OK, this may sound a little amateurish, but here we go....
I want to know if I could sync. The automation of the da7 with cakewalk via midi in/out. I set it up so that cakewalk was reading and recording the automation via midi ch.1. I could see that CW is recording my fader moves'n'all, but I don't know what to do beyond that. How do you get the da7's automation and cw to lock to a time so that I could rewind, ff, or play in cw and it would do the same with the automation in the da7? Is it possible? The book is terribly skimpy on the explanation of automation. Actually, I understood nothing from the book i.e. (manual)!

Another quick question, has anyone ever used the chat room on this site?? I've been in it a couple of times but there wasn't anyone there.

Who cares if it sounds amateurish. No one knows everything.

You use MMC to do all the fast forward, rewind, find point stuff. The DA7 can send MMC. However, it doesn't send MTC or MIDI clock. So, Cakewalk needs to send MTC or MIDI clock to the DA7 so that MTC makes sense.

Makes sense? Well never mind. Just send out from the computer to the DA7 and the DA7 back to the computer and turn off MIDI through so you don't have a loop. Configure the DA7 to send MIDI and read the manual for the MMC stuff. Configure cakewalk to respond to MMC and send its internal clock.

It should work.

WOW! It worked that's cool. Thanx marcn. But there's one little problem I need to solve too. I use a Turtle Beach Pinnacle w/ Yamaha dbxg daughter synth for my midi stuff; well I had a keyboard midi controller hooked-up to the input on the Pinnacle. My question is how would I be able to use the automation and the keyboard at the same time. Actually, I was wondering how I would get my lexicon pcm90 reverb and my digitech 2120 guitar FX units into this loop? Could I control FX tempo and such, via midi?

Wow, I wish life was just that simple...

If you want the MTC to be displayed in the DA7's LCD. Go to the Automation Set-uP or Execute Window. Look in the Time-Base area, here's where you can select SMPTE, MIDI CLK, MTC, etc. To do this you must be in the cursor mode and NEW MIX must be selected if you are going to change the Time Base type.

Good luck, with your sync...

OK, now the mixer isn't letting me turn channels on/off.!@#$%&

There is one problem with MIDI - Out of the box it doesn't really allow for multiple controllers. If you want to control your setup with your keyboard, your computer, or the DA7 you'll need a more complex setup (I describe this last).

However, I don't think this is what you want. Let's just assume you simply want the keyboard to respond to the computer. All you need to do is go out from the computer to the keyboard, and through to the DA7.

I don't suggest putting the effects units on the same channel. Why? Now that your keyboard is in the loop - you've got MTC and MIDI notes on the same cable, which can be allot of information. Add patch changes to that for effect units and you may actually change the performance of the MIDI notes noticeably. So, if you can - get another MIDI port for your computer and let that be what controls all your outboard gear.

Don't have a second MIDI port? You can put the effects units in the path (if they have a through). They all get connected to the computers OUT and end up at the DA7. This would be perfect for bank changes before MIDI notes are sent.

"But I want to play my keyboard and record the MIDI notes in Cakewalk as well!" Alright, you can. Go to the store and buy a MIDI merger (MIDIman has a 2x2 merger that works well without power). Put the out of the keyboard and DA7 into the merger. Put the out from the merger into the computer.

"But I want to sit at any one of my three device and have the others sync when I press play!" You need Three MIDI mergers and three MIDI splitters (you can make 3 splitters with 5 MIDI cables). The out of each device goes into a splitter which connects to the INs of two MIDI mergers. Each MIDI merger sends to the device not plugged into the IN. This way there are no MIDI loops and all three devices can be the master of the other two.

[This message has been edited by marcn (edited 02-24-2000).]

thanx for the help. Although, I only have the mixer hooked up to midi in/out. he automation was recording fader moves and such. now my mixer doesn't respond to realtime automation, wouldn't let me turn channels on/off, and Cakewalk is only recoding sysx events rather than the events it used to, like fader moves.

I forget the names of all the MIDI sniffers - but find one and debug the issue that way. something isn't sending or recieving anymore, the only way to figure out wich device is failing is to look at what's being sent.

One that I've used has a swiss army knife as a logo... I don't have it installed anymore, but I rember that it helped quite a bit. Sorry I can't help you more than that.

thank you, You were very helpful.