MIDI Interfaces

[muzicman0]

Just purchased SAC...I also have purchased an old MOTU interface with no MIDI. Normally, I use my firewire audio interfaces to also do MIDI, but I will be connecting those to the MOTU via ADAT.

So, my question is, can I get just a cheap MIDI interface, and will that work? I would rather not spend $30-$40 if I can avoid it...

Or...

Can I leave my Saffire Pro 40's connected via firewire, and only use the MIDI portion of the driver without causing any problems. (can I uninstall the audio drivers, but leave the MIDI???)

Keep in mind, the system will never move once it's installed (or very...very rarely)...my main concern is that of speed, since I will be using it to trigger Superior Drummer inside SAC (via an electronic drum kit).

If I need to get a more expensive interface, I will...but the budget is getting kinda low right now!

Thanks!

mm0

[Brent Evans]

I tried a couple of the super-cheap MIDI interfaces I found on eBay... I subsequently discarded them as being basically useless.

You can try leaving the Saffire connected, if it works, it works.... but it may not allow you to connect it via firewire and still use the ADAT I/O independently.

Several companies make a cheap USB MIDI interface, you should be able to find one around $30 new.

[Wurst Werner]

Funny, I used excatly the same cheapo USB/MIDI stuff, Brent posted and it worked fine for me. The only downside for me was, that if you use a BCF2000 at the same time via usb, both devices show up with the same name in SAC ("USB device"), so you don't know which is which. That's why I bought a second hand Motu Fastlane-->

http://www.motu.com/products/midi/fastlane_usb

This one works too-->

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MIDISPORT2x2.html

You can fetch them for little money on evilbay.
Christian

[mycorn]

i also tried the "$3" special USB to midi


it might work for drum triggers

apparently there's not enough buffer to
get a motormix to work

i'l send it to you if you dont wanna try
the giant auction site [i think i kno where it is...]

the "$30" m-audio variety works well

and there's several others

fwiw

[RBIngraham]

That input buffer is what makes the better USB MIDI interfaces worth spending the few bucks so you know you'll have something that will work.

The fancier the MIDI surface used, obviously the more data is being shoved around. I've even seen Yamaha desks have their buffer overflow and then the desk just "loses" data and doesn't respond as expected. It's probably also the reason sometimes those Behringer surfaces don't always accept the MIDI System Exclusive Dumps properly, if the data comes in too fast the buffer will fill up and then some is lost.

You'd think by now this wouldn't be an issue any more, but alas... some manufacturers are still morons.

If you hunt around eBay you can usually find some decent prices on the MIDISport stuff or the MOTU fastlanes. Even new, the single port units are not all that expensive, in the grand scheme of the real costs of a SAC system, it's probably one of the cheapest parts except for the computer mouse and keyboard.

[Naturally Digital]

It may not be practical in many cases and it's a trade-off between running another driver in the system and having tighter midi but... I still like the idea of a PCI based midi interface. I keep a LynxOne around just for that purpose and it's a good reason to use the RME HDSP series. The performance and reliability are a step up. Thought it was worth a mention.