Help a MIDIot: MOTU MTP AV and Pro Tools 10/Mac

[KenElevenShadows]

I have a bunch of old MIDI keyboards and modules that I still use. And I just got a MOTU MTP AV for free (no accompanying CD/DVD, however). I downloaded the manual but there's scant discussion of just simply hooking up the MIDI in the most simplistic manner possible, and it just seems a bit confusing to me.

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/jan97/motumtpav.html

 

1.) would this be useful for lessening the rat's nest of MIDI cables? I have everything working with Pro Tools 10 already, but you know, if I can control the rat's nest, this might be worthwhile.

 

2.) what's the best way of connecting this unit with the keyboards and the computer?

 

3.) can I output to the computer via USB without any drivers or do I need those? Or can I interface the "traditional" MIDI way through the MIDI I/O on the MOTU? And if so, how?

 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mcgoo]

1.) would this be useful for lessening the rat's nest of MIDI cables? I have everything working with Pro Tools 10 already, but you know, if I can control the rat's nest, this might be worthwhile.

 

I think so. The first thing to understand is that it's an 8x8 MIDI Interface. That's 8 discreet ports, so you can output 64 MIDI channels. With a lot of external MIDI gear, that can be pretty helpful. As for cleaning up the rat's nest, the biggest benefit is not having to run lots of MIDI thru's from one keyboard or module to the next one.

 

2.) what's the best way of connecting this unit with the keyboards and the computer?

 

MTP USB to Computer. MIDI I/O of each kbd / module to MTP.

 

3.) can I output to the computer via USB without any drivers or do I need those? Or can I interface the "traditional" MIDI way through the MIDI I/O on the MOTU? And if so, how?

You need to download the drivers from MOTU's download section of their website. You'll have to setup an account if you haven't already (no big deal, but ya gotta do it to get in). You should be able to get install instructions (probably typical install drivers first then plug unit into computer). Verify that your DAW sees all the MIDI ports before you try to do anything productive. If all goes well, the next thing to do is dedicate all your external MIDI gear to whatever port you want & then setup some templates in your DAW so you don't have to spend 10 minutes setting up a starting point everytime you sit down to do something.

 

Good luck!

[KenElevenShadows]

Thank you, that is helpful. So it looks like I can put anything anywhere and be able to trigger any keyboard, although I will have the keyboards correspond to 1-8 logically, of course.

[mcgoo]

Your daw needs to support multiple ports, but I can't imagine that any of today's wouldn't. So for example, kbd 1 would be addressed by setting a track to port1, channel 1-16 (assuming it's multi-timbral) and module 1 would be port 2, ch 1-16, etc.