But wait...another noobish midi setup question!

LONG POST INCOMING.

Hey all… just bought a Pyramid in my attempt to be less reliant on a DAW.

Up to this point, I had all my hardware being controlled by Komplete Kontrol/Maschine/Maschine Jam (or note drawing on Ableton/Logic). So midi out of my Scarlett 18i20 > quadra thru > hardware.

I’m a bit lost on the more complex midi aspects now that I’ve got a Pyramid. Any help would be appreciated. Gear is as follows:

Computer Setup:
iMac + Daw + Softsynths
Komplete Kontrol
Maschine + Maschine Jam

Midi:
2x Midi solutions Quadra Thru

Synths:
Quantum
Prophet 6
System 8
Sub 37
Montage

Drums/Seq:
Pyramid
TR8S
Analog Rytm MK2

Mixer:
Behringer xAir 18

So… In an ideal world, I’d like my computer setup to be able to still send midi to my hardware synths + drum machines, but also want to sequence software synths with the pyramid. Plus obviously I want to be able to sequence the hardware with the pyramid if I want to go DAWless and just jam.

Would this flow work or am I completely dumb?
Komplete Kontrol/Maschine/Maschine Jam (USB) > Mac/Scarlett 18i20
Scarlett (MIDI Out) > Pyramid (MIDI In)
Pyramid (MIDI Out 1) > QUADRA THRU Box 1 > Prophet, Montage, Quantum, System 8
Pyramid (MIDI Out 2) > QUADRA THRU Box 2 > Sub37, TR8S, Analog Rytm MK2
Pyramid (USB Out) > Mac

Do I miss anything/lost any functionality with this setup?

1 Like

My setup entirely daw less but two things:

1/ I’d merged keyboard, midi clock into one midi out which comes to pyramid midi in
1a/ turn off midi echo

Daw midi out + pyramid midi out + keyboard = midi in to pyramid. It works well for me, any of them can play/stop and send/record cc/note, not to mention cross-recording and morphing

Thanks! If the komplete kontrol (midi keyboard)/maschine/maschine jam are all connected through usb, wouldn’t this just require one midi out from my interface to the pyramid midi in?

Does maschine work with hardware synths when you turn off your Mac?
I feel you have two keyboards connected to two “brains”, iMac and Pyramid.

Cheers

bare in mind, if you connect the USB to your mac its bi-directional (midi in and out)
so you don’t really need to connect your scarlett.

this means, you leave the MIDI DIN IN for another master keyboard, that can also be used when the mac is turned off.

This makes total sense. Feeling like the Komplete kontrol should be the master in most circumstances, but perhaps the montage could take its place… Or perhaps I send midi from the Analog Rytm back into the Pyramid midi in?

I ran into a similar situation where I wanted greater “control” and flexibility when using multiple MIDI Thru boxes and felt handcuffed due to limited MIDI routing options. So I dumped the Thru boxes for an iConnectivity’s mio10 box. Using their configuration software I was able to select specific MIDI controllers to manage certain synths, effects, etc. via MIDI routing. Since all gear connected to the mio10 It acted a MIDI matrix “Hub” allowing me to choose numerous controllers without having to rethink each time how to reriwre the Thru boxes to achieve it. It also solved some ground loop issues and latency across the whole,setup. It made the onboarding of new gear process painless and offered great flexibility.

I’m just a regular user of the product and have no relationships or ties with the company.nor recieve any compensation or benefits by sharing this info.

This video shows a quite large setup that is nicely put together.