If I understand what you've been trying so hard to explain, it seems I would have needed one cable to send MIDI signals from the Casio to the Surface and another cable to send sound from Pianoteq on the Surface to the Henriksen.
I don't recall having any such device, nor is it referenced in any of my notes or emails. and again, I do think I plugged ONE cable into the headphone jack of the Surface. My gig packing list does reference a 1/4" cable. Perhaps I had a 1/8 adapter on the Surface end. But that still wouldn't make sense - one cable when two are needed?
Let’s try something, OK? Sometimes one step at a time helps.
Earlier in the this discussion, you wrote:
There's a TRS cable connecting the Casio to the Henriksen amp.
If I’m looking at the right manuals, the plug that fits into the Casio should also fit into the headphone jack on your Surface Pro 7. If it does, try this:
Take the plug out of the Casio and plug it into the Surface. Leave the other end in the Henriksen.
Turn on the Surface and set its volume really low (but not quite off... maybe 10% or so).
Turn the volume all the way down on the Henriksen and turn it on.
On your Surface, go to some website that makes sound, like a YouTube video. Or use a music player, if you have one installed. Anything that makes sound will do.
Now turn the volume on the Henriksen up a bit and see if you hear what’s playing on the Surface.
If the volume is too low when you have the Henriksen volume somewhere in the middle, nudge the Surface volume up carefully. You want to get the Surface volume set so that you can control the volume easily with the knob on the Henriksen.
If you get that far, then we know we can get sound from the Surface into the Henriksen, and we can move on to the next step.
]]>But I don't recall plugging two cables into the Surface. And the USB jack and the headphone jack are on opposite sides of the width of the Surface. This means I would have had to have the Surface laying on its long edge, ie, landscape. The problem:
1. I don't recall the Surface being used in landscape position.
2. I don't recall two cables being connected to the Surface. But I seem to recall plugging a cable into the headphone jack. Does that suggest anything to you?
3. Nothing in my notes or check list indicates it was a two cable setup.
The Casio CDP-S360 is capable of using a wireless MIDI & audio adaptor. Is it possible that you used that instead of the USB cable?
If I understand what you've been trying so hard to explain, it seems I would have needed one cable to send MIDI signals from the Casio to the Surface and another cable to send sound from Pianoteq on the Surface to the Henriksen.
I don't recall having any such device, nor is it referenced in any of my notes or emails. and again, I do think I plugged ONE cable into the headphone jack of the Surface. My gig packing list does reference a 1/4" cable. Perhaps I had a 1/8 adapter on the Surface end. But that still wouldn't make sense - one cable when two are needed?
FWIW I've tried but I don't understand how to separate my quotes of your messages to intersperse comments or questions like you do.
No worries. It’s a bit of a pain in the butt. A lot of users don’t bother trying to control formatting in this forum at all. I’m just a stubborn old cuss.
When you go to write a message or a reply, above the entry area at the right side you’ll see where it says “You may use:” and the first link after that says BBCode. The page at that link describes how formatting works in this forum. If you scroll down a bit, you’ll see an explanation of how the quote tag works.
When you start a reply, it has quote tags around the quoted part. What I do is delete the parts I don’t want to quote, then where I want to separate I insert a few blank lines, put a closing quote tag on the first blank line and an opening quote tag on the last one, then type my comments in the space in between:
[quote=...username...] <== this tag was already there
...quoted text...
[/quote] <== this I add
...my reply...
[quote] <== this I add
...more quoted text...
[/quote] <== this tag was already there
...last reply text...Then I always check with the Preview reply button. At least half the time I’ve made some mistake.
]]>How do I employ the headphone jack? if I could get sound by plugging a cable into the headphone jack of the Surface, would I plug the other end into the Casio or the Henriksen? Which one? Which port on whatever the correct device is? What kind of cable would I need?
