Connecting all your midi gear together ?

I tried to get a patchbay but couldn't find one because most people use computers, so I was told they don't make them anymore. But I did find a midi THRU-BOX. It has 2 different midi ins and 8 outs w/ switches to route for example input 1 to outputs 1,2&3 and input 2 to outputs 4,5,&6. I don't use a computer for music creation, I find it too confusing with all those screens and menus. I tried it and it wasn't for me. In my studio I use a fan x6, microkorg, and a e-mu XL7 hooked up to a yamaha aw16g(16 tracks 20gig hard drive) set up as the master(clock & mmc) No lag, no latency, hands-on.... just the way I like it!

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A couple'o'quarts'o'beer makes it so the intonation does not offend yer ear!

I use a Midiman 3x8 patchbay. This allows me to hook my X6, computer, Tascam 2488 DAW, and Korg/Alesis modules together. I have things configured so that I can use either the X6 or computer as master for any or all of the other devices as needed.

Bassman

Well, from what i could see there is only a few patchbay currently made... The most powerful one i know is this one : http://www.motu.com/products/midi/mtpav_usb/

I checked out a midi time piece 2, and it seemed very powerful. You can filter and route anything anywhere.

spishak : What brand is your midi thru box ?

midiman.... I think( it's hidden behind my work center, and covered in the endless spaghetti of all my patch cords & midi cables

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A couple'o'quarts'o'beer makes it so the intonation does not offend yer ear!

To clarify, the Midiman I use is a Midi Thru Box, and not a patchbay. The two are different devices.

Bassman

It is indeed increasingly difficult to find MIDI patchbays which don't need a computer. Most of them can only handle computer-created presets and not real-time routing. I finally managed to find the discontinued Edirol UM-880 on eBay and I'm very happy with it, although it could be more flexible. I don't really do live work so I wonder how people are using multiple MIDI machines on stage. Does everybody have a laptop nowadays?

Have other folks had good experiences with the MTP AV USB from MOTU? I had one and had endless problems with it. It was flakey, had a terrible front panel interface, claimed a bunch of features that I was never able to make work, etc. I finally had to ditch it.

I have been thinking about wiring up a physical MIDI patch bay -- one that uses actual MIDI cables to do the patching, with two rows of MIDI connectors for ins and outs. It wouldn't let me do merging or routing by channels, but it's better than nothing and it would at least be reliable.

Grumble.

-illiac

I am surprised to see nothing coming from smaller manufacturers. A lot of little manufacturers are currently producing sequencers. There's so many of those, genoqs, sequentix, signal arts, future retro, doepfer, manikin as well as all other synths with built in sequencers (jomox drum machines, elektron, spectralis...)

Seems someone amongst those could produce a sweet patchbay. The um-880 looked just like the roland a-880...

A thru box sometimes does not cut it. I have a few devices with crappy midi implementation so i have to prevent some devices from receiving some stuff, otherwise they act weirdly...

I have to agree that the motu interface isn't the easiest, at least from the little bits i've seen...

Yup.

I use the MPC4000 as a kind of 2x4 patchbay. It has filtering on its inputs (by channel and event type), and via the MAIN screen you can route the inputs to any output / channel. It works out OK for me because I have exactly four modules / keyboards to connect to the outputs. It's not a real patchbay however and the routing you can do is limited.

-illiac

my buddy's studio uses a kawai midi patchbay and a single rack mount steinberg midi interface. kawai hasn't made these in years but i've seen them go on ebay for peanuts.

I just downsized from 3 computers each w/ 2 midi interfaces. current rig is an amt8 and unitor - can get them cheap on ebay as so many folks are moving to virtual gear. I still find value in knobs and buttons and other forms of tactile control - like lit rubber pads

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Desperate times call for desperate measures.