I am a home studio guy with Cubase 8.5 pro and a MOTU Mk3 running on windows 7. I love my MOXF sounds but I am not in love with the key action and therefore I control the sounds from my M-audio controller. I don’t believe there is any way to get the digital sounds into my Motu so I was monitoring through the audio output of the Moxf.  I recently saw where I can switch the audio interface to the Moxf in Cubase so I can record with the digital signal. This works great but it no longer recognizes the input from my controller.  I have tried various Device Setup options but no luck.  I was hoping someone here may help me.

Welcome to the forum.

I presume you’re now interfacing the MOXF via USB. (If not, please detail the connection.) Were you previously controlling the MOXF via a 5-pin MIDI connection from the M-audio?

Thanks for the reply.  Yes it is a usb connection from my controller to my computer and from the moxf to the computer also.

How were you previously routing the controller data to the MOXF?

Which M-audio controller do you have?

I have always been hooked up through usb to the computer.  Never directly to the Moxf.  The controller is an Oxygen 49.

Here’s how I read it:

1 - The Oxygen 49 is only USB, so when you make your MOXF the ‘in use’ audio interface in Cubase, you lose the ability to be able to play the MOXF via the Oxygen 49.  Without a 5 pin DIN midi out on the Oxygen, you can’t go the traditional route either.

2 - You have some kind of concern about using the analog outputs on the MOXF.  I’m not really sure what or why that is, but throughout keyboard history, only a minority of keyboards have had any kind of digital output, be it USB, S/PDIF or Firewire, and all of those great hit records you love with all the beautiful synths on them could have been recorded by using analog outputs and very likely also without a nice audio interface like your MOTU Mk3. 

MOXF outputs to a MOTU Mk3 is a no brainer to me. Nothing wrong with doing that at all.  I’m sure that would sound great.

So, I’m wondering what you hope to achieve digitally that you can’t achieve by using the analog outputs?

Philwoodmusic, thank you for your reply.  I really do appreciate what your saying and, in fact, I struggle within this whole digital realm trying to get that sound and feeling you are talking about. I find I concentrate so much on the technical aspects that I have a hard time getting the music to breathe and come to life, but when I neglect the technical stuff it seems I cant get the sounds to pull together.  That said, I have noise with the analog and the USB both plugged into the moxf and I was simply trying to bring down that noise threshold.  Guess I might go back to using a gate. Or maybe controlling the moxf with my DGX keyboard.

What kind of noise are you experiencing?

Is it hiss, hum, crackling or glitching?

You could have anything from noise susceptible cabling to grounding issues.

A noise gate will not fix any of that, because it will open when you play a note, and just the same noise will make it through at those times.

At very best, the noise gate is protecting silences.

Its a hiss.  I thought it a grounding issue but several cables later I came to believe it is just a loop issue with having both the usb and audio working from the unit at the same time.  I unplug the usb and the noise is gone. Play straight from the moxf and no problem.  If I want midi control noise is back.

Have a look at these threads covering the same subject:

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/479397/

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/479404

The replies and links posted by our very own 5pinDIN will really help and should get you thinking and troubleshooting.

It could be a simple fix such as using TS cables instead of TRS cables, or trying another USB cable, because they are often wired differently.

Also, maybe upload an mp3 clip of the noise.

If you are using a laptop, have you tried removing the power cord and running off the battery to see if that helps?

The noise I get from my MOXF when I have a microphone plugged in is markedly reducing by doing so (and eliminated by unplugging the USB as you also have found).

David.

Thanks for the links, sounds like the same issue. I have gone through the cable change out thing before and have found improvement, so that may be where the problem lies, but never have gotten the noise to abate. Can it be completely eliminated, ie top of the line cabling, or is it like we used to say on stage. “That’s the best we can do, don’t worry about it and play”? :)
To be more clear I have found that I have the noise whenever I have both the usb and audio hooked up and that it is not just from trying to use the controller.

Davelet, thanks for your reply.  No I’m on a desktop system.

It may be an USB ground loop issue, you wouldn’t be the first person encountering this.

Will be a fair few topics in here covering it, here’s one
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/478574/

Best of luck.