Would this still require some stereo to mono modifications? I know I didn't mess with that before. So if the Surface hearphone jack is the way to access Pianoteq sounds, this might be what i was doing. I'm thinking I plug the 1/8" into the headphone jack.
Using the cable you have, plug the 1/8" into the headphone jack on the Surface and the 1/4" into the Henriksen (the large black combination XLR/phone jack at the top left labeled “INPUT”). Since that’s the cable you already have and know you used, I think that must be what you did.
Start with the volume way down on both the Surface and the Henriksen! The Surface output is much higher than what the Henriksen expects, so try turning up the Surface volume just a tiny bit, then raise the Henriksen volume somewhere around the middle of the range, then carefully raise the Surface volume a bit more if necessary. Once you get a reasonable level of sound, leave the Surface volume alone and adjust with the Henriksen volume.
I haven’t found a reliable reference for this, but according to the AI results when I did a Google search, the Surface 7 will automatically adapt to mono when a mono headphone is plugged in. If (as I suspect but can’t verify) the Henriksen 1/4" input is unbalanced, that would trigger the mono compatible mode. So it is plausible that it “just worked” without you doing anything special.
But I don't recall plugging two cables into the Surface. And the USB jack and the headphone jack are on opposite sides of the width of the Surface. This means I would have had to have the Surface laying on its long edge, ie, landscape. The problem:
1. I don't recall the Surface being used in landscape position.
2. I don't recall two cables being connected to the Surface. But I seem to recall plugging a cable into the headphone jack. Does that suggest anything to you?
3. Nothing in my notes or check list indicates it was a two cable setup.
The Casio CDP-S360 is capable of using a wireless MIDI & audio adaptor. Is it possible that you used that instead of the USB cable?
]]>You say "To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB rom the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer." I have that. It's a USB B jack on the Casio. How do I employ the headphone jack? if I could get sound by plugging a cable into the headphone jack of the Surface, would I plug the other end into the Casio or the Henriksen? Which one? Which port on whatever the correct device is? What kind of cable would I need?
Would this still require some stereo to mono modifications? I know I didn't mess with that before. So if the Surface hearphone jack is the way to access Pianoteq sounds, this might be what i was doing. I'm thinking I plug the 1/8" into the headphone jack.
But I don't recall plugging two cables into the Surface. And the USB jack and the headphone jack are on opposite sides of the width of the Surface. This means I would have had to have the Surface laying on its long edge, ie, landscape. The problem:
1. I don't recall the Surface being used in landscape position.
2. I don't recall two cables being connected to the Surface. But I seem to recall plugging a cable into the headphone jack. Does that suggest anything to you?
3. Nothing in my notes or check list indicates it was a two cable setup.
none of this makes any sense.
jocar37 wrote:I use Cantabile as the host for the other VSTs. (Are you familiar with it?)
I have heard of it, but I have no experience with it. It looks quite powerful. I’m sure someone who does use it will be able to tell you how to merge left and right outputs so you can feed a single output to your amplifier; unfortunately, that someone isn’t me.
But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio.
I don’t doubt you that Pianoteq worked on your Surface and you got sound out of the Henricksen without using the MOTU. What I believe is not possible is that you got Pianoteq sound out of something plugged into the Casio. The USB cable from the Casio to your computer (whether it’s the studio or the Surface) carries MIDI from the Casio to the computer, but it cannot carry sound from the computer back to the Casio. Pianoteq runs on the computer, and to get sound out of the computer, whatever will make sound — speakers, amplifier or headphones — must be connected to the computer. That can be a direct connection or it can go through the MOTU; but it can’t go backwards through the Casio.
I'm also confused about what, if anything, I can do with the headphones. Do I need them or shyould I just get a mono to mono cable?
The main reason I wanted you to find the headphones was to verify that you can play piano and get the Pianoteq sound to go through the MOTU. Now we know everything up to that point works. Of course, if you’re just practicing or playing for yourself, you can listen through the headphones. (Depending on how good they are, the headphones might sound better than the Henriksen will.)
