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I don't use MIDI much as I do almost all of my work with audio but I do have an old Yamaha S80 for some MIDI work. I just updated my rig to a new 2017 iMac running Sierra and DP 9.02 and everything is running well even with jerry-rigging adapters to connect a FW 828mk3 to the new TB 3 port. However it seems that there is no support for MIDI on the S80. I set it up as before but there is no longer a signal to/from either the Audio MIDI Setup or to the MIDI monitor in DP. I looked around for known issues and the closest item I could find suggested that Yamaha hasn't kept up the driver for the S80. No surprise there since I got it back in 2000 but wanted to verify that indeed I can not use the S80 for MIDI before looking for alternatives. I found an old driver (V1.3.2) but that may have only lasted through Mac OS X 10.9.
Can anyone here shed light on this?

The Yamaha keyboard controllers need to be in MASTER Mode to transmit MIDI, and you have to do some setup in the OS to make it behave as you want or expect. I had a devil of a time figuring out my CP33 when I first got it... just sit down at the keyboard and go step by step through the user's guide.

It will work, once you get it set properly.

The Yamaha drivers are for connecting MIDI via a USB connection. The S80 doesn't have USB, does it? Are you connecting with a standard 5-pin MIDI cable to the 828? If so, then the issue is that the FW to TB connection isn't passing MIDI. You'd be able to use the S80 via a MIDI to USB interface (separate from the 828).

Gravity Jim wrote:The Yamaha keyboard controllers need to be in MASTER Mode to transmit MIDI, and you have to do some setup in the OS to make it behave as you want or expect. I had a devil of a time figuring out my CP33 when I first got it... just sit down at the keyboard and go step by step through the user's guide.

It will work, once you get it set properly.

Thanks, Jim. I assume by 'keyboard' you're referring to the S80. I've always had a devil of a time figuring out the manual for the S80. I've taken three deep dives in the time I've had it and each time come up with a little something new but never got the whole thing down. Time to put on the scuba gear again. I'll give it another go.

Kurt Cowling wrote:The Yamaha drivers are for connecting MIDI via a USB connection. The S80 doesn't have USB, does it? Are you connecting with a standard 5-pin MIDI cable to the 828? If so, then the issue is that the FW to TB connection isn't passing MIDI. You'd be able to use the S80 via a MIDI to USB interface (separate from the 828).

Thanks Kurt. No, the S80 is an ancient piece of equipment. I love the keyboard action on it, however no USB. Yes I am connecting via 5-pin MIDI. The previous iMac I had was using FW800 and could communicate with the FW400 828mk3 via adapter but this new iMac has only USB and TB3. Question would be though is that I could only interface with the S80 in DP 9.02 via the MIDI-USB interface and not at all through the 828mk3 any longer, right?

What Kurt said.

Have you updated your MOTU interface driver software?

You could try making sure the MOTU drivers are all up to date, but I suspect a separate MIDI-USB interface will ultimately be your solution.

Kurt Cowling wrote:You could try making sure the MOTU drivers are all up to date, but I suspect a separate MIDI-USB interface will ultimately be your solution.

I went through all the MOTU drivers as well as the Audio MIDI Setup and updated them. I downloaded the most recent Yamaha driver for MIDI and installed it. The resulting message indicated that the install succeeded but when I looked in the Library folders for the files it was supposed to have installed, nothing was there. A thread I read elsewhere regarding installation of Yamaha drivers had the same issue and the author suggested that the directories the installation attempted to write to no longer had permissions as there had been with earlier Mac OS X versions. Indeed the perms were set to owner read and write only so I changed the perms temporarily to all then retried the install but still no luck. I suspect you are correct, that I will need to use an alternate interface to access the S80 in DP, that I can no longer use MIDI 5-pin cables via my FW 828mk3.

If you are not connecting a Yamaha keyboard via USB, the Yamaha driver does nothing. So don't waste your time there. If you get a more contemporary Yamaha axe with a USB port, the driver may be of use. I interface MIDI for two Yamaha keyboards - S90ES and Motif ES6 - via USB and both work fine, using the most current (I think) Yamaha driver. That said, I occasionally lose USB MIDI for one or the other and have to reboot the keyboard to restore the connection.

Well I got to learn a few things here. MIDI to USB is indeed the only connection that requires a driver. I picked up a cheap cable but the only Yamaha driver I could find online is too old to work with what I have so no connection there. But since the connection to the 828mk3 is only a simple cable there is no reason why the S80 wouldn't at least have been seen by Audio MIDI Setup. Gravity Jim was right - it was a matter of configuring the S80 to see and work with the MIDI data. Using the 5-pin MIDI cables between the S80 and the 828mk3 was ok all along apparently. I hadn't made any changes to the S80 config between OS and machine upgrade but there it is. I don't recall what the settings were previously as I had set it long in the past just so to get it to work but now I know what it expects and how to get it there.
Thanks for the info and help, folks!

Please forget about a driver for the Yamaha. You don't need it. Really.

As long as you made sure you installed the latest driver for your MOTU 828, that's all you need to do.

As for Audio MIDI Setup, there is a little weirdness. You can make sure you create a device that matches the configuration of your Yamaha keyboard. (You probably already have that setup). AMS won't necessarily "see" what is connected to it, You can connect your MIDI cable(s) between your Yamaha and your 828 (OUT to IN), and AMS won't necessarily know. Even then, DP may not get signal yet from AMS. I've found that I sometimes have to reconnect the virtual cords in AMS, and I sometimes have to tap the "Re-Scan MIDI" button and then DP suddenly is back up and running.

Your Yamaha keyboard as very little to do with is. I'll strongly suspect that it is fine.