"The Last Unicorn"

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:39 pm

So today, the UPS truck pulled up in front of my house. Not longer after, my trusty old friend... my MTP/AV USB... the LAST piece of gear in my studio that bore the bearing the old school "Mark of the Unicorn" logo, complete with unicorn silhouette was quietly retied with little fanfare. I will miss that unicorn. I always thought that original logo was cool, and really wasn't all that happy with the re-branding when it originally happened. MOTU. It is an acronym. Let us never forget! Thank you for your many years of service, MTP/AV!

: lastunicorn.jpg (226.18 KiB) Viewed 1382 times

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:48 pm

Exactly how I've felt all along Brother James.

"MOTU" means nothing to most peeps 'cause they're not aware of the history.

The logo at least provided a clue as to the full name, and what a beauty it is! Unique. Memorable. A marketing dream IMHO.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:45 pm

RIP

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:58 pm

Mine still sits in a rack but it won’t for much longer. If my daughter wants my MIDI modules, she’s welcome to them but if not, there’s eBay.

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:56 pm

mikehalloran wrote:Mine still sits in a rack but it won’t for much longer. If my daughter wants my MIDI modules, she’s welcome to them but if not, there’s eBay.

Right. Well, I still have a soft spot for my MKS-30 and my Ensoniq EPS-16+ rack module. There’s some cool sounds between them, especially the latter that Chicken Systems Translator was never quite able to translate.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Fri Nov 11, 2022 3:27 pm

I used to own the Timepiece until I no longer had a strong need for its functionality. Nothing ever really came along with a similar feature set, from any vendor. I always loved that faceplate, and especially the original logo/icon!

stubbsonic · Post by **stubbsonic** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 8:55 am

I've made this joke in the long-ago past, but what MARK would a unicorn make on you were you to engage in a fight? --> *

It's especially painful as the horn is all spirally.

Michael Canavan · Post by **Michael Canavan** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 9:26 am

James Steele wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:39 pm So today, the UPS truck pulled up in front of my house. Not longer after, my trusty old friend... my MTP/AV USB... the LAST piece of gear in my studio that bore the bearing the old school "Mark of the Unicorn" logo, complete with unicorn silhouette was quietly retied with little fanfare. I will miss that unicorn. I always thought that original logo was cool, and really wasn't all that happy with the re-branding when it originally happened. MOTU. It is an acronym. Let us never forget! Thank you for your many years of service, MTP/AV!

lastunicorn.jpg

Curious, why the change? So far the MTP/AV is working with the M1 Air Monterey here. There are reports that for some reason the Studio model has more issues than the original M1's, is that it or are you preemptively striking?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 6:00 pm

Well main reason was that my MTP/AV was sending a small sysex message every second back to my Mac Studio which I couldn’t figure out how to stop. It would “pollute” bulk dumps that I recorded.

So I got the MIDI Express XT and turns out it does it too. Anytime DP or other DAW app is running it starts sending those messages spaced a little less than one sec apart. So I just have to remember to quit DP before using Sysex Librarian.

I don’t regret it though. The screen on the MTP/AV was getting hard to read and the knobs were messed up making it difficult to navigate the menus. So I felt I might as well go all out and get it to go along with my 828es and 24Ai.

ronjams · Post by **ronjams** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:49 pm

There are filters in clockworks that should be able to filter out this sys-ex info either on the inputs or outputs of you MIDI devices that should fix your problem

cuttime · Post by **cuttime** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:00 pm

I thought that was a badass unicorn. Not a "My Little PonyCorn".

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:41 pm

ronjams wrote:There are filters in clockworks that should be able to filter out this sys-ex info either on the inputs or outputs of you MIDI devices that should fix your problem

It doesn’t. It’s being sent from the interface itself directly to the Mac over USB. It is not coming in on any MIDI cables that would allow it to be muted with Clockworks.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:09 am

Clockworks mutes at-source James.

It's literally a deep-dive interface for the unit, negating the need for a complicated nested-menu layout and navigation on the hardware.

Unless I'm mistaken...

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:11 am

OK, I see that you're using USB and I said that based on my use of MIDI cables with the unit.

If it doesn't work the same way, that's an unfortunate "oversight" by MOTU IMHO.

Michael Canavan · Post by **Michael Canavan** » Sun Nov 13, 2022 8:35 am

There's a way to kill it on the hardware MTP/AV unit. The SysEx message sent here is always the sync message.

MOTUnation.com

"The Last Unicorn"

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