Since you don’t have your monitor speakers anymore, if you want to play “out loud” using your studio computer, you’ll need to connect the amplifier to the MOTU. I think that will require a cable you probably don’t already have. There’s more than one way to do it; the type of cable shown in the link I gave earlier is one way.¹
To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB from the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer. Since we already know you didn’t use the MOTU with your Surface Pro, you would need to connect the Surface Pro directly to the amplifier. The cable you’ve described that you brought along with the keyboard, the Surface Pro and the Henriksen amplifier must be what you used to connect them. But (as I said in my other, shorter message), it must have gone between the amplifier and the Surface Pro, not between the amplifier and the Casio.
---
¹ Another way would be to use an “insert” cable, if you have one of those. An insert cable has a 1/4" TRS plug on one end and two mono 1/4“ plugs on the other. You would plug the TRS end into one of the MOTU outputs, plug one of the mono plugs into the Henriksen and leave the other not connected to anything... maybe wrap a little tape or plastic around it just to be sure it doesn’t touch anything conductive. Sounds goofy, I know, but it’s a roundabout way of dealing with the unforgiving balanced 1/4" output on the MOTU and the (probably) unbalanced 1/4" input on the Henriksen.
FWIW I've tried but I don't understand how to separate my quotes of your messages to intersperse comments or questions like you do. so let me just ask some questions.
You say "To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB rom the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer." I have that. It's a USB B jack on the Casio. How do I employ the headphone jack? if I could get sound by plugging a cable into the headphone jack of the Surface, would I plug the other end into the Casio or the Henriksen? Which one? Which port on whatever the correct device is? What kind of cable would I need?
Would this still require some stereo to mono modifications? I know I didn't mess with that before. So if the Surface hearphone jack is the way to access Pianoteq sounds, this might be what i was doing. I'm thinking I plug the 1/8" into the headphone jack.
But I don't recall plugging two cables into the Surface. And the USB jack and the headphone jack are on opposite sides of the width of the Surface. This means I would have had to have the Surface laying on its long edge, ie, landscape. The problem:
1. I don't recall the Surface being used in landscape position.
2. I don't recall two cables being connected to the Surface. But I seem to recall plugging a cable into the headphone jack. Does that suggest anything to you?
3. Nothing in my notes or check list indicates it was a two cable setup.none of this makes any sense.
Coises wrote:jocar37 wrote:I use Cantabile as the host for the other VSTs. (Are you familiar with it?)
I have heard of it, but I have no experience with it. It looks quite powerful. I’m sure someone who does use it will be able to tell you how to merge left and right outputs so you can feed a single output to your amplifier; unfortunately, that someone isn’t me.
But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio.
I don’t doubt you that Pianoteq worked on your Surface and you got sound out of the Henricksen without using the MOTU. What I believe is not possible is that you got Pianoteq sound out of something plugged into the Casio. The USB cable from the Casio to your computer (whether it’s the studio or the Surface) carries MIDI from the Casio to the computer, but it cannot carry sound from the computer back to the Casio. Pianoteq runs on the computer, and to get sound out of the computer, whatever will make sound — speakers, amplifier or headphones — must be connected to the computer. That can be a direct connection or it can go through the MOTU; but it can’t go backwards through the Casio.
I'm also confused about what, if anything, I can do with the headphones. Do I need them or shyould I just get a mono to mono cable?
The main reason I wanted you to find the headphones was to verify that you can play piano and get the Pianoteq sound to go through the MOTU. Now we know everything up to that point works. Of course, if you’re just practicing or playing for yourself, you can listen through the headphones. (Depending on how good they are, the headphones might sound better than the Henriksen will.)
