The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

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 do have a Philip Rees V10 Midi thru box lying around somewhere 
which gives me 10 thru ports.

So, could I have your learned opinions on which of the above three 
you hold up as the best.

Thanks again

Alan

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@...

--- In AN1x-list@y..., Bruce Wahler <bruce@a...> wrote:

> 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'll second Bruce's observation on MOTU vs. MIDIMAN.

Word of mouth has it the current MIDIMAN Mac drivers are much 
improved over their previous drivers from the past 24 months. I 
was unhappy with MIDIMAN MIDISport 2x2 USB performance on 
my Mac but I'd consider them a 2nd time based on the fact that 
their sister company, M-Audio, is establishing themselves as an 
early player with Mac OS X support. But to be perfectly honest I'll 
probably go with Emagic...

Whether it's justified or not I can't say but, MOTU has something 
of a rep for being less Win friendly then Mac savy. This probably 
comes from being a Mac only company for so long. It's no easy 
challenge for these companies to successfully offer 
crossplatform support.

regards,

Jon

--- In AN1x-list@y..., "jondl_2000" <jondl_2000@y...> wrote:
> I'll second Bruce's observation on MOTU vs. MIDIMAN.

To bring a third company into the game, eMagic makes very good MIDI-
interfaces too, which can be also used stand-alone as a Patchbay. A 
friend of mine is using the AMT8, together with his PC, mostly 
because the AMT8 produces a rock-solid MIDI timing (compared to a 
software-sequencer...). He is very satisfied with it. But it is also 
a bit more pricey with 645Euro.

Tom

--- In AN1x-list@y..., "tomfinegan" <tomfinegan@y...> wrote:
> --- In AN1x-list@y..., "jondl_2000" <jondl_2000@y...> wrote:
> > I'll second Bruce's observation on MOTU vs. MIDIMAN.
> 
> To bring a third company into the game, eMagic makes very good MIDI-
> interfaces too, which can be also used stand-alone as a Patchbay. A 
> friend of mine is using the AMT8, together with his PC, mostly 
> because the AMT8 produces a rock-solid MIDI timing (compared to a 
> software-sequencer...). He is very satisfied with it. But it is 
also 
> a bit more pricey with 645Euro.
> 
> Tom

I had looked at the AMT8 Tom after Jon`s recommendation and it does 
indeed seem like a fantastic piece of kit. It is however above my 
budget. Emagic do not seem to produce an entry level interface except 
in USB format. The German site recommended to me the other day has 
the AMT8 listed at 429 euros which appears a great price. I am 
considering it since I do have an old Yamaha DX27 and as Jon pointed 
out, a perhaps redundant Alesis Datadisk to sell, so perhaps I can 
raise the cash in order to go all out for a higher spec interface. 
Hmmmmm... now you got me thinking :-)). Sell my DX27, my Alesis, my 
Toshiba laptop, we might just do this yet.

Alan