MOTU MIDI TimePiece AV USB and macOS Monterey

[Michael Canavan]

I bought an old Unitor 8 as a backup. I'm a little worried about the longevity of the drivers for the MTP/AV because they in fact haven't supported the AV for years now. On the other hand very recently Apple updated the drivers for the Unitor 8. Plus a while ago some OS update hosed the MTP/AV for a second or two, luckily in a dark sense my hardware synths were in the shop when that happened and an update to Mac OS fixed the issue.

Personally 99% of the time I use the AV as an 8 port hub, and don't really use any advanced features so if I was smart I would switch already.

[mikehalloran]

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!!

Yes, the older units need to have the 2.0.1 firmware and 1.34 USB controller chips. According to MOTU, I bought the last pair in 2012.

[Skyko]

MOTU has really been a MASSIVE help to the people who've invested in their products. I was an early adopter of their first MTP years, and YEARS ago and it held solid for 7-8 years (approximating) until the MTP AV (pre-USB) one came out.

Then I was overjoyed when I could use that with the USB MTP. And now to even be able to use both of them with A SILICON MAC?!?!?!? Holy COW! I've been through 3 (maybe 4) Macs since then and can still use those MIDI Time Pieces.... Unreal!

Because of this legendary attention to the customer, I just bought 2 new MOTU 828's and they work flawlessly with my 20-year-old O2R96. I also got my father an older 828 and a traveler. I hope they continue this excellent record and never sell out to a big corporation. (Unless they already have and I don't know about it).

Cheers!!

[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!!

Yes, the older units need to have the 2.0.1 firmware and 1.34 USB controller chips. According to MOTU, I bought the last pair in 2012.

Yep... I'm all up-to-date on that. Like I mentioned on my thread about the G4 Mac Mini and Unisyn... if it turns out I could get reliable sysex using my old MTP/AV with the Intel Mac Mini and Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) I'd be faced with the dilemma of whether I'd want to swamp out my modern MIDI Express XT for my ancient MTP/AV... then switch between the Mini and my Mac Studio with my USB switch. Still would see a shame to ditch that interface.

So many possibilities. Yeesh!

[Longtime MOTU Dude]

I went through this recently and wasted a lot of time looking for newer drivers on MOTU's site. The button that I needed to click was kind of non-intuitively situated at the left side of this box.
Finally found it and my MTP-AV is now in business under Mojave and Monterey. Just don't forget to fix the Security system-preference thing before the time window runs out.
For people new to this situation, here's a direct link to the download page as recommended by Mike Halloran and and Michael Canavan[/url] on page one of this thread.

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

[greg328]

Hello all--I recently took advantage of Apple's trade-in offers and traded my Studio M1 Ultra in for a Studio M3 Ultra.

My M1 was running OS 14 and my ancient MTP AV USB worked fine. Well--no more.

The new M3 Ultra Studio came with Sequoia OS 15.3.2. My MTP AV no longer shows up in AUDIO/MIDI Setup.

I ran the latest MOTU MIDI interface installer, dated 5/22, (pretty sure I had that installed previously as well) and it's not helping. MTP AV is still invisible to AUDIO/MIDI setup app.

So--is it safe to say that, after several decades of loyal service, I'm finally at the end of the road with my trusty MTP AV USB?

Any fixes possible at this point?

If not, can any of you recommend a new MIDI interface for my studio rack? I prefer rack-mount. I can use the USB MIDI output on my Yamaha Montage M8x but I also need to hook a few older MIDI synths in to my rig, so I need a hardware MIDI interface. Not necessarily MOTU brand required--open to the best recommendations!

Many thanks to all,
Greg
Austin TX

[mikehalloran]

My MTP AV USB works fine over Sequoia on my Studio M2 Ultra as does the MIDI port on my 828mkII FW, M4, M•Audio 192|6 and 192|14.

You must not have any audio interface drivers installed—MOTU or anyone else—before installing the MIDI driver. Once you have the MIDI driver installed and working, then you can install any audio drivers.

If you have a current MOTU MIDI device, MOTU can screen share and walk you through it. After I got a supported box working, my MTP AV USB came to life. You can PM me for more info on this.

Many Audio and MIDI interfaces do not require drivers including the MOTU M2/4/6 and my M•Audio interfaces. MIDI just works. These only have one port, however.

Not all MIDI boxes support SMPTE if that’s important to you including the latest 828.

[greg328]

Mike, thanks for the info.

I'm using UA Apollo x8 and the associated software for my audio I/O. This would need to be removed before install MIDI driver software?
Weirdly that wasn't needed on my previous Mac Studio M1 Ultra.

I'll reach out to MOTU tech support to see if they can walk me through it. Looks like I'll have to un-install the UA software first.