Since you don’t have your monitor speakers anymore, if you want to play “out loud” using your studio computer, you’ll need to connect the amplifier to the MOTU. I think that will require a cable you probably don’t already have. There’s more than one way to do it; the type of cable shown in the link I gave earlier is one way.¹
To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB from the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer. Since we already know you didn’t use the MOTU with your Surface Pro, you would need to connect the Surface Pro directly to the amplifier. The cable you’ve described that you brought along with the keyboard, the Surface Pro and the Henriksen amplifier must be what you used to connect them. But (as I said in my other, shorter message), it must have gone between the amplifier and the Surface Pro, not between the amplifier and the Casio.
---
¹ Another way would be to use an “insert” cable, if you have one of those. An insert cable has a 1/4" TRS plug on one end and two mono 1/4“ plugs on the other. You would plug the TRS end into one of the MOTU outputs, plug one of the mono plugs into the Henriksen and leave the other not connected to anything... maybe wrap a little tape or plastic around it just to be sure it doesn’t touch anything conductive. Sounds goofy, I know, but it’s a roundabout way of dealing with the unforgiving balanced 1/4" output on the MOTU and the (probably) unbalanced 1/4" input on the Henriksen.
You say "To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB rom the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer." I have that. It's a USB B jack on the Casio. How do I employ the headphone jack? if I could get sound by plugging a cable into the headphone jack of the Surface, would I plug the other end into the Casio or the Henriksen? Which one? Which port on whatever the correct device is? What kind of cable would I need?
Would this still require some stereo to mono modifications? I know I didn't mess with that before. So if the Surface hearphone jack is the way to access Pianoteq sounds, this might be what i was doing. I'm thinking I plug the 1/8" into the headphone jack.
But I don't recall plugging two cables into the Surface. And the USB jack and the headphone jack are on opposite sides of the width of the Surface. This means I would have had to have the Surface laying on its long edge, ie, landscape. The problem:
1. I don't recall the Surface being used in landscape position.
2. I don't recall two cables being connected to the Surface. But I seem to recall plugging a cable into the headphone jack. Does that suggest anything to you?
3. Nothing in my notes or check list indicates it was a two cable setup.
none of this makes any sense.
jocar37 wrote:I use Cantabile as the host for the other VSTs. (Are you familiar with it?)
I have heard of it, but I have no experience with it. It looks quite powerful. I’m sure someone who does use it will be able to tell you how to merge left and right outputs so you can feed a single output to your amplifier; unfortunately, that someone isn’t me.
But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio.
I don’t doubt you that Pianoteq worked on your Surface and you got sound out of the Henricksen without using the MOTU. What I believe is not possible is that you got Pianoteq sound out of something plugged into the Casio. The USB cable from the Casio to your computer (whether it’s the studio or the Surface) carries MIDI from the Casio to the computer, but it cannot carry sound from the computer back to the Casio. Pianoteq runs on the computer, and to get sound out of the computer, whatever will make sound — speakers, amplifier or headphones — must be connected to the computer. That can be a direct connection or it can go through the MOTU; but it can’t go backwards through the Casio.
I'm also confused about what, if anything, I can do with the headphones. Do I need them or shyould I just get a mono to mono cable?
The main reason I wanted you to find the headphones was to verify that you can play piano and get the Pianoteq sound to go through the MOTU. Now we know everything up to that point works. Of course, if you’re just practicing or playing for yourself, you can listen through the headphones. (Depending on how good they are, the headphones might sound better than the Henriksen will.)
Since you don’t have your monitor speakers anymore, if you want to play “out loud” using your studio computer, you’ll need to connect the amplifier to the MOTU. I think that will require a cable you probably don’t already have. There’s more than one way to do it; the type of cable shown in the link I gave earlier is one way.¹
To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB from the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer. Since we already know you didn’t use the MOTU with your Surface Pro, you would need to connect the Surface Pro directly to the amplifier. The cable you’ve described that you brought along with the keyboard, the Surface Pro and the Henriksen amplifier must be what you used to connect them. But (as I said in my other, shorter message), it must have gone between the amplifier and the Surface Pro, not between the amplifier and the Casio.
