Proudly announce... and how to share 3 keyboards?

[Mu_]

Hi all.
Finally those red Sainta Clowns have delivered to me my brand new shiny M-AUDIO 88 ES and, obviously I got a new problems.
I know, this stuff, is nothing to such rich mother fuckers as you are - or spoiled kids of mentioned before, but I feel extremely happy with those 88 keys. ))
So what is my problem? Well - there more than just one. First of all I wonder if and how can I use 3 of my keyboards connected through MIDI at the same time with Buzz and assigned to different machines? M-AUDIO can be connected to my computer by its USB cable which is recognized as MIDI device, Roland through MIDI2USB cable and Yamaha through MIDI2MIDIPC cable. Also I can connect them into a chain eg. M-AUDIO MIDI-OUT to MIDI-THRU or MIDI-IN of Rolland and then from it's MIDI-OUT to YAMAHA'S MIDI-IN then from its MIDI-OUT to MIDI2USB or MIDI2MIDIPC cable - but I wonder how (and if) Buzz will know from who he gets particular notes? Last question is I got with keyboard Ableton Live Lite 8.xx. Some of instruments of it sounds good and i like them, but they are not VSTI so is there a way to make those 2 programs work together? Driver for M-AUDIO lets the keyboard to work with more application at the same time. Gosh... I longer write I got more questions... More and more, so I will pause at this moment and will wait for your answers.
Cheers.

[strobotone]

MIDI is just data and each instrument/keyboard should play using its own channel.
So, BUZZ or any other MIDI compatible host does not care about how a particular device is named.
If you use MIDI-thru then you can have like 16 MIDI devices in serial.
Just assign keyboard A to MIDI-channel (from the keyboard) that differs from the channel of keyboard B.

I use one keyboard with rotary dials and one faderbank.
The keyboard itself send notedata on MIDI channel 00 (channel 1) and its rotary dials are set to send data on channel 15 (channel 16).
The faderbank sends data on channel 14 (channel 15).

[snowglobe]

Last question is I got with keyboard Ableton Live Lite 8.xx. Some of instruments of it sounds good and i like them, but they are not VSTI so is there a way to make those 2 programs work together?

Not clear what you mean by them working together. Example?

[pbhs]

For using a chain of MIDI device using the "THRU midi port" this one must be capable of "midi merge function".
Some keyboards also can do "midi merge" on the "MIDI OUT" port.
So a simple chain connection can be:
(Keyb1-midi_out)>-->(midi_in-Keyb2-midi_out)>-->(midi_in-Keyb3-Midi_out)>-->(midi_in-MIDI2USB-usb)-PC
In this case the midi_out port of Keyb2 and Keyb3 must be capable of midi merging function.
So what you do with knob/slider/keys on the Keyb2 will be "mixed" with the incoming data in the midi_in port and the results transmitted on the midi_out port; same story is done by the Keyb3 and so at the end of MIDI2USB cable you have all the MIDI data of all 3 Keyboards.
You must carefully set the MIDI channel used by every Keyboards for avoid confusion.

Hope this can help a little.

Ciao.Paolo BHS.