MOTU MIDI Interface questions

[synthetic]

I'm trying to pick a new MIDI interface. Any MOTU users out there that can answer a few questions?

 

- Can the MIDI Express route MIDI from the front panel? Say my computer is off and I want to play the module on output #5 from my controller on port #1, can I do this from the front panel or do I need to turn on the computer? I assume that the MIDI Timepiece AV can do this.

- The MIDI Timepiece AV says you can plug in an Alesis LRC. Can you use the LRC to send MMC commands, starting and stopping Digital Performer for example?

- Any other things I should know between these two units that aren't in the spec pages?

 

I'm leaning towards the Express for $$ reasons. I don't think I would use the word clock features of the AV.

 

Thanks, -jl

[synthetic]

Forgot to add one question, anyone using these with Mac OS X? How do they work?

[RABid]

I cannot answer the questions you ask because I don't use Mac, and I don't use the Express. I will say that I owned a MOTU MTP/AV about 5 years before the computer interface went out. After spending a month with a Midiman 8x8 I sold it and bought another Motu MTP/AV. You do not have to turn the computer on to use the MTP/AV or to program it. It comes with software to make programming dead easy. My favorite program is

 

Input 1 channel 2 to output 2 chennel 1

Input 1 channel 3 to output 3 channel 1

Input 1 channel 4 to output 4 channel 1

 

etc.

 

This enables me to change which device in my rig I want to play by only changing the MIDI out channel on my main keyboard. I thought all MIDI patchbays has this type of deep programming, but I was wrong. Others I have tried only allow you to patch inputs to outputs as a whole (all 16 channels routed the same). To me it was worth paying to an MTP/AV again. If I had never used it maybe I would not have missed it.

 

Robert

[MojoHaiku]

Originally posted by synthetic:

- Can the MIDI Express route MIDI from the front panel? Say my computer is off and I want to play the module on output #5 from my controller on port #1, can I do this from the front panel or do I need to turn on the computer?

Yup. Sure can. Just got finished doing it. You don't need to have the computer on to be using the MIDI Express XT to control your MIDI rig.

 

I'm running a Mac on OS 9 -- using ClockWorks to program the XT has worked out just fine. Don't know about OS X, though. Good luck!

[Markyboard]

Input 1 channel 2 to output 2 chennel 1

Input 1 channel 3 to output 3 channel 1

Input 1 channel 4 to output 4 channel 1

I cant figure out why you would operate like this. Wouldnt it make more sense to configure channel 2 input to OMNI and set each of your keyboards/modules to a different channel (ie output 2 would pass all chn but the keyboard would be set to chn 1, output 3 would pass all chn but the keyboard attached to it would be set to chn 2 etc.) ?. I had 2 MTP-AVs but sold them for Unitor MII and an AMT. The MTPs would not pass sys excl data correctly from Sounddiver(Win XP) although I'm sure they work fine with Unysis.

Anyway I prefer tp set each keyboard to a unique "base MIDI chn. " My controller outputs (4 used out of 8) goes to input 2, 4, 10(chn 1 on my AMT 8)and 13. Then my FS1r is attached to ouput 1 and uses chn 1 for its base chn. If I want more chanels for multi mode I use chn 2, 3... My Z1 attached to output 5 uses chn 5 as its base chn and uses chn 6, 7, ... for additional multimode channels. My Wave station attached to output 9 uses chn 9 (a as its base chn and I use chn 10, 11,... for multi mode channels. I set my controller to output only on the port I need with the chan I need. This way if I duplicate channels (ie chn 7 for some multi patch on my FS1R and chn 7 on my Z1 it only plays the one I want. additionally audio mixer (Left stereo side) chn # matches the midi port/base channel in most cases.