M-Audio (AKA Avid AKA Pro Fools) really does suck

[MIDI Life Crisis]

They are still selling the MIDISPORT 1x1, 2x2, etc. but there are no drivers for OS X 10.5 or better. What the f....! Their speakers have blown capacitors, their keyboards have all sorts of errors and their audio interfaces fry all the firewire ports on you machine if hot swapped.

DO NOT BUY ANY M-AUDIO CRAP! YOU WILL REGRET IT.

[mikehalloran]

Dammit, man! Don't sugarcoat it. Say what you really think!

[mhschmieder]

Is this the part of the company that was folded into the conglomerate (with a weird name I can't remember) that subsumed the former Numark-Akai-Alesis audio family, or the part that went with Avid?

Is MIDIsport still manufactured? Is it a matter of drivers not keeping up to date, or has it essentially been left to "you're on your own now, mate" status?

Back when I was considering MIDI interfaces many years ago, I was briefly interested in MIDIsport but saw mostly horror stories on-line. There were several models, and one or two of them seemed to get moderately good press. Overall the word I heard was "unreliable".

If you're stuck in a situation where you may need to swap for functional parity with something else, what are your needs? The most reliable and flexible MIDI interface that I owned was the Edirol (Roland) rack module that had actual mechanical buttons on the front panel and could operate in full standalone mode. I owned MIDI Timepiece (MOTU) for awhile as well, but it was overkill for my purposes and didn't have the same level of standalone functionality.

MIDI Solutions makes something for just about every need, from what I recall, and is available via The MIDI Store (not so much anymore through other avenues). Many of their products work off of DIN-supplied nominal phantom power. Not sure if they also have USB-based devices as I haven't needed a dedicated MIDI device in a long time now (other than the basic MIDI connectivity of my RME Fireface UFX).

Back to the problem of trying to get the unit at hand working again, I hope you can make some progress, but do remember to make sure you're contacting the right parent company, since there was a bit of a weird split in M-Audio a year or two ago.

[monkey man]

Seems to me MLC simply issued a "generic" warning; I see no implication that he's dead in the water with any particular piece of kit.

Still, Mark, your advice could prove useful to anyone searching for alternative solutions after having experienced "M-Audio MIDI breakdown"...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

They are still making them and I'm not stuck the Track 16 has one MIDI port and I only have 2 external devices (3 at most if I wanted both Kurzweils). Thing is, the damn thing was working on the 2008 8-core but not on the 2013 trash can. The b-synth (Roland) is USB but also lacks drivers for 10.10.x.

And Mike, i actually am holding back! James doesn't allow the adjectives and verbs I would use to describe these folks. Folks... That's pretty close. The 'ol "uc" replacement.

[bayswater]

I had two of their audio interfaces back before it was called M-Audio. In both cases they became obsolete very quickly. A former tech there told me they cut costs by hardwiring functions that should be in the drivers, meaning routine technical improvements in computers and the OS will strand their equipment quickly. Looks like they're still doing it.

[Michael Canavan]

IMO you get what you pay for with them, they're about the same price as Behringer, but they IMO are worse by far. I have an old 16 track mixer from behringer and it works fine, plus the FCB1010 foot controller is just about the best thing they ever made. Unfortunately that's not really true with M-Audio. Midisport 4x4 could not transmit beat clock to DP, Audiophile always make a popping noise when you started up DP....
Caveat though, I recently bought used a M-Audio Prokeys 88 and it's working fine, it's class compliant, and I'm gonna bet M-Audio did not make the keyboard!

[bayswater]

Caveat though, I recently bought used a M-Audio Prokeys 88 and it's working fine, it's class compliant, and I'm gonna bet M-Audio did not make the keyboard!

I tried a few of these. On every one of them, there were at least a couple of keys that felt different from the others.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

So how do these guys stay in business?

[bayswater]

At one point we heard that AVID was shutting M-Audio down. Not clear why they need it.

[Michael Canavan]

So how do these guys stay in business?

Easy, they're cheap. It works when you first buy it, then after that it breaks or gets broken by an OS update, then you move on to more expensive and reliable gear. Their whole line should be called "My First", as in My first audio ™, My first MIDI keyboard®...

Caveat though, I recently bought used a M-Audio Prokeys 88 and it's working fine, it's class compliant, and I'm gonna bet M-Audio did not make the keyboard!

I tried a few of these. On every one of them, there were at least a couple of keys that felt different from the others.

Mine seems fine, I freely admit it was the $160 I paid for it that really sold me, but until I get the $2K+ a real 88 key controller costs, this will do, no real issues so far, but I certainly didn't buy it with longevity in mind. I've owned a few M-Audio products so I know what I'm in for, it's "My First 88 Key controller™ "

[monkey man]

...James doesn't allow the adjectives and verbs I would use to describe these folks. Folks... That's pretty close. The 'ol "uc" replacement.

Good ol' Simian Substipootion™, eh Magilla?