MOTU MIDI TimePiece AV USB and macOS Monterey

[Alécio Costa]

Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.9 and Roland Rig with Old MOTU MIDI Time Piece AV USB
Hi,

I have just created the Studio MIDI Setup, installed the drivers recommended for my old MIDI Time Piece AV USB.

Everything goes fine, except that 3 of my Sound Moudles from Roland now pop up with the message :
"Roland Fantom XA - No channels activated".
"Roland JV1010 - No Channels activated".

So, My Roland Fantom Xa Controller sends and receives messages but only at MIDI Channel 01. I can't scroll and select different MIDI channels.

At the Studio Setup, all MIDI channels are marked , as well as MIDI Beat Clock, MIDI Time Code, MMC.
I just do not remember the System Exclusive ID of each sound module, but it used to go fine blank.
Ports I chose PORT 1

Here at MOtu forum you commented something about chip versions. 2.x. for the EPROM.
I shall have to open the unit and verify the version.

Seems to be a simple thing. What might I be missing? The Studio setup is exactly the same of my old Mac Pro Rig with Pro Tools HD10.3.10/OS 10.6.8.

New system is Mac Mini M1 - OS 12.6 - Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.9

Thanks

[mikehalloran]

ProTools is not Apple Silicon Native, yett which may have something to do with this. On my Intel iMac Pro and my M1 MacBook air, my unit works fine and sees my JV010.

If the MTP AV was running over your Intel Mac, it should be fine on an M1 with the latest drivers that I and others linked in this thread.

Interestingly, the M1 seems to be more tolerant of slightly earlier Firmware than Intel Macs. The latest firmware was 2.0.1 (which should flash on the start screen and is printed on a sticker inside) and the USB controller 1.32 (on a sticker attached to the chip only).

With everything on, open Apple's Audio MIDI Setup.app and open the MIDI window. Your MTP AV and Roland should be visible and not greyed out. If greyed out, delete everything and see if the window rebuilds on its own. It should. In any case, if they are not Active in this window, no app will see them.

[Alécio Costa]

Thanks for your reply.
In fact it is inside Pro Tools MIDI Tracks that whenever I create, no MIDI channels of Roland Fantom Xa, Roland JV1010, Roland MDC1 Pop Up. I can see Alesis listed with all MIDI Channels.

I did a funny test, put Alesis as a controller, then the multiple MIDI channel thing disappears.

The Message no channels activated pop up.

I imagine it is related to the olf firmmware but tomorrow I will turn off turn on MTP AV USB and see which version pops up at the prompt.

[James Steele]

I had similar problem in ProTools. I don’t know for certain if your problem is the same but if I set a device in Audio MIDI Setup so that it receives only on one channel, like MIDI Channel 1, Pro Tools will not show any available outputs. This is only a bug with Pro Tools as far as I know. I can see an output for the device in DP.

What I had to do is set the device in Audio MIDI Setup to receive on at least TWO MIDI channels, for example 1 and 2, and then Pro Tools would let me select the device and appropriate channel.

[Alécio Costa]

Hi, Thanks for your Pro Tools Tip.
I have the same problem with Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.7 and 2022.9

One thing that you pointed out and made me suspicious is that at my MIDI Rig I have the Alesis D4 Sound Module and the the Yamaha 02R96V2 receiving at MIDI channel 16.
I used to declare the Alesis D4 of course to receive only in MIDI Channel 10. Then, when I opened Pro Tools, D4 had all MIDI channels!

I will try your tip, also with an eye with what happened previously with the 2 devices that had only one MIDI Channel.

Fingers Crossed!

[Alécio Costa]

Hi, James SteeleMany thanks for your advice! I owe you a Whooper!

What I had to do to nail it with my daw : NEVER select any MIDI channels at the Transmit/Receive Area within the MidiSetup of the MTV AV USB.
Doing this, all the 1-16 MIDI channels properly appeared in Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.7 and 2022.9.

A Variation of the bug / troubleshooting you had at your system.

It really surprised me why Alesis D4 ( much older sound module) apeaared properly and no multitimbral modules/controllers did.

[James Steele]

Well the other thing that’s confusing is the selection in Audio MIDI Setup. When the channel number is gray it’s activated and it’s blue it’s not. At least as I recall it’s the opposite of what you’d expect. So when you say you enabled no channels, you may have actually enabled them all.

[daveyboy]

Hi,

Long story short, MOTU no longer supports their older hardware. In this case, the drivers for the current MIDI devices work with the older ones, too — you just have to know which units use the same driver and where to look. Go to this site and find MIDI Interfaces in the left drop-down; MIDI Express XT on the right. You'll see a driver for MacOS 12 and a manual that also covers the MTP USB AV.

https://motu.com/en-us/download/

Here's a direct link to the manual foe Mac
https://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/MIDI/ ... de_Mac.pdf

Inside, there's a CR2032 settings battery. Unless you know it's fresh, change it. 2 screws holds the top on, slide the cover toward the back to remove IIRC. Besides not holding settings, a battery that's too old can leak and cause damage to the insides—no one wants that. Hmmm... wonder how long it's been since I've changed mine?

