No problem, I’ve got a netbook with Windows 7 32-bit on it and I might now risk installing the driver on it. If that works, I’ll run MIDITest on that.
There are those amongst us who would be capable and willing to write an x64 driver for the Midex but we can’t get the hardware details. 
What exactly do you guys hope to gain by posting on this subject yet once more, they stopped selling that unit 8 years ago, how many products do you have that were discontinued in 2003 or earlier that have current software support?
Having looked through all my computer and purchases from 2005 and earlier the only 2 products that I could find that still have drivers updated for them, namely a soundcard with an ICS chipset and Creamware DSP cards, the ICS is still supported by VIA and that is because it is still a current product and the Creamware is a 250 Euro update, would you guys be willing to cough up a 100 euro plus fee for an updated driver? Especially keeping in mind that the windows feature that the MIdex relied on to get an improved performance ove other USB solutions was dropped from the windows codebase in 2002 which means that new drivers could be the mother of all hacks.
I especially do not understand the recommendation of MOTU as an alternative providers of MIDI interfaces, MOTU were selling Parallel and serial port interfaces for the PC as late as 2005 and they are not providing Win64 drivers for those, in fact even for XP they are only offering WDM drivers, no ASIO and they stopped developing drivers for those interfaces before they stopped selling them, if people are angry at Steinberg not supporting a unit with software updates that they stopped selling 8 years ago then going to a provider that is not supporting something they sold 6 years ago and then only partially, is hardly an improvement.
As for ESI, I bought by ESI midi/audio interface in 2003, same story there, great unit but XP drivers only
My solution, I kept the XP box, removed the monitor and tunnel into it, and now use it as a slave for my W7 box, works like a charm
Providing information. If you’ve read through the thread you should have noticed two specific points being made: If you’re on Win732, all is still ok, if you’re not, you’ll have to find an alternative.
Huh? The MOTUs are class-compliant, thus they do not need specific drivers. And if you do need drivers, MOTU’s got them, for all the sevens, both 32 and 64-bits versions.
r,
j,
Are you 100% sure about this? I know the ESI’s are, but the MOTUs? That would mean they should work on Linux … and MOTU’s aversion to Linux is the main reason I won’t buy any more of their hardware.
That has been known for a long time, are there any other flame wars we can import from the old board
Class compliance is of little use with multiports and for low-latency usage, which was the reason for the Midex in the first place
Fine point me towards a MOTU parallel port midi interface driver newer than 2004 then
Please
some of use want to talk about the subject and we all have our own point of view and mine is ,is usb obsolete? has midi been made obsolete ?..NO so if either side of the midex system has not been made obsolete id like to use what iv’e paid good money for.
im sure one day someone will make a 3rd party driver that will work on 64 bit , time will tell but until steinberg get all the issues sorted out with cubase and 64 bit then there is no point in upgrading which means our unsupported midex lives longer without having to buy another bit of motu !
motu are the only major reliable interfaces and are of quality build ,can’t find any others makes willing to make 128 channels in one box and if your answer is going to be " well get 4x2 m audio " then i’ll just laugh you right out town ,QUALITY and timing is whats needed with 8x8 i/o , i actually use 2 of them and can’t fault anything about them so yer i think i would pay for a driver if it delivered what im getting now as it will be cheap than 2 new interfaces !
YEP I WOULD BUY A DRIVER
JOHN
My troll-detector is buzzing faintly, but I’ll try one more time: you asked “why recommend a MOTU?” I gave the obvious answer: They provide 32- and 64-bit drivers. What else is there to understand?
Nuff said.
j,
I was under the impression that the 128 was class-compliant. I may of course be mistaken. Even so, MOTU does provide current 32- and 64-bit drivers.
r,
j,
I would too.
in fact as part of my small campaign in the old forums to get Steinberg to release a 64bit driver for the MIDEX-8 I said I’d willingly purchase a driver.
But really, if this unit is that old and discontinued then what is the harm in releasing the spec so that someone else can write a 64bit driver for it? It’s surely got past the time period of commercial sensitivity now?
Because the unit was not designed by Steinberg and they thus do not own the IP and cannot release it, the company that did is in the business of writing USB drivers and probably will not either, there is a small cottage industry of people that reverse engineer MIDI interfaces and releases paid updates for them, usually in the 25 euro ballpark, but the problem partly lies in the unusual method that the Steinberg and emagic MIDI interfaces took in minimising latency that would make these more time consuming to work around and they probably cannot see a business case for doing a driver
I have a mother-load of unusable MIDI interfaces here, from the Roland 401 for the Apple 2 (First MIDI interface shipped) and a Moog Song Producer for the C64 to a MOTU interface for Windows from ca 2003, all of them worthless, comes with the terretory …
No I really want an answer to this, I have a device from MOTU newer than the Midex and that is currently unusable due to lack of driver updates, but people are complaining about lack of updates from Steinberg on one hand and then recommending MOTU on the other while that company is doing the same is a bit odd, more than a bit odd actually.
