Giga 3 doesn't work with Emagic AMT8? [Archive]

View Full Version : Giga 3 doesn't work with Emagic AMT8?

James Thornton

03-22-2005, 07:02 PM

Not a happy camper...

- Installed Giga 3. Crashed repeatedly until I upgraded to 3.04.
- Got 3.04 to work, but now my AMT8 midi interface doesn't work (either in Giga standalone or in Cubase SX3).
- Reinstalled AMT8 driver. AMT8 now recognized in Cubase, but Giga won't make any noise (even when I click on the Giga keyboard on the screen). Giga does work in Rewire mode however.
- Uninstall Giga. Reinstall Giga 3. Upgrade to 3.04 (without ever running Giga 3.0 since it never worked.) Backup copy protection key doesn't work. Reauthorize - good news - new key from Tascam in a few minutes. Same problem - AMT8 went away.
- Reinstall AMT8 drivers. Again - Giga 3 only works in rewire mode.
- Send support request to Tascam. No reply after several days.

Bottom line...
- Can't get Giga 3 to work in standalone mode at same time as AMT8. The Giga 3 install seems to overwrite something in the AMT8 install (doesn't play well with others. Just fyi, AMT & Giga 2.5 worked together fine.

Details on my rig:
P4 - 3.0 Ghz
Intel motherboard
2 Gb memory (virtual memory turned off - didn't tweak the Giga3 memory settings)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Motu 2408 mk1 audio interface (latest GSIF & ASIO drivers)
Emagic AM8 midi interface
Motif ES keyboard

Help...

Martin Hines

03-22-2005, 07:32 PM

Regarding Tascam, to get support you really have to call them; they don't seem to respond to emails well.

Have you installed a number of different midi devices on this computer (i.e. used this computer for a while, changed midi ports, etc.)?

1) You might search in this forum about the RME card and overwriting midi driver registry entries.

2) Also, WinXP has a limit of how many midi drivers can be active at one time, and you may have reached the limit. The Windows Registry maintains a list of drivers and entries aren't always erased when you uninstall midi drivers. The RME site describes the situation:
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/faq/10entrye.htm

You might see if these entries are getting erased when you install different products.

dpc

03-22-2005, 07:54 PM

Is anyone getting AMT 8's to work with GS3? I had very solid performance under GS 2.5 and was hoping to continue with GS3.

If it does work as a seperate interface for midi (with Layla24) does that mean no kernal level midi?

Dave Connor

GYang

03-22-2005, 11:29 PM

Dave, this will not make your life easier, but I can't make GS3 work via MOTU Midi Timepiece. Other instruments or hosts with VSTs no problems, but not GIGA.
Anybody with positive experience on this?

Yang

P.S. version 3.0 works less unstable in my case that 3.04.

meroveus

03-22-2005, 11:56 PM

If it does work as a seperate interface for midi (with Layla24) does that mean no kernal level midi?

Correct.
Here is the relevant quote from the manual
"GSIF-2 MIDI is only supported on a device when it is also acting as your audio interface.
Only a combination audio/MIDI interface can act as a GSIF-2 audio/MIDI interface with GigaStudio."

dpc

03-23-2005, 12:28 AM

Yeah seems like that's the final word.

I'll tell you what's ironic: I have a Wamirack 24 that has four midi ports on the card and worked fine with GS 2.5 but it's not supported by ESI with a driver for GS3! I don't even know of an audio card with 4 midi ports except for a Tascam card (which I'm not really interested in.)

I guess not a lot of folks are using kernal level midi out there (with more than 16 channels of midi.) Another post here says it's not a critical issue to stay with midi 1.

Back to the topic: Anyone using AMT8's with GS3?

Dave Connor

sporter

03-23-2005, 06:07 PM

I'm using G3 with and AMT8. I typically use the vst wrapper with Cubase SX, but it does indeed work in standalone mode.

BUT, I do not use the USB driver. .I use serial only. Someone told me a while back the Emagic USB drivers were crap, so I've always used serial.

I noticed the backup didn't work for your either. This sux even more, AFAIC.

sporter

03-23-2005, 06:08 PM

Correct.
Here is the relevant quote from the manual
"GSIF-2 MIDI is only supported on a device when it is also acting as your audio interface.
Only a combination audio/MIDI interface can act as a GSIF-2 audio/MIDI interface with GigaStudio."

