ADAT, LAN and Midi on two macs, OS9 and OSX

Post by **hubird** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 5:17 pm

As you guys may know I plan to put my CW cards in my older mac with OS9, and route the audio via optical ADAT to a RME Hammerfall card in my newer OSX machine.

I don't know much about ADAT, but my Pulsar2 Z-Link 'classic' has 8In/8Out ADAT channels, my XTC card of course has no In/Outs.

This means I have 4 stereo pairs In/Out to communicate with Cubase on my OSX machine?

I will have to buy another card with ADAT then, but that's ok, more DSP's won't harm

.

What I really would like to know from you guys is how Midi is supposed to be organized.
LAN is the way to go?
Could anyone shine a light on it?
Experiences on Windows is also welcom

I have these questions:

1. MIDI.
Should I connect my external Midi apps, (chained to a Roland A880 Midi patchbay) to my Pulsar2 on the old mac?
I'd prefer it this way, as I'm used to have Midi connected to the Pulsar directly.

In that case, I could buy the cheap RME Digi 9636, which has two ADAT ports but no Midi.

Or are there reasons to connect the external Midi to a RME Midi port in the OSX mac, when working via LAN?
This option keeps working without the old mac possible, working on the OSX machine with Cubase alone. I then could also consider splitting the external Midi to both macs with a spitter, to have both options open.

The only usefull reason to route my Midi to the RME/OSX machine is that it makes it possible to use my Korg microKontrol keyboard in USB mode instead of Midi mode.
Exchanging 'scenes', using the OSX editor etc. is a plus then.

2. Comp. keyboard/Wacom pencil.
What about switching between both macs considering computer keyboard/pencil?
How is that implemented in LAN, if implemented at all?

3. Clock sinc.
What about Clock sinc?
Do I need a dedicated clock when working via ADAT and LAN?

Any advice is very welcom, thanks a lot

cheers.

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2006-10-04 18:50 ]

Post by **garyb** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:31 pm

1. it depends on what you want to do as far as midi goes. you could transmit midi over lan or use a midi interface(usb or stock?). both should work fine and there are advantages to each, mostly of convienience...

2. i don't know. with a pc, you'd use a kvm switch to control both computers with the same input devices. there must be something similar with macs, probably via usb.

3. an external clock would be nice, although sync can be transmitted very nicely via adat. since scope can be master or slave, you should be able to sync whatever adat interface you choose. an external clock would require a syncplate for your scope machine and a wordclock input on the osx machine's adat interface.

Post by **hubird** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:27 am

thanks Gary

I just found out that MIDIoverLAN CP supports c(ross)p(latform) usage, however only for OSX, not OS9...
So I probably need an ADAT card with Midi.

Post by **garyb** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:35 am

or a midi interface and an adat card...

Post by **hubird** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:26 pm

thanks, I searched the forums on the subject and found BoRg using a not cheap RME Multiface between labtop and DAW, and Astro points to a Midiox box.
I'll check it out.
Damn sad that I need to complicate my setup so much just because CWA doesn't support streight OSX support.
MIDIoverLAN looks great, sad it doesn't support OS9, but that's understandable.
I feel unsure, I hate this

I think I'll have to visit a quality music shop to talk about solutions given my specific and absurd needs.
thanks again

edit, BoRg corrected

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2006-10-05 16:17 ]

Post by **hubird** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:41 pm

I found this cheap PCI audio (Midi) interface:
[url=http://]http://www.thomann.de/de/terratec_phase_22.htm[/url]
I can buy a RME DIGI 9652 card which has no Midi but offers 3 times ADAT and is cheap, 220,- euro (it was followed up by the HDSP serie which offers also Midi).

You think this will work as good as a RME card providing Midi on it's own?
I mean, the less drivers the less problems, not?

Damn, it's unbelievable what I have to do to keep my cards working:
two computers doubling the fan noise, a KVM like switch, an extra ADAT interface, an extra Midi interface, a third TFT monitor for the OS9 mac which requests spare room in my home studio, eh don't I forget something?
Yes, I do, it could easily be that Creamware Audio 'tomorrow' will announce, after all my purchases, OSX support, or a new external box, or new cards.
In eighter case it would influence my current decisions.

We know nothing.
Mister Frank Hund and collegues, with all respect, and you know I love my SFP, but give us some hints to what CWA is willing to do, you owe us that, as CWA is the only relevant hard-software company that is not clear on platform support, tho the line already IS extremely thin...!

There are no competitors that win or loose by announcing global (OSX) plans, there even are no competitors at all!
What are you afraid of?
You will only win, supporting OSX is a winner, image wise and sells wise.
Keep us on board, people are leaving already.

Sure, my list of dull choices to stay on Creamware isn't an arguement for you to work on OSX support (in any form), but at least give us some information to get us informed now.
It's rediculous these days to be unclear about support of the Apple Macintosh platform, don't you think?

with respect.

Sorry, was impulsive, back to the thread now...

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2006-10-05 22:43 ]

Post by **hubird** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:42 pm

Hm, I surfed the net and found out that none of the LAN solutions can be used between two macs, one on OS9 one on OSX.

VStack, System Link, Midi over Lan Midi2LAN, etc.
Eighter you need a ASIO host on both machines, or you need two times OSX, when not using a pc that is.

So the only option left is to use a classic Midi connection together with ADAT.
I think I get the cheap RME Hammerfall 9636 (2 times ADAT, no Midi) plus the above mentioned Terratec audio/Midi interface, the cheapest I could find

The best alternative would be the RME Hammerfall HDSP 9652, which offers 2 times ADAT plus two times Midi.
Alas RME has no model offering two times ADAT plus one time Midi.
The 9652 is new €500.-, 2ndh. they do very well on ebay.
Garantee and tax return makes me choosing for my solution.

cheers.