Is it possible to do this?

[dogsaplenty]

I hope that title was intriguing enough to lure someone in! I have a MIDI question that will no doubt be easy for you guys. Here's my pertinent studio info:

PT10 running on iMac
Digi 002 interface
Roland XP-30 keyboard
Roland TD-12 drum Vkit
EZDrummer software

And now for the big question: Is it possible for the TD-12 to trigger the EZDrummer in a PT session, while at the same time having the XP-30 trigger (for example) the Baby Grand Piano plugin? I can do these independently, but only if I connect just one of the Roland devices up to the Digi002 at a time. If we want to record Piano, I only connect the keyboard's MIDI to the Digi, and likewise if I want to record drums, I disconnect the MIDI cables from the keyboard and run them over and connect them to the TD-12.

It would be nice to be able to just leave everything connected once and for all, but since MIDI frightens me, I don't know how to connect these things together. Experimentation has failed me, and my ignorance of MIDI connections and MIDI channels, etc is making this really tough. I'll keep reading as much as I can find on how MIDI configuration works, but if someone could point me in the right direction here that would be great. Thanks one and all.

[albee1952]

The short answer is, yes it CAN work. The long answer gets a bit involved and you may need to twist and bend my ideas to suit your exact gear and midi connections(and I run a PC). Here's what works for me with the following:
Roland TD10 kit-midi cable to 003 midi input
Motif es8-midi cables to/from MOTU Fastlane USB (2x2)interface
Ensoniq keyboard/VOCE drawbar controller-midi cable to MOTU interface

Open PT preferences>Midi tab>set Default Midi Thru instrument to NONE
Open Setup>Midi>Midi Studio(this is where the fun starts). You need to create an instrument for each of your midi sources and name each to make sense for you. The brand and model info is not critical, but the rest of the details must be correct. The input port for each must be set(you need each controller to have its own path in and out so you may need to add some kind of USB-Midi interface). The midi output is only needed if you wish to have midi return to the controller(like sending midi back to the Roland drum brain). Then, set the Roland to use midi channel 10(default for percussion). Set the keyboard to use all midi channels EXCEPT 10.

Now, back in a session(MIX window) go to View>Mix Window Shows> and check "Instruments". This adds a set of boxes across the very top of the strips. When you create an instrument track, look at this top box(after you added the plugin VI). By default, an Instrument track will receive midi on ALL(from any midi source available), you want to change that so your drum track receives from the TD module, and your other track(use MiniGrand for testing) receives midi from the keyboard. Put each instrument track into record-ready and you SHOULD be able to play drums from the TD kit and piano from the keyboard(Option-click the record button on either Instrument track to light up both/all Instrument track record buttons).

Good luck. With this config, I can track drums, piano and organ at the same time(Addictive Drums/ezdrummer or SD2, MiniGrand(from the Motif) and DB-33)

[dogsaplenty]

Before we continue (and thanks for the reply, btw), I think it would be a good idea to see if my hardware connections are correct. Presently, I'm connected with:

Roland TD-12 Midi Out -> Roland XP-30 Midi In -- Roland XP-30 Midi Thru -> Digi 002 Midi In

That's it. I did this because I don't wish to have my ProTools trigger any sounds at all from either the Roland keys or Roland drums. (Those samples from both Roland pieces are ok I guess, but what ProTools and its plugins can do is way better, you know?) Am I understanding the Midi signal flow correctly with this wiring?

Now, when I go to ProTools/Edit/Midi/Midi Studio and create these two new devices, do I emulate the Midi connections on these devices the same as the actual wired connections? I ask this because it won't let me do this. I can't connect my Roland drum device's Midi Out to my Roland key device's Midi In.

Bah! This is why Midi makes me drink! I drink and then I cry.

[albee1952]

Not sure, but maybe your hookup is the issue. Remove 1 device and see if the other works okay. If it does, you could try a midi merge box(instead of passing one device THROUGH the other), or, do what I did and buy a USB-Midi adapter. The M-Audio UNO was a good deal(WAS!?!?), but once I went with Win7, it never worked again. My MOTU Fastlane USB is about $60 and works great.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by dogsaplenty

Before we continue (and thanks for the reply, btw), I think it would be a good idea to see if my hardware connections are correct. Presently, I'm connected with:

Roland TD-12 Midi Out -> Roland XP-30 Midi In -- Roland XP-30 Midi Thru -> Digi 002 Midi In

That's it. I did this because I don't wish to have my ProTools trigger any sounds at all from either the Roland keys or Roland drums. (Those samples from both Roland pieces are ok I guess, but what ProTools and its plugins can do is way better, you know?) Am I understanding the Midi signal flow correctly with this wiring?

Now, when I go to ProTools/Edit/Midi/Midi Studio and create these two new devices, do I emulate the Midi connections on these devices the same as the actual wired connections? I ask this because it won't let me do this. I can't connect my Roland drum device's Midi Out to my Roland key device's Midi In.

Bah! This is why Midi makes me drink! I drink and then I cry.

The setup you have should work in a normal MIDI setting. Have you setup things in OSX audio/MIDI setup? I don't know how a cascaded setup will work with a Mac. I have multiple MIDI synths but I use a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV USB MIDI interface to interconnect all to my iMac - I don't cascade anything MIDI. Each synth has it's own set of I/O ports. Setup in OSX audio?MIDI setup and PT and everything is okay.

Something you may have to do is to set the two Roland pieces to different MIDI channels. Most pieces default to channel 1; try having the TD12 on something like channel 10 and the XP30 on channel 1. That way in PT you shouldn't have the possibility of the drums triggering sounds you want played from the keyboard and vice versa.

Like you said - things like this are why MIDI makes people drink