playing midi keyboard into pc

[dominicwest]

I hope someone can suggest what I've done wrong. I finally got my system set up, could play from my midi keyboard into an armed track in Cakewalk to play a vst live and record the midi. All great for a few days. Now i can't, the pc still says a midi lead is connected ok, the light on the lead itself lights up, the stuff I have already recorded into Cakewalk still plays the vsts fine but playing on my midi keyboard no longer sounds on my pc. Now I can't play new stuff into vsts in Cakewalk or even play the standalone outside cakewalk. But when I play their virtual keyboards they sound fine. Any idea what the problem is?  

[tecknot]

Hi dominicwest,

At first it sounds as if perhaps you need to turn on Echo Input on your MIDI track.  But if it is not working with your stand alone session, maybe it's the VSTi itself or maybe your MIDI cable is faulty.  Does this happen with a specific plug-in or in general?  If it is a single plug-in, what is that plug-in?

Kind regards,

tecknot

[dominicwest]

21 minutes ago, tecknot said:

Hi dominicwest,

At first it sounds as if perhaps you need to turn on Echo Input on your MIDI track.  But if it is not working with your stand alone session, maybe it's the VSTi itself or maybe your MIDI cable is faulty.  Does this happen with a specific plug-in or in general?  If it is a single plug-in, what is that plug-in?

Kind regards,

tecknot

Thanks for your response tecknot, no vst can be played by external midi keyboard now within cakewalk and I have tried to play NI Absynth standing alone but that doesn#t work either. I have checked midi echo is on and in preferences that my usb midi lead is selected. My laptop says  "midi input output activity" in the bottom right hand corner where it says show hidden icons, so I guess youre right I will buy a new cable.

Thanks for trying

Dom

[tecknot]

Wait, if your PC acknowledges your MIDI connection, then it's not the cable.  I would try to install the latest driver available for your MIDI keyboard/controller.  Hopefully that fixes the problem.

Kind regards,

tecknot

[dominicwest]

do you know what lights should show when on a usb/ midi cable? My red "on" type light shows  as soon as I plug the usb into the laptop and the green "IN "  comes on and stays on as soon as I open cakewalk and turn on my midi keyboard. Should my "in" light be on when I am not holding any notes down on my keyboard?

[tecknot]

The light should stay on as long as MIDI info is being sent to your laptop.  If no MIDI activity is present, the light will stay off.

Kind regards,

tecknot

[John Vere]

Is you keyboard showing and checked in Preferences/ midi/ devices / input   I know you mentioned this but just double checking 

 

 

[dominicwest]

thanks both  for your advice so far. Latest update- my midi /usb lead was showing its lit up power button as soon as it was plugged into the turned on laptop, and as soon as i switched on my midi keyboard synth, the midi in light would come on and flicker very fast continuously even before i started playing. When it was like this it would work. then the midi in light on the lead went off, and everything worked as normal for maybe 30 seconds. During this time, midi in light only lit when I played a note. Then it went back to the continuous flicker' Decided to try another midi keyboard. With this keyboard the midi in light on the lead only lights when I play a note, but it still won't trigger a sound on the cakewalk vst.  I keep going back to preferences, and my midi usb lead is selected as an input and I am arming my vst track and input echo is on. So not sure what to try really. Or maybe the god of music is trying to tell me something!