In my case this appears to be wrong. I am using an RME didgiface, but my midi interface is the AMT 8. No problems.

meroveus

03-23-2005, 06:59 PM

Hi Dave,

I have pondered the same issue as you, and have come to the conclusion there is only one way to have more than four MIDI IN/OUTs using the kernal-level GSIF2 drivers.
That is by using Frrontier Designs' Dakota and the add-on Sierra.
Dakota has two MIDI IN/OUTs and Sierra adds another eight.
Is ten enough for you? :p

The only problem is that Dakota won't handle audio at 96kHz or higher which may be a problem with some GS libs which come in 24/96 format.

Hope this helps. :)

digger

03-23-2005, 07:50 PM

meroveus

03-23-2005, 08:09 PM

In my case this appears to be wrong. I am using an RME didgiface, but my midi interface is the AMT 8. No problems.

Because your MIDI interface is separate from your Digiface, you are NOT using the kernal-mode MIDI. ;)
The interface still works fine, but you will be suffering a small increase in latency. This latency will be only apparent when playing live, and will be of no consequence when sequencing.

James Thornton

03-23-2005, 09:16 PM

James:

Re your original question - Yes I have GS 3.04 running with a Emagic AMT8 with zero issues.

Mine is installed along side SX 3.01 and I use either Rewire or FX-GigaVST for connectivity. GS also runs fine in standalone mode (by this I assume you refer to live playing in GS?) with the AMT8

I'm curious, what do you mean by "AMT8 drivers went away" - where exactly are you seeing (or not seeing) this?

Dig

I suspect Martin's reply is on to something. Besides the AMT8 and Motif ES, I also have a Pod XT and M-Audio Ozone & Oxygen mini-keyboards hooked up to my rig. (I use them for keyswitching & for the midi knobs.) When I used RegEdit to look at my Midi drivers as the RME web page suggested, I saw 9 of the 10 possible midi slots were already used up even though only 5 of them are needed. By the way, in my system's current state I don't see any Giga Midi driver among them. I suspect the AMT8 and Giga installers are overwriting each other. Haven't worked up the courage to start Windows registry hacking yet as suggested on the RME web page. I'm also nervous about reinstalling Giga since it screwed up my registration last time. Probably try to get Tascam on the phone first.

Yes, by standalone I mean live playing from my Midi keyboard directly into Giga (and not via Cubase with Rewire).

By AMT8 drivers went away, I mean that when I started Cubase SX3, it said it couldn't find any of the Midi devices that were hooked up to AMT8 ports (even though it all worked fine before installing Giga). Giga didn't see the AMT8 either (but the Windows device Manager said it was there - you figure...)

With regard to sporter's post - yes I have the AMT8 hooked up thru the USB interface. I could (and might try) the serial interface, but I really think the installers are overwriting each other.

Thanks for all the feedback,
James

digger

03-23-2005, 11:25 PM

I suspect Martin's reply is on to something.

Yes, I agree. This use to be a frequent issue with GS 2.x. It was known as the "grey midi indicator" problem or words to that effect but basicly exactly what you describe. Too many midi devices listed in the reg or un-needed ones caused this to occur.

I've made that reg edit several times. If it makes you feel any better, it's a fairly safe edit, worse thing you can do by deleting those entries is screw up your midi mapping and your already there. It's not normally a system crasher but I'm not going to promise that.

Best of luck with it.

Dig

seclusion

03-24-2005, 07:07 AM

James, sorry to ask the obvious but what driver version of the AMT are you running... I don't use my AMT with giga, I use a midisport 8x8. At one time I had MOL going from my Logic rig through ethernet to giga... Worked great with Giga 2.5. Not with giga 3. Support for MOL is non-exsistent... Tried their demo CP2 version still didn't work. Anyways back to your issue. To use my Midisport I had to install an earlier driver version first, get it all running then update to their latest driver. She wouldn't work with an fresh install of the latest driver version in GS3... Don't know if I have an old version of the AMT driver or not!
Later
Bri

dpc

03-24-2005, 12:39 PM

I guess those of us who want to use the AMT8 with GS3 may or may not be in for an adventure.

Thanks for all the helpful input.

Dave Connor

James Thornton

03-28-2005, 12:04 AM

Ok, I got it to work. I reinstalled 3.04 on top of itself, reinstalled my Motu 2408 driver, changed the midi in setting for ports 2 and 3 (even though I was only using port 1) and after this plus rebooting several times it's now working both in standalone mode & with Rewire. Not sure what fixed it, but I'm not touching it now.

Cheers,
James

yankeezulu

04-07-2005, 07:48 PM

Haven't had any trouble with either AMT8s or MOL (the original and the CP) with GS3. I do a lot of them and they're pretty consistant performers for me. jc

Ian Livingstone

05-25-2005, 04:16 PM

James - did you ever get to the bottom of this? The problem's confirmed here...

