_8_Midi ports over a PC network

[Chadwick]

Hey guys,

I just found a post at the Yahoo Giga forum which pointed out a new product from a Russian company which has been doing midi plugins for Sonar and Cubase. They\'re called MusicLab and they\'re home page is here:
http://www.musiclab.com/ (\"http://www.musiclab.com/\")

They have a programme called the MIDI Replicator Driver.

Sounds like they started out designing it to get around the Windows \'Sorry that midi device is in use\' problem by applying a multiclient approach to windows midi devices, but then they expanded it to include sending midi over TCP/IP networks.

The programme appears to allow up to 8 midi ports to operate over your network simultaneously.

Thats 8x16 = 128 midi channels http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

I know there have been a few \'midi over net\' type programmes, but they\'ve been limited in features.

I\'m also wondering what the jitter would be on a network based midi transmission setup. Would it be worse than sending things across two good hardware midi interfaces, like my Unitor IIs?

Is there a problem with time stamping midi packets over a network??

Any chance of Tascam R&D taking a look at how effective this programme is compared to using a couple of good quality hardware midi interfaces? There\'s no point in using it if it makes latency sloppy.

If it works well, it could be an inexpensive solution.

I\'ve seen a lot of people complain about the cost of adding GSIF audio cards and Multiport hardware midi interfaces in order to run Giga on a separate PC.

Maybe this could solve one of those quibbles.

[Simon Ravn]

This is interesting. It works in a normal LAN configuration? Anyway, I am gonna download a demo and test it. Could save me a MIDI interface http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[Mark_Knecht]

Simon,
When you get to look at the licensing agreements, check out whether this can be loaded on multiple machines on my network for $29, or do I have to buy multiple copies?

Thanks,
Mark

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Simon Ravn:
This is interesting. It works in a normal LAN configuration? Anyway, I am gonna download a demo and test it. Could save me a MIDI interface http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Chadwick]

According to Musiclab, you only need buy a single copy for multiple PCs

[Aenigma]

Can any of you comment on the latency of this setup? Would it function decent enough to transmit 4 ports of midi data to another giga workstation, in place of hardware midi? It would save me some money on my 2nd giga system not having to buy a 2nd 4x4 midi interface.

[Chadwick]

I haven\'t tested it, but MusicLab are going to do an A/B shortly.

In the meantime try here: http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=4840&forum=10&13 (\"http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=4840&forum=10&13\")

There\'s also some discussion about it at the Yahoo Gig forum, but I can\'t get on atm.