MIDI drivers and Big Sur

[PP1965]

After 6 moths of the official launch of Mac OS 11 Big Sur there are no MIDI drivers for this OS at all.
Although with some tricks it is possible to install the Catalina driver, it doesn't work properly.
Actually I have been experiencing erros with MOTU drivers for several years, which never were repaired.

MOTU says in Facebook that they diligently working on new drivers, but I don't think so.
In June Apple may announce the new Mac OS and MOTU doesn't have drivers even for Big Sur.

The question arises, will they support MIDI interfaces at all from now?

[dmil2469]

Hey PP1965, there's a fix for this.

Another poster provided instructions on how to do it. Here is the link to the forum post....

https://www.motunation.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=68380


if the link doesn't work, then here's the procedure:

1. Install the latest available OSX 10.15 driver from Motu website (if you haven't already).
2. Restart holding down Command-R to reboot into Recovery Mode.
3. Select Utilities --> Terminal from the top menu.
4. Type two commands, each followed by Enter.
1. [to disable SIP]: csrutil disable
2. [to mark Motu's dev ID "always trusted"]: /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add KRCLLMGZ2D
5. Restart
6. Open Terminal
7. Paste this exact line into Terminal: sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/Motu\ MIDI\ Driver.kext
8. Enter your password, press Enter
9. Go to System Preferences --> Security --> enter your password --> click the "Allow" button.
10. Restart normally
11. Confirm that you can see and use your MIDI device
12. Restart into Recovery Mode and open Terminal (#2-3 above)
13. Type: csrutil enable
14. Press enter --> restart your computer normally.
You are done.

It's pretty simple.

[PP1965]

Hi dmil2469,

Thanks for the information, but I know this, that is the "tricky way" I have mentioned in my post.
But I think we need an officially supported driver, this isn't it.
If you experience any problem, nobody will help you from MOTU.
And what if this process won't work in the next OS?

Naturally we work with different environments, I experience issues with this solution in my studio setup.
Logic Pro recognises my MOTU MIDI Express XT USB as a MIDI controller each time when I start Logic or try to change certain MIDI preferences.
Moreover Logic Pro adds it twice, every time.
Previously I experienced similar issues with Roland UM-One mk2, but they issued a new Big Sur driver and it solved that problem.

I use Strymon Big Sky as well as an external effect unit.
Strymon Nixie - its editor application - recognises the BigSky twice using my MOTU unit, and none of them work actually.
I had to buy a separated and dedicated MIDI interface (UM-One) just for the Big Sky because of this MOTU issue.

Several years ago I wanted to buy MidiQuest as well.
Unfortunately it couldn't use my Korg Triton 61 because of the buggy MOTU driver.
This was explained in MidiQuest's help, if you have a MOTU MIDI Express XT USB, it won't work.

I know some other musicians who have been experiencing issues with MOTU MIDI drivers for several years.

In my opinion the solution would be to publish a Big Sur compatible driver and spend some time on repairing those annoying bugs.

[BurnettX360]

The proposed workaround makes macbook pro's unable to deep sleep without crashing. Resulting in empty mac's which are very hard to bring back to life. At least this happens when I try to use the driver of the MOTU MidiExpress 128.