The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Alan,

>Thanks for your help everyone on my midi challenge. It seems the best 
>way forward is to invest slightly more and buy a true multiport midi 
>interface as Jon suggests. I cannot quite justify going to the 
>expense of a MOTU Midi Express, so my choices would appear to be the 
>MOTU Pocket Express, the MOTU PC Midi Flyer or the Midiman Portman 
>2x4. 

I have no experience with any of the three devices you mention.  FWIW, however, I was looking at a similar dilemma about a year ago, except I was looking for an 8x8 patchbay with USB interface.  My choices were the MOTU MIDI Express USB and the MIDIman MIDIsport 8x8/s.

I found MOTU to be very Mac-savvy, but much less so on the PC side.  In fact, the MIDI Express USB was shipped for about a year with no Windows USB drivers!  I wisely held off, waiting for the Windows support, and every time I'd call MOTU (who is more or less "local" to me), I would get a 'pretty soon' kind of response.  They now have full OS support, but it was a long time coming.

MIDIman has good PC support; I've heard that their Mac knowledge is somewhat lacking.  From the PC side of things, the only issue I currently have is that I cannot run a MIDIsport 8x8/s and a MIDIsport 2x2 on the same PC at the same time; at least, not under Windows 2000 Pro.  Since this is a somewhat esoteric case, I've learned to live with it, and new drivers have been promised.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://music.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...