Also love having different sequencers - I’ll play / compose a wider variety of material because of the idosynchrasies and interface differences. I love jamming on hardware sequencers but I much prefer doing the final arrangement work in a DAW with mouse and keyboard.
So I have a hybrid, multi brain setup with the following relevant gear:
Brain 1: PC running Ableton & Cubase
Audio: A&H SQ5 mixer/interface
Midi: iConnectivity MioXL via ethernet/rtpMidi
Brain 2: Akai Force (master clock)
Audio: UMC1820 interface
Midi: iConnectivity MioXL via USB-DAW socket on the front - this works great btw!
Brain 3: iPad running Drambo
Audio & Midi: UMC404HD
Other sequencers include:
Zaquencer, MB-2S, SE-02, TR-8S, LXR (OG)
Other Midi input devices: MPK249, VMK188, Microfreak, LPP mk2, BCR2000, X-touch Mini x2
Routing:
All Midi devices are connected to the MioXL, except for the X-touch Minis - these are directly connected to the Force and iPad for extra local control so if I go mobile, I can plug them in and they will just work as they did in the studio; i.e. don’t have to take MioXL or remap those controls.
This setup allows Midi from pretty much anywhere to go anywhere including for the following scenarios:
- Jam and rough out sequences and arrangements on the Force, whilst recording what I do live as Midi in linear multitrack fashion into DAW, usually alongside multitrack or stereo audio too. I do this because I much prefer the mouse and keyboard / DAW for editing of entire arrangements vs doing this on the Force.
- Sequence hardware from DAW
- Sequence VSTs from hardware (Zaquencer into Arturia Moog Modular is a favourite)
- Play any Midi input device into any brain
- Play any Midi input device directly into any hardware if I don’t wish to record to a brain just by changing preset on the MioXL.
- Play Midi from any sequencer to another sequencer - this is great for jamming on the Zaquencer, and recording the resulting output to Force or DAW as Midi for further manipulation.
Overall, my aim was to have quick and stress-free Midi routing with no patching, which I have largely achieved! I wanted to be able to play pretty much any device from anywhere, and record Midi to any capable devices I choose (alongside the audio multitracking). There are a few niggles:
- For some reason, my rtpMidi connections sometimes drop out - on the Microfreak in particular. Not figured out why yet.
- iPad / Drambo clock slave mode is a bit janky on my system - I need to press play on the master clock (usually Force), but then press play again once it’s playing to resync Drambo to Force, since it takes a few seconds to figure out the bpm, and that throws it off.
- I have a slightly awkward setup with a BCR2000 remote controlling an Ambika, and there needs to be 2 channels setup in the Force and DAW to route the CC info coming from the BCR2000 to the channel where the note data is, in a way that I can record it all on one track.
There are a few others, but overall these are minor niggles - I am suprised by how well the whole thing works tbh!
Pitfalls to avoid / tips:
I put a lot of time and thinking into it, here are some tips/pitfalls I would make note of:
- Understand the capabilities of all your devices in terms of Midi options, for merge, thru, receive and transmit filtering, and what they can reliably respond to and output, how they handle program change messages etc - and especially if you will be daisy-chaining Midi devices!
- Be alert for Midi loops! It’s all too easy to make a loop with such a complex setup
- Understand the clocking capabilities of your gear and what works / works best as master - unfortunately for me, the Force does not work well as a Midi clock slave, furthermore Cubase doesn’t respond to Midi clock, only MTC, so I cannot use the Force with Cubase and have a synced session unless I choose to use MTC. That doesn’t fit my current workflow with the Force of jamming loops and sequences rather than having a linear arrangement that starts at time zero each time.
- Make a spreadsheet with your Midi connections and channel allocation if your setup is more than a handful of boxes - this really helped with my MioXL decisions, in terms of what would get it’s own port, what would use 5-pin DIN vs USB-Midi, and what would be daisychained (too much gear!). Then plan your Midi channels accordingly. This is really important if you’ve got a lot of gear, and want to be able to play as much of it as possible from say a master keyboard simply by switching midi channel.
- Make midi channel labels for each piece of hardware so you know what’s what without needing to menu dive or look at the spreadsheet.
- If you get a MioXL, know that your DAW-USB ports only make Midi DIN 1-8 available - NOT 9-12, and only USB Host 1-7 or possibly 8, not 9-10! That made me waste a fair bit of time planning assuming I could access those from my DAW, and instead I needed to do a bit more daisychaining, and rechannelization (that’s now a word if it wasn’t before).
Long post - thanks for reading - hope its helpful for someone! Feel free to ask if you have questions.