Sounds very consistent, so likely a setting you’ve inadvertently stored in your system. You seem to know how to fix this, so I’m assuming you want us to figure out what you could have possibly changed to cause this “wonky” behavior.

When using the YSUSB driver as your computer’s audio interface it negotiates with your computer for this access. Your steps 1, 2 and 3 have nothing to do with setting up the YSUSB Driver nor are they standard procedure in setting up. But I guess you include to show everything appears normal... to this point.

As you mention in step 4, you know that audio configuration is stored per Project. So without going any further, let’s explore the audio configuration you stored in this particular Project. If you fix this configuration your issue will be solved.

Since no mention of the actual Port names is used in your post, I’m going to assume that this could be the very first place you want to look. The MONTAGE has 32 (count them, thirty-two) Audio bus Outputs. It is possible you selected two Ports not paired as Left/Right for your Outputs, this would or could cause your imbalance when you select the MONTAGE as your audio interface.

Steps 6 and 7 sound horribly wrong or very important info is left out:
6). I then close the project in Cubase and start a new empty project.
7) I add a new VST instrument to the rack and create a new midi track and put it in record mode. The sound levels are still jacked.

What is the condition of the MONTAGE?

Here’s two important questions:
How many MIDI channels are you transmitting from the MONTAGE?
How many channels is that one track set to transmit Out on.

If the answer to the first is larger than the second, expect things to be “all jacked up”
We need to be specific about the condition of the MONTAGE; The MIDI In and Out settings of the MIDI Track; and whether or not you are using the QUICK SETUPS to configure your MIDI and Audio Routing.

Thanks for the reply Bad Mister,

I have searched and searched for anything misconfigured up to this point and have found nothing. Steps 6 and 7 are accurate. What I was trying to do there is determine if there was some configuration that was screwed up in the project from step 4. So I closed the project from step 4 and then opened a new one and put in a VST instrument and generated audio from within the VST editor in Cubase. For steps 6 and 7 above, there were no midi events transmitted or received and no hands were on the Montage.

Let's attack this from a slightly different angle. After performing the steps 1 - 3 above, I did the following:

4) Launch Cubase and load the project previously mentioned. Without doing anything else, close Cubase. So Play was never pressed in Cubase.
5) Right click on the Montage line out in the the Sound control panel applet and play the test tones, and I notice that the levels are messed up.

So in these steps, no midi notes were ever triggered from either side. Prior to step 4, the levels were balanced between L+R. Afterwards, they are skewed to the right.

I too though that there must be multiple channels being shoved out through the Montage right main. But if that were the case, how does that explain Windows audio doing this? The Windows Audio line out device surfaced by the Yamaha USB drivers is just a two channel stereo device.

For good measure, I went into the performance mixer and took the level for Digital In down to zero and that had no effect.

Below are images from Montage:

Cycling through the various quick configs does nothing because, based on the diagram on the Montage display, the Windows audio sound is coming in through the USB Main and is routed directly to the Main L&R outputs of Montage.

Here's another important finding though. If I init a new AWM2 performance, balance is restored. After that, playing the test tone in Windows is balanced between the two Main L&R channels. So this would appear to indicate that something got transmitted to the Montage via Montage Connect when opening that Cubase project but I can't find what. But what's interesting, is if I open up Cubase again and load that project and press Play, balance is normal! In fact, the only way I can reproduce the ill behavior after initializing a new AWM2 performance as mentioned is to reboot Montage. That's really weird since opening the project in Cubase sends the performance data down to Montage as expected

So to recap, once levels are messed up, I can do one of the following to rectify it:

[list] Press sync from pc to Montage in Montage Connect from within the Cubase project even though performance is already showing what it should on Montage side after loading the project.

Init a new AWM2 performance on Montage.

What suggestions do you have at this point?

Thanks!

Sorry, maybe I'm thick but I do not see the problem and I certainly do not understand what Steps 6 and 7 are supposed to mean... How can you say "For steps 6 and 7 above, there were no midi events transmitted or received and no hands were on the Montage." and say the sound levels are "all jacked up" ... how is that possible????

So I'm pretty certain that I have no idea what you are doing. Sorry.

You mention a VST Editor ? - What Editor?
And in Cubase you mention a "Sound control panel applet and play the test tones" _ I'm certain I have no idea what that is about...

- you have one Cubase Project that the configuration is pooched... Get rid of it. (or at least show us the important screenshots of your configuration). I do not know what you are talking about with the non-Yamaha, non-Steinberg utilities/Applets you mention and what they have to do with any of this. It seems to me that if you open this one Cubase Project you have issues - You seem to know how to solve the issue. Which seems to be do anything but open this one particular Project.

If you want to send the CPR file to either myself or Steinberg we can have someone look into what you have done. I cannot duplicate your issue without that "corrupted" file.

Can you provide some Screenshots of your Cubase setup?

Sorry, I'm not being much help here but you are using things that have nothing to do with Montage or Cubase. They are only confusing the issue.

No, you're not thick. 🙂 We're just two different experts passing in the night. You're a Montage expert and I'm a Windows expert.

To add more context for the sake of this discussion.....

When the Montage connects to a Windows PC via USB and the Plug n Play subsystem detects the Montage, Plug n Play creates a new audio device within Windows just like any other. So assuming the PC is a laptop with built-in speakers, one now has a choice. One can use the built-in speakers of the laptop as the default audio device for Windows or set the Montage as the default audio device for Windows. Assume the latter choice. Now, any stereo sounds generated within Windows are routed through the Montage audio device in Windows. (The attached file mmsys.jpg shows this device in the audio devices control panel applet). Thus Montage is simply an audio interface like a sound card, for example. The audio device in Windows is two-channel stereo and sends audio data via USB into the USB Main input of the Montage.

