help with daisy chaining

[tonerich]

i have 5 devices that i am trying to chain together i want everything to sync to my mpc. i also need to have my fantom midi out goin into my motif es rack. these are the devices im trying to sync together

fantom x6- out, in thru
motif rack es- out, in, thru
micro korg- out, in, thru
mpc 2 outs, 2 ins
miko- out, in
motu 5x5 midi interface

[mikeh]

Normally it is best not to daisy chain more than 3 units (to avoid a delay in the MIDI signals). Since you have a 5x5 MIDI router you don't really have "daisy chain" any of your boards/modules

I'm not sure what the MPC or MIKO is - but since you have the motu 5x5 - I would think you would want to take MIDI out from recording controller (the MPC???) into the 5x5 and then send MIDI outs from the 5x5 to each of your MIDI keyboards/modules.

Choose one keyboard as your main controller - take the MIDI out from that to the 5x5 - and than the our from the 5x5 into you recording unit.

[tonerich]

yea, i've tried that. however, im looking for a connection where i would not have to always have on my computer. the 5x5 midi interface only works with the computer

[mikeh]

You can try to daisy chain everything togther using the "thru" option (most MIDI devices have either 3 jacks in-out-thru or 2 jacks in - out/thru).

As I indicated, if you chain more than 3 devices you can start having some communication problems.

They make (or at least use to make) passive MIDI routers (a company called MIDI Man comes to mind) - which did the same thing as your 5x5 but as a table top stand alone unit which did not need a computer interface.

These came in various configurations (1x4 or 2x8, etc.) - MIDI users used these all the time before computer interfaces became the norm.

You may be able to fnd them online or on ebay.