you need to activate the little speaker icon in your cubase track

Hi Lawrence,
We can start by telling you, as you may have surmised, that it should behave exactly like all the others. We need to hunt down why not... Thanks for providing your setup.
We need you to check just a couple of other things:

With the setup as listed above (ARP REC ON DAW), set to thru data via a Cubase MIDI Track set to "ANY", recall "DJ Montage"
From the HOME screen press [PART SELECT 1]
The screen should show the 8 Knobs, on the left of slot 1 it should read "PART 1 Assign" indicating you are viewing the ASSIGN Knobs 1-8 for PART 1.
Press the [TONE] button in the upper left corner of the front panel to select the row of CUTOFF, RESONANCE, DEPTH, PORTAMENTO, ATTACK, SUSTAIN, DECAY, RELEASE. The screen should now indicate "PART 1 TONE"... the Knobs will display the controlled parameters.

Do you get this to happen?
Now while holding a NOTE, turn KNOB 1 (CUTOFF).

Is it still frozen with no response?
If not frozen, but no response, not all PERFORMANCE will have a FILTER to offset Cutoff, Resonance, and Depth, (Just as most do not have Portamento programmed). Most sounds will respond to Release (not all respond to attack, believe it or not, it depends on the programming). The TONE knobs are Offsets to the originally programmed settings. For example, if a sound does not have a FILTER assigned to any of its Elements or in the FM-X to the PART, the Cutoff Knob will not have any Filter value to Offset. The CUTOFF knob is not a filter - it is a controller that offsets the assigned Filters. But your problem, as you state, is limited to Channel 1... so we have to focus our attention there. Which indicates something with the MIDI configuration

Frozen LED indicators means the MIDI is not routed THRU back to the Montage properly, for channel 1...

Let us know.

Bad Mister wrote:

Do you get this to happen?

Yes.

Bad Mister wrote:

Is it still frozen with no response?

It is.

I just tried this:

In DJ Montage, if I have Performance Control = Common, mute parts 2 to 7 (to easily hear only part 1) then the knobs work properly. However, as soon as I change Common to part 1, the frozen behaviour occurs.

If [COMMON] is pressed the Knobs should be listed controlling "Common Tone" is that what you saying?
Can you post a screenshot of your Cubase Track Inspector?

Issue is solved!

In Cubase I had Input Routing: All MIDI inputs.

When I changed that to Input Routing: Montage Port 1 everything is now working as expected.

A bit confusing since in Device Setup I only had Montage Port 1 included in "In All MIDI" (see attachment) but I'm happy that it's working!

That is strange - because the input routing can connect either one MIDI device at a time (like Montage Port 1, as you last selected) or all devices at the same time ("All MIDI inputs"). This level of routing is not channel-based, but device based - so any other devices in the list (if selecting "All MIDI inputs") will serve as inputs to Cubase in the project together.

Say you had two keyboards - each with their own MIDI driver - then you would see these two keyboards Keyboard 1 and Keyboard 2 in the list along with "All MIDI inputs". If you selected "All MIDI inputs" - then both keyboards' MIDI outputs would be "mixed together" in the selected track.

If your list of MIDI inputs only shows Montage and not other devices - I would think there would be no conflicting data that would trip up Montage's dials. Your MIDI input list from the attachment shows Montage Port 1, Montage Port 2, and Montage Port 3 as your only devices. Beyond that, ports 2 & 3 are shown as inactive. Therefore, there should be no difference in "All MIDI inputs" vs "Montage Port 1". When everything is working - you can switch back and forth the input port (From "Montage Port 1" and "All MIDI inputs") and see the knobs go from working to not working - then back again?

Maybe this is true - and there's some quirk I'm not aware of (Cubase is not my area of proficiency) - but at the moment my hypotheses is that something you did before making the input port assignment change fixed the knob response for you.

Jason wrote:

When everything is working - you can switch back and forth the input port (From "Montage Port 1" and "All MIDI inputs") and see the knobs go from working to not working - then back again?

Yes, I did exactly that. Switching back an forth resulted in the frozen vs proper state of the knobs.

I agree. Strange.

I do have another keyboard (Kawai VP1 that I use for piano work) but when it is switched off it doesn't appear in the Device Manager or Input/Output Routing of Cubase, and it has been switched off.

I don´t think it´s that. I think something else is off in your midi routing. because I can move the knobs when I´m in all midi inputs, I don´t have to change it to "montage 1". from my experience, until you fully understand the in and out routing between cubase and the montage, you will have plenty of weird stuff going on. I´m not saying I fully understand it yet, but making progress. good luck!

I agree with Gabi.

If you want to figure this out please post everything you have connected, not just a select few things. It is definitely a conflict occurring with MIDI routing.

Just FYI: the "In All MIDI Inputs" column is for you to mark all devices that you wish to use as input devices to your MIDI tracks. Montage Port 1 is the Montage keys and controllers. If you have other devices connected and you want to use them as input devices you would mark them here.

If you are only using one keyboard as input device you can just select it on the MIDI Track.
If you are using multiple keyboards as input devices for MIDI, mark the Port that is sending for each device, then setting the MIDI track input to "All MIDI Inputs" will create a situation where the marked devices can be used interchangeably simultaneously

The "BM.png" screenshot he shows has only the "Montage Port 1" as assigned to the "All MIDI" group - so there should be absolutely no difference in choosing "All MIDI" vs. "Montage Port 1", yet the claim is that it does make a difference. I searched around for more settings that would somehow be used with "All MIDI" that would not otherwise be used when selecting a single device. I didn't find anything - but do not have the full version nor do I have the latest version. Also some other plugins or other devices could conflict - but his setup shows only the Montage in the devices list. Assuming all of the testing is methodical and uses the configuration in "BM.png" - then this is something I would at least fire off a support ticket with Steinberg. Maybe there's a mistake not communicated - but it wouldn't hurt to get Steinberg's help in tackling this as I see absolutely no difference between the two modes (of Cubase) you have communicated as working and not working.

Let me explain.

I only run the Montage OR the Kawai, one or the other powered up, but never the two at the same time. Cubase only ever sees one of the boards at any given time.

The Montage issue is not related to the Kawai. I have a template when using the Montage, and another template when using he Kawai. Cubase only pointing to the Montage ports, or the Kawai ports - not both at the same time.

So, if the the knobs should not freeze with either the "All MIDI" vs. "Montage Port 1" set, then what is wrong with the MIDI routing for my Montage?

Lawrence, I believe we're saying the same thing here - my advice is to open a ticket with Steinberg. Something with your screenshot of the MIDI device setup (BM.png) and some verbiage about:

I am using only one device, so "All MIDI" MIDI input should be equivalent to selecting the device "Montage Port 1" (which is the only device selected for "All MIDI" devices). However, I find MIDI messages sent back to the MIDI output device changes when I make no other changes (no changes to MIDI output, no other changes whatsoever) and only change the MIDI input from "All MIDI" to "Montage Port 1". Why is there a difference in behavior when settings should be equivalent?

It would be interesting to learn of a configuration "gotcha" if Steinberg (or anyone else) can dig up the root cause.

I've done some more testing, with older versions of Cubase. Getting different results. I'd like to explain, but including screen shots within the message (as Bad Mister has done above). How do I do this? (I've only managed as an "attachment". (The screen shots included in the body of the message would make what I'm saying more clear).