Trouble with onboard hardware synth sounds via USB MIDI

[KyRo]

Alright, guys, I've been wracking my brain over this all evening and I'm fried...

All I want to do is use my old Yamaha MOX6 synthesizer to record its onboard sounds via USB MIDI. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, for some (hopefully obvious) reason, it's just not working out for me.

The issues I'm running into are either no sound, even with the MIDI signal showing on the MIDI track meter, or distortion when running out from the keyboard's TS or headphone outs to my speakers.

I had it working right in years past, but now it's just eluding me and I can't remember how I did it before. (I used to be able to record the audio signal over USB at the same time as the MIDI too, but can't figure that one out again either.)

I followed the instructions in both the keyboard's manual and my old Sonar Power book, but no dice... And I've searched around for others experiencing similar issues, but seemingly all of them revolve around using soft synths, not hardware synth built-in sounds (which, yes, I totally get the merit of soft synths, but I want to use this thing's onboard voices).

Can someone please just tell me the right way I ought to have this hooked up, what kinds of tracks I should be using (MIDI and audio or just MIDI?), and any other settings I need to make sure are set? (Yes, I had input echo on in CW and local control off on the keyboard.)

I'm starting to feel like a dog chasing its own tail here...

Thanks for any help!

PS: My audio interface is just a Roland Rubix 24.

[rsinger]

Do you have the Yamaha audio driver installed? Are you using that? Is it ASIO? If it is ASIO you can't use the Yamaha ASIO driver and another ASIO driver at the same time.

[KyRo]

Thanks for the suggestion, rsinger.

But I think I figured out at least part of the problem. It seems that some of the circuitry of the keyboard may be faulty, as the signal from the headphone jack is distorted as well. So it would seem that my main problem is hardware-based, not software.

I'm trying to decide what to do, as it's an older keyboard and I don't know if it's worth paying to get it fixed or just use it as a MIDI controller for soft synths, whose sounds are likely better quality anyway...

[David Baay]

"Exercising" analog volume knob(s)/fader(s) on the keyboard while playing back some dense, sustained MIDI chords so there's a strong signal level might help clean up the ozidized contacts which can cause distortion in neglected hardware.

If you can get the distortion issue resolved, standard operating procedure for using a keyboard synth with any DAW is to route its audio outputs into your audio interface and set up an audio track to echo it out to your monitors. Then disable Local Control so the onboard sound module doesn't respond directly to its keyboard (or pedal input), but only to MIDI echoed from the keyboard through a MIDI track in CbB and back to the keyboard synth. Basically you're treating the keyboard synth as a separate controller keyboard and sound module.

[KyRo]

Thanks for the rundown on the hookups and the suggestion about the faders, David. I went up and down on the master volume for about 5 minutes straight while holding down various organ chords, but there didn't seem to be any change. The synth had been sitting for 6 years or so without use, so if neglect can be the cause of these kinds of things, I can definitely see that being the case here.

I've read others' experience with this same issue and might look into changing out some of the board's capacitors to try to get it back to normal working order.

Edited January 2 by KyRo

[David Baay]

10 hours ago, KyRo said:

capacitors

Yeah, that's a good bet. Also along the lines of connections getting oxidized, you may find some ribbon cables inside that should be unplugged/re-plugged.