MIDI Set-Up and Sound Assignment Help?

[KBoy420]

Hey All -

Just getting back into fooling around. Used Cakewalk probably 15 years ago and haven't touched it since. Just found it is free and downloaded it. I have an Alesis QS 8.1 synth that I have hooked up thru a MIDIMAN 1x1 USB controller. After some driver headaches, I was able to get Cakewalk to recognize it in settings on Windows 10. Still trying to figure things out, but am stuck on MIDI instrument assignments. So far, I can only get a grand piano sound - even when opening generic MIDI files with multiple tracks, all tracks play on grand piano.

I have the studio instruments plugin installed, and watched several videos on how to "drag" over instruments to your MIDI tracks. However, I have none of the instrument options, even though I have installed the plugin. 

I seem to remember form years ago always having to tell the DAWs specifically which synth you were connected to and installing bank profiles. I'm not sure if that is what needs to be done here, or how exactly to do it. I figured I could just use a general MIDI bank that would give me different instruments (realizing I wouldn't be able to use my onboard synth instruments). 

Am I making any sense? Can anyone point me to some resources or tutorials or getting my synth set up and recognized correctly? 

[Byron Dickens]

 

Only disagreement I have is that if you don't have an audio interface that supports ASIO, you need to get one. Stay away from ASIO4ALL. It tends to be problematic.

I would also stay away from hardware instruments and stay with software until you get a solid handle on the basics first.

Edited September 28, 2021 by bdickens

[KBoy420]

Appreciate the tips and that video. I think I have it (somewhat resolved). Seems the issue I was running into was using the MIDI keyboard also as the output. When I set the MIDI keyboard as my input but use my PC audio for the output, it seems to work fine. I can record into an instrument track with my MIDI keyboard and then change the sound of the instrument using the included Studio Instruments. I guess I was stuck thinking I had to also output to the keyboard, but outputting to the PC basically just uses the keyboard as an input. The whole VST thing seems to be newer tech that I didn't keep up on that seems to allow more flexibility than the traditional MIDI bank packs that needed to be installed with Cakewalk. Other thing I found interesting was that a drum kit can be loaded as an instrument onto any MIDI channel. Seemed to remember that percussion had to be track 10 for general MIDI to sound like percussion instruments rather than musical notes. My best bet is to probably just forget what I remember and try to learn new with these videos. Either way I can get notes recorded in and played back. Now I just need to learn the interface and mess around.  Thanks!