If you right click on that Montage audio device shown in the mmsys.jpg attachment, you get the popup menu shown in the test_audio.jpg attachment. Choosing "Test" will send three tones to each channel starting with three tones on the left channel followed by three tones on the right channel.

When the balance gets "jacked up" as previously described, the three tones on the right channel are remarkably louder than the ones on the left channel almost as if they are "doubled".

Keep in mind that at this point, Cubase is gone, shut down and out of the picture. But if it were running, any VST instrument which sends audio through the USB Main bus into the Montage would experience the same result.

One point I forgot to mention previously. When in this state, any audio generated from the Montage internal tone generator is perfectly centered in the stereo spectrum. Montage's tone generator is not affected. It's only the audio coming from the PC that's messed up as if it has been panned to the right. Reboot Montage or init a new AWM2 performance, and the problem goes away.

The problem appears to be within the red box depicted in the attachment named apparent_problem_area.jpg.

I have yet to find any setting in the Montage UI which allows one to control the panning of the incoming USB audio. The only thing I see is that starting in Montage v1.50, there is the added ability to control the USB input volume.

I hope that helps clear up the mud on the issue I'm trying to describe. 🙂

One point I forgot to mention previously. When in this state, any audio generated from the Montage internal tone generator is perfectly centered in the stereo spectrum. Montage's tone generator is not affected. It's only the audio coming from the PC that's messed up as if it has been panned to the right. Reboot Montage or init a new AWM2 performance, and the problem goes away.

So the MONTAGE is fine, you are having a problem with the driver and Windows operations... how could you forget to mention that the Montage audio is fine?

You also have not mentioned the driver version... silly me, I've been assuming your using the Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver... but we have yet to establish this fact. So let me ask, are you using the Yamaha Steinberg Driver? Version number?

I think I'm even more confused... I recommend you call our Service desk and open a ticket so they can gather the necessary info. Without the screenshots and info I asked for I'm pretty helpless here. Sorry.

I would turn off sync and/or not use Montage Connect at all as a debug step to ensure there's no MIDI communication between Montage and the PC "behind your back". This likely isn't going to fix everything - or possibly anything. Often it's helpful to reduce down the amount of variables to "peel the onion" until you drill down to root cause.

I believe you've been able to get the unexpected volume behavior without Cubase loaded at all. Meaning Cubase was not loaded on the PC before powering on Montage, after powering on Montage, and later when the unexpected volume issue happened. If this is not true (that Cubase is required) -- then it is what it is - slightly more complex. But if you have mentioned Cubase is not a part of the problem (I'm unclear on this) -- then best not to load it as part of the simplification for debug.

You may also want to, after the problem arises, use Montage Connect (with Sync Off) to save an X7B bulk dump and upload this as a ZIP file. Maybe the volume settings which are problematic will be saved there and anyone can "load" your problem. A few eyes on this may find the settings which are causing your issue. X7B doesn't save everything - so the settings that are problematic may be outside of scope of the bulk parameters. It's a quick binary test. Either someone else loading the X7B you (potentially) provide has volume issues or does not have volume issues.

Hey guys,

Sorry, I did forget to include the USB driver version. It is v1.9.10 and, of course, it's 64bit.

I know the details of this issue can be hard to keep track of in the noggin because there are so many moving parts and isolating the source of the problem is tricky. Although the Montage tone generator is not involved, the Montage and whatever configuration it is in is most likely involved since the problem is rectified simply by initializing a new AWM2 performance on the Montage. My assumption up to this point is that there is some sort of setting that is being pushed down to it which is causing this. But I see no way on the montage UI that one can adjust the balance of the USB digital inputs.

Jason, I did try turning off Auto Sync in Montage Connect within the project and resaving the project. I rinsed and repeated and the problem *did not* reproduce. So, I re-enabled Auto Sync, resaved the project, then rinsed and repeated and the problem *did* reproduce. So it would appear that it is something being sent down by Montage Connect. As a matter of fact, Montage Connect is a key player in this situation. Based on this, I was able to eliminate the Cubase project I've been mentioning prior to this and I recreated the problem with an empty Cubase project as described below. As I mentioned before, this is Montage Connect v1.0.2.

With that in mind, I performed a test:

1) Turned on Montage
2) Verified in Windows Sound Control Panel Applet (mmsys.cpl) that Windows test audio sounded correct, and it did
2) Launched Cubase
3) Created an empty project in Cubase
4) Verified in Windows Sound Control Panel Applet (mmsys.cpl) that Windows test audio sounded correct, and it did
5) Added Montage Connect as a rack instrument without creating an associated midi track. In Montage Connect, Auto Sync is On.
6) Verified in Windows Sound Control Panel Applet (mmsys.cpl) that Windows test audio sounded correct, and it did
7) Saved the Cubase project
8) Verified in Windows Sound Control Panel Applet (mmsys.cpl) that Windows test audio sounded correct, and it did
9) Closed the Cubase project and shutdown Cubase (Cubase again asks if I want to save the project and I noticed Montage Connect had performed a sync from Montage. I said "yes")
10) Verified in Windows Sound Control Panel Applet (mmsys.cpl) that Windows test audio sounded correct, and it did
11) Launched Cubase and opened the test project created in step 3 and which was saved in steps 7 and 9
12) ** At this point, the audio is messed up in the way I've been describing in this thread ** Playing the test sound in Windows produces audio that is heavily panned to the right. Any audio coming into Montage via the USB Digital Inputs has the left channel quieter and the right channel is much louder.

So most definitely Montage Connect sent something down to the Montage to cause this.

The day before this problem appeared, I had just updated my Montage to 1.60.1.

I'm hopeful that you can repro this problem given the steps listed above. But for good measure, I attached the test Cubase project I created in the steps above.

Thanks!