Before i buy... (help)

[MattJay]

Hey guys 1st post here so go easy on me

Considering buying a Virus C and have a few questions beforehand.

I have a Focusrite saffire pro 14, m-audio Oxygen 49 keyboard (usb only) and an imac.

Say if i bought the C could i have it setup as how i think i could below?

1. Get a usb to midi converter cable and run my usb keyboard from that to the virus > then a midi cable from virus to saffire pro 14 > then pro 14 runs to my imac on firewire?

or

2. The same as above but run one of the virus cables usb to midi to my mac and then my keyboard can be independently connected to my mac also using usb

i'm not even sure if the above would work as i'm useless with cabling!

thanks in advance and any help is appreciated

[Timo]

If the Oxygen49 is USB only, I don't believe you can connect it to a sound module (Virus C).

I think you'd need to do it this way.

Oxygen [usb] > iMac.

Then..

iMac [firewire] > Saffire [midi] > Virus C.

Because the Oxygen will effectively have to go through a long route to your Virus C (Oxygen > iMac > Saffire > Virus C) there may be a delay incurred. I'm not sure how long this would be or whether it would be noticeable or not.

[MattJay]

Hey Timo

Thanks a bunch for your response. This will help my decision on buying one be much easier now it could potentially be less hassle to setup

cheers
matt

[Timo]

Yes, I think the USB only midi-keyboards are primarily for controlling VST-Is.

I guess the best of both worlds would be a controller keyboard with both USB and MIDI output[s], so you can hook it up to your external sound modules (Virus) directly if ever you wished to bypass the computer for jamming purposes or the like.

That said, for recording you'll probably use the computer to do the sequencing, so you'll likely record the MIDI data into the iMac (via USB keyboard) while monitoring the Virus. Then playback will be routed from iMac>Saffire>Virus for final recording.

[MattJay]

Yep that's it i guess. I use logic as my daw so only really use my keyboard to tap out a riff then try to record a small section of it then clean up the notes in the daw itself. Got me all excited now am looking forward to getting one!