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Hi Folks,
Greetings to y'all. I am the music director / keyboard player for my church and I have a quick question here about using a DAW with a workstation hooked up via USB to a laptop. I own both a Motif ES7 and a Korg Triton Xtreme. I usually sequence tracks on either of these 2 Workstations using their onboard sequencer. Lately, I have begun to use software to sequence. Here is my question. I would like to be able to hook up either a MAC laptop or a windows 7 (HP) Laptop running software.......(possibly either POWER TRACKS PRO AUDIO 12 or Cubase Le, or maybe Logic Express) via USB to any of the 2 workstations and be able to play each sequenced song from the software and the sounds coming from the left and right out of either the Motif or the Triton xtreme depending on which One I may choose to use at any particular time. In other words if It is the Triton Xtreme I have hooked up to the laptop then Triton tones will play the sequenced tracks....drums..bass, keysetc !!
And I would like to be able to call up the songs via the software (let suppose I have 7 songs lined up for a concert) and hit play and Voila everything comes thru nicely. Would I need to set up Patch Maps for this scenario? Would POWER TRACKS PRO AUDIO be a good DAW to do something like that?
I would very much appreciate any feed back and advice from y'all. I need to set this thaang up, y'all !!!
Jacobins
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Very easy setup actually. Hook the USB to the computer and the laptop.Start PT and it'll show up as both MIDI input and MIDI output drivers.Once your sequences are recorded they'll play back.Now a custom patch map would be helpful so that whwn you assign instruments to the tracks it makes sense however it's not imperative if you know the Bank and patch number. You can use that. The instrument name is only a convenience. It is the Bank# & Patch number that the keyboard will use for patches.I did not discuss the keyboard setup as you are already using a HW sequencer and the keyboard setup will be the same.
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Hi Mr John
I really do appreciate your feed back. Awesome. Here is a follow up question. For example if I am doing a church gigg and I have 6 to 7 songs sequenced in power tracks. Then, I go somewhere and I am supposed to play this same set "live" (my PC HOOKED up to power tracks via USB along with my Triton extreme for example and I am using an empty track....say track 16 to play grand piano along with the sequenced accompaniment. But I want to call up each song, and everything is all set, tracks playing what they are supposed to play etc.
It is the same set up right? I was reading online somewhere where it says about I am supposed to do some MIDI control messages etc. I am new to the home studio and midi vibe so I just wanted to inquire.
Thanks so much. Hit me back again. Can you mention something about the KEYBOARD SET UP? The thing is, I am gonna start sequencing in power tracks or maybe Logic Express or Cubase LE (Haven't as yet decided on which DAW as yet) because I have been sequencing on the Motif ES and the Korg Triton for a long time. I wanna change that and go the software DAW way. I just want that whatever workstation I use that i CAN use the software to sequence and have the correct Motif or Triton tones accessible within the software so that after i COMPLETE the songs and save each sequence that everything is properly saved so when i CALL it up in a "live" gigg, everything comes up nice and easy and i CAN play a "live" Grand piano with the music or something of that sort.
Thanks much for your kind help.
LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR REPLY.
Jacobins
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Unfortunately I'm not able to coach you on the setup of those particular keyboards.I can say though that what you want is doable.Just pull out the manual and it should give you instructions on how to use it with an EXTERNAL sequencer.Yes when you do the sequences you can take an empty track and using the the EVENT EDITOR insert a program change for that track for the keyboard part that you'll be playing live.
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ok thanks Mr John.
I will keep in touch with you in terms of my progress and reading. Thanks so much.
Jacobins
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I believe what you want to do is become familiar with the midi capabilities in your keyboards.
1. Hooking up the midi connections correctly using in's, out's and throughs should allow you to chain the two keyboards and assuming the software is set up correctly (INS file) the software will recognize each of them.
2. Once you figure out this you simply sequence the song, set your midi output to the correct keyboard and patch and then save. Everytime you open that song it should bring up those settings.
3. If I am understanding you right there may be times where you sequence a song using one or the other of the keyboards or both and then want to just take one keyboard with you to do a live service. You have a couple of choices here. You can sequence the song and set it up three different times. 1. both keyboards, 2. Yamaha, 3. Korg. You could just save the songs with the keyboard name on them. If you do not want to do this and just want to sequence and have a similiar sound no matter which keyboard you use then you always want to use General Midi (GM) patches. They won't sound exactly the same due to differnt programming of the sounds in the keyboard but it will be close.
