New With ??? About My Set Up Options

[torchsong]

Hi, new girl here with lots of questions about hardware and software.
I've read just about everything I can that is somewhat related to my situation but still have ????

I am a cellist and vocalist and want to make backing tracks to play with live and also make demo recordings on my computer. I come from the portastudio school of home recordings so the MIDI stuff is making me nuts!

Here's what I have:
imac running OS 9.2
DX7
Boss DRmkII
Behringer Eurorack
MOTU Fast Lane
Metro 5
OMS 2.3.8 grrrrrrr.....
cello with pickup (although I usually am miked for studio recording)
guitars
cables

I've tried to keep the basic set up simple but am having problems with OMS I think. Metro doesn't seem to like to work with Free MIDI.
I am also having problems playing back audio after recording a track, how am I supposed to hear what I've played to do over dubs?

BTW, I downloaded Pro Tools Free to try it out and just can't get the thing to open (memory error 1,010) so I gave up and went with Metro instead because it was inexpensive to start.

Thanks for any help, this is a great site!

[Levon River]

Hi, torchsong. First step of trouble-shooting is to exactly define the trouble. I know it all seems to run together in a lump when it's not working but the more specific you can be, the better. They left the DWIM command (Do What I Mean) out of OMS, so let's start there:

1. Is OMS recognizing the FastLane?

2. Have you created a configuration in OMS for your DX-7?

3. In your configuration, do you have the DX-7 "MIDI Out" going to a FastLane "MIDI In," and a FastLane "MIDI Out" going to the DX-7 "MIDI In"?

4. If all the above is in place, have you used the "Test Studio" menu item to see if everything is talking to everything else?

As for the audio:

1. Where is the audio out of your iMac going? Do you have headphones plugged into it or what?

Any specific information you can give about how you have things set up will help to exterminate the bugs.

[torchsong]

Thanks for the reply
Yes to questions 1-4 and the audio is going through a pair of speakers hooked up to the computer.
Right now I only have the keyboard hooked up to keep things as simple as possible

I guess what I really need help with is the @#$ software. The manual isn't always helping

[Levon River]

Good on 1-4. But you earlier said: "...the MIDI stuff is making me nuts!" and: "...am having problems with OMS I think." I still have absolutely no idea how that is translating into actual practice if you've done 1-4 with OMS. What problems are you having? Recording MIDI information into Metro? Playing back a MIDI track and having it drive the DX-7?

I'd love to help you, but, I'll say it again: specifics are what is needed if there's going to be any chance of helping you. Saying "what I really need help with is the @#$ software" is about as broad a statement as you can make. Is this with some aspect of the MIDI functions in Metro, or with the audio functions, or both? If both, separate them out and say specifically what you are trying to do and specifically what happens (or doesn't happen )when you try to do *that*.

Then we'll get all over it like white on rice and have you cookin' in no time.

Whaddaya say? Want to provide some actual clue to what the problem is? You're going to have to, because my crystal ball got broke when I tried to dribble it.

[torchsong]

I went back to try and reasses where I was having problems within Metro but wound up spending most of the day dealing with crashes of all my music related software. Most of the crashes had error codes of 1, 2 or 3 which I realize are memory related.

I have plenty of memory and hard disk space (320m ram and 19 gig hard disk) and have adjusted application memory accordingly. I'm not running virtual memory

I ran Norton Utilities and came back with only minor errors in Metro and OMS. They were fixed and my hard disk is defragmented.

I reinstalled Metro and OMS to no avail. Even a couple of demos that I downloaded to try out were not working. (Live & FM)

Before I decided to use Metro I had tried a download of ProTools free and it would only crash so I gave up on it. I also forgot to mention that QuickTime is also crashing and that whenever I try to open the OMS Preferred Device control panel it also crashes.
I knew I would have some technical difficulties when I got into this but this is ridiculous

I think I've covered all that's going wrong and now if I go to open the apps they will probably work because I posted it here...
bombs away!!!

[Levon River]

Girl, you got more than MIDI problems. But I've been there, and I know it ain't funny. Have you broken anything valuable yet? Make sure you get all the pets out of the room before you have another go at it.

Okay, seriously: you've just got to be sitting on some pretty dripping-fang system-related issues. There are some methodical de-bug steps, though.

One thing you oughta do is zap your p-ram:

1. Restart the Mac

2. When you hear the start-up chime press and hold Cmd-Opt-P-R, making sure that the caps lock key is not depressed. Hold these keys UNTIL the machine chimes again.

3. Reset the date and time, AppleTalk settings, printer ports, etc.

Next thing to investigate is any possible SCSI problems. Do you have any SCSI devices connected? One little thing wrong in that can wreak absolute havoc in all directions. If you have any SCSI devices connected, shut down your computer and disconnect them ALL, and see how things run then. If fine, then you've got to look at SCSI IDs and termination before you reconnect the SCSI stuff.

And: Have you tried doing any of this merry music making with nothing but a basic and stripped-down Apple extensions set, plus OMS? If not, please start there. Just make a copy the most fundamental Base OS 9.x set of extensions in Extensions Manager, and go in and turn off *everything* you won't need for music, and turn on OMS and any of its related extensions, and then press the "Doom" button and see how much blue smoke starts pouring out of the exhaust vents. If none, then you might be on the trail of extension conflicts.

If all else fails, you may need to do a clean reinstall of your system software.

And if *none* of that works, I might have the number for an exorcist...

[Levon River]

Wait a minute! Did I just hear you say "Norton Utilities"?!?!

Now, I know tastes and experiences vary, and I have no doubt that the next statement may bring out a mob with pitchforks and torches, but I wouldn't let Norton and his Utilities in the same state where I was trying to do music, much less on the same computer. I mean, when people come in here they get frisked to make sure they don't have a copy of Norton Utilities on them.

I will not give any alternative recommendations, because I don't think DiskWarrior has solicited my endorsement, and might even consider legal action if they got it.

[Teiwaz]

The alternative to Norton Utilities is Tech Tool Pro. It gives you everything for looking after your data/hardware in one single package.

[torchsong]

new day, same s**t...

Every application on my computer works properly except anything having to do with MIDI. I took your suggestions Levon and still no success.

As far as those other utilities goes, it's all I've ever used but I may give TechTools a try. Apple computers are all I've ever owned and used except for the dreadful years that I worked for a record company
I won't be making any changes in systems but this is all very frustrating

I'm not looking to make CD's at home, just trying to put some ideas down and maybe make a few interesting tracks that I can take to a proper studio to record later.

My idea was that if I get my existing set up to work and learn to use it well maybe I could get some new toys later.... I've got a list!

[Levon River]

new day, same s**t...

Every application on my computer works properly except anything having to do with MIDI.

Hmmm. Well, then, let me ask you these burning questions. Since it's an iMac, can I safely assume that it's a USB FastLane, not a serial one? If USB, do you have the latest/correct drivers from MOTU for your system? Finally, have you tried installing FreeMIDI and turning off OMS, just to focus on your DX-7>FastLane>iMac>FastLane>DX-7 and make sure that everything is fine up to that point, without intervening software?

I took your suggestions Levon and still no success.

Well, see! Taking my suggestions was yer first mistake!

We ain't done yet. Let's see what the questions above turn up. This CAN be solved...

....and there's always the exorcist to fall back on...