MIDI ports on networked MTPII unreliable for Unisyn sysex

[James Steele]

Posting this in it's own thread so it will hopefully be of use to some:

In case anybody is interested, I found out something very interesting this evening. I did get the old MTP II I purchased used to network to my MTP A/V USB but I found something interesting:

DO NOT ATTACH DEVICES TO THE NETWORKED MTP II THAT YOU NEED RELIABLE TWO-WAY (AS IN SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE) COMMUNICATION WITH!

I was having all kinds of trouble with devices that I connected both MIDI IN and OUT to the MTP II (which was daisy chained off my MTP/AV). Sysex communication was happening, however Unisyn was reporting bad MIDI headers and it was unusable. I realized however that I had definitely had Unisyn work with some of the sound modules I was having problems with when those modules were attached to MIDI ports on my MTP/AV which was connected to the computer via USB. So I re-hooked up modules that were giving me fits attached the the networked MTP back up to my MTP/AV and they worked great!

And yes... I tried FAST and 1Mhz speed on the MTP II and MTP A/V and it made no difference. Sysex on the networked MTP II was totally unreliable yet fine on the MTP/AV USB.

Bottom line... a used MTP II is still a GREAT deal and very usable, but only attach to it hardware that you intend to simply receive note-data and nothing else. At least not if you're using Unisyn. I haven't tried with other Editor/Librarians!

[keybored0]

Thought I should add something here. It might work for some of you. Maybe not...

I have a stack of MOTU and OPCODE serial interfaces which I use with OS9 and OSX. James...you mention you are using USB as your primary, but give this a try.

DP needs to initialize serial devices and their driver, such as GeeThree Serial Port, in AMSetup. DP won't automatically do it. So have a dedicated track in record mode with "MTP ALL' as the input and "MTP ALL" as the output. Then play a note or send a foot control message to the interface. Watch DP's MIDI Monitor.

Another trick would be to open AMSetup and click TEST. Then click an output.

I have networked an MTPAV with an MTPII more successfully than a pair of Studio 4's, although the Studio 4's have much less problems when used alone.

Wish it would help...

[Shooshie]

I wonder how far back that warning goes. I used to use an MTPII networked to the original MTP with both devices sending SysEx data to light boards and other instruments. As far as I can remember, the SysEx data was one-way; I don't think there were MIDI returns coming from those instruments, but I can't remember for sure about the larger light boards. They may have been two-way. Yes, come to think of it, during the creation of light plots I would have the operator of the lighting board send me cues, which made it much easier than when I would have to write them all by hand. (did plenty of that, too)

Anyway, the MTP and MTPII units never missed a beat. They performed impeccably on tour, never missed a cue, and always worked transparently and reliably. Guess we're talking about a different time and setup. This must have to do with translations of USB and/or serial data between the old and more modern units.

Well, glad to know it, anyway. If I ever am in that situation again, I will know not to use the MTPII for SysEx from the MTP-AV. Personally, I use two MTP-AV's now, myself, one of which IS a serial device. I'm going to assume that it does not share this problem with its older sister.

Shooshie