just tested one of these FastLane boxes and the freemidi routing via OMS froze my machine several times. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in here, if it is relevant to the topic.
Oh well… that's not surprising. Actually, combining FreeMIDI and OMS opens up a unique can of worms that is supposedly overcome-able… supposedly. That said, I'll remind everyone that we've already gone through an endless hair-pulling smashed keyboards era of trying to make MOTU
Firewire interfaces work with zero success.
MTPAV has ALWAYS run better without FreeMidi
FreeMidi must be Bad when it makes you feel OMS is great
The navigation on the Hardware has this horrible confusing flow
**booting session in 44.1 vs 48K takes forever to navigat to the clock speed.
FreeMidi never made much sense to me
the software and hardware has always gave me techno Rage
*and I am not techno rage prone
it may be the only piece of hardware in my studio I have negative feeling about
in short I hate it ...I have always hated it ....
never known of a Midi box with sync usb and os9 compat that could replace it
RANT MODE OFF
if you have any input on better ways to run MIDI / MTC / MIDI control in the PT5 OS9 enviroment I am all ears. :-)
One must remember that FreeMIDI is kinda like when a drug company comes out with a new drug that's almost exactly like one that another company already has patented and is making a fortune on. So, they change the formula just enough, and give it a different name, but it's never as good as the original.
That said, FreeMIDI does work OK by itself. Trying to make it play nice with OMS however…One must also remember that back in the day when Opcode Systems was in Palo Alto, they were directly across the street from Digidesign and the two of them collaborated on stuff. That's one reason StudioVision happily accommodates DAE and why PT happily accommodates OMS. The upshot of that is that PT, to the extent it actually does MIDI, generally does it better with OMS.
So, right now, there's a disconnect (pun intended) between legacy 5-pin MIDI and new class-compliant USB-MIDI.
Legacy systems like OS9 can interface with the world thru legacy interfaces like the Opcode Studio series BUT that assumes the computer has serial ports. Computers running OS9 with USB ports only have a different problem.
With vintage keyboards and modules, one can convert the USB to serial OR derive serial ports from a PCI card-based converter and use an Opcode Studio interface or similar.
That's all well and good unless and until:
You want to connect a newer keyboard, drum machine etc. that has ONLY a USB-MIDI connection. THAT then requires a much more expensive solution in the form of a USB-MIDI Host emulator which is a fancy name for a box to convert the USB-MIDI port on the keyboard back to two 5-pin MIDI jacks. Note that expense is certainly a reason you find ONLY USB-MIDI ports on inexpensive "new" gear like Beatstep / Keystep etc.
Just to make sure this is long enough to maintain my reputation, this is all
before you factor in MIDI 2.0. Although the 2.0 protocol goes to great lengths to maintain compatibility with older MIDI gear, it's clear the more complex nature of the 2.0 specs is driving the industry away from 5-pin DIN entirely in favor of USB.
To which I say: How fucking stupid can you get?There is and has never been a worse, cheaper, less reliable, engineered-by-morons connector than USB. (Although Thunderbolt comes close)
I cannot conceive dragging a keyboard or module or anything to a gig and having to depend on one of those pieces of shit staying put and working properly for an entire set. And THAT'S assuming you don't plug it in upside-down on a dark stage and break the damn thing before you even start!
That however, is a rant for another day - BUT it is soon to be another pain-in-the-ass interface issue with OS9 systems.
