The Official Sequential/Oberheim Forum
SEQUENTIAL/DSI => Prophet => Prophet Rev2 => Topic started by: Josh C on August 27, 2021, 05:56:55 PM
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I can't wrap my head around how to hook up these three keyboards. my keyboard set up is: Yamaha Tyros 5 on the bottom, Yamaha YC-61 in the middle, and Prophet Rev 2 on top. I want to be able to send CC Messages from the Tyros to the other 2 keyboards. I want to send program changes, note data, control changes, etc. from the YC to the Rev 2. The YC is best to do most of the controlling of the Rev 2 because it has a comprehensive master keyboard mode with a bunch of MIDI filters so I can tell it not to send unwanted data. I think the biggest problem I'm having is that I'm not sure how MIDI thru works on the Rev 2, And I need to know that because it is the only keyboard in my set up that has it. also I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how to connect everything. I know that I may need a merger box or a thru box to make it all work but I still don't know what I'm doing. Could anyone please help?
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I can't wrap my head around how to hook up these three keyboards. my keyboard set up is: Yamaha Tyros 5 on the bottom, Yamaha YC-61 in the middle, and Prophet Rev 2 on top. I want to be able to send CC Messages from the Tyros to the other 2 keyboards. I want to send program changes, note data, control changes, etc. from the YC to the Rev 2. The YC is best to do most of the controlling of the Rev 2 because it has a comprehensive master keyboard mode with a bunch of MIDI filters so I can tell it not to send unwanted data. I think the biggest problem I'm having is that I'm not sure how MIDI thru works on the Rev 2, And I need to know that because it is the only keyboard in my set up that has it. also I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how to connect everything. I know that I may need a merger box or a thru box to make it all work but I still don't know what I'm doing. Could anyone please help?
Hey -
The first step to any dawless rig is getting cozy with your manuals. For literally everything. Like, every sunday, make some coffee, and read a little bit of a manual. You do this enough, and at least for synths you'll start thinking of manuals more like references rather than academic text books.
I think part of the reason it's important to empower you, rather than start designing a rig in this post is well, there are options, lots of em. I think the second thing is, unless you find someone with exactly the same set of gear as you, then you're basically asking them to read a manual for a synth they don't have.
So, it gets tough to just name solutions (at least, imho). Okay, with that said, it's not like folks online can't help at all - this is just my general philosophy for dawless. If your the kinda person who reads manuals, I'm the kinda person who likes to help folks like you understand and apply what they're reading :-)
-- Now, regarding the rev2 and midi thru - it works pretty well in my experience with it. I think it's a soft thru, but as a single midi proxy in a chain, I haven't noticed significant delay or anything.
It might work for you (here's the part where I haven't read the manual for your synths, I just have a rev2). Your chain might look like:
<synth w/ midi controller you like> -> rev 2 -> <other synth>
Now, "synth w/ midi controller" needs to be able to output different midi channels (with your synths configured to different midi channels) or when you play it, every one of the synths in the chain is gonna play in tandem. And, remember the options thing I mentioned? your channel configuration can get more complex if you're using your rev2 in a multitimbral configuration.
If you had just this gear, and you inserted a midi thru box (midi hub, whatever you wanna call it), then you just wouldn't need the rev2 midi thru (which technically does have an advantage in reduced midi packet latency, though this would be negligible i think):
<synth w/ controller> -> midi hub
midi hub -> rev2
midi hub -> other synth
Finally, you mentioned midi mergers etc. Again - this is where you've got to hit your manuals and really be able to articulate what you want to do. A midi merger will take two midi data streams and combine them into a single one. Like, say you had two different hardware midi controllers and you wanted to use either one to control your whole pile of synths - then you'd use a midi merger to do that. There are other uses (i don't use them in my dawless rig, but plenty of people do).
Hope that helps, let me know if I can break anything down better.
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Hey Josh C!
What you want is certainly possible in a dawless setup, but a little complicated... it would certainly be easier and more straight forward to use a computer with a midi interface, where you can route whatever, to wherever, and also filter any MIDI information you don't want going from and to whatever device. You could then switch between different routings on the fly by loading different routing setups, so you wouldn't limit yourself to a particular routing setup.
But... if you want to accomplish this dawless, you could plug the MIDI out from the Tyros 5 into a MIDI splitter, and send one of the outputs to the YC-61, and the other output to a MIDI merger. Then connect the YC-61 MIDI out to the other input of the MIDI merger.
Now, connect the MIDI merger output to the Rev2 MIDI input.
This way, Tyros 5 MIDI gets sent to both the YC-61 and the Rev2, and the YC-61 gets sent only to the Rev2.
A short sidenote on the the MIDI thru on the Rev2. It simply copies any MIDI information received at the MIDI input, and sends it straight out, unaltered, to the thru output. What comes in, goes thru, basically.
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sorry I haven't responded until now. My email client was sending the messages from this forum to my junk folder so I didn't get them until today. thanks for the responses. I think that either a merger or a USB MIDI host will work. thank you for explaining how the MIDI thru on the Rev 2 works.