MIDI Drum Track Not Playing

[bmcoonan]

Hi guys - probably an easy question for most of you but I just recently got things up and running and a search of the DUC didn't resolve the issue. I'm sure it's something easy - I open one of the 'basic' templates that comes with PTLE and hit play, and the MIDI drum track just doesn't produce any audio. I can record and play back what I record fine however. I'm thinking it's 1 of 2 things:

1) I don't have a midi controller, so maybe PTLE is looking for that to actually generate the drum sounds? I would think though that it would use a plug-in to get the sounds...maybe I'm way off.

2) Output for that track misassigned - I checked it, it says the same output as the guitar track for example, that does play when I record to it. Something like "system default" or something similar (I'm not home right now) - this goes to the mbox mini and then out through my monitors.

Can anyone help with a few suggestions? Like I said - it's completely just limited to the MIDI drum tracks (and click) that are in the session templates that come with PTLE - everything else seems to work fine.

When I hit play on one session, there was just silence. When I hit play on another session, Rock Guitar I believe, there was this kind of keyboard sounding swelling in - very odd.

Thanks much,
BC

[Holly73]

Normally, most of the standard templates should play something out of the box. Is there an instrument plugin inserted in the drum track? As you said, PT needs some instrument to play back midi. This could be one of the included plugins (for drums it would be Boom or Xpand), or something external (connected via Midi).

[flommer]

Originally Posted by bmcoonan

Hi guys - probably an easy question for most of you but I just recently got things up and running and a search of the DUC didn't resolve the issue. I'm sure it's something easy - I open one of the 'basic' templates that comes with PTLE and hit play, and the MIDI drum track just doesn't produce any audio. I can record and play back what I record fine however. I'm thinking it's 1 of 2 things:

1) I don't have a midi controller, so maybe PTLE is looking for that to actually generate the drum sounds? I would think though that it would use a plug-in to get the sounds...maybe I'm way off.

2) Output for that track misassigned - I checked it, it says the same output as the guitar track for example, that does play when I record to it. Something like "system default" or something similar (I'm not home right now) - this goes to the mbox mini and then out through my monitors.

Can anyone help with a few suggestions? Like I said - it's completely just limited to the MIDI drum tracks (and click) that are in the session templates that come with PTLE - everything else seems to work fine.

When I hit play on one session, there was just silence. When I hit play on another session, Rock Guitar I believe, there was this kind of keyboard sounding swelling in - very odd.

Thanks much,
BC

1.. The MIDI controller doesn't matter IF you have some MIDI data on the track... But you are correct on the other counts: the MIDI needs to go somewhere to be turned into audio and a plug-in is one way to do this..

2.. Since you say that the output assignment is the same as a guitar track, I suspect that you are talking about an Audio track for guitar and an Inst track for drums (not a MIDI track).. The confusing thing about Inst tracks is that they combine the functions of a MIDI track and and Aux track. The MIDI functions allow you to set where the MIDI data comes from, enables you to record it (and play back), and also where you send it to.. But it needs to be sent to a MIDI instrument that can turn the MIDI into audio. That's what the AUX functions are for. You insert the VI plugin, and set where the AUDIO goes to. By default, it would likely say "Analog 1-2" or something similar. The tricky thing is that Inst tracks don't show you the MIDI routing details by default. You have to turn that on in the View menu:

View>Mix window>Instruments should be checked. You can turn it on in the Edit window, too, but I find that to be a waste of space..

So, you need these things: a source for MIDI data (a controller or recorded MIDI) and you need to send it to a plug-in to create the sound..

[bmcoonan]

Awesome - thanks so much for the detailed response flommer....the MIDI data is on the track - loaded in with the session so I know that part is good. I think it sounds like a simple tweak on my side should hopefully get past this little bump.

BC

[bmcoonan]

As a follow up - I just had to go into Xpand and set it to a drum kit and things were working as normal...thanks you guys.