For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
By Romanp Fri May 10, 2019 2:18 am
MIDI Timepiece AV routing question:
Sharing 16 MIDI channels from one Akai MPC MIDI out port amongst multiple MIDI modules causes me to have to ‘mute’ the MIDI channels of each MIDI Timepiece AV MIDI out port that are being used by the other MIDI modules, reducing the number of MIDI channels each module can recieve, is this correct?

Or possibly worded more simply and easier to understand: When I cable one MIDI input of the MTP AV (carrying the MPC MIDI out port A’s 16 MIDI channels) to multiple MIDI out ports (triggering multiple MIDI sound modules), (my current understanding is) I have to mute the MIDI channels of each MTP out port being used by the other modules, as a way of making each MIDI channel exclusive and not trigger multiple MIDI modules from the same MIDI channel, is this correct?

This means I have to sacrifice MIDI receive channels of MIDI sound modules if I want to address multiple modules from one Akai MPC MIDI out port.

Let me explain the scenario:
I want to program/sequence drums on my MPC and play/sequence all non drum chromatic MIDI instruments in a linear fashion in either Digital Performer or my Motif XF sequencer. The MPC5000 being synced/slaved via MIDI beat clock to either DP or the Motif.

Essentially I am using two MIDI sequencers to trigger my MIDI sound sources via (2) MTP AV I/O. The synced Akai MPC5000 doing drum rhythms and either my Motif XF or Digital Performer doing the non drum MIDI parts.
Cool idea eh! I can even switch the MPC patterns live against the completely independent linear MIDI instrument parts in DP.
I have all my MIDI modules MIDI cabled to my (2) MOTU MTP AV MIDI interfaces.
I want one MIDI out port of the Akai MPC to share it’s 16 MIDI channels amongst multiple MIDI receiving modules. Eg: MPC MIDI out (port A) MIDI channels 1-8 going to my Akai Z8 sampler, MIDI channels 9-12 going to my Akai S950 sampler, MIDI channel 13 going to my Yamaha Motif XF7, MIDI channel 14 to a Roland Fantom XR, 15 to a Korg TR-Rack and 16 to a Korg Wavestation SR.


My current understanding after reading the ‘Clockworks’ manual is to achieve this I route/cable in the ‘Clockworks’ software the MTP in port receiving the MPC out port A, to multiple MIDI out ports of the MTP AV. But to achieve the exclusive routing/distribution of each of the 16 MIDI channels to each module so I am not triggering multiple modules from the same MIDI channel, I have to ‘mute’ the remaining MIDI channels not being used by each MIDI sound module.

Now, think back to my scenario, where my Yamaha Motif XF7 ROMpler keyboard which is assigned MIDI channel 13 from the MPC, (so that I can utilise the ROMpler preset drum kits), I have to ‘mute’ all the other MIDI channels of the MTP AV MIDI out port addressing the Motif, that are being used by the other sound modules. All except MIDI channel 13 are muted at the MIDI out port.

So when I want to play pianos, basses and string sounds over my MPC drum production I can’t access the Motif because the MIDI channels are all muted at the MTP output except channel 13 being used by the MPC for preset drum kits in the Motif.

Do I understand the routing possibilities of the MTP AV correctly? Do I have to sacrifice shared MIDI channels from one MTP input as the only way of routing one MTP inputs 16 MIDI channels exclusively to multiple modules?

