Can I use the Oxygen 8 with Protools M-Powered 6.8?

[manoreza]

First I will layout my equipment specifications, then the problem:

Computer specifications:
Powerbook G4
Mac OS X 10.3.9. (Panther)
512 MB RAM
80 GIG HD

Pro Tools: Protools M-Powered 6.8

Interface: M-Audio Firewire Solo (with latest driver installed)

MIDI Controller: M-Audio Oxygen 8

The issue:

Basically I am using the Oxygen 8 as my MIDI controller on my DAW. The Oxygen 8 connects to the Powerbook via USB. My interface, the Firewire Solo, has no USB input, only guitar, mic and firewire. So I always use the Oxygen 8 via USB directly to the Powerbook (not through an interface). This works fine in Garageband. However, I can not set it up so that I can hear anything triggered by the controller in Pro Tools.

When in a new Pro Tools session, I create a new midi track. I am able to see the Oxygen 8 as a valid input source and I select it. For the "output" or slave designation, I also select the Oxygen 8 on the first channel (as the source for sounds to fire). I am able to actually record MIDI data on the track and I can see the levels moving as the sounds are played. Normally, in order to hear the MIDI sounds being triggered, I beleive you would simply create an Aux track and set the interface that the MIDI controller is going through as the input, and the standard audio output would be the output. But in my situation, I am not running my MIDI controller through an interface, but rather it is going directly into the mac via a USB port. So when I create the Aux track, I am not able to select the MIDI source as an input because only the interface ports are available as valid inputs to choose. So I can't hear my MIDI sounds in Pro Tools!!!

Now there must be away around this. Since Pro Tools recognizes and even records information from my MIDI device, there must also be a way for me to route this information to an audible output destination. Perhaps I have to use a plug in that will automatically route the midi information to an audible output? I don't know.

Help! There must be a way for me to hear my MIDI sounds in Pro Tools M-Powered.

[spkguitar]

Since the oxygen 8 has no sound producing capabilities, choosing it as the output is the wrong course of action. You need to choose a sound generation source for the MIDI to trigger, either hardware or software synth.

[manoreza]

That makes sense. I chose it because it was the only output available on the track. The software synth would have to be a plug in correct? I am not sure how to select a plug in of a "software synth" as the output of a MIDI track.

Suggestions?

[spkguitar]

It sounds like you may need to visit the softsynth tutorial on my webpage.

[manoreza]

Ok, I got it. My bad.

Thanks for answering and your patience spk!

I will spell this out for anyone else who is "confused". I forgot that M-Powered ships with free light versions of Reason and Live. Both of these programs provide virtual instruments that can be used as MIDI slaves via the Rewire functionality.

So here is what I did.

1. I created a MIDI track and and AUX track in Pro Tools
2. With Pro Tools already open, I launched Reason
3. Reason recognized that Pro Tools was open and opened in Rewire mode
4. I opened the mixer and pulled down the virtual intruments RTAS plug-in on the Aux track
5. I used the default output setting for the plug in (L-R Mixer). The input "Rewired" to Reason
6. Now the MIDI track had the Reason virtual instruments in the output list
7. I selected the synth/piano module as the MIDI track's output. The input was my MIDI controller
8. I left the Aux track's output as the default.
9. Now when I played my MIDI controller, it triggered the sounds from the Reason software synth
and I could hear it from the Aux Track!

Success!

Now, keep in mind, I had to do this because I am using version 6.8. If I were able to run Pro Tools M-Powered version 7 on my mac, I could have simply created an "Instrument" track and used Digidesign's free instrument module "Expand!" to trigger piano, guitar, bass, drums and other intruments sounds easily. The instrument tracks are like MIDI and Aux tracks combined and make the whole process easier. Unfortunetly I have Powerbook G4 that has Panther installed and version 7 won't run on Panther

Maybe one day I can make that upgrade of my OS?

Anyway, thanks.