I am evaluating Cubase Elements 7 (the trial version at this point), and it is being a little uncooperative. I need to get MIDI into it from various MIDI controllers, and everything is working fine for the most part. The one thing that I really need to be able to record and pass through to my VSTi’s is MIDI Program Change commands, and it just won’t do it for some reason. With a MIDI analyzer, I can see the Program Change commands come out (before entering Cubase), but then they don’t get passed through to the VSTi’s, nor will they get recorded.
The MIDI filters are set to pass everything except sysex. Everything MIDI is being recorded on the MIDI tracks, and passing through to the VSTi’s, except for Program Change commands. I need the Program Change commands to do their job as I change programs from my MIDI controllers.
(I don’t usually use Cubase Elements, but)…
I think you may have indeed discovered a bug. I tried recording some program changes, and, while I can see them as events in the Part in the Project window, when I open up the Key Editor, I can’t find them (and they don’t seem to transmit anything).
However, any program changes that I insert manually into the Key Editor, work just fine (if that is any help )
EDIT: (ymmv on this one)… I simply went into Preferences>MIDI>MIDI Filter>Record, and toggled the option “Program/Patch” a couple of times, and it now works ok on recording… go figure!
Unfortunately, Cubase 7 Elements doesn’t even have a List Editor (nor does it have any MIDI Insert FX, such as the MIDI Monitor, to help troubleshoot this very problem!)
@Glenzone,
Keep persevering with toggling that preference item (and hitting “Apply” after each time… maybe even closing then re-opening the Preferences window). It seems that the initial state of that preference is not properly instantiated, but should eventually be o.k., once it “kicks in”.
I did say, in my original reply, that it appeared to be a bug. I merely typed a method that eventually worked for me (because, initially, I had the same problem as yourself with it).
You could try deleting your Cubase 7 Elements Preferences Folder, so that it rebuilds from scratch next time… no guarantees though.
I’m wondering if I will able to do it in either Cubase Artist or Producer (or Elements, for that matter.)
If someone could please run this test, I would have my answer :
If you can send program change commands into Cubase (on multiple MIDI ports/channels simultaneously), and be able to change presets on a multi-timbral VSTi (meaning more than one MIDI channel at a time), and have it not only trigger those program changes, but also record them and be able to play them back, then I will be successful.
I will post this question to multiple forums in the hope of getting an answer from somewhere.
You didn’t mention this before… Are you sending into Cubase from multiple MIDI Input ports? … to a single multi-timbral VSTi? (on the same MIDI track, or several?)
Okay, so there’s one MIDI channel per MIDI port, which gives me the isolation I need. Otherwise, I ran into the issue of whatever came in, if it was on a single port, it affected all MIDI channels of the VSTi’s. They’re IAC virtual MIDI ports, and each MIDI channel\track has it’s own input port; 16 MIDI channels, 16 MIDI tracks, 16 voices of a multi-timbral VSTi.
The side benefit of this is that I have more bandwidth for controller information on that single channel, than if there were several MIDI channels with data moving through the same MIDI port.
Not if you transmitted on independent MIDI channels, and the MIDI track was set to “Any”.
Anyways… still working fine for me here (I set up, using Kontakt 5, with two Instrument Banks loaded, on chs #1 and #2 respectively, so that each Instrument Bank could respond independently to incoming Program Changes). I set up two MIDI tracks… track #1 receiving from my Elka MK88, and track #2 receiving from my Ensoniq SD1. I put both tracks into record, and sent Program Changes from each keyboard, manually. They both got recorded ok, and play back just fine… and the Instrument Banks in Kontakt 5 responded ok to the program changes.
This was indeed in Cubase Elements 7 !. 7.0.7.2277 (the latest). And I reloaded that test project into Cubase 7.5.10, and it is fine there too.
What more details do you require?
Using my Project, can you now record program changes into Cubase from your external MIDI devices (and into Kontakt 5, which is the multi-timbral instrument that is already loaded there)?
In other words, is this current problem, that you still cannot record program changes, or that you cannot get, specifically, VE Pro to respond to them (in which case there must be some issue with VE Pro… which I don’t have, so I can’t help you with that )?
Program changes come in, record and respond perfectly well, and they are properly sent to Kontakt. Being new to the (for me, anyway) new Cubase, I have some missing familiarity with the plumbing of audio and MIDI within. I just need some time to adapt and make observations. I think the thing I most need to clear up is the interactions\relationships between the MIDI\VST instrument\Audio tracks in both the mix console and the arrange views. With your project in its working form, I have what I need to make sense out of it all, and graft my changes onto it. A little replace here, a little new thing there, and the fog will roll away.
Bottom line : your project works, and that’s the important thing. I can now take the ball and run with it, knowing what to expect.
)