I've just rebuilt 6 giga PCs, running mostly GS3 standalone (nothing else), all with AMT8's and RME9652s. Fresh XP install, install the AMT8s (serial) fine all working and detected from the Unitor8 control panel. Then I put GS3 on and the AMT8's no longer detected - empty ports in GS3. Tried reinstalling the audio and midi drivers but that just messes up GS3 and it crashes on exit.

I've got 6 Midex8s for the Nuendo machine to send to the gigas, so my only option is to swap these over and have the AMT8s as the midi outs from Nuendo and the Midex8s as midi ins from the giga machines. But the latency of the midex8s (as midi ins) sucks big-time so I really want to avoid that if poss...

Anyone?

Ian

Not a happy camper...

- Installed Giga 3. Crashed repeatedly until I upgraded to 3.04.
- Got 3.04 to work, but now my AMT8 midi interface doesn't work (either in Giga standalone or in Cubase SX3).
- Reinstalled AMT8 driver. AMT8 now recognized in Cubase, but Giga won't make any noise (even when I click on the Giga keyboard on the screen). Giga does work in Rewire mode however.
- Uninstall Giga. Reinstall Giga 3. Upgrade to 3.04 (without ever running Giga 3.0 since it never worked.) Backup copy protection key doesn't work. Reauthorize - good news - new key from Tascam in a few minutes. Same problem - AMT8 went away.
- Reinstall AMT8 drivers. Again - Giga 3 only works in rewire mode.
- Send support request to Tascam. No reply after several days.

Bottom line...
- Can't get Giga 3 to work in standalone mode at same time as AMT8. The Giga 3 install seems to overwrite something in the AMT8 install (doesn't play well with others. Just fyi, AMT & Giga 2.5 worked together fine.

Details on my rig:
P4 - 3.0 Ghz
Intel motherboard
2 Gb memory (virtual memory turned off - didn't tweak the Giga3 memory settings)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Motu 2408 mk1 audio interface (latest GSIF & ASIO drivers)
Emagic AM8 midi interface
Motif ES keyboard

Help...

Walter Roth

05-25-2005, 04:58 PM

I am using G3, logic audio and Mt8 on the same machine and it works fine!

Do you have every midi port in the midi setup in giga set at none? This is what you have to do.

Start giga first...
Then sx or logic

and the ports will show in sx or logic....

Magic

Ian Livingstone

05-25-2005, 05:09 PM

Thanks, but that's an entirely different setup to mine - GS3 is running in standalone, no other software running on the pcs - Nuendo is on a seperate machine. The ports in giga are completely blank - no drop-down list.

Ian

I am using G3, logic audio and Mt8 on the same machine and it works fine!

Do you have every midi port in the midi setup in giga set at none? This is what you have to do.

Start giga first...
Then sx or logic

and the ports will show in sx or logic....

Magic

James Thornton

05-25-2005, 06:36 PM

Ian,

You might try unselecting your midi device and then reselecting it. (Giga seems to ignore the new driver till you do this.) As I noted in my last message I just kept reinstalling things until I got it to work, but I'm not sure exactly what did it. I am running though. I've got Cubase SX3, Giga, an AMT8, Motu 2048, Ozone, Oxygen & a Motif all working on my P4 under windows XP. Giga does not play well with others, but it can be made to work.

Sorry I wasn't more help.

Regards,
James

Ian Livingstone

05-25-2005, 06:47 PM

James - thanks - I tried reinstalling the audio and midi drivers a number of times - managed to get giga to finally see the driver in the giga system devices but the ports are greyed out, and it always boots into giga's diagnostic mode, then when I restart the pc I get a big blue screen. Been playing with 3 seperate pcs doing various different things and no joy.

Seems like giga3's definitely writing over some of the amt8's resources so I suspect vice-versa - reinstalling amt8 overwrite's some of giga3's code which is then giving me the errors. (if I don't reinstall amt8 giga3 works great and shuts down fine - but obviously with no midi!)

I've reported this to Emagic and various other forums so will keep you posted if I get any answers - in the mean time I'm gonna have to use my Midex8's instead for giga3 and put the amt8's in the nuendo pc.

Ian

Ian,

You might try unselecting your midi device and then reselecting it. (Giga seems to ignore the new driver till you do this.) As I noted in my last message I just kept reinstalling things until I got it to work, but I'm not sure exactly what did it. I am running though. I've got Cubase SX3, Giga, an AMT8, Motu 2048, Ozone, Oxygen & a Motif all working on my P4 under windows XP. Giga does not play well with others, but it can be made to work.

Sorry I wasn't more help.

Regards,
James