New to MIDI controllers, please HELP!

[Frankensteez]

I am new to using a midi controller and I have purchased a moog slim phatty that I need to control with my Keystep.  I am embarrased to say that I can't get it to work.

I have hooked up the midi cable from my keystep MIDI out to my MIDI in of the slim phatty.  Both midi channels are set to 1, but nothing happens when I press the keys.

What am I missing?  I didn't register the keystep or hook it up to my laptop yet, do I need to do that?  I don't want to use a computer at all, just want to control my hardware slim phatty...do i need to configure the keystep through my computer first?

Many thanks, and sorry for being such a newbie.

[megamarkd]

I hate to ask a dumb question, but do you have power to the Keystep? It's a really dumb question but you didn't mention that you had the Keystep powered up but did mention everything else. Another thing to keep in mind is if you are in sequence mode and it is playing, unless the Keystep is set to not transpose, any note played will not be heard.  So if you have an empty pattern playing in transpose mode, it will seem as though the keyboard doesn't work if you try to play.

[Frankensteez]

Yes, I bought the power adapter. I press any key and no sound. Is there a certain setting on the key step that I have to be in to trigger the hardware Moog slim phatty? Shouldn’t I be able to just plug in a midi cord and be able to play right away?

[megamarkd]

If you have it powered up, on the correct MIDI channel and are not playing any sequence while you try to play, I don't know what is wrong.  Only thing I can think to do is to check the sync mode, but that shouldn't make any difference.  On the back of the Keystep are some dip switches for setting how the Keystep times itself.  Set it to Internal so to that you know it's not waiting for a tempo message before it decides to run.  It shouldn't make a scrap of difference really as when the Keystep is stopped, it should just send MIDI notes on the channel you have it set to when you play the keys.

[Frankensteez]

The dip switch was set to "MIDI" but I should change that to "Internal?"  I will try that, it came defaulted out the box in the "MIDI" dip switch setting.

[Frankensteez]

Didn't work    It must be something simple that I'm not doing, if anyone else can weigh in, that would be appreciated.

[acorsaro]

Is the Keystep in Keyboard play mode, or transpose mode?

[Frankensteez]

Where do I make that distinction, keyboard vs transpose?

[megamarkd]

In sequencer mode, press and hold the shift button and then one of the keyboard octave buttons will light up to indicate which mode it is in (the blue writing below the buttons).