[Solved] Oxygen 61 MkIV - no sound in soft-synths

[Jeremy Oakes]

Hello,

I have this M-Audio keyboard that used to work fine in Sonar and in Cakewalk. I play it through a soft synth. After not using it for a a month or so I fired it up in a project and I can't get any sound through Dimension Pro.

Here's what I've done to trouble shoot :

* Updates : both  W10 Pro and Cakewalk are fully updated. The unit has the latest firmware  - there are no drivers for it - its class compliant

* Opened up the stand-alone version of Dim Pro (and also Rapture ) and lo and behold I can get sound, so the keyboard is sending a signal. I also checked with Midi Ox.

* Checked the I/O routing : Midi track input (Oxygen Omni, I, 2, etc I've tried them all) sending via the Dim Pro Stereo output. Audio track has the Primary Stereo out of Dim Pro selected as in , output going to master (I've tried different sound device outputs, to no avail. Input Echo is on.

* Tried using other soft synths (eg : Lounge Lizzard - stand alone works fine, VST in Cakewalk does not.

* Moved all the sliders, nobs, pads etc one by one, no luck.

* Searched on the old Sonar website and this one for inspiration, no luck.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong ? Its certainly user error, as the thing plays in stand alone's, so what am I missing ?

All the best,

J

Edited November 14, 2019 by Jeremy Oakes
Solved

[Promidi]

As a test, If you create a single MIDI track.  Set the M-Audio keyboard as it's input. set to OMNI. Do you see the MIDI meter activity for that track when you press keys?

[Jeremy Oakes]

7 minutes ago, Promidi said:

As a test, If you create a single MIDI track.  Set the M-Audio keyboard as it's input. set to OMNI. Do you see the MIDI meter activity for that track when you press keys?

Thanks for the test, but nope, nothing ! 
J
 

[Promidi]

This is getting a little strange.

I'm assuming that for the MIDI track test you had input echo on (as you also mention that in your original post)

Is the M-Audio keyboard on a hub? (connect directly to PC if so).  Maybe try an alternative USB port.

I have also assumed you have tried power cycling all devices - making sure the M-Audio keyboard is powered on before the PC

[Jeremy Oakes]

Many thanks for your suggestions, tried and tested but no luck.

one thing i am getting now is an error box when opening a Dim Pro stand alone :

Box is called “ midilnOpen[] ” with a message “error opening midi device”, I then select Oxygen 61 and it plays fine

Thanks,

J

[Robert Bone]

I had an issue with a midi controller, where it worked like a champ outside of Cakewalk, and had worked fine IN Cakewalk, but it began looking inert one morning, and I thought maybe its midi port had been moved, but since I had it plugged into my computer's front panel, I could see that it had not moved.

Turned out that a friend of mine had unplugged my audio interface, and had plugged it back into a different port, and moving THAT device somehow resulted in a reshuffling of ports and devices in Windows, and that confused Cakewalk.

The fix for me, was to remove the midi controller as a midi input device in Preferences, then click Apply, then save the project, open it again, and then add the midi controller back in as a midi input device, and THEN it started working.  I had to go through this for every project I opened.  QUITE the pain.

So - maybe worth a quick try - so recapping:

1) Open a project where your controller isn't working

2) Go into CbB preferences and remove your midi controller from an input midi device, and I suppose midi output device as well

3) Click apply

4) Save the project and exit

5) Open the project again

6) Add the midi controller again, in Preferences, as a valid midi input and midi output device.

7) Click Apply and save project - see if that worked.  

Anyways, the above steps fixed my issues, which seem similar - controller quitting working in CbB but working fine elsewhere in other apps.

Bob Bone

 

[Jeremy Oakes]

On 11/12/2019 at 7:53 PM, Robert Bone said:

I had an issue with a midi controller, where it worked like a champ outside of Cakewalk, and had worked fine IN Cakewalk, but it began looking inert one morning, and I thought maybe its midi port had been moved, but since I had it plugged into my computer's front panel, I could see that it had not moved.

Turned out that a friend of mine had unplugged my audio interface, and had plugged it back into a different port, and moving THAT device somehow resulted in a reshuffling of ports and devices in Windows, and that confused Cakewalk.

The fix for me, was to remove the midi controller as a midi input device in Preferences, then click Apply, then save the project, open it again, and then add the midi controller back in as a midi input device, and THEN it started working.  I had to go through this for every project I opened.  QUITE the pain.

So - maybe worth a quick try - so recapping:

1) Open a project where your controller isn't working

2) Go into CbB preferences and remove your midi controller from an input midi device, and I suppose midi output device as well

3) Click apply

4) Save the project and exit

5) Open the project again

6) Add the midi controller again, in Preferences, as a valid midi input and midi output device.

7) Click Apply and save project - see if that worked.  

Anyways, the above steps fixed my issues, which seem similar - controller quitting working in CbB but working fine elsewhere in other apps.

Bob Bone

 

Well this worked for me - many thanks for the tip Bob.  
I also deleted some of the ghosted USB ports mentioning devices no longer in use. Whether that also helped is a moot point.

So like you Bob, i’ll do that now for each project ......’..

Best,

J

Edited November 14, 2019 by Jeremy Oakes

[Robert Bone]

11 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

Well this worked for me - many thanks for the tip Bob.  
I also deleted some of the ghosted USB ports mentioning devices no longer in use. Whether that also helped is a moot point.

So like you Bob, i’ll do that now for each project ......’..

Best,

J

SUPER good news you are back in business - wish there was some kind of way to tell Cakewalk to do this ONCE, rather than having to do it for each project. 

Bob Bone

[user 905133]

11 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

I also deleted some of the ghosted USB ports mentioning devices no longer in use. Whether that also helped is a moot point.

This is great to know! Based on Bob's experiences as reported over the past few months here and now your experience, it sounds like an excellent habit to develop.

Edited November 14, 2019 by User 905133

[Robert Bone]

19 hours ago, User 905133 said:

This is great to know! Based on Bob's experiences as reported over the past few months here and now your experience, it sounds like an excellent habit to develop.

My best advice is to try to leave all things USB plugged into the very first port you ever plugged them into, so that these issues don't even crop up.  It is one GIANT pain in the rear to have to go through all of that in the first place, so leaving things plugged into the same ports is the easiest path to avoiding the issues.

I literally took a picture of the back of my computer, and then edited it to add text labels with arrows, pointing to each USB port and named each device so if I ever had to unplug and reconnect the USB devices, I could hopefully get them back into the same ports.

Bob Bone

[Jeremy Oakes]

On 11/15/2019 at 6:12 PM, Robert Bone said:

My best advice is to try to leave all things USB plugged into the very first port you ever plugged them into, so that these issues don't even crop up.  It is one GIANT pain in the rear to have to go through all of that in the first place, so leaving things plugged into the same ports is the easiest path to avoiding the issues.

I literally took a picture of the back of my computer, and then edited it to add text labels with arrows, pointing to each USB port and named each device so if I ever had to unplug and reconnect the USB devices, I could hopefully get them back into the same ports.

Bob Bone

Yes, this is almost what i do - i make a sketch. 

J