Need MIDI setup help.

[Trick Fall]

I'm not too familiar with MIDI and I'm trying to get a somewhat complex (at least for me) setup to work. I'm not sure if I need more hardware or if I just need to connect what I have properly.

 

I have an Ensoniq ASR-X that I use to sequence. This goes into the midi in on my firewire audio/midi interface and is locked to Pro Tools M-Powered. The out from the firewire interface goes to the ASR-X. I also have a yamaha cs1X that I would like use to be able to trigger sounds on the ASR-X and receive midi data from either the ASR-X, Pro Tools or both. Additionally I have a Korg M3r module and would like to be able to control it from the yamaha and have it receive midi data from either the ASR-X or Pro Tools.

 

The ASR-X, Yamaha and Korg have midi in, out and thru. I believe the M-Audio 4410 only has in/out.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Paully]

If you have an extra USB or IEEE port available, I'd pick up a standalone unit with three or four midi ins/outs, rather than using the audio unit's midi. Lots more options, and not real expensive.

 

Paul

[TimOBrien]

You can daisy-chain midi devices if you put them on different channels, but it gets SO much more complicated (especially if they don't play nice with each other!)

 

As Paully said, just get a multiple-I/O midi interface. You life will be MUCH easier.

[dahkter]

Option 1 - as mentioned, buy a dedicated multiple in and out interface for your computer, so all of your gear can talk to each other.

 

Option 2 - daisy chain all of your gear together. My opinion would be:

CS1X midi out to MBox midi in

MBox midi out to ASRX midi in

asrx out to m3r in

m3r thru to cs1x

 

kind of crazy, however you would be able to do some good stuff:

 

- play soft synths in protools from the keys of the cs1x

- hit play on protools, and have all of your hardware slave in time using midi clock or mtc.

 

Tough call, without a dedicated interface, you would have to make some compromises...

[philbo]

As others mentioned, the simplest and most robust (and uncomplicated) way is to add more midi ports to your PC.

 

The most difficult way is to put everything in a big midi loop. What ever way you do a loop will involve compromises and shortcomings in some way.

 

Ideally your loop setup would allow anything coming from ProTools to reach everything else in the chain.

 

An option that might get you closer, if you want use a single midi loop is a midi merger box. This takes several midi streams and merges them into a single output. If you have one of these, you could set the loop up like this:

 

ASRX OUT-->|

CS1X OUT-->| MIDI merger box |---> ProTools IN

M3R OUT--->|

 

ProTools Out-->ASRX IN

ASRX THRU---->CS1X IN

CS1X THRU---->M3R IN

 

The THRU output passes everything appearing at the units IN. The OUT output passes only what MIDI the unit is generating (although some instruments allow the OUT to be set to act as a THRU or maybe THRU+OUT).

 

To use a given midi source as a controller, you set up the PC to pass the midi through the PC, remapping it to the desired output channel to reach the synth you want to control.

 

This can be done using Midi Ox, which turns your PC into a midi patch bay.

http://www.midiox.com/?http://www.midiox.com/jsoft.htm

 

Typically, in a loop like this, each synth is assigned a few channels. For example, the ASRX might be set to only play midi notes on channels 1 -4, the cs1X only plays channels 5-8, and so on. Otherwise, if every synth responds to every channel, then a single note sent out on a single channel causes EVERY synth in the chain to output a sound.

 

Even if you do get several more PC ports, I still recommend midi-ox. It rawks!

[Paully]

Yep, a simple merger will work for units as multi-controllers. The problem there is once the midi stream is coming out of PTs, some instruments may have to be turned on and functioning in order to pass the stream to the next instrument in the daisy-chain via midi thru. There is also a possible latency issue with long serial connection. IMHO, much better to go with a multiple in/out unit from the getgo.

 

Here's a cheapie idea:

 

www.edirol.net/products/en/UM-3EX/index.html

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UM3EX/

 

Paul

[deanmass]

MIDI patch bay...

[Trick Fall]

Thanks for all of the input. I will probably buy a multi midi input in the next month or two, but for now I will wire everything up per dahkter's recommendation.