Virtual midi port output to external device/ program?

I don’t know if it’s dementia, brain rust,something wrong with my setup or that Cubase is incapable of midi output to an external program in windows…

I want to sent mid out to a standalone program from Cubase Pro 8 using a virtual midi port, i.e., loopMIDI.

I select the port and channel in the Output Routing of the inspector of a midi track. I select that same port and channel as input on the standalone program. There doesn’t seem to be any midi sent out.

When I do the same thing using my controller or Reaper to send midi to the standalone program using exactly the same port and channel, everything works as expected … so I know it’s not a problem with the standalone program not properly accepting the midi input.

However, when using a MIDEX 8 midi patch bay to send to hardware, the same midi out works fine with the MIDEX p;ort/ channel routed to the synth.

Is there some limitation in Cubase that prevents it from sending output from a virtual midi cable to a destination outside the program?

If so, any work arounds?

Thanks.

Como