Chaining MIDI patch bays together

[nobody]

I was wondering what would happen if I connect the MIDI out of patch bay A to the MIDI in of patch bay B, with A connected to my computer but B is not. Will I see B as a MIDI device with only port 1 available (the first 16 channels) or will I see multiple MIDI devices and get all 8 ports of B?

Of course, I should just try it, but I was wondering if anyone's already done this.

[EdisonRex]

It depends on a lot of factors, but the answer is that although cascading MIDI patchbays works, you probably won't see the downstream cascaded unit as most MIDI patchbays don't have any way to respond to midi messages. And this is operating system dependent too. In short, it's a lot of aggravation when there might be better ways to achieve the same end.

More specifics will get a more refined conjecture.

I stopped cascading midi patchbays about 20 years ago. I currently have a 8in/8out MOTU patchbay which gives me 16 channels per hose, and I chain equipment that don't need a lot of channels (analogs, the Nords, etc).

[nobody]

I have an AMT8 and a MOTU MIDI Express XT. The XT doesn't have a Linux driver, so I figured...

I could chain my less-than-16-channel devices, but when I run out of room doing that, I'm hoping to make use of existing hardware before buying more.

Also, major geek factor involved.

[pyrosonic]

It's not gonna work,sorry.What you'd get,if anything is the first option which would make the 2nd "patch bay" irrelevant.
BTW:Those aren't patch bays they're interfaces.If device B actually were a patch bay and was programmable like say,the Digital Music Corp MX-8,it would at least function like a splitter to give you multiple outs without the latency you'd get by daisy chaining,but the MOTU wouldn't even give you that.And you wouldn't be able to address specific ports on it either way.You're gonna have to bite the bullet and buy a 2nd interface that has the drivers you need available or live with daisy chaining.