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Hi everybody...never owned a Motu product before, hence my first post here. I've gone through the tech support notes on the Motu's official website and searched this forum a lot but I couldn't find an answer.

So got my brand new Motu MIDI Express XT. I installed the drivers/ClockWorks software on a WINDOWS 8.1 computer. (Seems like they have only one installer for all) and also updated the firmware. I opened a ProTools 12 session and I see 8 MIDI input/output ports as well as a Sync All in/out port. So far so good...

Just wanted to see if it works, so I connected a Korg keyboard ...MIDI out to MIDI in....and MIDI in to MIDI out (standard 2 way connection).

I get a blinking orange light for MIDI in 1 on Motu's interface and nothing on MIDI out. When I open Clockworks there's absolutely nothing under the routing tab. It's just blank. How am I suppose to get the connected instruments show up under the routing tab? Is the MIDI in channels are suppose to blink eventhough I'm not actually playing anything?

The manual couldn't get any more ambiguous! Thanks a lot

........................

Edit 1:

Ok so I made some progress. Apparently MIDI Express XT doesn't like the USB 3 port at all! I plugged it into a USB 2 port and bam! All inupt/output icons showed up! Maybe I missed this in the manual?

Still have a few questions though: (Not published in the manual)

1) Under the file menu, there's two options:

1)Configure Digital Timepiece
2) Rescan

What exactly are these two items?

sam ca wrote:Edit 1:

Ok so I made some progress. Apparently MIDI Express XT doesn't like the USB 3 port at all! I plugged it into a USB 2 port and bam! All inupt/output icons showed up! Maybe I missed this in the manual?

Still have a few questions though: (Not published in the manual)

1) Under the file menu, there's two options:

1)Configure Digital Timepiece
2) Rescan

What exactly are these two items?

Yes, I also found out "the hard way" (by calling MOTU tech support - ok, not THAT hard) that the MIDI Express XT totally hates USB-3 ports. As all of my ports are actually USB-3, I had to get a USB-2 powered bus for it to work right. But it works great once you get to a USB-2 port!

Digital Timepiece -- that sounds like the old product MOTU used to have as its flagship item. This tool allows you to set things up for using one of those should you own one. http://motu.com/products/MIDI/digitime

I did see "Rescan" before in the manual (PDF version) somewhere, I thought. Ah - page 18. It duplicates what they show on the Mac version to rescan for the interface in case it doesn't see it upon startup.

Enjoy your XT!

Terry

Hi Terry,
Thanks for the response. ok, so "configure digital timepiece" has to do with another external device then.

I thought that "Rescan MIDI" (Page 18) was a native Mac MIDI set up thing and part of the OS and unrelated to "Rescan" under the file menu...but I guess not. So it does the same thing with Windows computers as well?

Also another question about "Sync All In/Out" (labeled as All Cables for Mac). I know if you choose it as a output, it sends the MIDI data to ALL MIDI OUT ports. But what happens if you choose it as an input? It's very unclear in the manual.

sam ca wrote:Hi Terry,
Thanks for the response. ok, so "configure digital timepiece" has to do with another external device then.

I thought that "Rescan MIDI" (Page 18) was a native Mac MIDI set up thing and part of the OS and unrelated to "Rescan" under the file menu...but I guess not. So it does the same thing with Windows computers as well?

Also another question about "Sync All In/Out" (labeled as All Cables for Mac). I know if you choose it as a output, it sends the MIDI data to ALL MIDI OUT ports. But what happens if you choose it as an input? It's very unclear in the manual.

I assumed that "Sync" had to do with MIDI Machine Control, SMPTE or MIDI Clock, not with MIDI data, so paid it little mind. I'd have to look into that more - haven't used that feature yet.

Terry

terrybritton wrote:
I assumed that "Sync" had to do with MIDI Machine Control, SMPTE or MIDI Clock, not with MIDI data, so paid it little mind. I'd have to look into that more - haven't used that feature yet.

Terry

Apparently it does transmit MIDI data as well. In fact if you set the output of a MIDI track to "Sync All" (or All Cables in Mac), all MIDI outputs glow on the MIDI interface. I guess it gives you a fast way of sending the same data out to all devices, regardless of where that MIDI originated from. This part I understand....but I'm still not sure what this port does if selected as an "input". I contacted the tech support, and still waiting to hear from them.

On page 36 of the manual:

"Muting a data type on all channels
To mute a data type on all 16 channels for a device, drag
across its row of check boxes. Doing so will select all check
boxes in the row, selecting all channels for muting."

It's definitely NOT doing it on a Windows 8.1 for MIDI Express XT (latest ClockWorks/firmware).

sam ca wrote:On page 36 of the manual:

"Muting a data type on all channels
To mute a data type on all 16 channels for a device, drag
across its row of check boxes. Doing so will select all check
boxes in the row, selecting all channels for muting."

It's definitely NOT doing it on a Windows 8.1 for MIDI Express XT (latest ClockWorks/firmware).

I find that dragging to select is not working anywhere in Clockworks on Windows, but clicking each item you wish to mute does work here.

Terry

Yep! Tech support confirmed that as well. I thought it was a bug, but it's intentional. Apparently you used to be able to drag and select in older versions, but that's no longer the case...at least not with Windows computers. No big deal at all. They forgot to update the manual.

Another question!

Clearly, there's screenshots of clockWorks that shows inputs/outputs labled with descriptive instrument names as oppose to generic input/output 1-8.
How do you rename the I/O?

I think I saw somewhere (ah - just remembered it was in a Sweetwater review) that renaming inputs and outputs was a Mac-only feature.

Terry

By the way, I'm really loving how cleanly this thing transfers SYSEX to and from MIDIQuest, and as it is "multi-client" I finally don't need to jump through hoops using a separate MIDI interface to get MIDIQuest to work. All in all, I'm very happy with this unit.

Terry

I see! Looks like Motu wrote this manual for Mac computers then! As long as it's not missing the main features, these are minor things .

I gotta look into MIDIQuest. Thanks for the tip!