Midi Boxes, What Do They Do ?

D

DYEONE

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Can somebody tell me how one of the many midi interfaces which are available will help me in my set-up which consists mainly of hardware synths and samplers.

At present i just have everything chained and don't experience any real problems, except maybe it gets a bit awkward unplugging and re-plugging stuff sometimes but.....

I've been considering building myself a midi merge unit but that's as far as i need (i think !!!).

If somebody could give me an insight into exactly what these boxes do it'd be greatly appreciated.

Rich.
 
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Rich,

most of the stuff out there doesn't do much more than split midi up or merge it together ). If you have two midi sources then a merge unit is useful, if you have a lot of midi receivers (i.e. your sequencer 'plays' a load of synths and samplers) then a splitter can be useful just to keep everything plugged in and to get your timing a bit tighter (because you start working in parallel rather than series).

Steinberg make a midi unit called midex (I think) which runs with Cubase to offer supposedly ultra-tight midi timing. I don't know if it does or not.

If you have one master keyboard running into your sequencer which then runs out into your synths etc (like I do) then what you need is a midi splitter box and a few more leads, cos this just stops you having to unplug stuff all the time. Phillip Rees make them cheap and cheerful.

Hope this is what you were after,
KasioRoks.
 
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Sounds like something which could come in handy, and save me a hell of a lot of time, thanks.

What are the midiman boxes which are available, do they just do a similar job ?

The reason i ask about these things is because they appear to be really expensive for what they actually are and do. I'm considering building my own merge box which looks simple enough but i see they retail for around £75 which is discusting.
 
Philip Rees are cheaper (they always advertise in SOS, check it out), maybe 'cos they're made in the UK. I bought a 3 way splitter (no battery required) for about £15. I don't know about the midiman stuff I had a quick look at the site and they don't seem to be any different from the Phil Rees stuff.

Are you sure it's a merge box you need?


KasioRoks
 
Yeah i defintely need a merge box as i have an SB live on my PC, the 'midi in' is taken up by my KB which means if i want record any controller data in to my PC i have to mess about unplugging my hardware's 'midi out' into the 'midi in 'of the PC/SB Live.

I'm not familiar with setting up controller data in Cubase so i prefer to do it the other way round by recording knob movements from my hardware into cubase in real time and then tidying it all up after.

I can make a merge box myself for about £5 so it's definitley going to be worthwhile until i can figure out cubase fully.

A splitter could come in handy though if i am to continue using Cubase to trigger all my hardware.

My studio's in bits at the moment after moving house so i'm looking for some sort of easy option of controlling everything once I get everything re-built.

Thanks for the advice, a big help.

Rich.
 
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