I am using RealBand 2016 (3) on Windows 10.

I have purchased and installed the Coyote Electronics ForteDXi synth.

I am using an M-Audio KeyRig 25 MIDI controller.

I have searched and search but found an answer to my question.

I need a step-by-step guide for configuring the ForteDXi synth.

I have been successful at:

- Getting audio from MIDI controller when I press a key - but the sound I hear is the crappy, generic piano sound that comes with Windows.

- I can record a MIDI track and play it back. When I play it back, I can change the sound and select a different sound. (However, I cannot hear this sound when I am actually playing the keyboard - I only hear the generic Microsoft piano.)

Questions:

a. How do I configure the system so I can hear the sound I want while I am playing the MIDI controller?

b. Is there a guide on best practices, a quickstart, or anything like that for this set up - I am assuming that there are a lot of people who have this exact same setup and may be struggling with the configuration.

I'll be grateful for any guidance you can provide.

Thanks!

I only have the basic Coyote, have you done this:

What Pipeline said

NO offense to Pipeline, but in case that wasn't clear here are some other pics

Good Luck
Larry

Yes, set Coyote Forte as the default DXi synth in the drop down in Pipeline's image above.
Check the box for Reroute all MIDI ..

Note that RB must be running/active for these settings to take effect.

Also, PGMusic support has recommended that the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth be at the top of the default synth list for Coyote Wavetable use (again, as shown in Pipeline's image), even though it is not technically in use. Not sure if this matters for Forte, it shouldn't, but may be worth testing.

Thanks everyone for your help!

I am still stuck, however. When I hit a key on the keyboard, I hear the crappy piano sound with a slight delay (maybe 100 milliseconds) no matter what settings I use for the Forte synth. I can record a MIDI track successfully, and I can change the sound being played back to whatever I want using the Forte control panel (DirectX VST window).

It does not matter what sound I select in RealBand for the track (using the Track/right click/Program menu item).

This has got to be a simple problem but it's really got me stumped.

a. How do I either get rid of or adjust the delay between a key press and sound coming out of the computer when I am playing the keyboard "live"? (I have tried editing the "Visual Delay" and "Audio Delay" settings in the MIDI Driver Setup window and these settings do no have any effect on the delay I am hearing. For example, I can set these to 2000 milliseconds, and the delay stays constant at about 100 milliseconds.)

b. How can I make a different sound come out of the computer when I am playing the keyboard "live"?

See attached screenshots.

Thanks again for any insight on potential fixes!

I'm confused; your second image seems to show MIDI channel 1 assigned to a violin, but your 5th image seems to show acoustic guitar.

Are the images correct?
I don't know how you hear a cheap piano sound when using a guitar or violin patch..

As far as key press to audio delay that is your AUDIO driver (separate from any of your MIDI settings

You are going to need an ASIO driver - if your sound card has a NATIVE one that's usually best. But I suspect you don't have a dedicated USB, Firewire or PCI/PCIe audio device (like a Presonus, Focusrtie, M-Audio, etc. ) probably just the built-in motherboard audio chip (Realtek?), which is fine for most things just doesn't have a good native ASIO driver.

However, there is one call ASIO4ALL

http://www.asio4all.com/

You can google about what ASIO is and does for audio

As to still having "crappy" piano sound I agree with Rharv I would think you are hearing at least a violin? But one problem at a time - pick one

Larry


EDIT-----

Sorry the "pick one" sounds rude, I don't mean it to be. It's just that it's probably just easier for us and YOU to concentrate on one issue at a time so problems and solutions don't get conflated..

Larry

Thanks all and no worries.

I am using the ASIO4all driver.

And yes, it's weird that you can have different sounds selected in the VSTi/DXi control panel and on the RealBand track itself. What I've now discovered is that the RealBand track controls the Forte sound selection, but you can also select a different sound using just the Forte control panel if you like. If you go back to RealBand and select a different sound there, it will override the selection you have in the Forte control panel. I hope that makes sense.

I spent some time in support chat yesterday with a sales rep and he gave me some ideas to try and I've made some progress. He said I should install the LoopBe Internal MIDI driver (http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html). This helped a bit. Now, though, I have the following condition:

a. I can record a MIDI track with the M-Audio KeyRig 25 controller. When I playing the controller live, I hear a weird, heavily echoed sound - unlistenable really - it's like there's a feedback loop somewhere.

b. When I play back the recorded MIDI track, the sound that comes out sounds fine and it's the sound I have selected for the RealBand track.

I'm going to do a chat session with tech support today and I'll report what they tell me to do.

OK - an update. With the help of Kallum (I believe) in tech support, we got it working.

Here's what they had me do:

a. Update RealBand to 2016 (7) from RealBand (3). (This didn't seem to have any effect but it was a good idea to do in any case.)

b. Close RealBand.

c. Delete the RealBand.INI and RB.CFG files located in the /RealBand/ folder. (I just renamed them at RB.CFG.old and RealBand.INI.old. These files are where the config parameters for the system are stored.

d. Uninstall and reinstall CoyoteForte synth.

e. Relaunch RealBand.

f. Check MIDI Devices menu and make sure it's set up as follows:

- Input Driver: USB O2 (for the M-Audio controller I am using)
- Output Driver: LoopBe Internal MIDI
- Re-Route MIDI playback checked
- CoyoteWT selected as Default synth

At this point the keyboard was working and I was getting CoyoteWT sounds out of it.

g. Now, in the MIDI Devices menu, change the default synth selection to ForteDXi Plug-in.

h. Go to RealBand and select an open track. Make that track a MIDI track. Right click on the Track and select Channel 1. Right click on the Track and select a Program (sound).

Now I have the selected sound coming out of my speakers when I play the MIDI controller and I can record MIDI tracks on RealBand.


Other settings:

- ASIO4All Driver must be selected.
- Make sure the ASIO4All Driver control panel is showing the desired audio output as highlighted in the WDM Device List.
- Set the ASIO Buffer Size to the lowest number of samples possible that don't cause a problem in the sound. Right now I am using 512 samples and this results in very little latency and no audio problems.

Hugh

Thanks for the feedback on how you resolved. This can assist others also.

Trevor