Using Korg kronos as master midi controller with mainstage

Cpt.wallace80 · Post by **Cpt.wallace80** » Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:20 pm

Greetings Korg forum. I just got the kronos a few days ago and cannot wait to reap the benefits of this awesome machine. But I’ve hit a bit of a snag and could use some guidance.

I’m attempting to replace my old master controller (a Yamaha mo6) with the kronos in my old setup, which involved sounds on my laptop (mainstage and kontakt 5) as well as a second weighted midi controller (Casio Privia px8). I used to achieve this quite easily by sending midi out from the Privia to the midi in on the Yamaha, and through the global settings, sending that information out of the usb into the computer. I’m not using the kronos sound engine (for now!) so I turned the local off.

I am able to use the kronos with the laptop no problem, program changes and pedals work great, but the 2nd controller which is set to midi ch2 doesn’t seem to transmit into the kronos into my computer.

My question is whether I can set the kronos to receive midi ch2 info and have it go to the USB port into my computer?

I know it’s probably something simple I’m just overlooking, but any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a gig in a week and while I still have the old keyboard, Id like to see if it’s possible to use the kronos instead. Thank you very much.

karmathanever · Post by **karmathanever** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:30 am

Hi & welcome aboard

I have moved your post to the Kronos section for you.

Cheers

Pete

KK · Post by KK » Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:05 am

Hi there, not sure how you connected your things but for incoming MIDI data into the Kronos MIDI IN, it can only go out thru the Kronos by the MIDI THRU (obviously). This is actually the same for any MIDI keyboard and there is no MIDI merge function in the Kronos. Make sure your MIDI connections are set correctly.

One simple solution would be to add a MIDI/USB interface to your computer and use the Kronos MIDI THRU going into your laptop MIDI IN with it, while keeping the rest as is since your other gear works correctly.

One inexpensive example is the Roland UM-One.

Roundandaround · Post by **Roundandaround** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:58 am

If I understand this correctly, you don‘t need to bother with midi-thru. If both keyboards are hooked up to MS via USB, you can do all the routing in MS. Any combomation is possible.

Cpt.wallace80 · Post by **Cpt.wallace80** » Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:31 am

Thank you so much for the helpful suggestions. Strange how a workstation as powerful as the Kronos only receives/transmits out of 1 Global midi channel, whereas the MO6 could receive and transmit on independent ones. No matter, I ended up getting an inexpensive usb hub to connect both controllers via usb to my laptop and after reconfiguring the midi routing within MainStage to respond to incoming midi messages, it worked beautifully.