MTP-AV, Clockworks, Gettin' updated

[Shooshie]

This post isn't exactly a "how-to" nor is it a "what's wrong with that" post, but more of a reminder that sometimes the things we forget about can start causing inexplicable problems, and just need to be refreshed from time to time to keep them working properly.

I had an issue in which my record-enabled MIDI track's fader would drop down to -42 dB and hover there in a 2 or 3 point range, just kind of jerking around between -41 and -43. At first, I thought VSL was sending some kind of volume information to the track, as I had no volume automation anywhere in this file. Then I noticed that it happened on any MIDI track that was record-enabled, so that meant it wasn't a VSl issue.

This was preventing me from recording anything from my WX-5, so I basically had to solve the problem before I could move on. I checked the tracks, searched for some random CC#7 point in some track. I turned off all my MIDI units, but the fader kept lurching around at the same levels as before. It wasn't coming directly from a hardware MIDI controller.

Pulling up the MIDI Monitor in DP, it showed a strange activity roughly corresponding to the rhythms of the lurching fader, but it seemed to be coming from the MIDI cable and channel that normally carries my Kurzweil 2600 MIDI data. I'd already established that it happened even with the keyboard turned off, so that meant that either DP had a feedback loop somewhere, or it was in the MIDI Timepiece AV.

Pulling up Clockworks, the interface for thedd MTP-AV, I spent most of last night running it through every possible control, seeing if anything might jar this little bug out of its hiding place. Nothing seemed to work. I loaded old MTP-AV configuration files from as far back as 2003, but the little bug kept gnawing away at my active MIDI faders.

I kept avoiding a full factory reset, as I wasn't sure what that might do, and I didn't want to have to reconstruct any configurations from sdcratch. Ultimately that's what I did, though. A full factory reset (from the Clockworks File Menu) finally knocked that little bug out of there.

But then I had a new problem. With the factory reset, Clockworks seemed to have lost communication with the MTP-AV. Restarting either one didn't seem to help, so finally I remembered that I had downloaded a new MIDI driver from MOTU, but I'd never installed it, so now seemed like a good time to do so. I installed it, then I was able to load a recent config file into Clockworks, which set up my MTP-AV the way I'd had it before, minus the little problem.

I suspect that this problem was also causing some other troubles I had recently, such as constant crashing in DP 7.02 last week. I had used 7.02 right up to the holidays without a single crash -- ever -- and then I didn't use DP for nearly a month during the holidays. When I fired it up to resume working, the crashing started. I have no good explanation for what happened, except that it may have been due to this strange command that was stuck in the MTP-AV. Everything is working now, and I haven't had one single crash since installing DP 7.1 a few days ago; just this jittery fader thing from the MTP-AV.

Moral of story: check your peripherals occasionally. Pull out the MIDI Monitor and open up the interfaces like Clockworks, and just see if anything seems out of kilter. If so, you may also need to update your MIDI drivers and/or do a factory reset of the device. Be sure to save configuration files now and then so that you can get your configurations back up and running as quickly as possible. I might add that about 4 years ago the forum was plagued with a bug that some people simply couldn't get around. When I did some research, I found conclusively that the bug was related to a MIDI driver. When it was replaced, the bug invariably went away. It was a nasty one, too! So, some of our set-and-forget devices and drivers can get problems after they sit forgotten for years on end. Check 'em out, especially if you're having problems you can't explain otherwise.

Shooshie

[philbrown]

I had a similar problem just the other day and thought it was the MTPAV but turns out I had to do a factory reset on my Axiom 49 controller.

Now I have a question for you, somewhat OT:
I use the Clockworks routing window of my MTPAV as a MIDI router constantly (the window where you connect devices with lines representing connections). If I buy a second MTPAV will I be able to route devices between BOTH interfaces in that window or can I only route each interface's MIDI connections to its own connections?

TIA
Phil

[Shooshie]

With two MTP-AV's networked, you can route any device to any other. In the Audio/MIDI Setup window, they appear as one 16-I/O device.

Shoosh

[philbrown]

With two MTP-AV's networked, you can route any device to any other. In the Audio/MIDI Setup window, they appear as one 16-I/O device.

Shoosh

Thanks.
By 'networked' do you mean they are hooked together, or just both USB'd to the same computer the normal way?

EDIT: since I've never used it I forgot these things have a network port.

[Shooshie]

Well, I'm talking about networked together. I've never tried running two of them into separate USB ports. I'm not even sure what kind of network ports they have now, if any. They used to be serial ports, even on the early USB MTP-AV. Apple Serial cables are hard to find now, so I'm wondering if they daisy-chain them, or if you really DO have to plug them into separate USB ports?

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Just checked the MOTU page. The back of the MTP-AV still has serial cable ports (RS-422) for networking between units, retro-compatible back to the original MIDI Time Piece.

The difference in networking them is that they show up as one unit with 32 ports (16 in and 16 out). But they say on the website that you can plugin as many independent USB units as you like, and they will all show up as separate units (not networked). So, you have a choice as to how you want to do it.

Shooshie

[Frodo]

But they say on the website that you can plugin as many independent USB units as you like, and they will all show up as separate units (not networked). So, you have a choice as to how you want to do it.

Is that regardless of how they are "networked" or irregardless? I guess what I'm asking is whether there is some correlation between how they are connected and how they appear in DP-- as separates or as a mock "aggregate" MIDI interface?

I would check this myself, except that I only have one MIDI interface any more to work with.

[Shooshie]

Well, I only have one USB MTP-AV and one Serial MTP-AV. They are networked via the serial cable, and they show up as one interface:

(Actual Screenshot)

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But I'm interpreting MOTU's website to mean that you could plug in two of these to separate USB ports (not networked through the serial cable) and get this:

( Photoshopped Screenshot)

• 

If it is not like this, I wish someone would post how a pair of USB interfaces look when they are plugged into separate USB ports.

Shooshie

[philbrown]

Thanks for the info. I got to checking and saw what cable is needed. I threw away a large box of that kind of stuff, ADB, SCSI and other older cables I thought I'd never use years ago. I suppose you can get that cable somewhere but they are not exactly off-the-shelf cables any more.

I am guessing that you would need to use the network cable in order to route between the 2 interfaces as I described in my first post. Otherwise that junction would happen inside the computer (using separate USB's).