PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

hey guys! I'm going back to work on my live act and I'm trying to figure a good midi setup to have all my controllers conversing with each other. Here's what's planned:
-1 big 88 keys master keyboard-kawai mp9000 (midi in-out-thru)
-1 smaller synth-novation x-station (1 midi in-2 midi out)
-1 bass pedal controller (1 midi out)
-1 e-mu sampler (midi in-out-thru)

So, basically, I want every machine being able to control every other machine, except for the pedals which only emit midi signal. I may use my sampler's sequencer too, so it must be cvonsidered as a controller as well.

I don't know much about midi interfaces and how they work, so I'd like your advice on how I could achieve my 1 man band project, midi-wise...

eliam wrote: So, basically, I want every machine being able to control every other machine, except for the pedals which only emit midi signal. I may use my sampler's sequencer too, so it must be cvonsidered as a controller as well.

This is the OT forum, but I think what you want is impossible. Assuming you have the Scope system, you might want to consider what will be your master device and then build around that. MIDI devices are chained. In other words you can't connect all devices to one or viceversa. That's why you see only one MIDI IN and one MIDI OUT on most devices. You then will have to connect one MIDI OUT to the next device MIDI IN and so on.
How's the weather in Montreal by the way?

You need to get a MIDI router. Generally speaking, this device lets you turn LOCAL off on all your synths, plug them all into the router, and decide which device's outs map to which device's ins (and save particular configurations in presets). You probably won't want to allow all instruments to feed to all other instruments simultaneously though there is generally provided a mode like 'thru' which does just that.

You might consider making one of your MIDI keyboard controllers the 'master' and patching all the devices in your setup that way. When you're playing live, you just call up a preset and all your keyboards and rackmounts will be ready to play.

For instance, my computer is plugged into port 1 in / port 1 out, and all the keyboards in my setup similarly have fixed port #s. I have a 'use with computer' preset where the keyboards send their midi to port 1 and port 1 sends midi to each of them. My 'Live with trinity' preset allows the main keyboard to patch everything else, and lets the top level keyboard send midi data to the main keyboard and to the rackmount stuff. And a 'live with triton' lets me just use the triton (and the noah and other stuff in the rack with the midi router, permanently wired to channel out 5-8 ).


http://www.motu.com/products/midi/mtpav_usb
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=pro ... interfaces

I use an m-audio midisport 8x8. Since it connects to the computer with a USB port, it can provide 8 channels of MIDI in/out that way - but I had some timing problems for some reason, others have reported success.

Ok, thanks for the replies, I think the motu midi merger seems like the ideal solution. That's pretty much what I wanted to hear. I won't carry a computer on stage, for different reasons, stability being the main one. I'll try to go as far as I can with my current setup and see from there what's best suited.

It's been HOT in montreal the last few days, like 32 degrees with almost 100% humidity, so I'm sticky! Temperature is dropping slightly now, so it should be more comfortable tomorrow...

digital music corp mx-8 midi patch bay might be helpful.
very useful, easy and cheap. get one on ebay.
6in-8 out. send any input to any output, or merge any set of multiple inputs to any output.

got the cd, i haven't sat down with it yet, it looks fantastic! a very nice package.

Eliam, the advice from Len and Gary is good. The edirol UM series also aren't a bad idea for your purpose. We have the 880, but I think that's overkill for your live rig. Anyway, the UM's are combo midi interfaces/patchbays with thru, merge capabilities etc. There's even a built in cable checker

edited unnecessary teasing

I bough very recently the roland A880, the anscester of the um880.

Basicaly it's a midi router/merger which is only hardware, no pc interface, no usb, no nothing. And that's exactly what i wanted. And it also has the cable checker function

You can expect a troublefree operation, which is what is needed in live situation. Not having pc interface does not prevent you to use hardware midi input/output of the creamware's cards. In fact even if i could use usb interface, i wouldn't.

I bought that 8ins/8outs midi router/merger/patchbay for 100€

I have 1 hardware synth (an1x) with knobs + 1 groove box (rs7000) + 1 sampler (mv8000) with + 1 midi foot controller + my laptop for a total of 7 ins and 8 outs all routed live, directly from the front panel's of the A880

That device solved all my midi needs