Voyager - Spitting random Midi notes

[jordannocturne]

Hi All,
First post so please go easy on me.

I'm by no means a synth pro, in fact I was working a friends studio, fell in love with the sound of his little phatty, and then went all extravagant with my own purchase of the voyager... so fingers crossed my issue is a real amateur one and easily fixed.

Basically, when I am recording the MIDI signal of the voyager into Live, I am finding the keyboard often sending random notes and MIDI information to the computer despite me not touching those keys. I have even found, for example that if I am recording the filter cutoff opening, it will send random notes to the computer.

When the keyboard first arrived I noticed this, and we sent it back to Moog who were convinced there was no issue. On return the issues are still there, and my engineer friend who would be quite educated in this field is also baffled.

Could it be my USB-MIDI cable or is it a simple feature in the keyboard settings I should be looking at?

Thanks again.

[Markyboard]

I suggest you start eliminating possibilities. If you suspect a cable swap it out for another cable. If you're still getting random notes you now know it's not the cable. BTW the Voyager doesn't have usb so what interface are you using? Any other keyboards you can try through the same midi port? Again this will help narrow down the problem based on your observation. Hope that helps.

One more - are you operating with the Voyager set for local off and enabling soft thru in Live?

[jordannocturne]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for your reply.

Sorry, I am using a MIDI-USB interface cable at present.

I had previously used the MIDI from my Focusrite Saffire at it was also doing this so mustn't be a cable problem.

Was also doing this on Cubase.

I have tried with local off on the keyboard, not familiar with soft thru however?

[Markyboard]

Sorry Jordan - "soft thru" was my mistake. i just meant that your sequencer software was turning around the midi data back to the Voyager so you could hear with Local keys off while you were recording.


Which midi to USB cable are you using? I have no experience with these as I use standard midi cable from the Voyager through a MOTU interface which sends/receives midi data to/from the computer over USB. This sounds very much like your configuration when you had the Saffire interface. And you also had the issue with Cubase as well so it does very much sound like a Voyager problem.

If you still have those components I would try it one more time. You want to swap out one thing at a time, including the voyager to convince yourself beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is truly the Voyager. Better still if you could bring you Voyager to another studio, music store , friends house etc. If you can duplicate the exact problem elsewhere that would definitely point to the Voyager.

Also what version Voyager OS are you on?

[jordannocturne]

Version 3.5... do you think this might be the cause?

The adapter is just a cheap one off the internet - brandless, but as you say, I have tried the Saffire setup.

[jordannocturne]

Update:

Took to a friends studio and it was still playing up when both MIDI in and out were in... However both working fine with just one plugged in, any suggestions?

[Markyboard]

I'm sorry Jordan - I'm having difficulty understanding your response. By "playing up" I assume you mean there were random notes.

Not sure what you mean by "both working fine".

Are the random notes being recorded in your DAW or are you just hearing them? This may give some insight into where the problem lies.

Not trying to be an a**hole here but please be very clear with your descriptions so that I or others may advise you. Like I said previously it could very well be a problem with your Voyager...but we sort of have to prove it.

[neolithic]

Hi

I just came across this while trying to diagnose an apparent fault on my Voyager.

Sounds like it is possibly caused by the MIDI interface if it is not configured correctly. For e.g. I use a iConnect4+ which sends all data to all MIDI ports using the factory default config, so it takes a bit of effort to set which ports, channels and filters you need for your set-up. It depends on what interface you are using and how it is configured. That's where my money is.
Your last comment suggests it is MIDI 'echo' where data going out is being sent back in a continuous feedback loop, which causes the interface to do weird stuff.

For diagnostic I would try the following:
- unplug all other gear from your MIDI interface
- unplug anything from the Voyager that may be generating keyboard CV (like a VX-351 CV Expander, HW sequencers, pedals and stuff)
- unplug the MIDI-IN from the Voyager so you are just sending data OUT and there is no chance of a feedback loop. (I think you did this already and the problem went away?)
- use a program like MIDI-OX (http://www.midiox.com/) to monitor the interface ports and see what data is being sent from the Voyager.
- try checking if the problem goes away when you change the MIDI output (TX) channel on the Voyager (Master menu 1.2)
- Change the output (TX) and input (RX) channels to be different. In Live, make sure that the IO settings in the MIDI track where the Voyager is sending to are correct

FWIW I was having weird issues with tons of MIDI CC Data being blasted out of the Voyager. Re-installing OS 3.5 and powering down/up seems to have fixed it... so far.

Cheers
N

[LuminousFlyingMonkey]

I just want to thank you so much Neolithic!!!!
Just got my Voyager and it was having this problem.
Reinstalled the OS and voila it works like a charm!