midi connection gurus

bokchoyboy
Got the Micron to play and record audio/midi, but no love for the Roland yet.  Should I load a soft synth to see if the Micron will play a vst instrument?  Something simple like SI-Strings? Any partcular track setting for the soft synth that I need to engage?  Thx!

brundlefly
Ideally you would have a separate MIDI Out from the DAW to each hardware unit, but it dosn;t sound like you have that capability with your interface, and neither unit has USB MIDI so you'll have to daisy chain the Roland on the Alesis' THRU.
 
Here's the complete drill: 
- Connect the Alesis to MIDI I/O on the Echo, and the Roland's IN to the Alesis THRU.
- Turn off Local Control on the Alesis (check the manual).
- Connect audio outputs of each unit to the Echo (mono or stereo, depending on how many inputs you want to use up).
- In a SONAR project insert a MIDI track for the Alesis, set Input and Ouput to the Echo's MIDI ports, and enable the Input Echo button - looks like ))). When setting the Input, you don't have to select a specific channel, but you do need to set a specific output channel using the track's 'CH' field that matches the Receive channel on the Alesis.
- Similarly, create a MIDI track for the Roland, set a different output channel, and set the Roland's receive channel to match (agian, see it's manual).
- Insert an audio track for each hardware unit, assign the inputs to the corresponding inputs on the interface (you can add friendly names in MIDI Devices to tell them apart), and enable Input Echo on those as well.
- Perform on the Alesis, and you should hear sound from both units if both MIDI tracks have Input Echo enabled.
- The Alesis is 4-part multitimbral, so I assume it can receive on 4 different channels. You can set up an adiditonal trackf or each part if you want to use them. Again, the input channel can be 1 for everything, and you use the ouput CH. setting in the track to re-write the channel of the MIDI events on the fly to match the destination.
- With this setup, you can layer then synths in real time by having Input Echo enabled on more than one track or you can just echo one track and hear that instrument while performing. SONAR has an option in preferences to Always Echo Current MIDI Track that';s enabled by default to echo the track that currently has focus. I prefer to leave this off, and manage Input Echo manually.
 
I'm sure the above seems a little complicated, but it's not as bad as it sounds once you really get how MIDI and audio signals flow. By turning off Local Control on the Alesis, you're basically using it as a separate MIDI controller and sound module which is the best way to go for keyboard synths. You can record MIDI for any instrument individually (or simultaneously for layered parts) edit it as necessary, an when you;re ready, enable record on the audio track and recrod the hardware synth. Or you can leave the hardware synth 'live' indefinitely.
 
Good results willd epend on keeping your ASIo buffer low so that you don;t have more than 6-12ms of round-trip audio latency for the synth I/O the MIDI roud trip will ad a fe more milliseconds, but that shouldn't be too bothersome. 
 
Give it a whirl, and let us know if you run in to trouble. Later you can set up Instrument Definitions for the MIDI port by channels to help you manage patch changes on the two modules.