My su****ion is that the MOTU would have worked too. It looks like you are new to this and I'm guessing you missed something in the set up or in the plug in manager. No big deal. Quite often in the setup screens that show up when you first install a new synth, there are options that let you choose HOW you want it to run.....stand alone or VST or both, and I've seen some other options there as well. If you've returned it and gotten something else, that's all water under the bridge now. More then once I had to go hunting for the location(s) of the files and get the right one into the list, then scan it again..... scanning it after putting it in the plug in manager list is important. More then once.... in the early days I got it in the list, then forgot to re-scan the list....
Clicking or not clicking the boxes tells it how you want it to run. It's possible that the VST box was left unchecked.
Also, when I first was getting started, the Plug in manager was a bit of a mystery and getting new FX and VSt's to show up was a bit of a challenge.
Finally, understanding the way midi worked was also a challenge. As Beagle pointed out, MIDI is not music, just data that represents the notes. You can take that data, and send it to any synth, and the synth takes the incoming data and uses it to trigger the notes using the samples or patch you have loaded into the synth. That can be a drum, a piano, a string section, ...whatever....
Once you get the understanding of what it is and how to set it up, it tends to be very cool and useful.
My website has a small section on some basic midi stuff, that helps you understand using channels and setting up a synth to play different instruments in TTS ( a multi-timbral synth). It's a good primer for understanding this stuff. Most people here, including myself do not use TTS, but choose instead to use single channel synths.
EDIT: why did cake replace letters in the word S U S P I C I O N?
post edited by Guitarhacker - 2011/11/11 08:58:21