboard I’m using for input only.

I tried with midi thro off, but then the plugin (eg Halion) doesnt get any signal, so playing is silenced - is this right?
Anyway it made no difference to not turning off all recorded notes - and it appears random to me. Have I set it all up right?

I’ll get midi-ox and try it out if possible but may need help.

Interesting that any instrument as a VST plugin always turns off note correctly - it’s only the recorded part that doesnt.

BUT I have a similar problem (but less often i.e. with fewer notes staying on) with NI Reactor used as standalone synth program. Within Cubase as a plugin it works fine.

thanks both,
lowtech (uk time)

Hi,

If you have this problem also with the standalone Reaktor, then it’s not a Cunase issue. Rather a Keyboard issue or a general system issue. MIDI loop doesn’t help so much, because again, we don’t know, if it’s on input (I would say so), or in Cubase itself.

Some MIDI Monitor is needed, here.

OK - now I might be getting somewhere - thanks for the suggestions.
MidiOx shows whats happening.

With default Roland keyboard setup, (i.e. just turn on and use it) it’s sending a midi note on on channel 4 and, when note is turned off correctly, it’s sending a midi note off on channel 4 also.

However when it ‘fails’ it’s sending the midi note off on channel 1 instead. This is more likely to happen if the note is pressed momentarily. So if the key is held down a short while, it is likely to send note off on channel 4 & hence work correctly.

If I operate the sustain footswitch the midi command is sent on Ch.4.
If I release the footswitch the midi sustain off command is sent on Ch. 4 again
BUT if I just jab the footswitch quickly the release command is sent on chan. 1, like the ‘faulty’ midi off, with unpredictable result (not Sustain off).

More info:

If I use ‘split keyboard’ mode, the upper keys behave just as above, and the lower keys send Note On on channels 2 and 3, and correspondinhg Note Off commands on the same two channels - which work fine except that I get 2 instances of the note played - one for each channel (which could be two different instruments).

Are there any Midi experts who can see whats happening here please?
Do I need to modify the keyboard midi out characteristics, or do I need to modify my use of midi input to cubase elements?

The problem seems to be the erratic nature of the midi on/off (on ch 4) - which should not happen. Could it be the Midi-to-USB device causing this?

thanks,

(info - Roland e15 chan. in/out functions: 1=note to arr. basic midi channel; 2=man bass; 3=Lower kb; 4=Upper 1; 5=accomp 1; 6=accomp 2; 7=accomp 3; 8=acc. bass; 9=rx only; 10=man drums; 11=soundfx.)

Hi,

Common way is, that the MIDI Keyboard sends all data on the MIDI Channel 1. There are use-case, when it makes sense to send MIDI data on different MIDI Channel, but I think it’s not necessary in your case.

Cubase can handle with it anyway. If you set specific MIDI Channel in your MIDI/Instrument track, all data are transfered (forced) to this MIDI Channel. If you set MIDI Channel to “Any”, then Cubase sends data on the exact MIDI Channel, which is written in the track (your case MIDI Channel 4).

In any case, Roland has to send MIDI Note Off by using exactly the same channel, where the MIDI Note On was sent. If not, Cubase (or another MIDI Device) would not to switch the Note Off (it’s just another message).

So I would recommend to setup your Roland to the common settings, to send all MIDI data on MIDI Channel 1 only. There is maybe something like factory settings. It is definitely very strange, there is different Channel, depending on the MIDI Note length.

This keyboard comes with default channel settings for its various note and arranger outputs. The individual channel settings are all programmable at the keyboard. For the moment I’m going to set the standard outputs to chan 1 every time I power it up. This means Cubase picks up all the notes OFF on the same channel.

There is no need for me to use ‘split keyboard’ at present but even that can be changed to use a different known channel.

I think there may be a fault with either the keyboard or the MIDI-USB serial convertor. The behaviour of the Sustain is still odd :confused: . It occasionally decides to play an E4 instead of a Sustain OFF. Sometimes it plays the same note on Sus ON. This again only appears to happen if the SUS is momentary. I’ll use with caution…

Thanks for the help. Using MIDI-OX certainly helps to work out what’s being sent; and what would be required as a keyboard programming command. Perhaps later I can work out how Cubase can send a midi string (as a macro?) to the keyboard to set it up as required from a saved basic blank project? Ideas on this would be be welcome…

Meanwhile, thanks for the help to get me recording. :smiley:

Colin

Hi,

I would expect this more on the Keyboard side, not in the MIDI-USB convertor.

I was also thinking to use Global MIDI Transformer to change all incomming MIDI data to the Channel 1. But this wouldn’t fix the Sustain issue. Would be great to have an option to try another MIDI Keyboard.