Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Let me know if you find anything, a friend of mine is in the same quandry 
with his Opcode interfaces...

rEalm





"Andre Lewis" <andrel@...>
05/21/02 11:09 AM
Please respond to xl7

 
        To:     "Xl7@Yahoogroups. Com" <xl7@yahoogroups.com>
        cc: 

        Subject:        [xl7] [OT] Midi Merging


Anyone know of a decent midi patchbay?  I have two Opcode patchbays but 
they
aren't exceptionally usefull now that they aren't supported and I can't 
get
drivers that work with my computer.  That means I don't get multiple 
output
ports from my computer.  I want to replace them but they do have a few 
very
usefull features that I would like to replace:

Selectively filter:  Filter out any kind of midi message and reroute that 
to
another port.  This is usefull if I have one device setting the midi 
clock, and
all the other devices sync'ed to it, but don't want the midi note on/off
messages or anything else.  I can filter out sysex, timecode, note on/off.

Bump channels:  I can set the port to bump a channel coming in on 1 to 
channel 2
or whatever.

Work Offline exactly the same way as online:  I had a Midisport 8x8 and 
was not
impressed.  Other than the lack of filtering it also wouldn't allow you to 
keep
your offline patch setup at the same time you were using your computer. 
You had
to disable the USB on the front.  Pretty weak.  They said it was simply 
not
something they were used to doing.  For instance with my Opcode I used to 
be
able to treat the 8 ins and 8 outs as if they were all independant midi 
devices
and set filtering , and routing to each.  When online the computer would 
get
whatever was routed to it's ports and the other ports would only get what 
was
routed to them.

Multiple configurations:  Easy switching of configurations when not hooked 
to
the computer.

The other thing to note was the power management on the Midisport.  I 
fried mine
since the USB port on it supplies power, as well as the wall wart it comes 
with.
When the unit wasn't shut off properly (someone tripped over the power 
cord or
the clubs circuit breaker went) if the computer was on a UPS then the unit 
still
got voltage supplied on the USB port apparently causing the main chip to 
fry.
They were kind enough to replace it quickly but it was still something 
which is
likely to happen.

Anyway I was also trying to track down a product I think is only available 
in
the UK:

Philip Rees Little 2M Midi Merge.
http://www.philrees.co.uk/products/mergebox.htm

Anyone know if these are distributed in the US?

Thanks for checking this out, this has been pretty painful ever since 
Opcode was
bought by Gibson.

Andre Lewis





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Anyone know of a decent midi patchbay?  I have two Opcode patchbays but they
aren't exceptionally usefull now that they aren't supported and I can't get
drivers that work with my computer.  That means I don't get multiple output
ports from my computer.  I want to replace them but they do have a few very
usefull features that I would like to replace:

Selectively filter:  Filter out any kind of midi message and reroute that to
another port.  This is usefull if I have one device setting the midi clock, and
all the other devices sync'ed to it, but don't want the midi note on/off
messages or anything else.  I can filter out sysex, timecode, note on/off.

Bump channels:  I can set the port to bump a channel coming in on 1 to channel 2
or whatever.

Work Offline exactly the same way as online:  I had a Midisport 8x8 and was not
impressed.  Other than the lack of filtering it also wouldn't allow you to keep
your offline patch setup at the same time you were using your computer.  You had
to disable the USB on the front.  Pretty weak.  They said it was simply not
something they were used to doing.  For instance with my Opcode I used to be
able to treat the 8 ins and 8 outs as if they were all independant midi devices
and set filtering , and routing to each.  When online the computer would get
whatever was routed to it's ports and the other ports would only get what was
routed to them.

Multiple configurations:  Easy switching of configurations when not hooked to
the computer.

The other thing to note was the power management on the Midisport.  I fried mine
since the USB port on it supplies power, as well as the wall wart it comes with.
When the unit wasn't shut off properly (someone tripped over the power cord or
the clubs circuit breaker went) if the computer was on a UPS then the unit still
got voltage supplied on the USB port apparently causing the main chip to fry.
They were kind enough to replace it quickly but it was still something which is
likely to happen.

