Hi, been working all day & my brain is fried & I’ll just confuse you AND me (lol) in trying to address every question. But for now, I’ll ramble more…and here’s an interesting read for midi beginners that may help you to understand more …
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I was in your shoes not all that long ago & didn’t know squad about midi. It took a long time to sink in. As I said I used to daisy-chain, running all midi instruments in and out of each other. Though it can work, I found investing in a midi router was the best thing for my midi set up. But you’re welcome to give daisy-chaining a go 1st…I did that too! Do NOT try to absorb all things midi (just like you said) …it’ll mess you up, just get the basic, and get stuff working!
Midi THRU just passes what that device/instrument has sent into it’s input…in other words, the THRU is a copy of what the input see’s. So, if you send your edrums midi out, into to your keyboards input, your keyboards midi thru will ‘only’ be sending out the midi information from your edrums. While ‘playing’ your keyboard, the midi in which you’re playing will not be sent out of it’s midi thru, but will be sent to it’s midi out.
So…I believe to daisy chain both your edrums & keyboard, yes…you’ll start by sending your edrums midi out, into your keyboards midi in, and send the keyboards midi out, into your sound cards midi. If you only want to use your edrums & keyboard as a midi controller, to send midi out of them, into the computer, and don’t want/need your computer to ‘play’ the edrums & keyboards own sounds, the you don’t need to send your sound cards midi out at all.
Midi THRU is useful if say, you’re playing a master keyboard (the keyboard you’re sitting at & playing), and you want what you’re ‘playing’ sent out (the midi) into say, 2 or 3 more keyboards (called slaves) which then each additional keyboards ‘receive’ the midi that you’re sending out from your master keyboard that you’re playing on. Each of the keyboards can then send it’s own sounds out via it’s audio outputs into a mixer or sound card for a super multi-layered sound.
I don’t believe in your particular case, you’d even use the midi THRU on your keyboard, because you’re not intending to have one midi instrument that’s being played, have the other midi instrument be an additional sound source for it. You only wanting to have 2 separate ‘midi controllers’ go into your computer to control separate midi tracks/channels.
In the scenario of sending the edrums midi out, into the keyboards midi in…if you then sent your keyboards midi thru into your computers midi in, then what will happen is your keyboard won’t be sending midi into your sound cards midi it, only your edrums will play a VSTi in your computer.
However, you may need to do some fancy work, (midi filtering etc) to prevent one midi device from doing something unwanted to the other midi device. That’s where a midi router comes in handy. I only suggest the older Motu MTP AV because you can get an 8X8 router for DIRT CHEAP. As I said, I don’t even use the USB function on the USB versions, so an even CHEAPER & OLDER parallel Motu can be had. By the way, the front & rear midi INS & OUTS don’t matter on either the parallel or USB motu versions…they’re labeled ‘1 through 8’ and any ins can be sent to any outs, separated, or combined! For example, plug your edrums midi out, into ANY of the routers midi in, (say midi #1 IN) then plug your keyboards midi out, into say midi #2 IN) …then, simply send ANY of the routers midi out, into your sound cards midi IN. Again, you do not need a midi out from your sound card. If you DO get a router, and one with a USB connection into your computer, you’d just use the USB from your router, to your computer. I just prefer to stay all 5 pin midi DIN myself.
Again, try the daisy chaining 1st and see if you end up with issues. For me, my midi set up got crazy, and I needed the routing capability for how I use my midi gear. I don’t just do one thing, set & forget…things get routed around as needed.
Here, check out some images of several midi connections…
Notice how the midi IN’s, OUT’s & THRU’s are being used. It appears THRU is mostly used to send from master instrument (the one you’re playing) to slaves where your master is controlling them by it’s midi.