been thinking about investing into a sync device along the lines of expert sleepers USAMO. However I started considering alternatives for getting a tight MIDI performance from a DAW, and started thinking about the iConnectMIDI4+ since it has an ethernet connection. As most of the stuff I’ve read regarding poor MIDI performance seems to revolve around USB technology (and the way a computers’ OS handles USB data regarding MIDI), I thought that MIDI over ethernet -> DIN might offer better performance?
Just interested in peoples thoughts on the matter? There seems to be quite little info online regarding the subject (or monday is weakening my search-fu significantly LOL)
The more I think about going ethernet over DIN, the more it makes sense to me… It would be the most logical choice for the DIN MIDI port successor.
Yes RTP-MIDI is really interesting. And according to wikipedia seems to be natively compatible with the AVB standard (that i e MOTU uses in their new audio interfaces).
if the usb connection is what slows midi down then how can a usb midi interface like iconnect make it any better?
osc works natively over network connections which makes it super fast. but there’s hardly any hardware for it and there isn’t really any convention for using it like there is for midi.
Well, I was thinking about connecting the iconnect to my computer via the ethernet socket only, not USB. iConnectMIDI is a standalone device, so you can connect to it via any available port flavour and it should still work. Besides it’s not that USB isn’t fast enough, it’s something to do with how USB MIDI signals are scheduled by the OS.
[quote=“” tsutek""]
Well, I was thinking about connecting the iconnect to my computer via the ethernet socket only, not USB.
[/quote]
sounds great. i didn’t know this was possible. i just checked out the iconnect 4 and i saw the ethernet ports. so this could actually improve midi timing?
i wonder how this works, like how it shows up in your midi device lists when you want to use the ethernet midi. there must be a separate app i guess, like the lemur deamon or something.
this way you could probably sync up several computers over wifi network and use iconnect as a central hub for hardware synths.
but doesn’t apple also have wireless core midi in place since a while already? i think it uses bluetooth though.
also ableton just released something similar with Link.
still usb midi and din midi connections are defacto standards and will stay that for a long time because the majority of music devices uses that.
There have been many ‘MIDI 2’ proposals over the years including some really promising ones but there isn’t the will amongst the hardware manufacturers that there once was (actually there wasn’t that much will even in 1983 but Dave Smith and Roland made it work).
Remember we don’t even get the full trio of MIDI ports on some gear now and there are lots of supposedly MIDI-compatible devices that require proprietary adapters before you can even connect a MIDI cable. Adapters that usually cost more than a MIDI cable to replace.
Companies who used to know better are making gear with broken or illogical MIDI specs and this trend shows no sign of abating. Even getting the MIDI spec for new gear can be hard because it’s assumed nobody will look at it or understand it, which is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A bit of a shame really because good solutions are out there waiting to be adopted.
[quote=" tsutek"]Well, I was thinking about connecting the iconnect to my computer via the ethernet socket only, not USB.
[/quote]
sounds great. i didn’t know this was possible. i just checked out the iconnect 4 and i saw the ethernet ports. so this could actually improve midi timing?
i wonder how this works, like how it shows up in your midi device lists when you want to use the ethernet midi. there must be a separate app i guess, like the lemur deamon or something.
this way you could probably sync up several computers over wifi network and use iconnect as a central hub for hardware synths.
but doesn’t apple also have wireless core midi in place since a while already? i think it uses bluetooth though.
also ableton just released something similar with Link.
still usb midi and din midi connections are defacto standards and will stay that for a long time because the majority of music devices uses that. [/quote]
Apple has MIDIoverLAN. You can activate it from the audio/midi manager. Then you can setup the “piping” on the iConnect with their configuration utility so you’ll get data going to the I/O ports you need. This piping config will remain in the memory of the iConnect even when disconnected from the computer/power cycled etc.
But as for the performance improvements - I have tried to research for any intel, largely without success. Hence this thread.
I have the iConnectMidi4+ and usually use it connected via USB. I just tried your suggestion (over ethernet) using Ableton Live sync’d to a Machinedrum- using just the Live metronome and a kick from the Machinedrum. I got the same results as I do over USB - the kick and metronome do not sit tightly together.
I now use an E-rm Multiclock and can get them sitting perfectly. It has some limitations (one bar to gain sync, will not affect note data), but is fantastic with any machine that has a built in sequencer. I even tried it using the Octatrack to forward the clock to other machines and it seems tight but you lose the possibility to fine tune each machine.
thanks for testing this for me though, appreciated. That USAMO is starting to look more tempting… Although I’d prefer not losing an audio output just for the sync (since I only have 2 output pairs on my interface and usually try to reserve one pair for outboard processing)
There have been or are, as mentioned, attempts to bring forth alternatives. Even the MIDI manufacturer association tries (or at least have tried) to figure out an modern version of the MIDI protocol.
I can imagine the issue being a lot more complex today than it were back then when the first iteration of the MIDI protocol were released.
thanks for testing this for me though, appreciated. That USAMO is starting to look more tempting… Although I’d prefer not losing an audio output just for the sync (since I only have 2 output pairs on my interface and usually try to reserve one pair for outboard processing)