Midi Interface Recommendations

[analogcabin]

Hi. I'm hoping to sync my Radar II (HD Recorder) to my G3 Pismo Powerbook running Ableton Live, and out of live to a (Boss) DR-770. The Radar II has MTC out, and I'm hoping Live will follow the Radar. I'm also hoping live will output midi clock to the drum machine. Will this work? I'll be using this in the studio for providing a click while tracking musicians, and then creating loops and/or drum machine parts after the fact......and have it all in sync.

I already have a Digigram VX-Pocket for audio, can anyone tell me which midi interface (USB, Firewire or PCMCIA). Is USB "Good enough" for a midi interface?

Thanks a lot.....e.maynard

[Doug Krebs]

USB seems way too shakey to me for audio, but I think it's usually fine for midi providing you don't have any IRQ sharing or other such issues. Much less data being transferred with midi. IMO- USB is not trustworthy and a general pain in the ass unless you're talking about a midi keyboard or mouse or camera; a peripheral that communicates bursts of data. Anything that relies on a constant, uninterupted stream of data might be better off being transmitted via some other way. The most relaible is probably a pci-slot device. That said, if USB seems solid for your setup, go with it. There's only one way to find out. I used to sync a PC with a Layla to an analog deck via a SMPTE track. I would recommend using SMPTE and word clock simultaneously instead of MTC if you want a tight lock. The word clock locks the sampling freq. between the device chasing the TC and the audio card. (muy importante) As far as software being stable while it's chasing, pump up the buffers until it doesn't drop out, esp. when recording. It sounded like you are only using the computer for a click, so you might not have to worry about all that as much. I had some software issues occasionally with punching in, but it should be more solid chasing to a digital deck. I was using an earlier version of samplitude, 600 MHz P3 Dell and a 1/2' 8 track. I have never used ableton so i'm not sure what's up with it.

If you are interested, I'm selling a MTP A/V serial for $225 which has smpte, word clock, 8x8 midi, etc. It worked good in my situation. If you want something inexpensive and want to go the USB route, an Edirol UM-1 is pretty cost effective, and they are simple to use once installed properly. Hope any of this helps. Cheers and good luck!

[stillafool]

I've got a midiman usb midisport 2 x 2. I was reluctant to get it, both because of past problems with m-audio quality and usb -- but I got it on the advice of the folks at Computers and Music in S.F. (nice guys, know their shit). Works fine, no problems.

[stillafool]

P.S., usb is by far good enough. You can actually record 24 bit bit audio through usb. Midi is far less information. It took a while to get used to USB 1.1, but once you work within it's limitations, it works fine. With all my USB stuff, sometimes when turning your computer on the device isn't recognized (windows xp). Just reconnecting the cable solves the problem.I don't know why, but for some reason I find I have to connect the USB to the same port I installed it to, or it asks for another driver. Other than these quirks, and the limited bandwidth (which is fine for midi), USB works great.

[Rick Hunter]

hey,

I use a motu. I had a fast lane that was more than enough for a long time and then I got tired of daisey chaining everything together so I bought the next one up from that. I forget the name right now. But it has 4 ins and 6 outs and its more than enough. Also motu has this program called clock works that is pretty cool. Check it out.

later
justin