Need to run midi out to 8 synths at once. How?

mattgreermusic · Joined: Jul 25, 2014 Posts: 11 Location: Nashville, TN

Hey guys,

I've been searching around for the right gear to make this happen but I'm not having much luck and I could really use some help.

Basically, I'm putting together my live rig and I'm going to end up with 8 synths/grooveboxes to play on stage. What I'd like to do is program midi patterns for each of them inside my DAW and run those patterns to each respectively. So they'll all just slave off the midi commands coming from the computer and I'll tweak the knobs as I go.

Seems pretty simple and I've done it with 4 synths plenty of times. The only problem I'm having is that I can't seem to find a midi box that has outs to 8 different ports. I'm literally just having trouble finding the gear.

Any recommendations?

robsol · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:47 pm Post subject:

MOTU midi express?

http://www.motu.com/products/midi/128

Or express xt...

http://www.motu.com/products/midi/xpressxt_usb

I have a micro express and it has been reliable except for very data heavy custom midi streams.

blue hell · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:44 am Post subject:

Or use MIDI thru - when the synths have that ...

robsol · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:10 am Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 8:17 am Post subject:

dunno .. MIDI thru should be a direct hardware connection, no processing involved, so no delay ... well micro seconds in the opto's. Anyway, I chained up three Nords that way with no delays.

robsol · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 12:12 pm Post subject:

Yeah I guess I'm just being paranoid... I have experienced problems in the past with multiple chained stuff, but that was a while ago now.

blue hell · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 12:27 pm Post subject:

Some synths pass the the Thru through the processing system .. and that will add delay .. but they shouldn't ...

Anyway. there are MIDI splitters (or thru boxes) too, those should not add latency either.

mattgreermusic · Joined: Jul 25, 2014 Posts: 11 Location: Nashville, TN

Thanks for the links. Those look like they'd work pretty well.

Yeah, using through should work but it can get a little dicey as I've had multiple synths all start mirroring the same commands in that configuration before. But, besides all that, not all of these have through. Some are midi in only infact.

Anyways, thanks for the advice.