The only compromise/workaround I can think of is to accept that any shared MIDI channels from one MTP input have to be muted at the MTP output and I can reduce the MIDI module receive channel carnage by using another MIDI out port of my Akai MPC5000 and ‘mute’ some of the MIDI channels of this MPC MIDI out port at the MTP input and only use the remaining MIDI channels as a MIDI receive channel sacrifice across all the sharing MIDI modules:

For example:
Because I want to mainly produce drum parts on my MPC5000 using drum kits on my Akai Z8 I could route the MPC5000 MIDI out port A to MIDI channels 1-12 of the Akai Z8 sampler and MIDI channels 13-16 to the Akai S950 sampler.
Then to access the preset drum kits in my ROMpler’s I could route the MPC5000 MIDI (out B) to the Motif XF, Fantom, TR-Rack and Wavestation by first ‘muting’ the MTP AV input port MIDI channels 1-12 (thus saving them from having to be ‘muted’ at the MTP out and leaving these MIDI receive channels able to be used for sequencing from a linear sequencer such as DP.
Then I could assign one MIDI channel to each of the four modules, MIDI channels 12 to the Motif, 13 to the Fantom etc.
And I would only lose access to MIDI channels 13-16 of those four modules being triggered from the MPC5000 MIDI out port and could still utilise MIDI channels 1-12 of each module from Digital Performer for my non drum parts.

The solution to this sacrifice of MIDI channels would be if ‘Clockworks’ allowed you to directly cable a MIDI input port and channel to a specific MIDI output port and channel negating the need to bluntly ‘mute’ all the remaining shared MIDI channels.

I am absolutely sure I could have worded this more succinctly but I may have Aspergers and refuse to pay for Grammerly. Maybe I will have a cup of tea and re-write this laborious post.

Any other MPC MTP types out there familiar with this routing dilemma?

Is it possible to utilise Digital Performer to route the MPC5000 MIDI out ports and channels to specific MIDI modules without the MIDI sacrifice I have described?

I’m going to re-read the ‘Clockworks’ pdf manual and see if I can think of any other workarounds. Maybe using the ‘re-channelising’ feature?

If I don’t get any conclusive assistance from the inter web. Then I think I will enact scenario B and just sacrifice the last four channels of my ROMpler’s so I can have preset drum kits trigger-able from my MPC when playing/programming drum rhythms.

Who would have thought beat making would get this complicated?
Thanks y’all, Greetings from New Zealand.
Roman.
By Romanp Fri May 10, 2019 4:59 am
Perhaps my question could be worded:
Is there any way to exclusively (exclusively meaning each MIDI module receives it's own unique MIDI channels so as to not have more than one module sharing a specific MIDI channel, resulting in triggering more than one module from a MIDI channel) distribute MIDI channels from one MTP input to multiple MTP outputs without having to 'mute' the remaining MIDI channels not allocated to the specific MIDI module?
By terry towelling Sun May 12, 2019 6:20 am
Kia ora from Sydney
The Motu Timepiece is an incredibly powerful unit. I can't say I fully understand your post, but I'm nearly certain the Timepiece can do what you want very easily.

But If you are having trouble with sorting out the routing you want in one Set-Up on the Timepiece, then just make multiple Set-Ups and flick between the Set-Ups as needs be.
User avatar
By Wal Martian Mon May 13, 2019 6:05 pm
Romanp wrote:...my Yamaha Motif XF7 ROMpler keyboard which is assigned MIDI channel 13 from the MPC, (so that I can utilise the ROMpler preset drum kits), I have to ‘mute’ all the other MIDI channels of the MTP AV MIDI out port addressing the Motif, that are being used by the other sound modules. All except MIDI channel 13 are muted at the MIDI out port.

So when I want to play pianos, basses and string sounds over my MPC drum production I can’t access the Motif because the MIDI channels are all muted at the MTP output except channel 13 being used by the MPC for preset drum kits in the Motif.

Do I understand the routing possibilities of the MTP AV correctly? Do I have to sacrifice shared MIDI channels from one MTP input as the only way of routing one MTP inputs 16 MIDI channels exclusively to multiple modules?

When I use my Motif ES Rack with my MPC3000, I first put the Motif into MULTI mode. I have it on MIDI output D on the MPC. This allows me to use all 16 channels at once, with different sounds assigned to each channel. If I want to use say MIDI D Ch.10 for a different sound module, I just cursor over to part 10 and cursor down to the next screen, then turn the volume down to 0 on that Motif patch.