[Resolved] Midex 8 Help!

Steinberg Hardware
#1

Bought a used unit and I’m trying to determine if it is operational. Since I’ve never used one before, I’m not sure how to check it out.

I had trouble using it on Win 7 x64, even though I could see all the midi ports after the install … but I, of course, didn’t know if it was a driver or hardware problem.

I loaded it on my XP laptop and again it appeared to install showing me all the ports. I ran Midi Test 4.12 and it worked fine testing input 1 to output 1, input 2 to output 2, input 1 to output 2 with a midi cable connected.

But while I could trigger output from a controller connected to input 1 or 8 and through from each output port, tested one at a time, to my module … I couldn’t patch directly from, for example, input 3 to output 3 with controller in and module out.

Is this a limitation of the hardware or a defect?

Also, any selected output port of the midex8 in the Cubase inspector failed to send midi out through the unit to a connected sound module.

Shouldn’t, for example, if I select Midex8 output 3 in the inpector midi track output, that send midi to a module connected physically to Midex8 output 3 in the hardware via the USB connection?

I’d really appreciate a short answer to these two questions, since while I’m pretty sure the unit is not fully operational, my lack of knowledge of the hardware prevents me from making that conclusion.

Como

#2

If you select midex output 3 in cubase and connect something to midi out 3 on the midex then yes it should receive any data you send to it from Cubase. Question would be if Cubase takes the midex out of standalone mode? If not, then your PC doesn’t fully recognise it.

But while I could trigger output from a controller connected to input 1 or 8 and through from each output port, tested one at a time, to my module … I couldn’t patch directly from, for example, input 3 to output 3 with controller in and module out.

This is intended behaviour. There are 2 standalone options, you can switch between them using the button on the right. Option 1 is: send all midi data received at input 1 to output 1-8, option 2 is send all midi data received at input 8 to output 1-8. In standalone, inputs 2-7 are inactive. With that in mind, you already tested that input 1, input 8 and outputs 1-8 are all fully functional.

However, when Cubase launches it should take over the Midex, taking it out of standalone mode and disabling all routing until you make the connections in software. To test the other 6 inputs you’l need to use Cubase to do the midi routing. In other words, this observation is normal and no indication of a defective unit. What I mentioned above however about the routing from Cubase should work. If it doesn’t to me it sounds like a driver problem and not a hardware problem.

#3

Is it possible the OP is confusing the Midex with a MIDI router/patchbay? For example, something like the MOTU MIDI Express 128 XT also has patchbay and merger functionality, i.e. you can use a seperate software utility to program patches with any combination of inputs connecting to any combination of outputs, and these will work even when disconnected from the computer, whereas the Midex is “only” a MIDI interface … the only routing available when not under control of a host computer is as outlined by Strophoid above.

#4

Thanks, Strophoid.

OK … I’m now clear that standalone mode is operational. And I’m clear that when Cubase or other host ‘takes’ over standalone mode is disabled and I should be able to route through the host software.

Since I am not able to communicate on two different installations, using the recently provided driver update for Win 7 x64 on my desktop and the latest Win XP 32 bit driver from the support website on my XP laptop, I must try to determine whether it is a hardware or driver problem.

In both cases, the drivers installed first time without problems and all 8 ports show up in various software hosts. I initially thought I was just having bad luck with the x64 ‘unsupported’ driver, but when I got the same result on the XP install I started to wonder.

Any tips?

Como

#5

Yes, exactly. I was successfully using a MOTU MIDI Timepiece Parallel in the 32 bit world. My uninformed thought was that the Midex8 would work similarly.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Steinberg developed an 8 port interface with the functionality of the MOTU and LTB?!

Como

#6

:slight_smile: absolutely! Or perhaps they’d publish the spec of LTB and let someone else develop one!

#7

Thank you guys … knowing how it is supposed to work, I now have it working flawlessly in Win 7 x64 and Win XP!

Ignorance is not bliss … it is frustration, self-doubt and anxiety. Thank Heavens there are folks like you two to enlighten the heathen.

Como

#8

Glad to hear, it’s always a little risky buying second hand stuff :wink:
I did the same and I’m very happy with my midex too!

#9

Just to mention that you can continue to use your Timepiece if you program your patches on an older XP machine using the parallel port (maybe an old laptop which only gets connected when you need to modify an existing patch) – you can switch patches from the front panel of the Timepiece. You could e.g. take ADAT sync, send it out from the Timepiece as MTC and into the Midex and get Cubase to slave to it, have another patch where you just use it as a merger for convenience, etc.

#10

Heh, heh … I actually have my old XP install on my same daw on an Acronis Disk Image waiting for some day when I’m feeling really bold to install it on a separate partition for a dual boot. I’ve downloaded the bootloader utility and got all my links lined up to guide me through.

But I’ve realized that if the Midex 8 works fine, I’ll still have to be unplugging a lot of midi cables.

I also realized I could program the routing on the MOTU and then use it ‘stand alone’ and patch into it from the Midex 8. That might be the best solution. The MOTU saves 10 different routing schemes in the ‘stand alone’ memory.

I’m now thinking of a second Midex 8. What is the deal on syncing two of them? I read something I didn’t fully understand about using/ needing some other hardware or maybe the word clock out on your interface … which I have available on my RME Multiface. But I don’t see any ports for any attachment except the midi ports on the Midex 8?

This all makes me start to get dizzy just contemplating it.

Como

#11

Just plug it in and use it … no sync requirements as they’ll both get LTB from Cubase :smiley:. Wordclock sync is only needed for audio interfaces.

#12

This is why I keep an old pre-OSX mac around, I can buy old opcode interfaces for only 1 to 5 pounds apice these days on ebay, useless for the most part as MIDI interfaces but superb MIDI processors and mergers but need a MAC to control them to a degree.

#13

How does that old song go? ‘Everything old is new again!’

BTW, I got the second Midex8 and they work together flawlessly. With 2 E-Mu Midi2x2, the port in my RME, 2 Loopbe virtual ports and the 2 Midex8’s, I think I’m pretty well covered.

Como

#14

Not the Midex itself, but combined with something like MIDI-OX, pretty much anything would be possible.

#15

You can do all of that with the Midex inside Cubase already, without any need for MIDI-OX; however, if you wanted to use, let’s say, a standalone synth editing application you could use virtual MIDI ports (using e.g. MIDI Yoke) and route them to any hardware ports using MIDI-OX.

If you want to be able to do this without a computer, then yes, you need a device with MIDI routing capabilities; however, even the parallel-port MIDI Express 128 XT will do that – you just don’t have any way to customise the presets unless you have an XP computer with a parallel (printer) port still lying around (an old laptop perhaps?)

#16

You can already do a lot of routing inside Cubase. Just create a midi track, set your preferred input, set your preferred output, enable monitor et voila, you have connected any input to any output. You can now use any instrument to trigger any other instrument (both software and hardware), and also record your performance.

#17

Yo Steve, how much MIDI equipment do you use?

#18

Let us know how you fare, been following this with some interest :slight_smile: