MIDI Input doesn't work now

I’ve done a search through the forum, and I can’t find anything that answers this, so forgive me if I’ve missed it.

I just upgraded my computer from a 2012 iMac to a brand new one, and I can’t get Dorico to accept note input (Write mode) from my Yamaha DX7. It worked fine on my old computer.

I bought a new MIDI interface, thinking my old one (an ancient MOTU Fast Lane) was the problem, but that doesn’t work either.

When I got to Preferences:Play, everything looks fine: Accept MIDI input is checked, and my new MIDI interface (mioXC) is present and checked.

I’ve tried restarting everything numerous times, and no luck.

Does anyone have anything else I can try?

Thanks,

Lew Buckley

Have you ascertained whether the computer itself is receiving MIDI input from the DX7, either in other software (notation software other than Dorico, or a DAW), or from System Preferences > Audio MIDI Setup > MIDI Studio > Test Setup?

If it’s working correctly you should see the MIDI controller highlighted blue and you should see the up arrow pulsing light blue as you tap keys on the keyboard.

OK, that appears to be the problem; the up arrow isn’t responding. That makes me wonder if something’s wrong with the MIDI Out connection on the Yamaha DX7. However, it would be a heck of a coincidence, given that it was working fine on the older computer.

Any ideas about that? (I recognize that’s not a Dorico issue, it’s a Mac/Yamaha one.)

Thanks, as always.

Lew

I’m not familiar with mioXC, but is it possible you’ve got the In connected to the In and the Out connected to the Out when you actually need to connect the Out to the In and the In to the Out (or vice-versa)? I’ve definitely been discombobulated by that with MIDI interfaces. Switch everything off after (or even before) you swap the cables - MIDI’s not necessarily plug’n’play.

I don’t think that can be it; the MIDI interface just consists of a MIDI plug on one end for the Yamaha and a USB plug on the other end for the Mac.

And on the older interface, which worked fine on the other computer, I didn’t even unplug the MIDI cables — I just took the USB end out of the old Mac and plugged it into the new one.

It does occur to me that I could drag the old Mac out of the closet and see if the MIDI input is still working on that one.

Re: the older interface, it’s possible you didn’t install the relevant driver for Catalina/Big Sur/whatever it is that the new computer is running.

Re: the mioXC, my cursory Googling indicates it has a MIDI In cable and a MIDI Out cable (and a USB cable). It’s entirely possible to perform MIDI input in Dorico with only one of the MIDI cables connected, but it may be that at the moment the MIDI cable that’s connected to the DX7 is the wrong MIDI cable, or even that the correct MIDI cable is connected to the wrong MIDI port on the DX7.

It’s entirely possible that any or all of my suppositions are incorrect :wink:

Yes, you’re right, Leo, about the midi in and out cables on the mioXC; I’ve tried every possible combination of the two cables on the DX7, but none of them passes a MIDI signal through to either my new Mac or (I dragged it out of the closet) my old one.

I forgot to tell you that the Fast Lane software is unavailable for current (or even recent) versions of the Mac OS, so that isn’t the answer.

I guess I’ll just google everything I can possibly think of for a while and see if I can solve it.

As always, I appreciate your taking a look at it for me.

Lew

[Solved] Thanks very much, Leo. I feel more than a little foolish at this point, because now, rather than neither MIDI interface working, they both work.

It turned out that MOTU did in fact have software that was workable with Mac OS Catalina; it was just in a different place from their other downloads (I didn’t figure out why.)

And I found a User Guide online for the mioXC that wasn’t in the box. Although the box said “Just Plug 'n Play”, the manual said things had to be hooked up in a particular order. Once I did that, everything worked.

So, sorry to have wasted your time.

But thanks for your help.

Lew

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