I am not blaming MOTU for this just as I do not blame Steinberg, I bought the interfaces as working at the time and received no guarantees from either company as to the future compatibility of either product
In fact the 2 company’s so far providing the best long term support for their interfaces have been Behringer that suddenly dropped a x64 USB audio class ASIO driver on us for use with 10 year old devices AND works with many non-Behringer productsas well, and Midiman/M-Audio that has x64 drivers for all of their midi interfaces from the last 12 years bar one … now you guys will have to admit that these are not the 2 companies that you thought of first when the terms “pro-audio” and “long term support” came to your mind …
Too bad the likelihood of either of these companies releasing a proper Bismark size multiport MIDI interface is nil but at the least I can run a couple of Midisport 4x4’s side by side and use my old Opcode interfaces as switchers/expanders for them…
Well, your logic is flawed. You cannot from the fact that you in 2003 bought an interface based on already then obsolete technology (parallel port interfaces - hey, I still have my own for the Amiga 2000 from 1989) extrapolate the idea that the company providing you with this interface will not support current technology (USB) sometime in the future. Said fact has no connection to the imagined future situation at all. Secondly, noone is even questioning whether MOTU will provide drivers for their interfaces in five years, the question is whether they are available now. And they are. The only other companies providing Win7-64 interfaces are, as you mention, Behringer and M-Audio, companies whose products I - after personal experiences with some of their products - won’t touch with the proverbial ten foot pole. Which leaves: MOTU. A company I harbor no specific feelings towards, good or bad, to me they are simply the only alternative. You may or may not agree, but each to ones own.
In addition, please note that noone is blaming Steinberg for the discontinuation of the Midex ((anymore), I guess we’ve all come to accept it), we’re simply exploring the options.
peace,
j,
How are you accomplishing this? What’s the workflow like? How is latency and jitter?
I’d really like to know how you’re making out with this setup becasue I have an extra XP box and am considering the same thing.
Hi guys,
I’m not a programmer, but if anybody is, why not to make a loader for the old driver? This is done all time in linux: you use the old driver but it is encapsulated in a 64 driver who makes the calls.
Paul Woodlock wrote:
But really, if this unit is that old and discontinued then what is the harm in releasing the spec so that someone else can write a 64bit driver for it? It’s surely got past the time period of commercial sensitivity now?
Reiknir wrote:
…the problem partly lies in the unusual method that the Steinberg and emagic MIDI interfaces took in minimising latency that would make these more time consuming to work around and they probably cannot see a business case for doing a driver.
Paul:
What Reiknir states are real issues, specifically the business model part. Because the MIDEX driver used embedded proprietary time-stamping (LTB), updating the driver would basically require a rewrite, not some hacked loader. High quality driver development can cost upwards of $10k-$25k. Add in recoup-ability (marketing costs…typically 4:1 based on the bill of materials) and you wind up with a product would have to be sold without a true sales projection (no way to know how many people would actually buy it at this point in time) …making pricing difficult if not impossible.
Initial pricing aside, let’s imagine they worked out a solution to the licensing issues, did the rewrite and offered it up nominally for $50 a pop. They’d have to sell 800 to 2000 units to simply break even. Even if they were suddenly overcome by an altruistic sense of guilt and offered it up at just the cost of the driver….they’d still have to sell 200 to 500 units to break even. I don’t see the numbers working this late in the game.
I’d have to agree…too iffy a business model.
I’m probably going to go with three of the Roland UM-3Gs - racked together. In a month or two, when I rebuild my computer on Win7 64 bit, this will be the way I go with midi.
I considered Motu, but I think Roland has done a much better job supporting their products over the years. Heck, I even have a UA-5 soundcard that is ancient - but they rolled out drivers for Win7 for it! Roland also has a good history with making solid midi boxes (like the UM-880 - which is hard to find at the moment).
ESI is off of the list because they are going down the class compliant route - which is a huge mistake for midi. You need drivers that overcome problems with class compliant drivers.
What I’d really love to see is a midi interface device that would plug into soundcard out ports with integrated drivers that would make it sample accurate to match the audio playing in the computer. Kinda like the stuff on www.innerclocksystems.com - but as a full blown interface, not just a sync box for an external sequencer.
-Tom
P.S. - To think that I picked the Midex8 (2 of 'em actually) over a Roland UM-880 when I was selecting midi interfaces a few yrs back. Boy did I ever blow that decision.
I agree on most of your points except:
Yes, in the specific case of Windows … but the fact that the Windows’ own class-compliant drivers might not be good does not imply that making MIDI devices class-compliant per se is a bad thing, nor are class-compliant MIDI devices a “huge mistake for MIDI”.
I’m sure you didn’t intend to imply this, but I just wanted to clarify for anyone else reading this. For example, I’ve found class-compliant MIDI devices on Linux to perform very well. You need drivers that overcome problems with class compliant drivers on Windows.
If class compliant drivers are working well with Linux, that’s great. How many people use Linux as the environment for their DAWs? Does Steinberg make any Linux based DAWs?
-Tom