2000XL/PT 11 Midi issues

Hello. I already asked this question on the avid forum. No response so I'll try here. I am currently using PT 10/11 with 2 keyboard modules, MPC 2000XL, Keyboard controller. Mbox Pro 2 and a midisport 4X4. I have my MPC (all the midi ins and outs to the midisport along with the modules. I am not using the midi on the mbox 2. For the life of me, the MPC will not register on a midi track in protools 11 and no sounds from the pads. The Mpc sounds can be heard on my keyboard, ONLY in Midi. The MPC only will register as an audio track in MPC, pads and all. I do not "know" much about midi. I've hooked most of this stuff by trial and error etc. I've never mapped the connections out in protools. I hope that makes sense since I saw something like that online in a video. Ideally, I would like to track my MPC tracks through midi and not audio tracks for more control. I originally had my modules to MPC and the MPC to the in and outs on Mbox 2 and it worked fine until I got PT 11 and update my operating system on my Mac. Wierd. Hope y'all can help. I also have searched this website for old posts. Couldn't find one to help with this.

mg70 wrote:Ideally, I would like to track my MPC tracks through midi and not audio tracks for more control.

Not really sure what you are talking about here, and it is possible that others do not understand either, and that is why you have not found help.

MIDI is note on/off information, to trigger sounds in a keyboard/sound module/VST instruments/etc., MIDI is not an audio signal.

What do you mean by "track my MPC tracks through MIDI and not audio tracks"?

mg70 wrote:I originally had my modules to MPC and the MPC to the in and outs on Mbox 2 and it worked fine until I got PT 11 and update my operating system on my Mac. Wierd. Hope y'all can help. I also have searched this website for old posts. Couldn't find one to help with this.

How were you using it before, were you recording MIDI from the MPC into Pro Tools, or the audio output of the MPC?

Mate, explain your signal flow please. Sounds like you are thinking that audio will just pop out of pro tools just becaue you can send midi data to trigger sounds in MPC? Would need to see what your signal flow is to better understand the issues?

I have a feeling some of the op s audio vocabulary is wrong as far as the technical definition of the word. But yah im pretty lost as far as understanding what he or she wants. Mayb im dense tho.

Ok. Basically, I am trying to track my MPC tracks (usually drums) through MIDI as opposed to audio tracks. I used to run my modules to my MPC and the MPC to the Mbox 2. That setup didn't work when I got Protools 11. Even though I was tracking my MPC sounds through audio tracks, a friend suggested that I run my MPC sounds/tracks through midi to have greater control of that track or sounds at a later date. He could not get it to work at my studio. But he explained to me that it is more convienent (sp?) to run the mpc sounds or your drums through midi in case you may want to change the tempo somewhere down the road which is what I would like to do if it is possible.

What I mean I about running my tracks through protools I mean setting up a midi track in protools, record enabling and checking the level of the midi (info). All my modules register in the midi track BUT when I hit my MPC pads. No level, I can hear the drums when I press the keyboard controller but nothing from the pads while in a midi track in protools. Now if I switch to an audio track, MPC registers.

You can not 'track' your MPC tracks through MIDI, in the same way that you can record (track) the audio outputs of the MPC into the audio inputs of Pro Tools.

If you make a beat within the MPC, you can record that as audio into Pro Tools.

You can output the MIDI note on/off information from that MPC sequence and record it as MIDI into Pro Tools, or transfer it as a MIDI file by disk/memory card into the computer.

Then you have the MIDI note on/off data from the MPC sequence inside a Pro Tools session, which you can use to trigger sounds inside a Pro Tools software instrument, that you setup with the same sounds that you want the sequence to play inside Pro Tools, or which you can send back out of Pro Tools into the MPC, to trigger the samples inside the MPC from Pro Tools.

Not really sure if you understand the difference between recording the output of the MPC into Pro Tools as MIDI, versus as audio, which you might have been doing before.

mg70 wrote:What I mean I about running my tracks through protools I mean setting up a midi track in protools, record enabling and checking the level of the midi (info). All my modules register in the midi track BUT when I hit my MPC pads. No level, I can hear the drums when I press the keyboard controller but nothing from the pads while in a midi track in protools. Now if I switch to an audio track, MPC registers.

You need to set each MPC sequencer track to MIDI, instead of DRUM, so that it will send MIDI data out of the MPC.

Signal flow? The Mpc's midi in and outs are going to a midisport 4x4. My modules are also routed to the midisport. I guess it's called the midi handshake? The Midisport goes to a macbook pro. My mixer (with turntables etc.) is hooked up the mbox 2.

I tried switching from DRUM to MIDI in the sequence. No sounds out of MPC...So Simon, I think you hinted on something I was thinking about. After I make a beat in the MPC, should I import into protools? It should transfer that file from the MPC into a midi track or file in protools?

mg70 wrote:I tried switching from DRUM to MIDI in the sequence. No sounds out of MPC...So Simon, I think you hinted on something I was thinking about. After I make a beat in the MPC, should I import into protools? It should transfer that file from the MPC into a midi track or file in protools?

When the sequence is inside the MPC, it is sending MIDI data to the internal MPC sample engine, and/or to external MIDI devices, to trigger the sound playback there.

When the sequence is either recorded or transferred into Pro Tools, where is the MIDI data going to be sent to, so that it plays back the sounds you want it to playback, which I assume are the same sounds played by the sequence when it is playing inside the MPC?

If I understand your question, the data would be sent to an opened protools session.

mg70 wrote:If I understand your question, the data would be sent to an opened protools session.

Where is the MIDI data going to be sent to, once inside that Pro Tools session, so that it triggers and plays back the same samples/synth sounds/audio as the MIDI data does when it is inside the MPC?