Ableton Forum

Ok so this seems like such a newbie question to me that I feel silly for asking but its been so long that I've used hardware synths/keyboards that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this.

So I have an audio interface that has simple one MIDI In and MIDI out.

I also have two keyboards:

1 poly evolver keyboard
1 kurzweil PC88 keyboard

So the way I'd like to use it is.
The Kurzweil is basically just a fancy 88 key midi controller
I have no interest in its sounds what so ever, so I don't need to send
MIDI to the Kurzweil.

The Poly Evolver however sounds amazing so I'd like to be able to send
MIDI from Logic to the Poly Evolver. If this is all I wanted to do it would be simple (Kurzweil > Interface MIDI IN. Interface MIDI Out > Polyevolver)

However often I want to play funky lead and basslines and clearly the synth action keys on the Poly Evolver are much better for that than the heavy weighted keys of the Kurzweil.

So this means that I also need MIDI to come OUT of the Poly Evolver and somehow get sent to Live.

I'm thinking there is a way to chain the poly and kurzweil together using MIDI thru but I'm drawing a blank here.

Could I do

Kurzweil MIDI Thru > Interface In. Interface Out > Poly Evolver In. Poly Evolver MIDI Thru > Kurzweil In??

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks!

why don't you get rid of the kurzweil in your setup, just keep the poly as midi keybord and sound module.

you need a midi merger. there's no way to chain them to do what you want.

most keyboards do not do midi merging themselves; midi thru is actually supposed to be just hard-wired to the midi input, so there's no way a midi keyboard even could merge messages into it. The midi out is completely separate. Some keyboards do have 'soft' thrus (a single 'out/thru' that you can switch between 'thru' and 'out' is a giveaway). But even if you could do it... the way you suggested setting it up will cause midi loops and all kinds of headaches.

Some midi patchbays can do merging, like the akai me30p and the ensoniq kmx16; there are lots of others. They are really cheap. Actually, if you get a patchbay, you don't need merging - you just push a button on the patchbay to route the keyboard you want to the interface; the ensoniq kmx8 is one i've used that's very straightforward, really easy to use. But for the same price (or cheaper even maybe!) you could probably just get a 2x2 (or more) USB midi interface and be done with it.

you don't need to route it back in to the Kurzweill imo

Not getting rid of the Kurzweil because its an incredibly nice 88 weighted key keyboard.
Figured it out though and everything is working perfectly. Routed the MIDI in fo the Kurz to its output
and now I have a nice chain going on.