Pro Tools (Windows 10) MIDI Input Channel 1 with Yamaha Montage Synth

[vertig0spin]

Hi, this is my first post and hopefully I am providing enough detail; however if not please let me know.

I am having an issue connecting my new Yamaha Montage synthesizer/sequencer to my Pro Tools 12.5 HD DAW running on Windows 10 Home Ed. (See my signature for all my software & hardware specs)

Basically, the Pro Tools MIDI Input Channel 1 does not work ... everything else does! MIDI Input Channels 2-16, and MIDI Output Channels 1-16 work perfectly in Pro Tools while connected with the Yamaha Montage Synth/Sequencer.

I 'think' I have everything in Pro Tools configured correctly for MIDI & USB Audio connectivity to/from the Yamaha Montage, and I 'know' for certain that I have the Yamaha Montage's MIDI & USB Audio connectivity configured correctly (Yamaha's experts have confirmed this much), but out of the 16 MIDI Input & Output channels in Pro Tools, all of them connect perfectly from/to the Montage, except for the Pro Tools MIDI Input Channel 1.
(note - Pro Tools MIDI 'Output' Channel 1 works perfectly)

If I change the input on MIDI Track 1 to either 'Any' or 'Channels 2 - 16', it works, and Outputs back to the Montage on Channel 1.

I know that it's not a problem with the Yamaha Montage synth itself, because MIDI Input Channel 1 works perfectly when I record/playback in Cubase! Everything works perfectly when connecting/recording/playback in Cubase AI; however I don't want to use Cubase and much prefer to use Pro Tools.

Feel free to read more about my issue, what has been done so far to troubleshoot, as well as my setup/pictures that I posted in the YamahaSynth.com forum thread below titled "Montage Connect + Pro Tools 12.5 (Windows 10), Help!":
https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-qu...indows-10-help

And I would be happy to provide further info/pictures of how I have Pro Tools configured if anyone would like and can help...

One thing I will mention/add is that when I was first setting up Pro Tools for MIDI connectivity to the Yamaha Montage synth, there was an instrument configured by default under Setup > MIDI > Midi Studio Setup. In trying to connect all the MIDI ports and get it working, I removed that instrument. I don't know if that was a setting that was needed or not, but it is no longer configured. See the attached .jpg files to view the current configuration.

I am hoping someone here has come across this issue with MIDI Input Channel 1 connecting to a sequencer or keyboard via MIDI PORT 1 (not 2 or 3), as this connectivity is via a standard USB cable connection between the Synth & the DAW (not the 5-pin MIDI cable), using the 'Yamaha Steinberg USB driver' to connect on.

Thanks in advance for any and all help you can provide, even if it gives a clue that leads to fixing the issue!

[musicman691]

You included some details but not important ones like:
What are you actually trying to do? Are you trying to record MIDI from the Montage and use that to trigger sounds in the Montage? And then record those sounds in PT? If so are you trying to use a single USB cable to transfer the audio & MIDI? I don't know if PT can deal with that without some kind of software. The person you should get in touch with here is DonaldM; here's a link to his profile page: http://duc.avid.com/member.php?u=77028 He's knowledgable on Motif matters. I'm surprised Bad Mister wasn't able to help you as he's been on the Yamaha forums for ages and knows his stuff.

Something I'm curious about - what are you using for an audio interface? Please don't tell us you're using the built-in interface on your computer or the Montage itself (which is what it seems like). BTW there is no sig file in your post.

[vertig0spin]

Yes, that's basically what am trying to do...Record MIDI from the Montage to tracks, which will trigger sounds on the Montage, and then record them in PT. I also plan to save the MIDI tracks as a MIDI file to a USB stick, load the MIDI file into the Montage, and associate it with the multi-PART Performance as either a Song &/or an Audition, so that the Montage plays the sequenced tracks, while I play certain other sounds along with it.

Yeah, the setup for doing this is to connect a single USB cable to transfer the audio & MIDI between the Montage and PT. The Montage is not a Workstation, but rather a Synth since they don't have a Full Sequencer that allows for editing on the Montage itself. They have offloaded this part of the workflow to DAWs.

The software that all DAWs use (PT, Cubase, etc.) is the "Yamaha Steinberg USB driver". And it works great, except for the MIDI Channel 1 input. MIDI Channel inputs 2-16, as well as all MIDI Channel outputs 1-16 work perfectly.
After playing around with the MIDI settings yesterday, I found a way to get MIDI Channel input 1 to work while the corresponding PART/sound on the Montage is selected (which was the main issue I am trying to fix); however it broke other functionality on the Montage, so not a good fix. What I did was the following:
In Pro Tools under Setup > MIDI > Midi Studio... (Midi Studio Setup), I clicked on 'Create' to create a new MIDI Instrument configuration for MIDI to be selected on the MIDI Tracks' Input & Output. I chose 'Yamaha' for the Manufacturer, 'MOTIF 6-7-8' for the Model since there was no option for Montage or MODX, '2- MONTAGE-1 [Emulated]' for the Input Port.

Bad Mister is trying to help me and he has me trying different things to troubleshoot, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to post on this forum as well just in case someone had the same or similar issue.
At first I had the MBox 3 connected as an audio interface; however I wasn't really using it because the way the Yamaha Steinberg USB driver connection works is that it sends both the MIDI and Audio data to/from the Montage & the DAW/PT, so that I basically have my headphones connected to the Montage and hear everything that the PT MIDI tracks are sending back & triggering the sound on the Montage via the USB cable, as well as sending all audio on the computer back through the Montage. The Montage has much more professional grade higher quality AD converter hardware internally than the MBox does. And it should for the price of it, as the synth costs close to $6000 Canadian, where as the cheaper new sister synth (Yamaha MODX) is half the price, but contains cheaper internal AD hardware (great for live though).

I'm not sure why my signature isn't showing. I checked my account options and the box is checked for "Show your signature"..!?

[musicman691]

Did you get in touch with DonaldM?
It could just be that PT isn't compatible with what you're trying to do.
Also you may want to correct the PT version in your sig file.

[vertig0spin]

Yes, I just send him an email, thx!

I am thinking PT is not fully compatible or handles it differently than Cubase.
I have simple workarounds, so it's not a huge issue for me.

I thought I had PT 12.5 HD in my signature. Did I miss something or maybe I should put the exact version..!?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by vertig0spin

Yes, I just send him an email, thx!

I am thinking PT is not fully compatible or handles it differently than Cubase.
I have simple workarounds, so it's not a huge issue for me.

I thought I had PT 12.5 HD in my signature. Did I miss something or maybe I should put the exact version..!?

Could well be that PT is not compatible with the way you're trying to work. After all it's not a normal way of working with an external synth. Not all daws work the same.

You have PT 10.5 in your sig file.

[vertig0spin]

Oh, I'll fix that. Should be 12.5, thx!