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I just got it all working! This solution however does not really like interruption of the connection so I will only use this with cable, not with Wifi. If I want wireless I think I would invest in something like WIDI. For now, though, editor and MIDI over one and the same cable.
Ingredients (all of these are needed)
– A&H iLive IDR
– a Egosys/ESI MIDIMate II USB-MIDI interface between the USB server and the IDR’s MIDI ports
– a USB server + drivers installed (Sharkoon LANPort 400)
– some meters of LANcable
– my laptop running Windows XP
– MIDI-OX software for the MIDI port routing
– BCF2000 connected via USB to my laptop + drivers installedI’m not running it full duplex at the moment since it’s to easy to mix up input and output ports with the MIDI interface i’m using and therefore there’s a risk to create MIDI feedback in the MIDI-OX software which is not handled well by that software (it makes everything hang when it happens). I will be testing it also with another MIDI interface that doesn’t have the possibility of using all connectors as INs or OUTs. Might be less tricky.
By the way, I also control my DBX Driverack 260 via the same LAN connection now.
Wouter
My prayers have been heard, Dante is coming!quote:
Originally posted by StixOf course all the above hardware you use just to get MIDI to/from the mixrack is a bit of a pain …
True, I admit my list looks as if I’m using a lot of stuff whereas actually it is a pretty simple set-up:
That USB server is such a small thing, my USB-MIDI interface looks like a cable, all I have to do to get things started is connect to the interface, connect the BCF, start MIDI-OX and I’m off
I did some extended tests with interruption of the connection to see what it would take to get things back online after a disruption. Not that much, but more than just plugging in the cable again.
Bottomline I do agree that I think that our friends at A&H would actually benefit (sales) from opening up a little bit on the controller side, but I also see that there is some natural reluctance to doing so. I’ll definitely be checking out their iPad stuff but I also still hope for a editor that allows and supports the use of some established controller platform like the Mackie control for instance. Wouldn’t mind if they would charge something for a “connection pack” to extend the standard editor.
Would also not mind to see a decent sleek USB controller designed to be used with the editor – and maybe a external (touch)screen – attached to the laptop. Then give that USB controller a pricetag of around 2000€ to make it profitable for A&H too but still allowing the poor
a ok controller with decent faders and the beloved channel markers and, if possible, meters but (almost) no computer nor touchscreen built in. Then the poor can all decide if they think they need a touchscreen (or use the mouse), and if so, if they want a 15″ or a 24″, whether they want a processor that just meets the required hardware recommendations or the newest processor that makes everything fly…my 2 cents again
Well, this week, I’ll be using 8 DCA’s on faders at FOH for live finetuning of our scene controlled musical theater show. Nothing fancy but still: WOOHOOWouter
My prayers have been heard, Dante is coming!quote:
Originally posted by Stix… but if you want to work with fader recalls/scenes then you will need full midi duplex without feedback – Let us know if you get that working ok!
…To clear things up. My setup does work indeed with full duplex MIDI and without any MIDI feedback. No problem, everything works.
To reason that I was considering not to run full duplex are:
1. One important thing: The IDR currently doesn’t send MIDI feedback during scene changes, hence leaving you with incorrect fader positions after a scene change. Therefore currently MIDI feedback is only useful for faders that might be changed from several places and that are scene save.2. For what I’m doing at the moment, I don’t need the MIDI feedback, since the BCF will be the “master fader” for those 8 DCA’s. I’ll never touch them during the show from anywhere else.
3. The cheap faders on the BCF make a lot of noise when they are moved automatically. You get what you pay for (125€ is indeed not a lot)
4. For doing Port routing using USB interface you have to take into account that both BCF2000 and MIDI interface are USB peripherals. If you connect them in another order, they will be assigned other port numbers in MIDI-OX. Therefore it’s tricky to try to save a port routing profile in MIDI-OX since that software looks at the port numbers to do so. You may want to connect everything always in the same order to avoid changing the routing profile every time you use MIDI-OX. Not really fool proof, but I think I will be able to remember.
5. Furthermore my ESI MIDI Mate II interface has two connections wich both can be used as IN or OUT (you can use IN-IN, IN-OUT, OUT-IN or OUT-OUT). If i both use them as OUTs, I have zero risk for an incorrect connection (both connection are plugged into the IDR, at least one of them is connected to the MIDI IN of the IDR
) making at least that connection fool proof… I like “fool proof” Hopes this post clears things up a bit. Bottom line: BCF2000 and full duplex MIDI over LAN works…
Wouter
My prayers have been heard, Dante is coming!
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