MOL - which package to get ??

[ed hamilton]

I was about to buy MOL today.
They offer 4 versions.
Standard
Platinum
Standard 4 computer
Platinum 4 computer

My question to all MOL users is which one did you buy?
And do you REALLY have to buy the multi user one to use on a couple PC's.

Can you just use the Platinum version on a couple PC's or is there some form of copy protection in use?

I could not find any of the this info on their site and they have yet to respond to my emails.
Thanks for the input!

[FredProgGH]

I'm lost in the alphabet soup- what's MOL??

[fizbin]

I'm lost in the alphabet soup- what's MOL??

MIDI over LAN (http://www.musiclab.com/products/rpl_info.htm)

There is also http://www.nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html

I haven't used either, but have considered them in the past. I'm still on a single PC and hope to stay that way going forward with 64bit. I'll wait for this.

[fizbin]

And do you REALLY have to buy the multi user one to use on a couple PC's.


I'm not exactly sure, but have asked myself the same question before. The obvious irony is "what good is a single copy?"

[ed hamilton]

sorry for the alphabet soup. Should have been more specific.

I am glad I am not the only one to not be able to make sense of the options they offer.

$370 for the 4 computer one is simply too much money for software that someday could go unsupported.
$160 for the platinum seems reasonable.
Just didn't want to buy it to find that it only works with one extra computer.
A midi interface would be cheaper.

thanks all

[FredProgGH]

Got it. My acronym database grows by leaps and bounds :D

[IOComposer]

FWIW, I bought the Standard version ($129) and it works fine with my four computers (MacG5 sending MOL to 3 PCs, simultaneously). I don't really know what the "up to 4 computers" is all about, but if you look at the "purchase products" page of their website, that is only stated in the bundles section. What is bundled, I have no idea, but as I say you should be able to do what you need to do with just the straight CP Standard version...unless they changed it since I bought it which was about 8 months ago.
-Jamey

[sghoughton]

I've used EthernetMIDI and it seems to work just peachy. Free, source code available. Not sure what the downside is really.

steve

[fizbin]

A 3 client license for IPMIDI is $79. I'm not sure how it compares to MOL.

fizbin

[Marko]

There's a brief article in Electronic Musician (December 2005), "MIDI for LANlubbers" that may be useful. It's an overview and it mentions MOL.

Marko

[gugliel]

I use a free midi over ethernet, described on these forums more than once, which has never given problems once setup -- search for "midi-utilities-for-windows". Using for four ports recording from one pc to another as I write this ..

[AJF]

I purchased the MOL CP Platinum bundle for up to 8 computers and it works flawlessly. I have 4 PC's slaved to one Mac, so I needed the 8 computer bundle. I'm quite sure that the standard Platinum package for $169 is only a 2 computer license, so if you need more you'll have to go with one of the bundles. There is a form of copy protection in which you will receive an "mlcp.key" file to install on each separate computer. All in all the pricing is pretty cheap considering how much the hardware MIDI interfaces alone would run, plus you avoid all those MIDI cables!!!

[ed hamilton]

AJ
thanks for the input. That cleared things up.

But I have to disagree with you on the price.
$369 is a lot of money for software.
Sure midi interfaces will cost a bit more.
But they will always work.
I'd hate to be tied to MOL and have them be slow on a software upgrade (ie mac/wintel transition).

sure would love to be rid of the cables though!

Thanks again for the info!

[sghoughton]

Ed,

Have you tried EthernetMIDI yet? Wouldn't it be worth giving that a shot before you went anywhere else?

steve

[ed hamilton]

I am a mac guy.
1 mac - 5 pc's.

As far as I have found MOL is the only crossplatform program.

But I'd love to be wrong on that!

[sghoughton]

Ya that would do it. It just seems like such a simple thing - someone should do that in java and have it cross platform.

steve