---
¹ Another way would be to use an “insert” cable, if you have one of those. An insert cable has a 1/4" TRS plug on one end and two mono 1/4“ plugs on the other. You would plug the TRS end into one of the MOTU outputs, plug one of the mono plugs into the Henriksen and leave the other not connected to anything... maybe wrap a little tape or plastic around it just to be sure it doesn’t touch anything conductive. Sounds goofy, I know, but it’s a roundabout way of dealing with the unforgiving balanced 1/4" output on the MOTU and the (probably) unbalanced 1/4" input on the Henriksen.
I use Cantabile as the host for the other VSTs. (Are you familiar with it?)
I have heard of it, but I have no experience with it. It looks quite powerful. I’m sure someone who does use it will be able to tell you how to merge left and right outputs so you can feed a single output to your amplifier; unfortunately, that someone isn’t me.
But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio.
I don’t doubt you that Pianoteq worked on your Surface and you got sound out of the Henricksen without using the MOTU. What I believe is not possible is that you got Pianoteq sound out of something plugged into the Casio. The USB cable from the Casio to your computer (whether it’s the studio or the Surface) carries MIDI from the Casio to the computer, but it cannot carry sound from the computer back to the Casio. Pianoteq runs on the computer, and to get sound out of the computer, whatever will make sound — speakers, amplifier or headphones — must be connected to the computer. That can be a direct connection or it can go through the MOTU; but it can’t go backwards through the Casio.
I'm also confused about what, if anything, I can do with the headphones. Do I need them or shyould I just get a mono to mono cable?
The main reason I wanted you to find the headphones was to verify that you can play piano and get the Pianoteq sound to go through the MOTU. Now we know everything up to that point works. Of course, if you’re just practicing or playing for yourself, you can listen through the headphones. (Depending on how good they are, the headphones might sound better than the Henriksen will.)
Since you don’t have your monitor speakers anymore, if you want to play “out loud” using your studio computer, you’ll need to connect the amplifier to the MOTU. I think that will require a cable you probably don’t already have. There’s more than one way to do it; the type of cable shown in the link I gave earlier is one way.¹
To play using your Surface Pro, obviously you have to connect the USB from the Casio to the Surface Pro instead of the studio computer. Since we already know you didn’t use the MOTU with your Surface Pro, you would need to connect the Surface Pro directly to the amplifier. The cable you’ve described that you brought along with the keyboard, the Surface Pro and the Henriksen amplifier must be what you used to connect them. But (as I said in my other, shorter message), it must have gone between the amplifier and the Surface Pro, not between the amplifier and the Casio.
---
¹ Another way would be to use an “insert” cable, if you have one of those. An insert cable has a 1/4" TRS plug on one end and two mono 1/4“ plugs on the other. You would plug the TRS end into one of the MOTU outputs, plug one of the mono plugs into the Henriksen and leave the other not connected to anything... maybe wrap a little tape or plastic around it just to be sure it doesn’t touch anything conductive. Sounds goofy, I know, but it’s a roundabout way of dealing with the unforgiving balanced 1/4" output on the MOTU and the (probably) unbalanced 1/4" input on the Henriksen.
]]>I don't know about an older Surface but mine is a Surface Pro 7÷ purchased Dec 2023. But if I had connected it like you're thinking, what kind of cable would I have had to use? I don't have one like the one you showed me earlier.
The Surface Pro 7 has a headphone jack. (They removed it in the Surface Pro 9 — that’s why I asked.)
I think you would have used the cable you described that has an 1/8" phone plug on one end and a 1/4" phone plug on the other. Instead of plugging the smaller end into the Casio, you would have plugged it into the headphone jack on the Surface Pro. The larger plug would go into the Henriksen amplifier.
I wouldn’t expect that to work very well, but since you know that something did work, and you know what devices and cables you had, that’s how you would have had to connect them. Not the Casio to the amplifier, the Surface to the amplifier.
]]>jocar37 wrote:But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio. So I don't understand what is wrong. I didn't have another cable in my checklist.
