Help needed please with MIR for the first time using Cubase 5

[Steve Martin]

Hi to the forum,

well, I have got MIR up and going. I can load and instrument and play it through my midi keyboard, and try things out which is great.

I read the part of the manual to do with having the DAW and MIR conncecting through loopb30, which I am using. I have all of the correct midi channels needed in MIR and Cubase - I am using Jay's Mozart's 40th MIR/Cubase file for a starter.

MIR is using my maudiophile asio driver, and Cubase is using the soundcard that came with the computer [I have 2 soundcards in the computer - the maudiophile one and the other one I mentioned].

I am not having any luck somehow getting MIR and Cubase to connect together even though I am using the loop software - I know it's something I am doing wrong, but I am not quite sure what it is that I am doing wrong. I took a stack of screenshots but I have no idea how to post these on the forum.

I am using Windows 7 64 bit, i7 processor, and 12 gigs of ram, so I am having no problem with the Mozart MIR file loading up the samples.

I am feeling a bit lost here. If anyone has some advice, I would be glad. First, it's not the software - as I said, it's something that I am not doing right, and I am not sure what it is!

thanks and best,

Steve.

[Dietz]

Hi Steve,

just to avoid misunderstandings: LoopBe takes care for the MIDI connection (... this channels the note-on / note off and control data from Cubase into MIR). Audio connections are something else; LoopB has nothing to do with audio.

In your case, the most simple audio connection from MIR back into Cubase is explained on p. 79 of the MIR Manual - Chapter D 2.2.3:

"Using multiple individual audio interfaces for Vienna MIR and a MIDI sequencer / DAW / notation program"

Or is it the MIDI-connection that gives you troubles ...? In that case, please take a look in the manual on p. 76, Chapter D 2.1.2:

"Typical Setup 2 – Vienna MIR side-by-side with a MIDI sequencer / DAW / notation program on the same machine:

[...] Virtual internal MIDI connection: MIDI is “just” another data transfer protocol, which is why its data can be interchanged between applications without any dedicated hardware involved. Several “virtual MIDI cables” or MIDI loopback utilities are available. [....]"

... here you should find all advice you need for a fully functioning setup.

Is this the kind of info you were looking for?

Kind regards,

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz,

thanks so much for your reply. I do appreciate your advice and help here that you are giving me so I will try to give as much detail as to what I am doing so that maybe you can see something that I am missing, so please excuse the length of this reply - If I give you all the details, you may be able to see something that I am not doing correctly here.

First, I will look again into the manual - and page 79.

When the manual says

"To make this setup work properly, you have to make sure that MIR and the second application don’t try to access the same audio
channels at the same time, which would lead to a number of problems, like audio drop-outs, crackling noise, and so on.
Open MIR’s Audio Settings window (Options > Audio Settings > Audio Routing
Tab) and make sure that you assign just as many outputs as you need for your
mixdown; the number of outputs can be set in pairs of two in the box above the
routing window. Now select the physical outputs."

Well, first I am not really sure how many outputs I need for the mixdown. And I also don't know how to find out how many outputs I need. I am also wondering if I have a suitable soundcard. Maybe this is what the problem is? I have an M-Audiophile 2496, and according the the website it is a 4 in/4 out audio card [I just looked up the name on their website and that description of 4 in 4 out was with the name - so I am hoping that the soundcard is suitable].

So, is the soundcard suitable, or do I need another one?

Well, anyway, I opened MIR and made sure my maudio soundcard asio driver was being used by MIR, and Cubase I set to my soundcard that came with the computer.

OK, I'm loading the MIR Mozart project up now with my pc to try again.It's loaded and its Maudio as the asio driver, but when I go "output bus and device port" under the "Audio rounting". It has 8 channels set, but only 4 devices connected.

The first two are analog out 1/2 L Delta-AP, and the 2nd and 3rd read SPDIF out L Delta-AP, and SPDIF out R Delta-AP. 5-8 reads as not connected. When I click on those to connect them, I only get the same choice as what I had used for the first 4 ones.