Power Tracks will definitely do what you want from this perspective. Don't overlook some of Cakewalk's lighter versions as well. They are not real expensive and have pretty good support forums. If you are making use of BIAB or Realtracks then PT is the easiest since they will all open each others files normally.
Hope this helps. If I have mistated something maybe some of the more keyboard/midi savy folks can correct. me.
Terry
TerryB
Windows 10, Dell 8700 XPS i7, 12MB Ram.
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Jacobins, I hate to be the wet blanket but this is a disaster waiting to happen.
When you're on stage simplicity is the key. You already have two good keyboards with good on board sequencers. What is the reason to introduce a laptop into the equation? I wouldn't even use the sequencers because older keyboards can suddenly develop problems too right when you need them the most. All you need to do is use Biab and/or Real Band to record your songs and now you can use all the Real Tracks in addition to midi and convert them to high quality MP3 files and simply play them live using a good MP3 player with a nice sized screen and a jukebox feature. Any of the new 7" tablets for around $200 have apps for exactly that. That way you're not depending on anything because it's done and set. No midi cables running around, no chance of stuff messing up. You can even load those MP3's into your smart phone as as back up in case your nice tablet player goes down. One cable to your PA, that's it.
Thousands of performers all over the world do this.
If you need the flexibility to change the arrangement or loop sections of your songs while you're performing live then almost certainly the sequencers in your keyboards have a part marker feature similer to what we have in Biab that can be mapped to either a controller or one of the keys on the keyboards to allow you to do that. But, if you're performing with other people like a choir then trying to loop a part of the song live is very dangerous because of how you have to do it. If you can rehearse with them and they know the cues ok but if not, trust me on this I've tried it.
Bob
Last edited by jazzmammal; 07/19/12 08:27 AM.
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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If you are any good at configuring hardware, look around online for a box called an MX-8. It is a MIDI patch bay that holds 50 presets and you can configure setups that include what controls what and send patch changes to each keyboard when you call up a configuration. You can store 50 setups.
This MAY be overkill for what you are doing, and that brings up the question of whether it's too much trouble to press the correct sound preset on only 2 keyboards before you start the song.
When I used one of these I had 3 keyboards and 3 modules, and the master/slave configuration changed with every song, sometimes becoming master/slave/slave, etc... I ended up with a total of 27 different configurations I used that send various patch changes as well as did the MIDI routing. Nice box. A LITTLE confusing to set up at first but in my situation at least, it was much better than pressing buttons on 6 keyboards, setting MIDI channels to know what controlled what.... in a band that played sets non-stop I didn't have the luxury of time. I also controlled the thing from a touchpad that looks like a calculator, so when I needed setup 3 for the 4 Tops songs, I'd press 3 ==> ENTER and everything would be changed to the right configuration. beautiful box, but for that many configurations, it took me like 3 weeks to sit and thing about every song, where was organ, where was piano, where was horns..... and then actually map the thing out.
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Well, I made the mistake of purchasing the original Motif thinking that I would have an easy time with the on-board sequencer. After all, I composed probably 50+ songs on Ensoniq ESQ1 and VFX-SD keyboards over the years, and how could the Motif be any harder than those. The sequences I was composing for this were actually insanely simple - turn signal sounds to be exact. Perhaps a little known fact is that a good number of car companies play the turn signal sound out of the radio/speaker system in the car. One has completely control over the waveform, timing, etc. with many of these systems.
Let me just say that I understand why Jacobins might want to move away from the Motif ES7, if it's sequencer is similar to the original Motif.
The Ensoniq's sequencers 'made sense' to me. The Motif - that felt like I was using something from an alternate universe. A simple, single-track sequence of a note on/off with a regular timing pattern was an exercise in frustration. I ended up controlling the Yamaha with a DAW software. It was actually easier to do it this way - for me at least.
With that said, jazzmammal's suggestion sounds like the ideal setup for you. Play your live parts 'live', along with recordings of your backing tracks. No need to rely upon MIDI playback.
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