I’ll get back to this a little later with some more thoughts, but one quick question: Do you have one of the older Surface tablets that has a headphone jack? If so, I think you connected the Henriksen to the headphone jack on your Surface, not to the Casio.
But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio. So I don't understand what is wrong. I didn't have another cable in my checklist.
I’ll get back to this a little later with some more thoughts, but one quick question: Do you have one of the older Surface tablets that has a headphone jack? If so, I think you connected the Henriksen to the headphone jack on your Surface, not to the Casio.
]]>The studio computer is a full tower,and is very heavy. Not usable for gigs/jams. My plan was to load more VSTs on my laptop. I use Cantabile as the host for the other VSTs. (Are you familiar with it?) But I would be happy at this point just to get Pianoteq working through my gig setup with the Henriksen and the Surface, but without the Motu interface, like I had it working before. I understand you don't think that should work, but I am as sure as I can be that I didn't use the Motu with the Casio. So I don't understand what is wrong. I didn't have another cable in my checklist.
I have TSR cables, and TSR 1/4 to 1/8 and 1/8 to 1//4 adapters. But they're all stereo, and it looks like the one you recommend is mono at both ends. I have Pianoteq 8, but idon't know how to swich to mono and couldn't locate anything in the app or in a google search.
I'm also confused about what, if anything, I can do with the headphones. Do I need them or shyould I just get a mono to mono cable?
I don't care if the Pianoteq doesn't sound as good throught the Henriksen. It still sounds a lot better than the onboard sounds.
jocar37 wrote:when I plugged the headphnes into the MOTU jack, I got sound! So I figure,"wow, it's working." So I unplugged the headphones and turned up the main volume control. I got a buzz, but not piano. I don't understand why I hear piano through the headphones, but noise through the main input. This just makes no sense to me.
If I’ve followed this correctly, it does make sense. You used to hear Pianoteq through your monitor speakers, which were connected to your MOTU outputs. You don’t have those speakers any more. You have nothing connected to your MOTU outputs (except the headphones, when you plug them in).
From what you described, you have your amplifier connected to your keyboard. That won’t work for Pianoteq. (It would work if you had your keyboard playing internal sounds, but you have those turned off so that you can play Pianoteq instead.)
Based on what you’ve told me, you never previously had your amplifier connected to the MOTU, and so you might not have the correct cable to make that connection. And there is another problem: your amplifier is mono, but the output of the MOTU is stereo. You can’t just connect two outputs to one input — they don’t add, they fight with each other. (Trying to do this might damage your MOTU!) But if you only connect one channel and leave the other unused, the sound will be missing the parts that were supposed to go to the other speaker.
If you are still using Pianoteq 8 or older, you can select Monophonic output. Then the two channels will be the same and you can connect one and leave the other disconnected. This option was removed in Pianoteq 9, though, so a different approach will be required with that.
You mentioned having other VSTs on your studio computer. Do they all work standalone, or do you have a host program that you use to load them? If you use a host program, what is it? It may be able to do the mix-down to mono.
The Henriksen Blu Six you have has a single combination XLR and 1/4" input jack. It is not clear to me from the documentation I can find whether the 1/4" is balanced or unbalanced. Since the MOTU manual makes it clear that the 1/4" outputs are balanced and cannot be connected to an unbalanced input without an unusual cable modification, I recommend connecting one of the RCA outputs on the MOTU to the amplifier input using a cable that looks like this. Turn the volume controls way down, because the normal output of the MOTU is going to be much more than what the Henriksen is expecting.
Unfortunately, no matter how you do this, it’s not going to sound as good as when you had monitor speakers. :-(
when I plugged the headphnes into the MOTU jack, I got sound! So I figure,"wow, it's working." So I unplugged the headphones and turned up the main volume control. I got a buzz, but not piano. I don't understand why I hear piano through the headphones, but noise through the main input. This just makes no sense to me.