So, I've now started up the Mozart in Cubase and it gives me the message that the ports are unmapped, and there is 3 of them, so I map them to the internal midi ports [which I believe is the loopb30 working here]. The soundcard for cubase is the Asio Direct X full duplex driver.

I start the file playing in cubase, and still no sound from MIR yet. I check one of the string instruments by playing it's keyboard, and I get sounds, so the audio card is working for MIR.

I turned the midi internal just to 3 midi devices in MIR [I had it set as 9 when I configured setting up Loopb30], as there was only 3 going out from the Cubase project.

So, I am thinking that this is where the problem is one of my settings in cubase for midi is maybe not correct possibly? If there is sound coming out of MIR when I play one of the keyboards on the violins, this may mean that it could be that my midi set up from cubase is wrong, as it should be sending the midi information to the instruments in MIR, but there is nothing happening.

Well, thanks again for your help Dietz. I will keep trying and hopefully find out what is not working here.

best,

Steve[:)]

[Dietz]

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz,

yes, It looks to me as the problem is my midi connection, and I now realize that I have to hook up every individual midi track to the one in MIR.

Well, the first thing that comes up though, when I open up the file in cubase, is this message saying missing ports. There is three of them,

I just connect up 1-3 of the internal midi channels. [I hope that is correct].

Well, I have set up MIR with the Mozart file, and now I go to the first midi track in Cubase which is the flute part, and put the track to the output to Internal Midi 1 and the channel set to 1.

I now go to MIR and go to the flute instrument and in the left hand upper corner of the Vienna Instrument, which reads as midi in, I open it, but the problem is that it reads: 12.Internal MIDI.  The channel window besides this is set to number 1.

There is still no sound or indication that the midi information is coming through cubase

But I thought it would read Internal MIDI 1,  but it doesn't.

All of the channels to pick from are

12.Internal MIDI.

32.Internal MIDI.

54.Internal MIDI.

and so on.

But, I got a sound out of the flute in MIR while playing the midi file in  Cubase ,and it was after I did a setting on the flute to omni so that maybe that's the direction I need to head in. I will get back to you again.

thanks again for your help,

 best,

Steve.

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz again,

Something unusual happened, as now the channels in MIR are reading:

11.Internal MIDI.

22.Internal MIDI.

33.Internal MIDI.

I don't know how it happened, but it has, so I will see how I now go with this.

Thanks,

Steve.

[Steve Martin]

Hi again Dietz,

it looks like I have got some of the tracks going. I set the tracks in cubase to an internal midi selection, and a channel for out, but what I did was select omni for the channels in two of the instruments in MIR, and I have got midi Cubase sending, and MIR receiving midi.

I will see if I can do this for all of the rest of the tracks now.

thanks,

Steve[:)]

[Dietz]

Steve, you have to be aware of the fact that as soon as you set an instrument to receive on all channels ("Omni"), it will react to _any_ incoming MIDI command on that port. This is most likely not what you want (except you want your bass tuba player doing the same as the piccolo flute). 8-)

Kind regards,

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz,

thank you for giving me that information.  I have really appreciated  your helpful comments and guidance here.

Thanks again, and best regards,

Steve[:D]

[Dietz]

You're welcome! 

Don't despair, all this looks much more complicated than it is. As soon as you got over a few basic hurdles, you will ask yourself where the problem was. ;-)

Kind regards,

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz,

great news, I got MIR and Cubase working together!

Each midi channel is playing back from the right midi channel in Cubase to the correct channel in MIR SE.

Well ,I just thought I would let you know. I am really happy that I got it going. Fantastic!

best,

Steve.[:D]

[Dietz]

Great! That's good news. I hope you will enjoy you new virtual Venues.

... would you mind to tell us in a sentence or two what the solution was?

All the best,

[Steve Martin]

Hi Dietz,

I will have to double check something first, and then I will get back to you with this, and double check if this was the problem.

Thanks and best,

Steve[:)]