Logic Pro 9 No midi signal with Audiofire4 and Logic Pro

[manzil]

I trying to sync an external midi device (Roland xp-60) to my Logic Pro via a
midi connect, but am not getting a midi signal in nor out via the Audiofire4. I
can get an audio signal without any problem. I want to be able to strike a key on the roland and hear the note of any synth in Logic Pro. I also want to be able to press start or stop on either the MAC or the Roland and have the other device be in sync so that I can record sequenced music recorded on the Roland (either one can be the master or slave).

I have followed the instructions of your website and the manual that came with the Audiofire. My audiofire4 is connected to the mac via a firewire cable to a firewire 800 port.

Please advise...system info is below. If this has been discussed before, I can't find an exact scenario in this forum...I looked through a ton of posts.


Echo hardware: Audiofire4
Echo driver version:
Console 4.8
ARM firmware 5.3
FPGA 3.0.2

Audio software: Logic Pro 9.1.1

Operating system and version: See below for al four...
Processor model and clock speed:
Motherboard manufacturer:
Motherboard chipset (i.e. Intel, Via, Nvidia):

Model Name:Mac mini
Model Identifier:Macmini3,1
Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors:1
Total Number Of Cores:2
L2 Cache:3 MB
Memory:4 GB
Bus Speed:1.07 GHz
Mac OS X 10.6.4

 

[CSeye]

Is the Roland connected to your AudioFire4 with MIDI cables? (Roland MIDI out to AF4 MIDI In, etc)?

Have you set up the Roland in the Mac OSX Audio MIDI utility?
(Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup)

 

[Peter Ostry]

not getting a midi signal in nor out via the Audiofire4.

Your post does not tell me what you know or not, so I try to give a step by step advice that should help you to isolate the failure in your MIDI system.

1) The interface alone, without any MIDI cabling, must show up in the Audio/MIDI Setup of the Mac, a program that you have to start manually. Have you checked this and do you see the Audiofire there as a MIDI device? If not, you may miss a driver or something else is wrong.

2) If this is ok, open Logic, open an Environment window, go to the layer "Click&Ports". You should see one Audiofire Port in the list of the object called "Physical Input". If not, something is wrong.

3) If yes, play on the keyboard, move the pitch wheel, do anything that is supposed to send MIDI. You should see incoming MIDI in the small transport panel of Logic. If not, something is wrong.

4) If yes, choose or create a track with an instrument channel strip, insert a simple synth. The track must be selected, otherwise it does not play. Play on the keyboard, the software instrument should generate sound.

If MIDI is rather new to you, do one step after the other and tell us about your success with each step.

Generally, it is a good idea to install MidiMonitor and leave it open while you want to check the MIDI flow in your computer.

I have followed the instructions of your website and the manual that came with the Audiofire.

I think there is a misunderstanding. We are not Apple. The Logic Users Group is a webforum for Logic users. Not more and not less. And it is a very good forum, the people here should be able to help you with your system.

 

[manzil]

Thank you all for responding.

It appears I was a little too sleepy when I wrote my posting. I was gonna sent a message to the Audiofire4's website support and copied that entry here, hence the "your website" reference. I decided to just post here instead.

Another embarrassing thing was I realized my midi cable was faulty...it's old and realized after wiggling it, it came to life. I borrowed another bud's midi cable and now I can get a midi signal from the Roland to Logic Pro. My only issue now is that I can't control the play, record, and stop of Logic from the Roland. I used the command L step and went to the controller assignment utility. Clicking on those then hitting the corresponding key on the Roland had no effect....there was nothing assigned.

 

[Peter Ostry]

I realized my midi cable was faulty...it's old and realized after wiggling it, it came to life.

Most likely our cable broke inside the plug, this is a usual accident. Buy only good MIDI cables. Those cheap cables are all crap. If you have the choice, take cables with metal plugs, preferably Neutrik. Or make your own cables. And fasten them somewhere shortly after the plug, hanging MIDI cables tend do break because their wires are very thin.

My only issue now is that I can't control the play, record, and stop of Logic from the Roland.

Can you tell the Roland device to send MMC (MIDI Machine Control) for the transport functions? This is the best method for that.

If not, does it send standard MIDI messages? Then you can assign the messages to the appropriate KeyCommands in Logic. Not optimal, but works.