Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Hello,

I have owned a DTXpress II kit for a few years. I would like to use my
software drum synth on my PC over MIDI. I thought it would be as easy
as connecting a midi cable from my DTXPress II module to my PC midi in. 

Unfortunately not. There is no MIDI signalling whatsover coming out
from my DTXPress II MIDI out jack. I have the switch at the back set
to MIDI.

The PC synth works fine when I connect a MIDI keyboard to the same
input, but my DTXPress II gives nothing out through the same cable.

Help!

br. Timo

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "timo.sivula" <timo.sivula@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> 
> I have owned a DTXpress II kit for a few years. I would like to use my
> software drum synth on my PC over MIDI. I thought it would be as easy
> as connecting a midi cable from my DTXPress II module to my PC midi in. 
> 
> Unfortunately not. There is no MIDI signalling whatsover coming out
> from my DTXPress II MIDI out jack. I have the switch at the back set
> to MIDI.
> 
> The PC synth works fine when I connect a MIDI keyboard to the same
> input, but my DTXPress II gives nothing out through the same cable.
> 
> Help!
> 
> br. Timo
>

Timo,

I am afraid I know very little about MIDI, but there are quite a few
settings in the module relating to MIDI which may be the problem if
you are sure the hardware connections are correct (e.g. are IN & OUT
the correct way round - it seems that the labels sometime don't mean
what you think they mean!).  Have a look at page 30 onwards in the
reference guide for the settings.

Also, there are free MIDI monitor programs around which will show you
the data on a MIDI port which can be useful if there is data there but
your software is ignoring it because the data is not what is expected.

Hopefully someone who really knows about MIDI will jump in and offer
some better suggestions!

Keith.

Hi Keith, thanks for the answer!

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Keith" <keith@...> wrote:

> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "timo.sivula" <timo.sivula@> wrote:
> >  There is no MIDI signalling whatsover coming out
> > from my DTXPress II MIDI out jack.

> Have a look at page 30 onwards in the
> reference guide for the settings.

I was expecting this to be plug and play, but obviously something
needs to be enabled for it work. I restored the kit to factory
settings, but that did not help either. I will RTFM again. 

> Also, there are free MIDI monitor programs around which will show you
> the data on a MIDI port which can be useful

I am using Kmidimon to monitor what is going on, as you propose. It
shows a lot of activity when I use my keyboard, but nothing comes out
from the drumset, IN nor OUT jacks. 

> Hopefully someone who really knows about MIDI will jump in and offer
> some better suggestions!

Any help is appreciated!

br, Timo

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "timo.sivula" <timo.sivula@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Keith, thanks for the answer!

I just hooked my DTXpress up to my computer through my cheap and nasty
USB-MIDI interface and it seems to throw data out of the OUT connector
(which needs to be connected to the plug marked IN on my interface)
when I hit a pad.

It didn't seem to do it initially - it started doing it after I slid
the switch from MIDI to the other PC settings and back and tried
"enable active sensing".  

I then went through all the MIDI settings in the manual, and couldn't
actually get any of them to stop sending drum data when you hit the
pad, so I am not sure that the settings are your problem - it sounds
like a hardware problem.  It is possible the MIDI output on your
module has blown up, but I am more inclined to think there is another
problem.  I used Bome's SendSX MIDI monitor to look at the output
data. http://www.bome.com/midi/sendsx/

I did a search on this forum but most MIDI problems seem to be more
about matching sounds to the drum sounds, although there was some
discussion about the Yamaha DTXpress being fussy about the cable.

Keith.

Hi there

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Keith" <keith@...> wrote:

> I just hooked my DTXpress up to my computer...

Hey, thanks for the effort!

> It didn't seem to do it initially - it started doing it after I slid
> the switch from MIDI to the other PC settings and back and tried
> "enable active sensing".

Done that. Does not help me :-( sorry.
  
> I did a search on this forum but most MIDI problems seem to be more
> about matching sounds to the drum sounds, although there was some
> discussion about the Yamaha DTXpress being fussy about the cable.

This is a probable root cause to the problem. I am using the game port
of my soundcard as MIDI input. The cable only has three wires
connected to it. I have a Delta 1010 on my PC, too. I has a "real"
midi connector. Need to get a real MIDI cable and try that. Will
report success or failure here.

br. Timo

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "timo.sivula" <timo.sivula@...> wrote:
> This is a probable root cause to the problem. I am using the game port
> of my soundcard as MIDI input. The cable only has three wires
> connected to it. I have a Delta 1010 on my PC, too. I has a "real"
> midi connector. Need to get a real MIDI cable and try that. Will
> report success or failure here.
> 
> br. Timo
>

Timo,

I use a really cheap USB to MIDI converter I got off ebay - something
like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350153544775

It seems to work fine though.

Keith.

Keith

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Keith" <keith@...> wrote:

> I use a really cheap USB to MIDI converter I got off ebay 

After reading this, I recalled I have a second cheap gameport-to-midi
adapter lying around that replicates the game port and provides MIDI
in and  out connectors. I replaced my original three-wire cable with
this. Now I get MIDI out from the DTXPress as expected. 

I found out I can hook up my old three-wire midi cable to my the
replicated game port and can have both the drum kit and my keyboard
connected simultaneously. Excellent!

The conclusion is, that the DTXpress II kit needs a fully connected
midi cable to work.

Thanks for the help, Keith.

Timo

Timo,

Glad it's sorted.  

Keith.