If I’ve followed this correctly, it does make sense. You used to hear Pianoteq through your monitor speakers, which were connected to your MOTU outputs. You don’t have those speakers any more. You have nothing connected to your MOTU outputs (except the headphones, when you plug them in).
From what you described, you have your amplifier connected to your keyboard. That won’t work for Pianoteq. (It would work if you had your keyboard playing internal sounds, but you have those turned off so that you can play Pianoteq instead.)
Based on what you’ve told me, you never previously had your amplifier connected to the MOTU, and so you might not have the correct cable to make that connection. And there is another problem: your amplifier is mono, but the output of the MOTU is stereo. You can’t just connect two outputs to one input — they don’t add, they fight with each other. (Trying to do this might damage your MOTU!) But if you only connect one channel and leave the other unused, the sound will be missing the parts that were supposed to go to the other speaker.
If you are still using Pianoteq 8 or older, you can select Monophonic output. Then the two channels will be the same and you can connect one and leave the other disconnected. This option was removed in Pianoteq 9, though, so a different approach will be required with that.
You mentioned having other VSTs on your studio computer. Do they all work standalone, or do you have a host program that you use to load them? If you use a host program, what is it? It may be able to do the mix-down to mono.
The Henriksen Blu Six you have has a single combination XLR and 1/4" input jack. It is not clear to me from the documentation I can find whether the 1/4" is balanced or unbalanced. Since the MOTU manual makes it clear that the 1/4" outputs are balanced and cannot be connected to an unbalanced input without an unusual cable modification, I recommend connecting one of the RCA outputs on the MOTU to the amplifier input using a cable that looks like this. Turn the volume controls way down, because the normal output of the MOTU is going to be much more than what the Henriksen is expecting.
Unfortunately, no matter how you do this, it’s not going to sound as good as when you had monitor speakers. :-(
]]>While I'm sure you weren't sitting by your computer waiting for my next reply, I'm sorry it took a while to find the headphones. But now that I have them I'm not clear on how that will help you figure this out. That said, when I plugged the headphnes into the MOTU jack, I got sound! So I figure,"wow, it's working." So I unplugged the headphones and turned up the main volume control. I got a buzz, but not piano. I don't understand why I hear piano through the headphones, but noise through the main input. This just makes no sense to me.
jocar37 wrote:I didn't use the Henriksen with the studio computer, but I did use it with a Surface laptop that I set up to take to jams and gigs that has Pianoteq, and it worked. It's not working with the Surface now. The Surface only has Pianoteq loaded on it, but the studio machine has a LOT of expensive VSTs I want to get back to. I don't recall the interface being part of the gig/jam setup. And it wasn't on the packing list, so I can't figure out what's wrong.
Let’s work on one thing at a time. You choose: studio computer set up, or Surface set up? We’ll get one figured out first, then (if you want) we can try to figure out the other one.
Since you no longer have your speakers, you cannot expect the studio setup to work exactly the same way it did before. I don’t see any reason it can’t use the Henriksen amp, but it won’t sound as good as it did with the monitor speakers, and you will probably need a cable you don’t already have. (We’ll figure out what you need.) I’d still like you to try to find a pair of headphones that fit the headphone jack on your MOTU, if you can. Even if you don’t like playing through headphones, it will help us test that everything up to that point is working.
Hi jocar37,
did you find a solution to the problem or do you have any follow up questions?
One additional thing you could quick-check is:
if the MOTU has any kind of level meter or indicator for input or output audio, does that show anything when you press the keys on the Casio or the virtual keys in Pianoteq?EDIT: my browser page was not up-to-date so I missed some of the discussion above, before having posted this.
did you find a solution to the problem or do you have any follow up questions?
One additional thing you could quick-check is:
if the MOTU has any kind of level meter or indicator for input or output audio, does that show anything when you press the keys on the Casio or the virtual keys in Pianoteq?
EDIT: my browser page was not up-to-date so I missed some of the discussion above, before having posted this.
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