MOTU Audio & MIDI Driver Questions & Observations

[monkey man]

Observation:
For those who didn't notice, MOTU moved its audio drivers from the Sys / Lib / Extensions ƒ to the Lib / Extensions ƒ as of DP8.07. The existing drivers were removed by the installer, so I don't know what effect this has on trying to run DP8.06 thereafter. Just letting y'all know.

Question 1:
I've been running the UAI before the MIDI installer for a while now as a matter of course, fearing that the UA's MIDI driver is aimed at the MIDI side of MOTU's audio interfaces (those that have MIDI ports). It's the Universal Audio Driver Installer, after all. I run my MIDI separately via Express XT units, so I figured the dedicated driver would be more appropriate for them.

The reason I started doing this is that even though the newer UA installers seemed to update the MIDI driver every time a new one appeared, MOTU didn't post a new dedicated MIDI driver 'till October last year; the previous one was years old. This suggested to me that nothing new as far as the dedicated one was concerned had been written. Had the uni audio updates sported anything newer for the MIDI driver, you'd expect that MOTU would've updated its dedicated installer.

Today I ran the latest uni audio installer, followed by the MIDI one, and as usual the MIDI one wrote the extension with an older version, this time only 2 days older. The question remains for me though (I just gotta know, not that it likely matters) - should I run these puppies the other way 'round, and where (as in most cases) the uni audio installers appear sans dedicated MIDI equivalents, should I not be copying my (always older) MIDI driver extension back over the freshly installed one (placed there by the UAI), as I always do?

MOTU's driver installers have always been no-brainers to run and the results flawless thus far, so I can't help but wonder whether or not I should just "make like the masses" and install in whichever order I please / encounter them, ignoring creation dates and so on. Life would be that little bit simpler after all.

Question 2:
Wouldn't it be cool if MOTU informed us as to when it made changes to the MIDI Devices folder? I've tweaked and created so many midnam files that bringing the folder up to date after each DP install / update is a right PITB. My modified midddv files make things even more awkward. Thoughts? Tips?

Thank you in advance, beloved 'Cornies.

[billf]

I've been running the UAI before the MIDI installer for a while now as a matter of course, fearing that the UA's MIDI driver is aimed at the MIDI side of MOTU's audio interfaces (those that have MIDI ports). It's the Universal Audio Driver Installer, after all. I run my MIDI separately via Express XT units, so I figured the dedicated driver would be more appropriate for them.

I have a MTP AV and an 828mkII. Because I use the MTP AV as my MIDI i/o, I do the same as you during driver installations. However, during the last driver updates, I ran into a minor issue: namely that the existing MTP AV becomes greyed out when I restart everything, thus forcing me to have to add a new device to the Audio-MIDI Setup Utility each time. It's not a big deal, but your post has me wondering because I do not have the same issue with the 828mkII MIDI ports.

Other than that, everything seems to work as expected.

[monkey man]

Thank you Billy. That's a start, mate.

At least I've learned I'm not the only one who noticed this...