Anyway I was also trying to track down a product I think is only available in
the UK:

Philip Rees Little 2M Midi Merge.
http://www.philrees.co.uk/products/mergebox.htm

Anyone know if these are distributed in the US?

Thanks for checking this out, this has been pretty painful ever since Opcode was
bought by Gibson.

Andre Lewis

> Anyone know of a decent midi patchbay?  I have two Opcode patchbays but they
> aren't exceptionally usefull now that they aren't supported and I can't get
> drivers that work with my computer.

With Opcode dead, you're basically looking at Emagic or MOTU. I don't
know anything about the high-end Emagic Unitor interfaces, but have
used a few of the MOTU ones; right now I have a micro-express (4-in,
6-out) hanging off my Pismo PowerBook and it works reasonably
well. The configuration software is a little delicate (sometimes
indicating the wrong thing) but otherwise it's fine. It can store
routing/merging/filtering configurations internally and run standalone
(and it has buttons for selecting setups). It does SMPTE striping and
sync as well, FWIW...

-- 

  nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com
  upcoming gig at cybersonica, london, june 5th  -- http://www.cybersonica.org

>>right now I have a micro-express (4-in,
>>6-out) hanging off my Pismo PowerBook and it works reasonably
>>well. The configuration software is a little delicate (sometimes
>>indicating the wrong thing) but otherwise it's fine. 

Do you have it working on a PC?  How's the timing?

My imperssion is that the computer interface is the big difference 
between the eMagic and the MOTU. Both seem reliable as independent 
patchbays. You should look into the user groups for your sequencer 
and see what people have to say. I use Logic and the eMagic seems to 
be the favorite choice for it (no surprise). Many folks on the Logic 
list have had problems with MOTU interfaces on the PC (myself 
included), but the Mac folks love them. A number of people also claim 
that MOTU has fixed most of their PC issues with the winXP drivers 
(but if you still use win98 you are SOL).

Ezra



--- In xl7@y..., "Andre Lewis" <andrel@s...> wrote:
> I will.  I've been looking at the MOTU and the eLogic but I don't 
want to
> shell out the cash for em if they aren't going to work.
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: erik_magrini@B... [mailto:erik_magrini@B...]
>   Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 9:06 AM
>   To: xl7@y...
>   Subject: Re: [xl7] [OT] Midi Merging
> 
> 
> 
>   Let me know if you find anything, a friend of mine is in the same 
quandry
> with his Opcode interfaces...
> 
>   rEalm
> 
> 
> 
>        "Andre Lewis" <andrel@s...>
>         05/21/02 11:09 AM
>         Please respond to xl7
> 
> 
>                 To:        "Xl7@Yahoogroups. Com" <xl7@y...>
>                 cc:
>                 Subject:        [xl7] [OT] Midi Merging
> 
> 
> 
>   Anyone know of a decent midi patchbay?  I have two Opcode 
patchbays but
> they
>   aren't exceptionally usefull now that they aren't supported and I 
can't
> get
>   drivers that work with my computer.  That means I don't get 
multiple
> output
>   ports from my computer.

>> Many folks on the Logic
>>list have had problems with MOTU interfaces on the PC (myself
>>included), but the Mac folks love them. A number of people also claim
>>that MOTU has fixed most of their PC issues with the winXP drivers
>>(but if you still use win98 you are SOL).

Ok i am running WinMe (Probably shifting to 2000) and the MOTU has software that
runs on it to configure it but you can't actually use it as a computer midi
interface with each port addressable in your sequencer on a PC.  That sound
about right?

Andre

I was able to use the MOTU interface for a while but as my computer 
system got more complex the MOTU started having more and more 
problems. In the begining the timing started to go off. After a while 
I could not use it at all. Your experience will vary with the 
software packages you are using. I would reccomend trying it out 
before buying it, if you can. There is also a lot of information on 
the various users groups. Search through yahoo groups, ezboard, 
google and the like to find the groups.

For OS, it seems like winMe and win2K are not nearly as well 
supported by the music industry as win98 and winXP. Almost everyone 
reccomends one of the latter two, depending on the software you are 
using.

