No MIDI when Bouncing to Disk

[Surf Twang]

I upgraded my Mac G4 1.25 Mhz to OS X 10.3.5 and upgraded to ProTools LE 6.4. I'm using an MBox. Now when I bounce to disk the MIDI doesn't come through. I can hear it when I'm bouncing but it's not there in the audio file. I also use Logic 5 with the MBox and the same happens - no MIDI when bouncing to disk. Since it's happening with both ProTools and Logic I'm assuming it must have something to do with OS 10.3.5 and/or the MBox. Any ideas?

[Slim Shady]

What are the audio outputs of your MIDI device(s) connected to?

[Surf Twang]

I have an E-mu PK-6. The MIDI output goes into an M-audio 1x1 USB MIDI which is recognized by Apple MIDI setup. I wonder if I need an updated driver for the USB MIDI?

[Surf Twang]

I installed the lastest driver for the USB MIDI port but still no MIDI when I bounce to disk. I can record MIDI, I hear it on play back but it doesn't bounce. What's different about bouncing to disk?

[Surf Twang]

I also used Logic with an M-Audio interface instead of the MBox and still no MIDI on bouncing. It sure looks like something with OS X 10.3.5. I'm about ready to go back to 10.2 and PT 6.1. What a drag.

[Slim Shady]

You didn't answer my question. What are the AUDIO outputs of your E-mu hooked up to?

You do understand that MIDI in itself is not an audio signal, just a series of instructions of when to play notes, and how loud - right? If the audio outputs of your keyboard are not hooked up to an input on your Digi interface, then there's no way for the Audio signal from your keyboard to make it into your bounces. Since you have an Mbox, this means anytime you would want your keyboard's audio outputs plugged into inputs 1 and 2 on your Mbox, and you will need to set up an Aux track in ProTools in order to monitor the signal.

My apologies if this is already the way you were setup, I had to guess, and it's pretty common for folks to think MIDI also carries audio signal so I went for the easiest answer first.

[Surf Twang]

Thanks for staying with me on this. Audio output is connected to the MBox channel 2 input. I'll try another cable to see if it's the cable although everything was working fine before I upgraded to OS X 10.3.5.

[Slim Shady]

I doubt it's a cable problem if you're able to hear it while editing/mixing. I take you are monitoring within PT on an Aux track set to input 2 right? I remember with the 001's you had to turn off Low Latency Monitoring in order for Aux tracks to work during bounce down, but the Mbox has never had a LLM option, so that wouldn't be it. Are you able to print the keyboard tracks to audio and then do a bounce? Just create a new Audio track and use the same input as your Aux track (mute the Aux track though) and see if you can record your keyboard onto the new Audio track.

Also, if you haven't already, you might want to install the latest 'cs' update for your PTLE. If you're on 6.4, you can download 6.4cs9 here. The first thing listed under 'contains fixes for the following areas' is 'MIDI' - so maybe that would address your issue. Check out the 'General Setup & Troubleshooting' thread too, maybe trashing prefs etc. would help, something might've gotten corrupted during all your updating.

[Surf Twang]

Thanks for the info. What gets me is that Logic does the same thing using different hardware so I'm not sure if anything in PT is causing the problem. There must be something I'm missing.

[Surf Twang]

I solved the PT problemm - absolutely stupid mistake on my part. I had an Aux input for Reason but not one for the MIDI. Duh!!!! Works fine now. What an idiot!

I'm not sure what the Logic problem is but I'll have to look for an equally stupid operator error. I'll blame it on too much turkey...

Mucho thanks for your help Slim. I truly appreciate it.