This usually has a number of MIDI Ins and one MIDI Out by rotating a switch you can select which of the Ins feeds the Out and, hence, which controller is the current master. All you need in this case is a MIDI switch box. In order to be able to do this, you either have to repatch between controllers or use a MIDI patchbay, right? Again, wrong. On some occasions you might want to input notes to the sequencer from a keyboard, on others you'll be tapping away on the drum machine pads or blowing soulfully on a MIDI sax. These might include keyboards with weighted and unweighted action, a drum machine, a guitar synth and a wind controller. UP A STEP in sophistication from the previous example is the situation where you have more than one MIDI master controller. We'll look at the bulk librarian issue later. Typically this costs between £15 and £35, depending on the number of Thrus that you require. So we need a MIDI patchbay, right? Wrong all you need to deal with the first and second situations is a MIDI Thru box which takes a single MIDI In and turns it into many Thrus. Thirdly, if you want to use your computer as a librarian - that is, for transferring sounds to and from the computer using MIDI System Exclusive messages - you'll continually need to repatch your system. This doesn't lead to delays (as popularly believed) but will affect the shape of the waveform from the MIDI signal - instead of being a square wave, the leading edge starts to slope.
(Obvious perhaps, but this means that all the devices in your system are going to have to be on all of the time.) Secondly, the opto-isolators in the MIDI interface age and so slow down. But why bother using another piece of hardware when almost all your devices have MIDI Thrus? There are three reasons: firstly, a MIDI Thru will not operate unless the device containing it is turned on. Other modules are then connected MIDI Thru to MIDI In in a "daisy-chain". This is connected via two MIDI cables to the MIDI In and Out of the sequencer. There may be a synth which is acting as a master keyboard and using local off to divorce the keyboard part from the sound module.
THE MOST COMMON type of system is one in which you have a sequencer sending MIDI information to various MIDI modules.
The more expensive ones also incorporate a degree of processing - possibly including rerouting according to MIDI channel or note velocity, filtering various elements out from the input and remapping MIDI controllers.īut is this really the best device for you? To answer that you need to decide exactly what the MIDI side of the system has to be capable of achieving, so let's have a look at a few typical setups.
Midi patchbay hardware Patch#
The most inviting of devices is the all-singing, all-dancing MIDI patchbay which will do everything bar making the mandatory cups of black coffee (no sugar).Ī MIDI patchbay is a matrix of MIDI inputs and outputs which allow you to patch between them by pressing a few buttons. THERE COMES A point in the setting up of a MIDI system where a decision has to be taken as to how the MIDI signals are going to be routed.
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