TY
Greg

[mikehalloran]

Good luck getting MOTU Support on something that old. They wouldn’t for me until I bought a current micro express.

[James Steele]

Would be interesting to know if MTP/AV stops working with Sequoia? That's what I'm on now. I did purchase a MIDI Express XT when I got my Mac Studio in 2022, but then it really wasn't necessary. I wonder if my MIDI Express XT has a network port? Probably not. Might have been able to daisy chain it off that and it would still work. I kept my MTP/AV with the thought that if I ever add to my "nostalgia rack" of old synth modules, I could press it into service eventually. That may not be the case.

Although I might get lucky. Sometimes installing the driver is the issue, but if it was already on your Mac when you upgrade over it, it will continue to work. I ought to plug in my MTP/AV for giggles and see if it shows up in Audio MIDI Setup.

[greg328]

James--I'd like to know if you can see your MTP AV in Audio/MIDI setup, under OS 15 Sequoia--I certainly cannot.

Worked fine under OS 14-

I'll try again tomorrow to find a fix-

Greg

[James Steele]

James--I'd like to know if you can see your MTP AV in Audio/MIDI setup, under OS 15 Sequoia--I certainly cannot.

Worked fine under OS 14-

I'll try again tomorrow to find a fix-

Greg

Well.. because I'm a nice guy... haha... I went out into my boneyard where my lonely MTP/AV and even older orange logo MTP2 were and brought the MTP/AV inside. I connected power to it, connected it via USB to my USB hub, powered it on and launched Audio MIDI Setup and lo and behold there it is, to the right of my MIDI Express XT:

mtpavinsequoia15.3.2.jpg (141.67 KiB) Viewed 1255 times

I don't have time to connect up a MIDI device to it to see if it works, but showing up on AMS is half the battle. I would not be surprised if it works. On top of it, just like in my old setup before I bought the MIDI Express XT, I would not be surprised if I connected the old MTP2 to the "network" port on the back of the MTP/AV and that worked also!

For reference I'm using the latest MIDI driver from the MOTU site: MOTU MIDI Installer for Mac v921217 | May 17, 2022. You can check the version by going into the Applications folder and double-clicking "MOTU USB MIDI System Extension.app" and it will show you the version number as shown below:

MOTUMIDIextension.jpg (73.16 KiB) Viewed 1251 times

Frankly, I'm somewhat surprised it worked. So the verdict is in... AMS does see the MTP/AV in the latest version of Sequoia... at least it does on mine. My MTP/AV does have the very latest ROM chips in it. I know there was an upgrade for USB compatibility with Intel Macs at some point? Still... it's crazy that this thing works and like I said, wouldn't surprise me if my MTP2 will also work if connected up to the network port on the MTP/AV.

One note about using an old ADB serial cable MTP2 connected to a USB MTP/AV: the MIDI ports on the MTP2 will work fine for normal playback (MIDI note on/off, controllers, etc.) but Sysex dumps are unreliable. When I was using that combo I had to make sure to connect any devices that might receive/send Sysex to MIDI ports on the MTP/AV not NOT the MTP2.

[greg328]

James, thanks so much for the very useful information! Glad that thing works on your machine, I may need to de-install my Universal Audio software and then reinstall the MIDI driver according to Mike H. I do have that latest 5/22 driver currently installed-

I’ll report back with my findings here. Hoping to avoid the need to buy another MIDI interface-


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[James Steele]

James, thanks so much for the very useful information! Glad that thing works on your machine, I may need to de-install my Universal Audio software and then reinstall the MIDI driver according to Mike H. I do have that latest 5/22 driver currently installed-

I’ll report back with my findings here. Hoping to avoid the need to buy another MIDI interface-

That would be good news. The only issue I remember running into when I first started using my MTP/AV on my M1 Max Mac Studio (I believe it shipped with Monterey?) was that when I would run Clockworks and attempt to mute certain events on different MIDI cables it didn't seem to "stick." Not really sure.

I ended up buying the MIDI Express XT because of some strange issue that I thought was caused by MTP/AV and I was wrong. Still I like having a spare on hand and it's nice to know that (for now) it should work.

[mikehalloran]

My MTP AV USB and my 828mkII FW run over Sequoia 15.3.2. This morning's screen shot.

Audio MIDI Setup screenshot 828mkII, micro express, MTP AV USB .jpg (282.49 KiB) Viewed 1017 times

Long story short: Purging the system of all MIDI and Audio drivers first, rebooting then making sure they're gone, installing MIDI and getting it working, then installing Audio makes it work.

I have more info on this but am thinking I should start a new thread. Sequoia has added some wrinkles that has made it more complicated.