Good MIDI from Keyboard to Cubase, but not to instruments

HI,
Recently updated to CB12, and a new CPU chip.
Running a Panorama P6.
Anything I touch on the P6, I see MIDI activity on the transport, but nothing on the instruments. (Opus, Halion, etc.) Everything works fine using standalone VSTs outside of Cubase.
Instruments are set to All MIDI Inputs.

I’m stumped.

Hi,

Are you talking about the MIDI keyboard or the controllers? Do you use MIDI Remote out Panorama Remote Device?

It quite queer.
Everything on the P6 is triggering MIDI per the indicators in Cubase. Control knobs, pads, etc all work normally. But not the keys on the keyboard.
STOP THE PRESSES! The keys work only if the selected track is “Record Enabled”
Yes, I recently changed preferences to NOT Record Enable on Selection. I did this because having even one track enabled would max out ASIO for some reason.

Is this normal behavior that Record Enable must be “armed” for the MIDI controller to be able to “play” the instrument?
Seems to me this did not used to be the case.

This is the case for any track.
Cubase usually does not allow any inputs (MIDI or audio) to let their signals pass through to the playback engine. It is like a big door being shut. Record Enable or Monitoring opens that door, it lets you monitor the inputs.