Jump to content

Solved >> I'm having trouble with midi in CbB


Gswitz

Recommended Posts

I've been struggling for a time with Cakewalk by Bandlab midi.

All of the devices are in the midi list in Cakewalk and checked.

I have 2 RME Midi inputs and outputs and a Roland UM One.

Strangely, I can only get one to work at a time in CbB but in Mixbus 32c they all work at the same time.

Puzzle.

It's working properly in Sonar Platinum (just tested).

In trouble shooting this, I didn't immediately try another daw. I figured the RME was busted from hauling it all over town all the time. I even ordered a new RME Breakout Cable and then the UM One to try to make it so I could use my FCB 1010 and my GR20 together. I rolled back my rme drivers to prior versions. I messed with USB settings in Windows device manager. I tried resetting the config file to defaults in CbB.

Feeling kinda stupid now. 😞 

Could one of you good folks out there who uses multiple midi devices at once in CbB chime in and tell me it works wonderfully for you?

Based on this post...

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=138451#p138451

it looks like I had become frustrated enough to start spending money by October 11, 2018. Maybe it broke in the September release?

Edited by Gswitz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @Gswitz :)

I run with two OCTA-CAPTURE interfaces, a MOTU micro lite and a HX Effects box, all connected to my laptop via USB.

All appear in Cakewalk as MIDI devices and when checked/selected appear to be working fine in both Cakewalk and REAPER.

 

Good luck with sorting your stuff out.

cheers

andy

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @Gswitz,

Yeah, I have an Arturia Keystep which I can either connect to my DAW via USB or MIDI.

Then there is my OB-12 hardware synth.

I also have an Acorn Masterkey 49.

Trouble is, I'm having my own issues with synchronising stuff at the moment so I'm using step sequencer to create simple patterns so I can test things out, so I can't say whether or not they work with Cakewalk yet. They certainly worked okay with REAPER and Studio One.

cheers

andy

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This caught my eye "It's working properly in Sonar Platinum (just tested)." We were having completely different issues to you with projects becoming corrupt and missing audio error messages. Strangely all the project files which open with errors in CbB open perfectly in Sonar Platinum for us also, just like they do for you. You may have tried this but here goes.

Deselect all your midi devices from CbB in Midi preferences, close CbB, physically unplug all your midi devices from the PC, plug them back in and restart CbB, Add them back in by selecting them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This morning, I unchecked the devices and deleted the Control Surface reference (which was set to the inputs for the midi 1 track). I clicked Apply and Ok. I re-opened preferences and selected (checked) the midi devices. Apply > Ok. It was not working.

I closed and re-opened Cakewalk and it worked!! 🙂 

Yay!

I went back in added the AlphaTrack and assigned Midi1 to it and it still works fine.

All I can tell you is it was definitely messed up before. Seems fine now. There's a bug in there somewhere. 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know, I know... stop posting!

But I learned something! Ok > so earlier after I got it working I added my controller back. Later I unplugged my controller and all was well.

After a couple of restarts tho, midi channel 1 stopped working. It was assigned to the unplugged controller in preferences so I couldn't use it for something else. I think this is really the heart of my problem.

I use the controller. I get the controller working. I unplug the controller b/c I'm not using it but I don't remove it in preferences. Now midi channel 1 (never used for the controller) gets assigned to the controller and stops being available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been caught out a few times with the control surface plugin "stealing" my MIDI ports. This is especially true when my actual control surface isn't plugged in, so CbB chooses some other ports for it instead.

As a general rule, I make sure all my MIDI interfaces / control surfaces are switched on before I switch on my PC. This ensures that they are all picked up in the same order every time, and there's no weird re-ordering going on.

If you do get strange MIDI behaviour, checking which ports are selected within your Control Surface setup is always a good start.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Gswitz said:

And restart cakewalk after fixing it.

This whole troubleshoot had me running in all the wrong directions. I was considering buying a new interface to fix it! Not my best troubleshooting effort.

But if you did I could of got a good deal on yours on Ebay :)

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We use one of the old wireless Tranzport surface controllers in the studio. It often takes control of certain midis especially if the batteries in it run low but we just change them, reset it in the midi preferences for controllers and we are back working in a  minute. A great piece of gear that Tranzport, we couldn't do without it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @Gswitz :)

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of your problem 👍

Regarding the MIDI thing, it's a pity that Cakewalk doesn't handle the removing and adding of MIDI stuff in preferences. I messed up test project when I decided to test operation with just the one OCTA-CAPTURE, just in case linking the two together was causing my issues. It took me a bit of time to notice that Cakewalk had changed the input ports on any track that used #2 OCTA-CAPTURE to ports on the #1 OCTA-CAPTURE.

I think it would be nice if Cakewalk took a look at how REAPER handles Audio and MIDI devices. It works great for being able to add and remove controllers. I've not tried doing it while REAPER is open, as I developed the habit, forced on me by SONAR, of shutting down, plugging something in, and then started SONAR again before configuring the device in preferences.

I'm not saying that I want Cakewalk to be like REAPER, but in certain areas of the software I think that BandLab should take a good hard look at what it can do.

I think even Studio One handles the fact that some controller or device may no longer be present...

cheers

andy

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/9/2019 at 10:56 AM, Gswitz said:

I know, I know... stop posting!

But I learned something! Ok > so earlier after I got it working I added my controller back. Later I unplugged my controller and all was well.

After a couple of restarts tho, midi channel 1 stopped working. It was assigned to the unplugged controller in preferences so I couldn't use it for something else. I think this is really the heart of my problem.

I use the controller. I get the controller working. I unplug the controller b/c I'm not using it but I don't remove it in preferences. Now midi channel 1 (never used for the controller) gets assigned to the controller and stops being available.

@Gswitz Can you PM me a full description and recipe to reproduce this. Well look into it. Thanks!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...