Need help with creating and wiring my setup

[Chummy]

I lost track of my old thread, although I did read the responses and it helped me understand several things.

 

My equipment is as follows:

 

Synths: Roland Jupiter-6 (w/ Europa), Yamaha DX7II-fd (w/ e!). Korg RK-100s

 

Guitar and Bass guitar

 

Drum machine: Yamaha RX5 (considering to replace it with a TR-8 and probably won't keep the RX5)

 

Others: Scarlett 2i4 Audio interface, 4 channel poor cheap bad mixer and Cubase 8 Pro (DAW), Yamaha HS-5 monitors (x2)

 

What I'm trying to achieve:

 

I'm trying to have all my stuff connected the right way to have them all routed obviously to the monitors, at the same time though IDK how to sync stuff through MIDI where to connect what and which settings should I change (in both hardware and Cubase). Thing is, My Scarlett interface has 2 combo (XLR/TRS) jacks and 1 MIDI (in+out) at the back plus my mixer is too small which leaves me pretty much nothing to work with. I wonder whether I could replace both the scarlett and the mixer for one bigger machine, since I garnered more gear since then. So is there such thing Mixer+Midi /audio interface in 1 box? if not what should I get? because again I do want everything to go live in my room the moment I feel like jamming (including syncing the Jupiter's arp to Drum machine) and have it sequenced or so but I also do songwriting in Cubase whether when recording each instrument or recording from the sequencer.

 

I would be really appreciate any help and thanks in advance guys

[MikeRivers]

You could get an interface with more inputs, but I'd suggest that you keep what you have and get a mixer. Connect all of your synths to the mixer, connect the mixer's main outputs to your Scarlett's inputs for recording, and connect the Scarlett's outputs to the mixer's "tape" inputs, and the mixer's "control room" outputs to your speakers for monitoring. Your work flow will be much easier than if you depended on the interface's mixer to do all of your routing. This will give you everything you need. You can play and hear your hardware synths in real time (zero latency) without even turning on your computer, monitor on headphones if you're recording vocals or acoustic instruments with microphones, and have one-button access to hearing the mix of your recorded tracks that you set up using the mixer in Cubase.

 

I'd recommend that you look at the Mackie VLZ4 series. You might be able to get away with a 1202, but to give yourself room for expansion, I'd recommed a 1402 or larger.

[Chummy]

Hey Mike, This is exactly what I need! I So basically what are the mixers tape inputs? are those tiny jacks? and control room outputs of the mixer by that you mean the main TRS 1/4 stereo outputs (one for each monitor)? Also to clock my stuff would I need to connect a TRS between my JP6 and the drum machine? or can I somehow use a mixer for them to sync up I'm kinda confused... and if I want to jam with layer and sequence, do I need something like the Beatstep pro (Arturia MIDI seq?) or what do I do? thanks so much for responding Mike and have a nice day

[MikeRivers]

You're on your own synchronizing your synthesizers with your drum machine, but you'll have to look elsewhere than the mixer. It doesn't have anything to do with MIDI time sync. You'll probably want to utilize the MIDI port on your Scarlett interface to take an input to the computer DAW from a keyboard, and to play the keyboard synths (and maybe the drum machine) from the computer, but that would involve connecting MIDI cables and not 1/4" TRS audio cables.

 

The tape inputs on the Mackie VLZ mixers are RCA jack, so you'll need a pair of cables (for left and right channels) with different connectors on each end to go from the Control Room Output of the Scarlett and Tape In on the Macke. This is a pretty commom cable that you can buy off the rack at a music store that sells audio gear, or order them from any of the many on-line cable suppliers. You'll want 1/4" TS to RCA cables (unbalanced).

[ggm1960]

I personally wouldn't attempt to put together such a midi-centric rig without having a separate USB to multi-port midi interface.

[philboking]

I generally agree with Greg (ggm1960) - it can be a nightmare to connect multiple midi instruments through 1 midi port. The easiest and best way to manage multiple instruments is to have a separate MIDI port for each one.

 

In theory you could take the midi out of one instrument and feed it to the midi in of the next, eventually feeding the midi out of the last instrument into the PC interface. In practice it doesn't work so well. You'd need to assign some midi channels to one instrument, and other midi channels to another instrument, by going into the menu system of each instrument and turning off channels it should not generate or respond to. You also need to decide, based on the capabilities of each instrument, whether to use the OUT or THRU output on each one. If you were REALLY good, you could script a SYSEX file to set up each instrument at powerup.

 

If your time is not worth much, dive in! But spending a few dozen bucks on a multiport midi interface would save you hundreds of hours of frustration.

[Phil O'Keefe]

What Mike walked you though is the audio connections and routing. IMHO he gave you very good advice.

 

There is also the MIDI connections. MIDI doesn't carry any audio data, just performance and synchronization data. It uses either 5-pin DIN cables or USB cables to carry data. That's a separate wiring and configuration issue than the audio routing. As with audio, you have several different possible configurations and the "right" way to set everything up really depends on what you want to do.

 

Do you have one keyboard that serves as your master controller, and want to use it to "drive" your other synths remotely? Do you want to lock the drum machine to the DAW so that it follows its tempo and starts and stops when it does? Do you want to be able to have the DAW play back MIDI sequence parts to your keyboards? All of this is possible, but we're starting to get into a more complicated setup and you're going to have to deal with a bit of a learning curve - especially if you're unfamiliar with MIDI.

 

 

 

 

 

[onelife]

I do a similar thing with my setup. I use a Yamaha MG16/6 mixer with four group outputs (two stereo pairs) that I connect to my MacBook via an MBox and to my iPad via an Audiobox 1818VSL. The main Stereo out from the mixer goes to the monitors. I like having the Master Fader (the red one on this mixer) function as a kill switch for the monitors if things go awry.

 

I run several different sources into the mixer - including a stereo piano and a stereo guitar rig and the outputs of both audio interfaces. Routing to the DAWs and to the Monitors is done through the mixer and the output of the iPad can be directed to the MacBook and the MacBook can be sent to the iPad or to itself - which comes in handy if I want to capture Internet audio (record the audio from a YouTube video for example) and digitize it on my own terms.

 

As for MIDI I have two USB hubs - a passive one for the MacBook and a powered one for the iPad. DIN MIDI from the piano connects to the MIDI ports on the MBox while the USB MIDI goes to the iPad's USB hub. My MIDI controller keyboard (Axiom61) sends DIN MIDI to the MIDI in on the AudioBox and USB MIDI to the MacBook's USB hub. The Axiom61 can also route MIDI from its USB port thru the DIN port - in other words, I can send MIDI information from the MacBook to the iPad.

 

I use software synths more than hardware so my MIDI setup is quite simple but I also have an old Edirol USB to multipart MIDI adaptor that I am not using at the moment. It is not compatible with the iPad but it still works well with the MacBook. I also have an old MU90R that I don't use much any more but I did need to use the additional ports provided by the Edirol when I was using the it. The MU90 also functions as a computer MIDI interface but it uses the old serial ports (9-pin on PC and printer/modem on Apple) so I don't use it for that any more. I must say, however, the XG sounds are still quite remarkable when really utilized so I still like to play General MIDI and XG files on the MU90.

 

I sometimes use a CME XKey 25 USB MIDI keyboard and can plug it into either USB hub depending on what I want to use it for. I primarily use it for soft synths on the iPad.