Following a visit to Terry I am posting the following for information and in the hope that somebody wiser than me might be able to provide further insight.
As regards hardware, Terry has four Fatar keyboards, each connected to a Doepfer MKE (MIDI Keyboard Electronics) version 2 unit.
These units have Micro-Match sockets for connection via flat cable to the Fatar keyboard sockets, and standard 5-pin DIN MIDI-out sockets plus 5 pin DIN MIDI-in sockets which allows them to be daisy-chained.
He also has a pedal board fitted with reed switches and an un-branded MIDI encoder fitted with a standard 5-pin DIN MIDI-out socket.
His computer runs Windows XP Professional x64, SP2 and has 8 GB of RAM. I'm not sure what make - it was probably custom-built, but it was clearly a top-of-the-range machine when it was new.
It is fitted with an EMU E-DSP Audio Processor, and has Hauptwerk and Midi-Ox installed.
The MIDI-in and -out ports of the EMU unit are decidedly non-standard but Terry has the short adapter cables that supposedly convert these non-standard mini-DIN sockets to standard 5-pin DIN sockets:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Pin-Mini-DIN- ... 1358888827According to the Windows XP Control Panel, the EMU Audio interface is "working correctly" with all the drivers in place, and indeed Hauptwerk recognises the EMU MIDI-in port.
However, when you connect one of the keyboards with its Doepfer encoder to the EMU MIDI-in port (via the short adapter cable) Hauptwerk does not receive any MIDI messages. In other words, you can't auto-detect the keyboard. And on testing with Midi-Ox, there is no MIDI input!
I confirmed that the Fatar keyboard+Doepfer unit was actually sending MIDI note-on/off messages by connecting to my laptop (with Hauptwerk and Midi-Ox loaded) using an M-audio Midisport 1x1 interface, and the MIDI messages were indeed being generated.
Why they were not reaching Hauptwerk or Midi-Ox via the EMU interface is a mystery to me - but I confess to being incapable of getting my head round the mysteries of an EMU audio interface - I've encountered them a couple of times in the past and been unable to get any sense out of them - but fortunately the audio aspects of this unit were functioning OK, so I didn't waste much time trying to solve the MIDI problem.
(It has subsequently occurred to me that the fault might lie with the short adapter cable... but any other suggestions are welcome!)
Another reason I didn't persist with the EMU interface is because, at this juncture Terry produced an M-Audio Midiman 4x4 Anniversary Edition MIDI interface that he had bought some time ago but never used! So I decided to try this instead of the EMU MIDI port.
Unfortunately, Terry couldn't find the original installation disk and the drivers that I downloaded from the Internet were too recent to support Windows XP.
However, just as I was about to give up in despair, I remembered I'd brought my 2005-vintage "utility CD's" - and on one of these were some ancient Windows 2000 drivers for the Midisport units! These drivers did support Windows XP, and we were in business - Fatar keyboards connected through the Midiman 4x4 unit were talking to Hauptwerk, and with an organ loaded we were able to auto-detect the keyboards and get sound out of the loudspeakers!
So now we come to the second issue - the Doepfer MKE units ... (Those of us who use Midiboutique HWce2x encoders just don't know how lucky we are!!! Since I can't find anything good to say about these Doepfer units, I'd best not say anything for fear of being prosecuted for libel.)
These units carry a row of switches with indicator LED's and an alpha-numeric LED display. I guess these are for the purpose of configuring or programming the units to work with the keyboards or expression pedals or whatever. (They also carry some components that get hot enough to burn you if you are not careful. I am singularly unimpressed.)
Two of Terry's Doepfer MKE's are working to a degree, in that keys 048-C to 091-G (or thereabouts) actually play notes, but keys 036-C to 047-B and keys 092-G# to 096-C are silent.
The alpha-numeric displays on these two partially-working units are reading 051.
The alpha-numeric display on the third Doepfer MKE unit was reading 091 but now reads 000, and none of the keys play sounds.
The alpha-numeric display on the fourth Doepfer MKE unit goes crazy, and none of the keys play sounds.
In the hope of being able to configure the Doepfer units to the Fatar keyboards, I downloaded the instruction manual from the Doepfer website, but it may as well have been written in Chinese for all the help it was.
So, unless somebody can help Terry (or me) with configuring/programming these dreadful units I think the only way forward will be for Terry to throw them in the bin and buy a compact, comprehensive, user-friendly encoder with comprehensible instructions and helpful support from the maker - like the Midiboutique HWce2x unit.
As for the pedal board, apart from a few reed switches that need replacing, this seems to be working OK when connected via the Midiman 4x4 interface.
A good reason for using the Midiman 4x4 interface rather than trying to make the EMU MIDI port work is that it provides an independent MIDI input for the pedal board.
Finally - if you are still reading - sorry for the length of this post!
Regards
Graham