I have more synths than midi out's, what to do?

So the 1000 only has 2 midi out ports, but I have 4 hardware synths and want the mpc to sequence all 4, what can be done?

With daisy chaining, can I set the devices to different channels and they will play independently?

Or do I need some kind of midi patchbay. And if I got a midi patchbay, how exactly do those work? Will the outputs of the patchbay divide up the channels coming from the input of the patchbay. For example, I could have 1 midi out of the mpc with midi channels 1 and 2 going into 1 midi in of the patchbay, and then the patchbay can separate these 2 channels so 1 output is channel 1 and the other is channel 2? And then I could have the second midi output of the mpc contain channels 3 and 4, and the patchbay would separate these channels so 1 output on the patchbay is channel 3 and another is channel 4?

Confusing I know, but I'm just looking to see if anyone uses a bunch of hardware synths with their mpc.

midi thru if they have it, or midi patch bay?
http://miditool.com/Applications/patch.html
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13721

without any more hardware you can make it work. input through from your first unit to the second. then get creative with your channel structure. like ch1-8 is unit 1. and ch9-16 is unit 2. you can turn off the midi channels not in use on the corisponding units. and you can also use the channels to layer between your multiple units. put 2 units on each out and all four are hooked up.

The real question is do you really need to use every synth you own on every song?. I also have more MIDI devices than I have MIDI outs. I just plug up what I wanna use for a particular beat.

Besides daisy chaining, if you have JJ OS you could track out a synth part to an audio track, and then midi up the next synth.

Limitations are good homie.

yes limitations are good. but also when you daisy chain you introduce delays

limitations are only good if you need them to be creative. i just want to make music. and i dont want to deal with what module i feel i should limit myself to or not. so all of mine are hooked up. and delays maybe. but really only if you have alot of stuff daisy chained.

true that but hes talking about a lot of synths with only 2 midi outs.

LunaticBastard wrote:limitations are only good if you need them to be creative. i just want to make music. and i dont want to deal with what module i feel i should limit myself to or not. so all of mine are hooked up. and delays maybe. but really only if you have alot of stuff daisy chained.

Yeah, I feel the same way about limitations. I come from a total soft synth background so using hardware only is the limitation I need to be creative. I don't want a million freakin synthesizers and samples to chose from, I want a select few that I know inside and out..but I want them all hooked up so I can go to them if I feel they're needed in a track.

So I think I'm gonna start out daisy chaining, and if I see that there's a delay issue or some major inconvenience, then I'm gonna get a midi patchbay or thru box.

Thanks for the replies.

by 'delay' i mean that if you put a bunch of synths daisy chain style and have them all do something on the same downbeat there will be a 'smear' effect. maybe this is not important to you tho so i wouldnt worry too much.

midi delay is quite minor, i mean the thru is near instantaneous i reckon, hardly any reprocessing to do, just passing info found at the IN, to the OUT directly. i wouldnt worry unless your using 24 foot long cables etc!

get a used midi patchbay. i see them on craigslist all the time for about $25. you dont need one with usb if your audio interface has a built in midi interface. i have to say that my midi patchbay is one of the best purchases ive made for my rig.

I would get a 4x4 or 8x8 midi interface.