Need suggestion re: live midi hardware set-up

ewblank · Post by **ewblank** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:57 pm

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to set up a live midi rig that consists of the following gear:
• Yamaha AN200 (groovebox/sequencer)
• Roland D2 (groovebox/sequencer)
• Midi controller Kybd.

Now here’s how I’d like the set up to work:
• Both boxes to be midi sync’d
• The controller to be able to play synth patches on either box (but not simultaneously)

Essentially, I’d like to have both boxes running in sync, but be able to isolate kybd notes on either machine, not have notes play on both whenever I hit a key.

Is there a midi switch box or something that will allow me to do this, or can it done using routing from midi in/out settings?

I guess my last resort would be to have 2 midi controllers, but I’m trying to keep the set-up as small as possible. If anyone has any suggestions on how this can be accomplished – your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
ew

Altitude · Post by **Altitude** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:12 pm

just map each unit to receive on different midi channel and set your controller accordingly. System realtime midi msgs like clock are not channel dependent

ewblank · Post by **ewblank** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:49 pm

Thanks for the tip. I'm just starting out working with midi.

So if I understand correctly, I can set the receive on each machine to a different midi channel, then select the appropriate channel on my controller when I want to switch control to either box. Great.

Thanks, again.

ew

Altitude · Post by **Altitude** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:10 pm

yup thats it. Just connect the controller out the midi in of one module and "thru" to the other

modulator_esp · Post by **modulator_esp** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:34 pm

There is only one problem, if you go from the out of the controller to the in of the 1st groovebox, then thru to the 2nd groovebox, it won't be possible to sync the 2 grooveboxes as clock is normally only sent from the out, not the the thru, so you'll need a midi merger too, to combine the out and thru of the 1st groovebox before going to the in of the 2nd.

This may not be necessary if either of the grooveboxes has a soft thru/midi echo on its out, in which case it will combine the controller and clock messages for you.

Altitude · Post by **Altitude** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:47 pm

modulator_esp wrote:There is only one problem, if you go from the out of the controller to the in of the 1st groovebox, then thru to the 2nd groovebox, it won't be possible to sync the 2 grooveboxes as clock is normally only sent from the out, not the the thru, so you'll need a midi merger too, to combine the out and thru of the 1st groovebox before going to the in of the 2nd.

This may not be necessary if either of the grooveboxes has a soft thru/midi echo on its out, in which case it will combine the controller and clock messages for you.

oop, good point

ewblank · Post by **ewblank** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:44 pm

Ah ha - the plot thickens - I knew it couldn't be that simple

Actually both those boxes only have midi in/out, and the out will behave like a midi through, depending on how you set the midi parameters.

So basically, I guess I will wire them up in a chain, set all the midi channels appropriately, set the master/slave in the sync parameters, and see if it works the way I want it to.

If not, I'll come back to the gurus for more assistance.

thanks for pointing me in the right direction guys.

cheers,
ew

Altitude · Post by **Altitude** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:11 pm

the AN200 does do a soft midi thru, check page 102 of the manual.

ewblank · Post by **ewblank** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:27 pm

Yes - I did check that last night - I was pretty sure I remembered reading that in there a while back.

Thanks,
ew