More Fastlane/ AMS whackyness

[FrankM]

Well this is a little weird. Once again I'm having connectivity issues between my Fastlane and my 15" MacBook Air, Ventura 13.6.6 MOTU MIDI 91217 (latest, reinstalled).

Open AMS with Fastlane disconnected - there it is greyed out, as expected. Plug in the Fastlane; the icon lights up, as expected. Play my keyboard, do the "Test MIDI Setup" in AMS - all good. Now, click "Rescan MIDI" in AMS. The Fastlane icon greys out - the interface is not seen anymore. Click "Rescan MIDI" again - nothing. The Fastlane is gone. Pull out and re-insert the USB cable from the Fastlane and it comes to life again. This is not how it's supposed to work. Any clues appreciated - was the Ventura 13.6.6 update a little wonky with USB? I think I read that somewhere, nothing specific about MIDI interfaces though. It's probably time to ditch this Fastlane, though it still shows as supported with the latest driver. Kinda frustrating - we've been connecting MIDI interfaces to computers for a while now.

[mikehalloran]

Well this is a little weird. Once again I'm having connectivity issues between my Fastlane and my 15" MacBook Air, Ventura 13.6.6 MOTU MIDI 91217 (latest, reinstalled).

Open AMS with Fastlane disconnected - there it is greyed out, as expected. Plug in the Fastlane; the icon lights up, as expected. Play my keyboard, do the "Test MIDI Setup" in AMS - all good. Now, click "Rescan MIDI" in AMS. The Fastlane icon greys out - the interface is not seen anymore. Click "Rescan MIDI" again - nothing. The Fastlane is gone. Pull out and re-insert the USB cable from the Fastlane and it comes to life again. This is not how it's supposed to work. Any clues appreciated - was the Ventura 13.6.6 update a little wonky with USB? I think I read that somewhere, nothing specific about MIDI interfaces though. It's probably time to ditch this Fastlane, though it still shows as supported with the latest driver. Kinda frustrating - we've been connecting MIDI interfaces to computers for a while now.

This is not uncommon if there's a USB hub in your setup somewhere—going back to the G5, Some hubs are less prone to this than others but I've never encountered one that was immune.

Just today, I got an iLok error — second time since my M2 Studio arrived last October. Unplugging and reinstalling the dongle didn't have an affect but unplugging and replugging the hub fixed me right up... till the next time.

It is unusual if the unit is connected directly via a USB 2 cable but not unheard of, unfortunately.

It has nothing to do with the drivers or Ventura.

[FrankM]

Tried with a fresh setup in AMS, same result. The Fastlane is seen by the OS, the lights blink when I play my keyboard - but no MIDI is getting anywhere.

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[FrankM]

This is not uncommon if there's a USB hub in your setup somewhere

It is unusual if the unit is connected directly via a USB 2 cable but not unheard of, unfortunately.

It has nothing to do with the drivers or Ventura.

No hub, it's a direct connection. Tried with both a USB-C to A cable, and an older USB 2 A-to-B cable through an adapter. I think I'm done with non-class-compliant MIDI interfaces. It's enough.

[mikehalloran]

You are showing the Network Setup. Show us the other picture of the device that includes your keyboard. I have none connected at the moment but it will be something like this.

[FrankM]

Not sure what this will tell you - I have quite a few MIDI devices in my current setup but as you can see, they're greyed out since they're unconnected. The Fastlane IS connected - and greyed out! Again, if I pull the cable out and reconnect it, the icon comes to life and things will work. "Rescan MIDI", however, does not restore it to operation and as I said at the top of this thread, deactivates it if the icon is lit.

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[mikehalloran]

I'm going to assume that you've deleted the Fastlane icon, correct? If not, do so and see if it rebuilds and is lighted. If more than one repopulate the space, delete all that are not lighted. I'll spare you the story where that worked.

The Fastlane is still a supported interface, I think. If this last suggestion doesn't work, I recommend submitting a TechLink and attaching that screen shot.

[FrankM]

Yes, I deleted it. It reappears and lights when I plug the Fastlane back in. Dims when I rescan. If I delete the dimmed icon, clicking on rescan does not make the icon reappear – only physically unplugging and reinserting the USB cable does that.

I'm not opening a tech support ticket because I'm through dealing with this. Of all the elements of my music rig, this is the one that misbehaves? I've been connecting MIDI devices since the days of the Atari ST and my first Mac in the early 1990s with Freemidi and OMS. Time for a new interface - and it's gonna be class-compliant.

edit - just pulled the trigger on this:

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[FrankM]

I've been using this CME MIDI interface and it's been fine - none of the weirdness I've encountered with the Fastlane. It was a little under $50. As I remember, the Fastlane was around $75 when you could buy it new.

The funny thing is that I really only need a 1 x 1 interface. These type all appear to be the "dongle" kind, with permanently attached cables – not great from a reliability standpoint imo. I have one as my "emergency" interface (an iConnectivity mio). I wanted a standalone box as I run a 25 foot MIDI cable from my controller on stage. The CME U6 is a 3 x 3 interface and has software for routing, filtering, remapping and scaling MIDI data. I'm using just one of the three 5-pin inputs, and the only "processing" I do is to block active sense. All other MIDI ,mangling is done in my laptop with Plogue Bidule or my i-devices with Streambyter and Midiflow.

I guess this is a long-winded way to say that maybe MOTU should consider a Fastlane replacement - a small standalone box for those of us not needing the bells and whistles of the rack mount guys. There might be a market for a small but intelligent MIDI interface for road warriors needing to go with 5-pin. I used to use USB MIDI on the road - until the gig on the large stage where my USB extension cable caused data dropouts! Old fashioned 5-pin DIN MIDI still has its place!