While the cover is off, look at the sticker at the EPROMs—if one doesn't show 1.32, this will not work with an Intel Mac (or an M1 either, I presume).


Likewise, the Firmware must be 2.0.1. This is displayed on start up also.
https://a3-images.myspacecdn.com/images ... 00x300.jpg

These have been unavailable from MOTU since 2012 when I bought the last pair. If yours don't match, I've seen replacements on eBay and Reverb in the last couple years.

Thank you! I just upgraded to Monterey (right as Ventura is coming out) and all my stuff has been working except for the super old MTP AV. It's working fine now so big thanks!

[James Steele]

Mine is working fine, too... mostly.

I actually had it AND an original MTP which was connected to the serial port on the rear of the MTP/AV working fine. I'm not sure if it's because I no longer have the MTP attached, but lately the MTP is doing this thing where it's sending small sysex messages back to my Mac Studio once every second. It looks like the screenshot below. Manufacturer ID I'm told is S&S which designs the MOTU gear. I have not been able to figure out how to turn this off. It doesn't seem to affect normal usage, but if I try to record a sysex dump from external hardware, the dump gets "polluted" with these extraneous messages. The dumps are still useful, but it bugs me.

BEFORE ANYONE ASKS... NO... Clockwork is not running while this is happening.

I ordered a new MIDI Express XT yesterday anyway. The display panel on the MTP/AV was having issues and the turning the knobs gave erratic results, so might as well retire it. It has the latest USB and MIDI ROMs which are unobtainable today, so might be able to get something for it just because it has those ROMs.

MTPAVsysexmessages.png (80.54 KiB) Viewed 1383 times

[larrytheo]

@mikehalloran:

Thanks so much! I just upgraded to Monterey on my Late 2013 Mac Pro and thought I was going to have to buy new MIDI interfaces (I still have several hardware MIDI devices and controllers), but your suggestion worked great and seems to have bought me some more time with my MTP AVs.

Much obliged!

[mikehalloran]

@mikehalloran:

Thanks so much! I just upgraded to Monterey on my Late 2013 Mac Pro and thought I was going to have to buy new MIDI interfaces (I still have several hardware MIDI devices and controllers), but your suggestion worked great and seems to have bought me some more time with my MTP AVs.

Much obliged!

You're welcome. Mine still works over Ventura on my iMac Pro and M1 MacBook Air.

My TimePiece AV USB never gets used anymore except for testing. Except for my JV10, my daughter has all of my modules. Time to sell it while it's worth anything. Otherwise, there's the Basement where Analog goes to die where most of my R–R machines and analog mixers currently reside.

[Releaux]

Sorry to resurrect the thread, but I'd like to provide another positive data point for the drivers recommended by Mike Halloran and and Michael Canavan on page one of this thread.

My Setup:

• Mac Studio M1 Ultra, Ventura 13.6.4
• Two MTP-AV USBs, with two serial MTP-AVs hanging off of those for a total of 4 MIDI interfaces

I think I initially installed via the XT driver package, selecting the "MTP-AV" option. This worked fine in getting MIDI into my system, and soft-synths played without any problems. My hardware synths, however, had about a 0.5 to 0.75 second lag between key strike and audio. I did typical troubleshooting (different ports, direct, hub, etc.) and the behavior was always exactly the same.

I re-read this thread today and installed the driver on the page linked above. Everything is now working perfectly, even with both of the MTP-AVs going through a hub.

The specific install I used is the MOTU MIDI Express 128 Driver, Version 91217, Release date 17-May-2022.

[Skyko]

I am on Sonoma 14.2 On a brand new Mac Studio M2 and THIS DRIVER WORKS!!!

https://motu.com/en-us/download/product ... s=true#549

Thank you so much for pushing for it guys, I like a couple of the other people here, was skeptical especially since I got a support request answer from MOTU saying that all drivers were discontinued years ago.

I thought I was going to have to trash both my original MTP AV that is slaved to my MIDI Time Piece AV USB - but they are working like a charm!!! Thank you SO MUCHO!!!!

[mikehalloran]

You’re welcome.

To be clear, support has been discontinued but all MOTU MIDI units use the same driver. I bought a new unit and after Support got it working over Sonoma, my MTP AV USB did, too.

There are a number of threads on the Sonoma issue but they boil down to one thing. All conflicting files must be removed from your System before the MIDI driver can be installed. This includes audio drivers including MOTU’s. Once MIDI is functioning, audio drivers can be reinstalled.

[James Steele]

To be clear, support has been discontinued but all MOTU MIDI units use the same driver. I bought a new unit and after Support got it working over Sonoma, my MTP AV USB did, too.

I wouldn't want to go so far as to say they're soft of generic within the family of interfaces spawned from the MTP, but I was pleasantly surprised that my more modern MIDI Express XT USB works fine connected to the ancient 2005 G4 Mac Mini running Leopard that I use as my dedicated Unisyn box. The driver I installed was from 2011!!