MIDI and Pro Tools LE 8.0.5

[joedevico]

Hello,

I'm apparently not alone with respect to the MIDI issues with Pro Tools 8.0.X and the mbox2 and 003. Here's the situation:

1. I've been using ProTools - both LE and TDM for over 10 years on both Mac and PC platforms and am extremely knowledgeable about the systems.

2. The problem I'm having appeared out of nowhere - and is repeatable with mulitple setups

3. There have been no suggestions as to a root cause to the issue.

Without getting in a Sandra report and technical details, as this is clearly software related, let me explain...

I am running Pro Tools LE 8.0.5 on a Win7 machine that ran fine for about 6 months. One day, I started a new session, and could not get Pro Tools to receive MIDI input from my mbox2. Nothing in the system had changed with one exception - I had upgraded to Sibelius 7 from Sibelius 6. I decided to try another device as the MIDI input and connected my 003 with no luck.

I toggled and changed every setting from within the ProTools software - created and deleted MIDI devices - trashed all preferences - un-installed and re-installed ProTools - uninstalled Sibelius 7 - Updated all Pro Tools drivers and software to the latest versions and switched all cabling. Still no luck...

Here's what baffles me...

I installed Reaper and the MIDI input and output on both the mbox2 and 003 work fine, as they do within Sibelius (before I un-installed it) - so.....what's up? I've been troubleshooting this issue for over a few months now when I have time... my main system in the studio works flawlessly so I've not been overly concerned about fixing this until now.

Could it be a plug-in within Pro-Tools that would cause the MIDI functionality to stop working? That's about the only thing that makes sense to me at this point. It can't be a hardware issue since the existing hardware works fine with other DAW software and was working perfect for over a year on this setup. The plug-in issue might make sense - if I had made any changes to Pro Tools or other software before it all stopped working. Perhaps it's a Windows update or something else?? I'm looking for some advice before I start digging deeper.

I'm trying to avoid a complete reformat of the hard drive - especially since the Digi (Avid) hardware works perfect in other manufacturer's DAWs.

Thanks to anyone who can shed light on this...

Joe DeVico

[joedevico]

Okay -

I've discovered at least one other issue that might shed some light on this. If I click the "all midi notes off" menu item - Pro Tools freezes and I need to force it to shut down via task manager.

I've used the digi-utility to completely remove the software and did a fresh re-install. Still no luck. The audio portion of the mbox2 works fine as does all MIDI playback with softsynths - I can't get MIDI to work on the external ports of either the mbox2 or the 003. I'm stumped - it's obviously some sort of conflict with a windows update or other software update since everything works fine outside of pro tools.

I used to love this software... guess it's time for a complete reformat of the drive. Ouch.