Ezra

--- In xl7@y..., "Andre Lewis" <andrel@s...> wrote:
> >> Many folks on the Logic
> >>list have had problems with MOTU interfaces on the PC (myself
> >>included), but the Mac folks love them. A number of people also 
claim
> >>that MOTU has fixed most of their PC issues with the winXP drivers
> >>(but if you still use win98 you are SOL).
> 
> Ok i am running WinMe (Probably shifting to 2000) and the MOTU has 
software that
> runs on it to configure it but you can't actually use it as a 
computer midi
> interface with each port addressable in your sequencer on a PC.  
That sound

> about right?
> 
> Andre

> Do you have it working on a PC?  How's the timing?

Never tried the MOTU on a PC - sorry. No obvious timing issues on
the Mac.

-- 

  nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com
  upcoming gig at cybersonica, london, june 5th  -- http://www.cybersonica.org

If you have a PC with VIA chipset (e.g. MSI motherboards), just trow your computer to the trash can. You won't be able to run any USB device with it...

It is not easy to find moterboard that REALLY supports USB. And sometimes, even the driver bugs on ANY computer.

I think that USB devices should be tryied at computer store, BEFORE buying a mogtherboard.

S.






Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com

Funny that's the real problem with my computer.  Time to upgrade?!  Damn I
thought a 900mhz athlon would be ok, I see I was wrong....  Time for a non VIA
chipset.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kay Stephane [mailto:stephane.kay@...]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:11 AM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [xl7] [OT] Midi Merging



If you have a PC with VIA chipset (e.g. MSI motherboards), just trow your
computer to the trash can. You won't be able to run any USB device with it...

It is not easy to find moterboard that REALLY supports USB. And sometimes, even
the driver bugs on ANY computer.

I think that USB devices should be tryied at computer store, BEFORE buying a
mogtherboard.

S.






Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at
http://www.eudoramail.com


To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
xl7-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



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BAH!  Garbage, I've got two PC's with via chipsets (KT133, and KT266) in 
my studio, and both run USB just fine (Scanners, MIDISport 2x2, printers 
at one time, etc).  The biggest thing with getting USB midi to work right, 
is to make sure your USB host controllers aren't sharing IRQ's with 
anything else.

rEalm



If you have a PC with VIA chipset (e.g. MSI motherboards), just trow your 
computer to the trash can. You won't be able to run any USB device with 
it...

Before you spend that much money redoing it, try buying a PCI to USB card. 
 They're like $15 and I know of a lot of people that used this to fix 
their USB issues.

rEalm



Funny that's the real problem with my computer.  Time to upgrade?!  Damn I
thought a 900mhz athlon would be ok, I see I was wrong....  Time for a non 
VIA
chipset.

If you really want to upgrade anyway I would follow the RME refrence 
PC advice:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/refpc/index.htm

They do a lot of testing to find something that will work for music. 
They also make a lot of reccomendations for optimizing the running 
environment.

Ezra


--- In xl7@y..., erik_magrini@B... wrote:
> Before you spend that much money redoing it, try buying a PCI to 
USB card. 
>  They're like $15 and I know of a lot of people that used this to 
fix 
> their USB issues.
> 
> rEalm
> 
> 
> 
> Funny that's the real problem with my computer.  Time to upgrade?!  
Damn I
> thought a 900mhz athlon would be ok, I see I was wrong....  Time 
for a non 
> VIA
> chipset.

Wow they have some really great tweaks up there!

-----Original Message-----
From: ezra_gold [mailto:ezra_gold@...]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:25 AM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [xl7] Re: [OT] Midi Merging


If you really want to upgrade anyway I would follow the RME refrence 
PC advice:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/refpc/index.htm

They do a lot of testing to find something that will work for music. 
They also make a lot of reccomendations for optimizing the running 
environment.

Ezra


--- In xl7@y..., erik_magrini@B... wrote:
> Before you spend that much money redoing it, try buying a PCI to 
USB card. 
>  They're like $15 and I know of a lot of people that used this to 
fix 
> their USB issues.
> 
> rEalm
> 
> 
> 
> Funny that's the real problem with my computer.  Time to upgrade?!  
Damn I
> thought a 900mhz athlon would be ok, I see I was wrong....  Time 
for a non 
> VIA
> chipset.



To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
xl7-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

 

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